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Syllabus Spring 2008
Instructor: Richard Nysse (612) 641-3454 (O); (612) 644-0563 (H) E-mail: rnysse@luthersem.edu |
Objectives
Required TextsRequired
There are many, many worthwhile books and commentaries on the Prophets. Some are too expensive to require. Some work best with a knowledge of Hebrew. Some...-- in short, criteria for selection vary. None are THE last word and none replace the prophetic words themselves. RequirementsThe class requires full participation, with heavy emphasis on the following the following:
Evaluation/ExpectationsThe chief criterion of evaluation is the overall quality of your contribution to the group's study of the Prophets through work in the online discussions. Quality includes:
The second criterion for evaluation is the depth (not necessarily the quantity) of your individual engagement with the text of the Prophets. Demonstration of productive work should be reflected in the periodic submissions of self-assessments of learning. These submissions are in response to all learning activities - individual and group. The final paper can grow out of this individual submissions. Your own interests and questions will determine the emphases in this individual work. The default grading system is Pass, Marginal, Fail. The A, B, C, D, F letter grade system is available per request. Online DiscussionsThe class will be divided into discussion groups with as close to five members per group as possible. Each week during the class there is a topic for online group discussion. Each student is to submit (online) a leading statement for each weekly topic. The length should be no less than five paragraphs. You should state your position on the topic and your chief reasons for your position, i.e., state your claim and your warrants. You are required to formulate a primary response (online) to the leading statement of each person in your group. The length should be one to two paragraphs. Additional responses to any aspect of the discussion are strongly encouraged. (Direct communication by e-mail is also encouraged.) For further detail, see the participation rubric for this activity. For a graphic illustrating how the discussions are to flow, click here. The topics are listed in the weekly schedule of activities. Periodic Individual SubmissionsThe particular character of the individual work will vary somewhat from week to week. The results of your individual work should be reflected in your writing within the group discussions. Secondly, it should be summarized in periodic submissions assessing your learning. Individual work drives toward and serves the group discussions. Since you will be a major source of learning for each other, reflection on the group discussions should be included in the periodic summations of learning. The cumulative result of these summations should be a notebook of reflections and learnings. The audience for the unit summaries is chiefly you, the individual learner, with the e-mail submission of that writing being a opportunity for the instructor to read over the learner's shoulder. More Information In all the individual work (and much of the group work) emphasis falls on the process of reading, asking that you becoming increasingly aware of the assumptions that shape your sense of the meaning of the text. The purpose of writing about this work (rather than having a test on your reading) is to assist you as a reader of Scripture to become a self-conscious reader. As a result you should increasingly turn to commentaries to address your own questions, not to find the definitive answers that are merely to be ingested. Commentaries should be seen as co-readers of Scripture, not as the definitive readers. As an active, reflective reader in this course you are joined by others (commentators included) to form a community of interpretation. Final
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