.

Le Guin Assignment (Part 1)

Read your assigned essay in Harold Bloom’s anthology Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and take thorough notes. In a page, summarize the essay’s assertions about Le Guin’s novel; i.e., what is the major point and focus of the essay? In two (additional) pages, write your reaction to the critic’s position and provide your own comments to The Left Hand of Darkness.

Required in this assignment will be a single WebCT interchange session with your group. Talk to the other members of the class that are assigned the same article as you, and agree to meet in the WebCT environment sometime this week to discuss the article and your reactions to it. Use the discussion to help you to formulate and expand your own ideas; you may even allude to the discussion and the group’s conclusions therein.

• AL and TC
• CC, JF, and SH
• AL
• CC and JF
• DP
• JS and SW

1. Get a partner; select someone you do not know or have not worked with (obviously, this would exclude members of your own group).
2. Read your interchange transcripts carefully; mark particular points that you believe to be strong observations about the text; also mark uncritical responses, or those that just appear to be gut reactions and/or resistence to the text, etc. *BE CRITICAL*
3. Pick out your best critical statement in your conversation(s). I.e., choose the statement that you believe to be the best written and displays a stong understanding and consideration about the novel and its issues.
4. Give yourself a grade based on:
   1. How you helped your group members' understanding of the text
   2. Your overall participation in the conversation(s)
   3. Your completion of the reading
   4. Your attitude toward the text and assignment; i.e. where you enthusiastic or "bored"?
5. Justify your grade in a written paragraph, making sure to cover each criterion above in 4.
6. In another paragraph, suggest ways that I can help you improve your grade and how you can help improve your grade.
7. Read your partner's interchange transcripts carefully.
8. Follow directions 2-6 for your partner's transcripts. Grade* based on:
   1. Does he/she appear to have engaged the text
   2. How helpful her/his imput is to the group's understanding of the novel and its issues
   3. Voice: what is his/her attitude about the book/assignment based on his/her responses
   *Be sure to include POSITIVE criticism that helps your partner improve his/her performance. Your grading must be critical; this does not mean being cruel, nor does it mean only offering general observations like "you write well."
9. Print each set of paragraphs (one for your transcripts, one for your partner's -- make sure you indicate your partner's name) and turn them in to me.