Today will be a work and review day to continue on with the models. We need to take some pictures and start combining them together.
I hope you all understand that the work is starting to get more intellectual and content rich in these next assignments.
I think you do because ALL the questions you all are bringing up about the relationship between the forms and objects of your room and the movement that occurs in it are right on. Time, especially as a part of movement, is as important a subject in today's architecture as "timelessness" was in the architecture of 100 years ago. We build things in time as much as we do with bricks and mortar.
In his book Matter and Memory, Henri Bergson presents a radical understanding of what movement is and what relationships can be drawn between movement and matter. Bergson was very much affected by the collapsed movement in the time-motion photographies of E.J. Marey and Edward Muybridge. He also was impacted by a contemporary who was writing about the relationship between space and time, Albert Einstein. For Bergson there are two ways to measure or quantify movement:
1. in the relative terms of a geometer (things measured according to something beyond the action).
2. in the real terms of a physicist (things measured according to conditions internal to the event or action).
Imagine how these guys relate space and movement.
14 February 2008
Notes on Grades
Today we'll give back your first grades. There are not many A, D, and F level grades but there are as many Bs as Cs. Please keep some perspective on this grade. Notice the point totals you have been assigned. You are a great class to teach and Marti, the TAs and I are all really focused on teaching you because you are kindly and respectfully responding.
There were about 208 of you who submitted work for a grade.
There are only about 30 of those who have a failing grade (15% of the class).
There are about 30 of you who have an A, A-, and B+ grade (15% of the class).
The average grade is between a C+ and a B-.
About 40 people who started with us did not submit for a grade and have quit the course.
Notes for students who made an F or D:
Almost all the failing grades have a missing assignment(s), excessive absences, late work, and / or consistently bad craft on all the exercises.If your grade is a D or an F you should either re-think the way you are completing the assignments or you should drop the course. Something you are doing is not letting you show us that you know the course content through your work.
Maybe this is not the time for you to be taking a time consuming performance based course? You have to have time to do things in this class to learn the content. Maybe you have something else you'd rather be studying? This subject and method is not for everyone.
Notes if you have a C-, C, C+, B-, or B level grade:
You almost certainly fall into one of two groups:
1) People with consistent C level grades who have done everything almost good enough and nothing particularly well in the exercises. Your work is average usually because you've not adjusted to making the work a form of inquiry and exploration of the subject matter, you're not focusing on the work and craft of the exercise, and are not "making the work your own"- taking authorship for your efforts. Typically, you have respectable discipline but are not risk takers.
2) People with a range of grades on their assessment sheets, some with flashes of brilliance and promise, an A / B or two here or there tempered by late submissions and / or other assignments that you did badly on. You usually lack discipline and are risk takers. You sometimes pour yourself into the work but run hot and cold.
You have to ask yourselves:
How can I take this to the next level? What does each box on the assessment sheet mean in literal terms? How are my projects NOT like the ones displayed in the hallway? Some of you may not be engaged by the subject matter and are looking forward to seeing if the next course engages you further. Some of you may have other priorities in life right now and you can only afford this much effort. We respect that priority but we aren't going to ignore the lack of evidence of learning in your work.
Notes if you have a B+, A-, or A level grade:
You've worked diligently so far and have shown a high level of craft and conveyance on multiple exercises. To continue at this level you'll have to be self-critical and ask yourselves what skills, habits, and approaches to the material got my work recognized in this first five weeks? You'll need to build on them to continue. What is it that we're seeing in your work? You have to learn that by looking at what other students who are doing well are doing and compare then to your own efforts.
You've done very well in the first assignment.
What did you do that got your work recognized for being good?
I wasn't that smart in first year but I did know that all that time and attention paid off in ability and knowledge. Keep up the great work!
Issues with Grading:
A question about our assessment has to be specific. You cannot say, "I don't understand the grade I got." We won't answer that charge. You haven't assessed the work yourself so you haven't tried to understand it.
Here's how you can assess your own work:
#1) Compare your work to the work exhibited in the hallway as excellent. How is it different? How is it the same?
