Guidelines for the Midterm Inventory

Midterm Inventory

Print out hardcopy of just your own postings.

Respond to the questions below. Double-space. Attach the inventory to the front, and staple it all together.


Self-Assessment

• Go back to the handout on the Genesis Blog and to the criteria for an A and a B. Using those benchmarks--ticking them off one by one, a few sentences per criterion--give yourself a grade for the course to this point.

The Postings of the Group

• In a paragraph or two, describe the postings of the whole group in general terms: the general movement or direction or pattern of the postings; the themes that have emerged as interesting and important; etc.
• Quote or paraphrase the most interesting posting from another student in the class and write a one paragraph response: what’s interesting here? What does this make you think of?

Your Postings

• In a paragraph or two, describe your own postings in general terms: the general movement or pattern of the postings; the themes that have emerged as interesting and important; the nature of your own thinking, its style or sequence or method.
• What have you changed your mind about? Write a paragraph or two explaining this. Or, what has surprised you the most? Or, if you’re not surprised, write a paragraph or two explaining what’s been confirmed in your thinking. Another variation: find a posting where you now realize you were just wrong, off, unclear, in the dark. Talk about how you’ve gotten some clarity on this, what you’ve learned. Still another variation: talk about something that you were clear about that now seems less clear, even confusing.
• In a paragraph explain what’s most clear to you at this point and what isn’t clear at this point. (Some overlap here with the question above.)
• Consult the list of questions I handed out at the beginning of the term, the questions people typically ask versus the questions that belong under the heading “the Bible as Literature.” As you look at your own postings, determine how often you veer off, get interested in questions that don’t exactly fit under the Bible as Literature--theological or historical questions, for example. Note several of these, talk about them, and then--all this in a paragraph or two--talk about how you would rewrite these questions or to make them appropriate for the Bible as Literature. (Of course, this is all pretty fuzzy territory.) If you have stayed on the Bible as Literature track, talk about that. Give an example.
• In a paragraph, talk about the main or most important thing you’ve learned so far.
• In a paragraph, talk about the question you would like to have answered the rest of the term.
• Take your best and most interesting posting and revise it into a short essay of two or three paragraphs: give it a couple of examples, analyze the examples, clarify your main point. A micro-theme.
• In a paragraph or two: why might any of this matter? What friend might need to hear this and would benefit? What government official? What contemporary issue or conflict might be helped or clarified with any of these ideas? What personal issue, intellectual or otherwise? In other words, so what? What’s at stake?