LOL Winter 2014 Assignments


Program Engagement – Full attendance and participation in all program activities, as well as completion of all program assignments, are pre-requisites for full credit in LOL. This includes student team meetings outside of class. Answers about unavoidable absences and late assignments can be found in the program covenant.


Classes – Come to all program classes and activities prepared. Have your readings done and bring with you any assignments that are due. Respect yourselves and your colleagues (faculty and fellow students) by attending and participating genuinely in all classroom activities. Be alert and ready to learn – i.e., not too stoned, too hung over, too tired, too sick, or too stinky.

In all classes, we often divide into small groups of five or six students for discussions, learning exercises, etc. We reconvene in our classrooms for reporting out before the end of each period.


Teams and Team Meetings – We will organize students into teams of three and four. These groups will stay together for the Winter Quarter. Each team will plan and make one panel presentation and lead one noon reading seminar. Student teams or panels will be responsible to schedule and attend their own meetings outside of class for planning and preparation of their presentations. Mondays 3-5pm are reserved for this purpose, but teams are free to choose another time if more convenient.


Seminars – The learning community holds reading and legal studies seminars on Thursdays, at 12-1:30 and 2-3:15 respectively. We reserve Thursday seminars for discussion of assigned readings. We tie our readings together with interdisciplinary discussion, reflection, and written responses about larger program materials and themes. Each student team will be responsible to lead one noon seminar during the quarter. Faculty will provide a worksheet for teams to use as a guide.


Skills Workshops – We divide the workshop period on Fridays between classroom exercises based on the Nonviolent Communication book, in-class writing instruction and practice, and internship planning and arrangements. Whether or not one will participate in a Spring quarter internship, completion of internship planning exercises is required.


Readings – All readings listed in the syllabus are required. We understand the reading load is heavy. Because we are committed to notions of contemplative education, we would rather you read some portion of each reading quietly and deeply rather than blow through the whole thing at a surface level. This reflects long-term goals for this three-quarter program. With a year to plan for and practice contemplative reading, you will develop over time the motivation and focus to completely engage program readings and ideas.


Reading Response Papers – Your written response to the assigned readings is due every Thursday at 2pm at the end of seminar. In one or two pages, you should make a brief summary and assessment of the week’s assigned readings and make note of any particular ideas or questions you may have or want to discuss in class.

This short but serious assignment each week is meant to help you focus your thoughts for discussion in seminar on Thursday afternoons. It should reflect a thoughtful engagement of all program materials and themes. It can be formal or informal, according to your taste. It must be printed in a normally sized font, double-spaced, and turned in on time.


Legal News Notes Panels – Student teams will present a slideshow and fishbowl panel discussion exploring breaking stories and ongoing themes in contemporary news media. Presentations will resonate with, or reflect, the legal and constitutional issues in historical periods currently under discussion.

Slideshows will include digital photographs created by panel members and may include mash-ups with their own photos and/or images collected online. Students will present as a coherent group with appropriate conversation and dialog. One or two Legal News Notes Panels will present each week on Mondays, 1:30-3:00pm.


Film Notes and Summary Paragraphs – Films are another form of a text that you will be studying in this program. The primary purpose of this assignment is to help you recall the film content and to draw connections to other program content. When a film is scheduled and projected, you are expected to take hand written notes during the film. Do not worry about the legibility of your notes. However, it is necessary that you be able to read your writing.

At the end of the film, you are expected to hand-write a summary of what you have viewed and to make connections with other program content. You should be quiet during this process. You must submit both your hand-written notes and your summary at the end of this process. If you miss a film screening, you are responsible to track down a copy, watch it, and submit your notes and summary at our next class meeting.


Winter TERM PROJECT: Wikipedia Article Proposal – In week one, new students will begin a series of short research and writing assignments to develop a topic and plan of research for a paper to be written in the form of a Wikipedia article. Continuing students will continue to work on topics in Fall.

Papers may contribute an article new to Wikipedia, develop a stub, or substantially revise and augment an existing article. Final winter drafts will be due in Week 9 of Winter Quarter and provide a specific research starting point for Week 1 of Spring.


SELF EVALUATION – Informal self evaluations are required to receive full credit for each quarter you stay in LOL. Formal self evals, and an academic statement, are required when your membership in the program ends. We will have several workshops for evaluation and statement writing throughout each term.


PORTFOLIO – At the end of each term, each of you will turn in a portfolio of your collected notes and assignments for the term to your seminar faculty. Portfolios should include the seminar papers you turned in, plus any notes from panels research, class lectures or activities, research for you Winter Term Project, a formal copy of your Winter Term Project, and a Winter quarter self evaluation.