Course Guide:  Spring 2016
Humanities 100: Creative and Critical Thinking at www.casad.org

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Syllabus

Follow the links through the course. Read left to right top to bottom within each linked web page before you move out of it.  Get used to moving back and forth between web pages just as if you were turning through pages in a book.   If you get lost, come back to the course guide (bookmark/favorites this page).

Make Contact

By Friday, April 1st send me rfcasad@msn.com an email and I will check you in and reply.  Send an initial email even if you are late registering or finding the website. Follow standard email conventions. Put Humanities 100 in the subject line of all your emails. Use a salutation (Hi Dr. Casad), write a short message (e.g., I can navigate the site. I know the assignment schedule. I have begun working on the assignments for the first week. Each week has three sections--a response to the reading assignment, a writing task, and a relevant quote from resources.  I do not have any questions for the class at this time. I look forward to your response to this email.), and finish with a  complimentary close (Regards, Jane Smith). A salutation, short message, and close are required on all your emails (as is Humanities 100 in the subject line).

Course Summary at Casad.org
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Resource Quotes

Spring 2016 Assignment Schedule
I will respond to your homework no later than three days after the due date (usually sooner).

Check in email due by Friday, April 1st.
Student's Last Name1-3 in one attached document file due Monday, April 18th.
Student's Last Name4-6  Due Monday, May 9th.
Student's Last  Name7-9  Due Monday, May 23rd.
Student's Last Name10  Due Monday, June 6th.
Student's Last Name11  Due Wednesday, June 8th.
Grades in May 9th.  

When I receive your attached homework file,  I open the document, read it, make comments, assign points, save it, and then reattach it to an email reply to your email. Be sure to fill in the subject line of your email, e.g., Humanities 100.  Do not send a folder (send a file).  If you cannot properly attach a file, you will loose points or receive no points at all since I will not be able to read and mark your material.   Read the syllabus. 

• Read the syllabus.
• Establish your personal email account.
• Learn to save,  attach,  and send files .rtf or .doc. (includes docx).
• Use a computer and the Internet for most of your course work.
• Remember that a week's work is worth 10 points. Stay on task; as an independent learner, you know your typical errors. Do your homework when you like and as much as you like, as long as you are responding to the assignments and making every word count. Work on your homework frequently.
• And, of course, follow the course guide and document your sources.

  A Student's Summary

In the reading assignment you are supposed to read the given material, summarize and quote from it, reflect on it,  and answer any questions from the directions. Since some reading assignments are difficult to understand, try analyzing them by reading topic sentences of paragraphs and trying to understand the main point. Then you can decide which part is the most interesting, so you can spend some more time summarizing that part. For doing this correctly you can get up to 3 points.

Your second task has 4 possible points. The writing assignment is usually totally different from the reading assignment. It may even include separate reading or analyzing. If you find the writing hard, you should always go back and re-read the instructions.  If you are confused, the best thing to do is email Dr. Casad with your question.

After you have done this, you should go to  Quote Resources and find a quote from any one of the resource files. This quote is supposed to have something to do with the week's topic.  For a  quote relevant to the Week's topic from one of the resource files (Author and File Number) and an explanation of why you chose that quote,  you will get 3 points. 

If you read the instructions properly, have time to do your assignments, and turn in your work on time, you should have no problems in getting a good grade in this class, and as my old science teacher would say: “Good luck, even though luck has nothing to do with it.”

By now you  have read examples at this site.  In some cases the examples are only partial answers or hints.  They do not spare you from doing your own reflecting and extended reading.  Please follow a consistent format each week.  For clarity, you could use the headings-- Reading Assignment, Writing assignment, Quote from Resources.  Do not forget to chose a relevant quote, explain why it is relevant (if not obvious), and explain the circumstances wherein the quote may not be true (so that you develop the habit of questioning truisms and over generalizations).  Remember to spell check, grammar check, edit, and proofread your writing (and this includes the salutation, short message, and close in the email).

I have posted a new page, analyzing claims. Take a look and apply this map to analyzing your quotes.

If you just print off only some of the pages, you are going to miss the hyperlinks.  Plan to spend time hitting all the links. Visit the site frequently. Please follow correct email procedures. Hi/my name; short message; regards (or some complimentary close/your name.  Do this even when attaching a file.

Grade Scale: Over the course of the quarter, you can accumulate 106 points if you do the extra credit.  The points will produce a decimal grade like this: 106-97(4.0), 96(3.9), 95(3.8), 94(3.7), 93(3.6), 92(3.5),91(3.4), 90(3.3), 89(3.2), 88(3.1), 87(3.0), 86(2.9)...67(1.0 lowest passing grade).  Student Products