Welcome students of the Class of 2019! A few words about the First Year Seminar Program for 2015-16.
The First Year Seminar (FYS) Program (http://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/fys/index.html) is a collection of fascinating courses covering a wide array of topics, each limited to 15 students and each designed to help you refine your academic writing. FYSes are available in both Fall and Spring semesters. You can see the course descriptions here (under Course Listing, First Year Seminars): https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?fy_seminars=&term=1159.
The FYSes also feature a variety of grading modes. Some courses will employ “quality” grades (A-F) to assess student work (more on this below), while others will use the Cr/U designation. “Credit/Unsatisfactory” is Wesleyan’s version of “pass” and “no pass.” In some cases, instructors using the Cr/U designation will have a minimum expectation (say, a C+) that students must achieve in order to be granted “Credit”, that is, in order to pass the course. In lieu of a final grade, students receive a written evaluation, also available to the student’s advisor. The Cr/U evaluation can provide a valuable benchmark in a discussion about progress in and with one’s writing. Additionally, the Cr/U rubric may alleviate some anxiety about specific grades, allowing a productive learning environment to flourish. Some courses in the FYS program feature a third option, indicated as “student option.” This mixed mode means that students may elect, by an established deadline, to take the course for a grade or on a Cr/U basis. Once a grading mode is selected, it cannot be changed.
The Cr/U designation has a long history at Wesleyan and is used regularly in the university’s various Colleges (College of Letters, College of Social Sciences, College of Integrative Sciences, and so forth). As the instructors of these courses will attest, the Cr/U designation (wherever it is found) is not an invitation not to invest or commit fully to the course and its expectations. Rather, it puts grades (and anxiety about them) to the side for a moment to let learning thrive. As one instructor, who routinely offers FYS students a mixed grading mode, has observed: “the students who use the CR/U rubric do as well as, or even better than, the students who opt for a letter grade. In other words, the CR/U is not an inducement to doing less work or work of lower quality.”
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the Cr/U designation is that it offers an opportunity for students to push themselves, to understand what investment in study means for them, and to see how valuable that investment can be, individually, on their own terms.
As you review the FYSes along with your other courses during course selection, you may want to consider the narrative descriptions of “quality grades” that many Wesleyan instructors adhere to. It is offered below.
Happy hunting and, once again, welcome!
Narrative descriptions of “quality” grades assigned to student writing
A/A-: Excellent in all or nearly all respects. The interest of the reader is engaged by the ideas and presentation. Effective organization and writing. Paper marked by originality of ideas.
B+: Clear argument, clear writing, good evidence, appropriate response to question.
B/B-: Technically competent, with perhaps a lapse here and there. The thesis is clear, properly limited, and reasonable, and the proposal is generally good but not distinguished. Use of evidence is sufficient.
C+/C: A competent piece of work, but not yet good. More or less adequately organized along obvious lines. Thesis may be unclear or over simple. Development is often skimpy. Use of evidence may be inadequate. Monotony of sentence structure is apparent and errors may be sprinkled throughout.
C-/D/D-: A piece of work that demonstrates some efforts on the author’s part but that is too marred by technical problems or flaws in thinking or development of ideas to be considered competent work.
E/F: Failing grade. Essay may not respond to assignment. Essay may be far too short. Grammar and style may be careless.