HST.722J/9.044J - Fall 2007

          The discussion sessions are perhaps the most important part of our class.  Much of your future will be spent critically reading papers like the ones we have chosen for our class.  Also, your performance in the discussion sessions will make up the bulk of your grade.  Thus, we are formulating some written guidelines to let you know what we expect. 

Role of all students

          Each discussion paper is to be read carefully by all students.  It will make for a better discussion and you will learn more if you take these readings seriously.  If it becomes obvious that people aren’t reading, the instructors may start asking questions about the papers during the discussions.

          After reading the paper, but before coming to class, please formulate a one-sentence question about the paper and hand this written question in at the beginning of the class.  We will use these questions as an agenda for general discussion of the paper. 

Role of the discussion leader

Each paper will have a student assigned to be the discussion leader.  This student should describe:

1)   general background (five minutes or less)

2)  the specific hypotheses that are being tested in the paper

3)  the techniques that are used

4)  go through the 6 or 8 most important figures of the paper

It’s appropriate, if needed, to use the overhead projector for #1-3 above.  But for #4, it’s better for the leader to sit down and join the group:  it’s easier for discussion and we all have copies of the figures anyway.