$fractal by Janet Parke$

Message Board Response

Part of your grade for this course involves your response to a posting made by another student in the "Message Board Discussion Group" section of blackboard. These research postings by your fellow students are individual sections that, when read together, comprise a fairly comprehensive background and context for the work that is under discussion for that particular message board discussion group.

In order for this to be a real discussion, the postings require response. You are to choose at least one of the postings made by a student other than yourself within the discussion group for which you have signed up. Read that posting carefully and then respond in at least one but no more than three paragraphs in which you discuss the relevance of that work in AT LEAST one of the following contexts: historical accuracy, cultural relevance, genre context, or personal experience.

This particular assignment allows you a bit of leeway, as it is the only assignment in which I am allowing you to respond personally and in the first person. While this particular response does not REQUIRE a first-person narrative, it is allowable. More importantly, you are making a connection between the context brought up in the particular posting that you are responding to and the work itself, the author him or herself, the historical era depicted, culture depicted, or the author's overall theme.

I weigh the grades as follows:

Response Content	Grade
At least one quoted and cited reference to the work, a quotation and citation from an outside source, and a connection to at least two of the following: personal experience, cultural reference, historical context, connection to another story from the course, or genre context.	A
At least one quoted and cited reference to the work, and a connection to at least two of the following: personal experience, cultural reference, historical context, connection to another story from the course, or genre context.	B
At least one quoted and cited reference to the work and either a personal experience, a cultural reference or historical context.	C
No quoted and cited reference to the work, no reference to a personal experience, and no outside resource quoted or cited for support.	D