Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Everyone who turned in a Week 10 assignment on time should have gotten that back from me; if you turned in a late Week 10 assignment or an early assignment for Week 11 or Week 12, I will do my best to get comments back to you on Friday (this week has turned out to be the biggest Storybook stack of the whole semester because of the number of people working ahead, so I still have a lot to read on Friday!)
Final Grade in Gradebook. There are now a few students who have finished the course completely - by working ahead and doing extra credit, they already have the 410 points needed to get an A in the class. Exciting! I've now added the Final Grade item to the Gradebook. This is where I will record your letter grade when you have finished with the class. That way you can be sure about the grade you will receive, even though I will not be filling out the actual grade report forms until the end of the semester in December. Congratulations to those of you who are finished with the class already!
Week 11 Internet: REPEAT visit to Storybooks. (repeat announcement) For the Week 11 Internet assignment, you will see that the instructions are slightly different from previous weeks. For this week, you need to be visiting Storybooks you have visited before, reading your second (or third or fourth) story at that particular Storybook. So, please make sure you read the instructions for the Week 11 Internet assignment before you start reading the Storybooks this week.
Mix and match points. (repeat announcement) Several people have written to me with questions about mix-and-match strategies, so I thought I should repeat this announcement. There is no special requirement about which assignments you choose to do or not do as the semester comes to a close, provided that you get the total points you need. You can focus on your Storybook, you can pick and choose which reading assignments and quizzes you want to do - it's really up to you. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you plan carefully. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.
Thanksgiving. (repeat announcement) I have also had several questions from people about Thanksgiving, now that it is November. So here's the good news: You will get a full week off for Thanksgiving break in this class. So, Week 13 will start on Tuesday, November 17, with the usual Tuesday-Thursday assignments due that week. Then, you have a whole week off between Friday November 20 until Friday November 27 (Thanksgiving Day is November 26). You will have the usual Week 13 weekend assignments due November 28-29, with the usual grace period until noon on Monday, November 30. Then Week 14 will start up on Tuesday, December 1. I am guessing that many of you will probably already be done with the class by the time Thanksgiving break arrives!
Sunday, November 8: Bram Stoker. November 8 marks the birthday in 1847 of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker who is, of course, most famous for his invention of the modern literary figure of Count Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker's Count Dracula has in turn given rise to a whole genre of vampire fiction including the recent Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer. You can read more about Stoker's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Stoker's Dracula has inspired many later novels, films and even comic books, but I will confess that my favorite Dracula is Count von Count of the Muppets! :-)
