Participation

Tutorial Room Attendance + Activity

TAs will record attendance and rate student participation in tutorial rooms, field trips, and other tutorial activities based on the following criteria:

Does Not Meet Expectations

0 - Absent

0.25 – The student is rude, disruptive, distracting; does not arrive prepared

0.5 – The student is physically present but mentally elsewhere; doesn’t contribute to conversation; unclear if student is prepared; often distracted through electronic devices

Meets Minimum Expectations

0.75 – The student is present and paying attention; contributes at least once to class discussion; or participates through hand raising, taking notes, discussing with group members, doing written assignments; Exit Ticket is complete but lacks in-depth response.

Exceeds Expectations

1.0 – The student arrives prepared for class; participates multiple times in class discussion; is responsive to participation and engaged in contributions and comments made by others; contributions are thoughtful and provoke additional comments from others; does not dominate conversation; listens carefully and responds thoughtfully to comments made by others; Exit ticket demonstrates a deep engagement with the topic and how it relates to course content.

Competencies Self-Assessment

You will be sent two survey links in each term to conduct a self-assessment on the following competencies:

Systems Thinking

• I can identify the boundaries of a system
• I can identify multiple components in a system
• I can distinguish between different levels in a system
• I can recognize how separate components interact to form a whole system
• I can explain how interactions within a system impact other components of a system

Interdisciplinary

• I can see the strengths and limitations of different disciplines when addressing complex issues
• I can seek out and understand terms and concepts from multiple disciplines
• I can integrate terms and concepts from multiple disciplines to solve complex problems

Collaboration

• I can work with others to achieve a common goal; I do my share.
• I can take on roles and responsibilities in a group.
• I can address conflict when it arises in group work.
• I can give, receive, and integrate feedback
• I can reflect on my own and group performance in order to improve your work and learning

Communication

• I can orally present information and ideas to an audience I may not know.
• I can communicate complex ideas in writing.
• I can develop clear and attractive digital presentations

Public Narrative: Story of Self

At the beginning of LFS 250, you will be asked to write a 1-2 page Story of Self. The process is useful for helping you articulate and communicate your interests to group members and TA.

Public Narrative, developed by long time civil rights activist, community and labour union organizer turned Harvard professor, Marshall Ganz, for the Obama campaign in 2008, has since become a resource for change-making around the world. Narrative, writes Gantz, is the process "through which individuals, communities, and nations make choices, construct identity, and inspire action. It can both instruct and inspire -- teaching us not only how we ought to act but motivating us to act."

Public narrative is different than one's individual story. "Some of us may think our personal stories don't matter," says Gantz. "On the contrary, if we do public work, we have a responsibility to give a public account of ourselves - where we came from, why we do what we do, and where we think we are going."

Public narrative has three parts: "Story of Self", "Story of Us", and "Story of Now".

Story of Self. Story of Self tells us the key formative experiences which shaped you, "communicating the values that are calling you to act." Story of Self is built around one or two key "choice points", moments of large consequence in your life when you faced a challenge of some kind, made a a choice based on some core values, experienced a consequence, and learned something of basic importance.

Story of Us. Story of Self overlaps with Story of Us. There are many "us's" - family, community, organization, profession, movement, nation. A Story of Us tells the values of some community, long formed or now forming. It helps define a community, comparing and contrasting with other communities. It is about collective identity. Stories of Us that have depth have founding moments, key choices made, challenges faced, defining experiences, outcomes, and lessons learned.

Story of Now. Story of Now locates the community in the larger challenges or threats of our time. An example was Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963. It is important to remeber that King preceded the dream with a nightmare - the failure of America to make good on the "promissory note". to African Americans. He said the March has "the fierce urgency of now" because this debt could no longer be postponed. In Canada, we have many pressing current issues that frame food system related work, such as the Truth and Reconciliation process with Indigenous communities, the prevalence of food insecurity, and ecological harm associated with industrial agriculture practices.

- Adapted with permission from Dennis Donovan, Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Augsburg University

Team Charter

• Download the Team Charter template through Canvas

At the beginning of each term, each team will be required to complete a Team Charter. The purpose of the Team Charter is to get to know your group members, figure out ways to mutually contribute that draw on the strengths of individual members, establish a strong working dynamic between all members of the group, and to review as a group the assignment requirements and due dates for group work during each semester. The effort put into the Team Charter and building a strong working relationship will directly translate into your success on group projects. Submit the completed and signed Team Charter to your TA via Canvas for review.