Assignments and Grading
- Readings (Texte)
There are two principal types of reading in the class (and some scattered others):
- readings from two Wikipedias as secondary or background materials (main site entry: ;
German Wiki = ; English Wiki = .
Where articles are not parallel or do not exist in one or the other language, pay attention to national bias in them.
A separate list of readings identifies the links by day (and this list is on the class website, off a link off of
.
- readings from contemporaneous authors: literature, history, chronicles, poems, epics, legends/saints' lives, letters, novels, etc.
Some of these originate in German, others in older Germanic languages (Old Norse, Old and Middle High German), others in Latin
or other European languages of the Middle Ages or Early Modern eras. Virtually all of these are online multilingually.
Excepts will be specified.
Readings are due on the day indicated. Note that the syllabus (Semesterplan) has the topics and a specific reading task
(Aufgabe) to help you focus your readings. Remember that Wiki articles are organized with the most important summaries
at the top, and details at the bottom; for many of them, you may just be skimming or reading around in later details.
You may read the Wiki secondary literature in English or German, but you will be required to define and identify
the significance concepts, significant incidents and figures, and ideas out of these essays on the class tests in German.
Pick and choose what and how much you read with this in mind.
- Attendance and Reading Check Quizzes: 10% of final grade
Each class may start with a brief quiz question, asking for a definition or identification in German, based
on the readings due for the day. Sometimes the question might be true/false or multiple choice or fill in the blank.
Quizzes are worth 2 points each: one for putting your name on it, and one for getting the answer right.
The quiz will be over by 5 minutes into the class. No makeups; no quizzes for latecomers.
- Schriftliche Aufgaben: 12 x 2 points each = 25% of class grade
12 times in the semester (except for week 1, 13 (Thanksgiving), and 15 (last class day), you will turn in a written
answer to one of the Aufgaben that you have prepared for the class. The writing may be informal, but most of the
tasks require you to find passages out of original texts as substantiation for the point you're making or as an example of something.
200-300 words (one page, typed); auf deutsch. Your choice of the Tuesday or Thursday question,
but it must be turned in on the day the question is specified. No late work accepted (must be turned in
at the start of class) without medical excuse or prior arrangement ("prior" = at least a week).
Two points each: one for turning it in, one on content and appropriateness.
- Quiz/ Essay on a MHG Epic: 15% of grade
Online quiz or essay on one of two middle high German epics, either Das Nibelungenlied or Tristan. To succeed in this, you will have
to read the text through to the end (in modern German). The text will be a combination of short answer (in German) and essays
(one may be in English).
- Midterm: 20% of grade
short ID s written in German: Epochenbegriffe, history, literary history, texts read. One essay question: either how a text reflects
the concerns of its epoch or how two texts compare (usually separated by time).
- Cumulative Final: 30% of grade
The final will stress the second half of the class more than the first for the short answer/objective section of the test, but the
essays (including text interpretations) may require materials from the entire syllabus.
The final will require you to read one of the two long Luther essays all the way through, and Simplicissimus.