#2) Write down how you think you did. We'll post the grading sheet template. Fill out your own version for each category. What grade do you think you deserved?
#3) Sit down during office hours with any TA, your assessment, and our assessment. How is it different? What are the categorical differences in the way we're talking about it?
#4) If you still have an issue with your grade then you will write out your concern in terms of how you understand the system we've used to grade you and how we've deviated from that system. Once you've written that out you can submit it to me via email for review and comment.
We've graded about 1,248 items and made 208 grade summaries. Certainly, we might have a few mistakes in all that work but we've been very diligent and have used a number of checks and balances in the assessment process.
There were about 208 of you who submitted work for a grade.
There are only about 30 of those who have a failing grade (15% of the class).
There are about 30 of you who have an A, A-, and B+ grade (15% of the class).
The average grade is between a C+ and a B-.
About 40 people who started with us did not submit for a grade and have quit the course.
Notes for students who made an F or D:
Almost all the failing grades have a missing assignment(s), excessive absences, late work, and / or consistently bad craft on all the exercises.If your grade is a D or an F you should either re-think the way you are completing the assignments or you should drop the course. Something you are doing is not letting you show us that you know the course content through your work.
Maybe this is not the time for you to be taking a time consuming performance based course? You have to have time to do things in this class to learn the content. Maybe you have something else you'd rather be studying? This subject and method is not for everyone.
Notes if you have a C-, C, C+, B-, or B level grade:
You almost certainly fall into one of two groups:
1) People with consistent C level grades who have done everything almost good enough and nothing particularly well in the exercises. Your work is average usually because you've not adjusted to making the work a form of inquiry and exploration of the subject matter, you're not focusing on the work and craft of the exercise, and are not "making the work your own"- taking authorship for your efforts. Typically, you have respectable discipline but are not risk takers.
2) People with a range of grades on their assessment sheets, some with flashes of brilliance and promise, an A / B or two here or there tempered by late submissions and / or other assignments that you did badly on. You usually lack discipline and are risk takers. You sometimes pour yourself into the work but run hot and cold.
You have to ask yourselves:
How can I take this to the next level? What does each box on the assessment sheet mean in literal terms? How are my projects NOT like the ones displayed in the hallway? Some of you may not be engaged by the subject matter and are looking forward to seeing if the next course engages you further. Some of you may have other priorities in life right now and you can only afford this much effort. We respect that priority but we aren't going to ignore the lack of evidence of learning in your work.
Notes if you have a B+, A-, or A level grade:
You've worked diligently so far and have shown a high level of craft and conveyance on multiple exercises. To continue at this level you'll have to be self-critical and ask yourselves what skills, habits, and approaches to the material got my work recognized in this first five weeks? You'll need to build on them to continue. What is it that we're seeing in your work? You have to learn that by looking at what other students who are doing well are doing and compare then to your own efforts.
You've done very well in the first assignment.
What did you do that got your work recognized for being good?
I wasn't that smart in first year but I did know that all that time and attention paid off in ability and knowledge. Keep up the great work!
Issues with Grading:
A question about our assessment has to be specific. You cannot say, "I don't understand the grade I got." We won't answer that charge. You haven't assessed the work yourself so you haven't tried to understand it.
Here's how you can assess your own work:
#1) Compare your work to the work exhibited in the hallway as excellent. How is it different? How is it the same?
#2) Write down how you think you did. We'll post the grading sheet template. Fill out your own version for each category. What grade do you think you deserved?
#3) Sit down during office hours with any TA, your assessment, and our assessment. How is it different? What are the categorical differences in the way we're talking about it?
#4) If you still have an issue with your grade then you will write out your concern in terms of how you understand the system we've used to grade you and how we've deviated from that system. Once you've written that out you can submit it to me via email for review and comment.
We've graded about 1,248 items and made 208 grade summaries. Certainly, we might have a few mistakes in all that work but we've been very diligent and have used a number of checks and balances in the assessment process.
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