Hi Carmen,
How were the in-class responses marked? By completion or otherwise? If I got 15%, were they worth 5% each assuming you received 3 - or did I cumulatively lose 25% of their possible marks across the 4 I submitted (15/20)?
I emailed all four of my submissions rather than writing them by hand - I prefer to write this way. I'm wondering, if because I sent them always by email, that perhaps one got lost in transit or otherwise? I emailed you in-class responses on: January 18th (Response to Father), January 28th (Makah Whale Hunt), Feb 15th (60's scoop), and March 18 (Resistance).
Moreover, I'm greatly troubled by the mark I received for my final project. Having spoken to other students in the class, and having reviewed the assignment description in the course outline, I feel that consideration was not taken into my experience of making my project, and the effort, heart, and thought that went into it. The project description described the reflection project as "brief assignment (5-7 pages)". You also stated many times in the semester that it was our option to, rather than a paper, create an artistic project. Given the "highly experiential nature" of the course, I took the opportunity I had to create something other than a paper for the final project an rolled with it; I was going to, and did, create something that I would actually look back upon for years after the semester was over. Even though I was tremendously busy at the end of the semester, I spent over 30 hours in the final few weeks of the semester to make a piece of art I was, and am, truly proud of. I posted the project on Facebook and YouTube for other members of the class (my cohort) to see, and many couldn't believe I had put in so much effort on the one class project.
One of the early renaissance artists once described carving a sculpture as 'just taking away all the bits that aren't your sculpture'. I found this sentiment to be true also with my animation project for your class. In planning the project, I reflected on my experience through the semester - our course readings, discussions, circle meetings, and presentations. I had so many ideas and started brainstorming weeks ahead of any production began - I even started making some 3D models and planning for scenes in the animation that were never completed and didn't make the final cut. Making this piece of art was a true reflection, and clearly depicted my mood at the time of reflection and at the end of the semester, and the topics, and objects that stood out to me. One doesn't create a 3-minute-45 second 3D animation without taking a great deal of time to reflect and ruminate about all the possible topics and avenues that one can draw
upon to create it.
I come back to the assignment description: "brief assignment (5-7 pages)". I have talked to other people in the class, and the other section of the class now, and from what I have gathered, I was assigned the lowest mark out of all the people I have heard back from. Considering the amount of genuine effort and heart I put into this assignment, even given the description in the outline, I'm quite mortified to have my work deemed among the lowest in your classes.
When I normally write a paper, it takes me approximately 1 hour per page- all things considered. Therefore, a written reflection would have taken me no more than 5-9 hours. In fact, from those I spoke to and was around at the end of the semester, most didn't spend a great amount time on their reflections. I spent over *30 hours* on the assignment as submitted. While it was expressed that students would need to justify pieces of art created for the assignment should they choose to create one, I feel that I was given little clarity to what you expected - especially regarding length. If the total expected output was 5-7 pages for the project as a whole, and a student spends many more hours on a project, if you too also require a several-page justification of their art, doesn't that deem the art piece, and the time spend on it, negligible and nominal in value in terms of marking?
I submitted a 1-page justification; while it did not in any way do my project, or my experience creating it, justice, I feel that writing more would have been over-bearing and an unfair expectation considering the expectation for the entire assignment. If one was to create an artistic project, in the experiential nature of the course, and as a means of differentiated assessment, I believe their work ought to not be overshadowed (and more than doubled), by the requirement, too, to write a similar-in-length written justification of the piece of art.
For these reasons, I am requesting a re-evaluation of my reflection
assignment and my final grade in your class.
Sincerely,
Colin
UPDATE: I just got a response to this from Carmen. I'll post it tomorrow.
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