recitation policies and asking questions during recitations

[Robert Zellmer]

Here's a couple of points about recitation.  The first one should
already be instituted.  I'm instituting something additional to make
it easier for the TAs and hopefully improve the review periods and
the short time before the quiz for asking questions.

1)  There should be a sign-in sheet at the TA's desk.  When you come
       in you must sign in using first name and last.# (Bob Zellmer.1).
       If you sign-in before the start of class you don't have to write
       arrival time.  If you are late you need to include what time you
       signed in.  Attendance is part of your recitation grade.  You get
       3 pts for attending on Tuesday.  That's not much.  However, more
       importantly, if you fail to attend Tuesday recitation and the 10
       minutes prior to the quiz you do not get full credit on the quiz 
(your
       quiz score will be reduced by 20% - see the syllabus).

2)  Come prepared to ask questions and participate.  To that end,
       I want you to e-mail your questions to your TA the day before
       prior to 6 PM.  This way the TA can look at the questions and
       prepare things covering your specific questions.  This will be
       particularly useful if they see several people with the same
       question (which is often the case) and will then prioritize that
       question.  That's why you should not be embarrassed to ask
       questions in recitation, lab or class.  Generally speaking, if one
       person asks a question there's several others with the same
       question who are too shy to ask.  Besides, I've had some really
       interesting questions over 28 years which I might not have
       thought to discuss and proved helpful to students. This will be
       especially important for the 10 minute period before the quizzes
       That's just enough time to get 2-3 questions answered before
       the quiz.  Make them count.

       This doesn't mean if you haven't e-mailed a question the day
       before you can't ask it.  Of course you can.  However, doing
       this may make things go a little faster and you'll get more
       questions answered.

       This will help to get the most we possibly can out of the review
       portions of recitation.  I'm sure the TAs will appreciate it as 
well.

       If you miss the 6 PM deadline you can still e-mail your questions
       to the TAs but they may not get to them before recitation.

3)  You really need to have about 90% of your questions answered before
       recitation, particularly the day of the quiz, by going to 170 
Celeste or
       asking me.  You can not walk in without having done most of the
       homework (book problems and MC) and expect the TA to be able to
       cover all the possible material for the quiz.  There's just not 
enough
       time for that.  Besides, even if they did you wouldn't remember 
it well
       enough to do well on the quiz.  Even if they went over a question on
       the quiz you probably wouldn't get it completely correct because you
       haven't had time to think about what the TA just did and try it 
yourself.

Dr. Zellmer