Dialogical Log (40% of grade): 1-2 typed pages per week and weekly written response to your partner's log.

The purpose of the dialogical log is to analyze, and react personally to, the main ideas and issues of each reading--and to do so in conversation with another person. Hence, the objective of the log is two-fold: to examine your understanding of, questions about, and reactions to, the readings by writing as specifically as you can about them; and to respond in writing to one other student's efforts to make meaning of the readings and react to them. As the weight assigned this activity indicates, the work in the dialogical log constitutes a significant portion of the learning in this course, a significant part of your teaching in the course, and a significant part of your grade. I am convinced that the more thoughtfully we write about the texts we read and the more carefully we engage in conversation with each other, the more deeply we will extend our understanding of Lesbian/Gay Studies and the more successfully we will contribute to our collaborative construction of knowledge in this course.

During the first class session, I will ask you to choose a partner for your dialogical log. Each week you will exchange logs with this person, reading and responding in writing to his or her reflections upon the assigned readings for that week. Every few weeks, I will collect each team's log and respond to the collaborative work you are doing. The purpose of the log is to provide you the opportunity to explore your own thinking about, and personal reactions to, the texts we read. The log will also allow each of us to carry on an extended dialogue with one other person about the course material and your reactions to it. Consider the log your opportunity to explore your own ideas--whatever they may be--about the texts we read, and to share your ideas with others in the class. There is no "right answer" for which I am looking; nor are there any "wrong" answers, only well developed or poorly developed responses.

The one requirement is that you write about what is actually there in the text. Ground your responses and ideas in the text.

Analyze and respond to specific ideas you find in the text, and refer, as often as you can, to specific passages. You are welcome to bring your own experiences and reactions into the log, but remember that the primary purpose of the log is to explore the readings. Your log should deal with every assigned text for the week and should reflect that you have attempted to read and understand each one.

Due dates for logs appear on the syllabus. I will collect each team's log on the date specified on the syllabus. We will respond to them in view of the criteria for logs distributed with the course description, looking at the thoroughness, rigor, and thoughtfulness of the responses both to the readings and to your partner's log. We will look at the development of your thought and the degree to which you engage both the assigned texts and your partner's logs closely and specifically. We will offer our estimation of the level of performance your log achieves, considering depth of insight, rigorousness of thought, and specific reference to the texts. We will do this not to assign the final grade but to suggest to you how you might adjust your performance to meet the grade level for which you wish to contract.

Please type each log and keep them in a pocket portfolio along with each weekly response from your log partner.

As the course progresses, I will ask each of you to participate in the planning of the syllabus as part of a team of 4. Each team will select the readings (either one novel or 2-3 essays from our anthologies), assign them to the class along with any specific focus questions you would like to see included in the dialogical log for that week's readings, and take responsibility for planning and guiding the class on those readings. The class plan may include the use of video or other media or guest speakers. To prepare for this work, I suggest you begin previewing the readings in our anthologies as soon as possible. On the third class meeting we will begin choosing teams and selecting readings. Once you have selected the readings, you can begin to plan how you will manage the class time, what other materials you might want to share with the class, or what speakers you might want to invite.

Each team will do a self-assessment of its work according to the criteria distributed in class prior to the activity. Other class members will also assess each team's work.

 The project will consist of an extensive annotated bibliography on all your research and a final, formal presentation of that research, either in a conventional research paper or in some other polished, professional format. I will distribute a written descriptions of these two components once the course is under way.

The purpose of this project is to afford you the opportunity to make an in-depth study of a particular "focus issue" which you find personally interesting and to present your findings to the rest of the class. The project will enable you to find out all that you possibly can, given the time allowed, on your issue. Ideally, the project will allow you to explore some issue about which you have personal knowledge or experience, or at least a keen interest. Your research may involve any of the following: reading, library work, interviews, field observations, viewing films, examining electronic or print media, field research, volunteer work, etc. Any source of information is appropriate. The "focus issue" might concern such matters as: "coming out"; "families we choose"; gay or lesbian experiences in a particular culture or group; violence against gays and lesbians; cinema representations of gay or lesbian sexuality (or bisexual, transvestite, transsexual, transgendered sexualities); the cultural production of sexuality through various means (education, religion, sports, family, law, etc.); literary representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual experience (specific focus might be on works by straight, openly gay, or closeted writers); stereotyping of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or transsexuals in the media; the "women's music" movement and lesbian song writing; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual issues in the news; an analysis of the work of one gay or lesbian artist or writer; an oral history of gays and/or lesbians in a specific city, town, county, region, etc.; documentary on gay life in a specific place (campus, town, city, etc.); media images of lesbian, gay, bisexual transsexual, or transgendered sexualities; legal issues (a particular issue) in the gay world; gay and lesbian parenting; gay and lesbian activism; AIDS and the gay community; accompanying the AIDS patient through hospice work. The possibilities for a focus issue are limitless; use your imagination and follow your own interests.

Throughout the semester, you will collect pertinent data in a variety of ways (interviews, library research, field observations, reading, viewing, etc.). In conjunction with the research, you will prepare an annotated bibliography of all your readings, in which you will analyze each source and record pertinent information that you might need to use in your final presentation of your findings. The project on the "focus issue" will encompass the research completed during the semester and can be submitted in any one of a variety of forms: an analytic essay about literature, film, other media, etc.; a conventional research paper; a personal reflection essay on what you've learned and how you learned it; a narration about your experience as a researcher of your issue in order to convey what you've learned about it; a documentary study (either written or video) using conventional research, field research, narrative, and oral history; documentary using conventional research, field research, video, and written script; multi-media presentation of research and findings; a play or short story about the issue based on your research; report on the semester long community service involvement in gay activism or AIDS hospice work.

I will also ask you to prepare a 5-8 minute oral report in which you explain your project and your findings to the rest of the class.

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