REQUIREMENTS:

• (10%)  Active participation in discussion, including:  first part of the semester, expressing the differences between your own contextual interpretation of a given biblical book and that offered by the GBC and another member of the seminar (these differences should be written down so as to be ready to read from these notes  to express them in the discussion);  second part of the semester, critical discussion of other students paper in progress (see Appendix # 2 to this syllabus:  Preparing for each class).  [Active participation demands active listening!  (This means computers are to be used only for note taking during class - no internet, Facebook, twitter, or email!).]
• (4 x 10% = 40% ) Four  Seminar presentations (often in group; with 2 page handouts sent to daniel.m.patte@vanderbilt.edu; copied for class after approval by DP):  First part of Semester (most weeks):   three presentations (out of 3 possibilities) 1) as Presenter of a GBC interpretation (handout due Thursday prior to class presentation); and 2) handout as Discussion Leader is (handout due Friday prior to class presentation); 3) as Respondent  (critical assessment of the differences between the GBC interpretation and the Leader’s interpretation from the perspective of your chosen context; handout due by Sunday evening);  Second part of Semester: one presentation (out of 2 possibilities): 1) as Presenter of a part of your paper-in-the-making (handout due Thursday prior to class presentation); 2) as Respondent  (critical assessment of the differences between the GBC interpretation and the Leader’s interpretation from the perspective of the context the respondent chose for his/her paper; handout due by Sunday evening)  (Note: ½ the grade on handout as first received; ½ the grade on the oral presentation & [if needed] revised handout)  
• Quizzes:  4  x  2.5%  quizzes  on readings = 10%
• Quizzes will be on your reading in The Gospel of Matthew: A Contextual Introduction and on the GBC interpretation of a biblical book and differences with your own contextual reading.  See  Appendix # 2  Preparing for Each Week’s Session
• Choosing a Biblical Book as topic for your paper: your first choice and two alternates due (by email) Feb 19 noon
• Paper Proposal  =  10 %   due Feb 27.
• A paper prepared over the second part of the semester (including oral presentation with hand-out of a part of your paper):  30 %  Final PAPER DUE April 29  9AM

Grades:  A  = Excellent, exceptional = correctly addressing all the questions of the topic, and demonstrating special creativity and insightfulness in analysis;   B  = Good and solid.   = correctly addressing all the questions of the topic, but without special creativity or insightfulness;   C  = Fairly Good = most questions of the topic are addressed correctly, but some questions of the topic have not been addressed correctly or have not been addressed;   D = Poor = Many questions are addressed incorrectly, or not addressed at all.

Late work:  will be accepted but will be penalized by 1/3 of a letter grade per day (a day late begins one hour after the due date)

HONOR CODE:

Throughout the semester, you are under the Honor Code of Vanderbilt University.  All your reports and your paper should represent YOUR OWN work, yet they should benefit from the work of others members of the class [so as you take notes, make sure you identify who said what in class so as to have the proper footnotes].   Identify in notes your sources (including insights from books and articles, from lectures, from presentations and remarks during discussion from other students, and from the Web), so as to avoid plagiarism.  Sign your work as a pledge of compliance with the Honor Code (i.e., you wrote it without receiving aid from (or giving aid to) any other person, except as specified above and in class).