You will have many opportunities to be evaluated. At these points, I will identify where I believe you are progressing well, and provide concrete things that you can do to improve. I will assign a letter grade to your work at these points, and you will have the opportunity to revise that work to improve your grade.
On each piece of work, you will receive a letter grade. Those grades can be improved until the point that you submit your portfolio. Do note the "Fallback" section, below.
Points of Evaluation
We will use the following points to evaluate your progress in the course:
- Every Lab
If I feel you can improve a laboratory, I will do my best to provide timely, substantive feedback on what I feel is lacking. - January 19th: Quiz on Basic Scheme
In-class, written. 10 minutes. - January 26th: Quiz on Structured Scheme
In-class, written. 10 minutes. - Week of Feb 2nd: Oral Quiz
15-30 minute one-on-one chalkboard test of your comfort with Scheme.
If you - Week of Feb 23rd: Interpreter Discussion
30-60 mins, one-on-one discussion the RI and EI labs with discussion of code - March 11, 12, 13: Language Presentation
Sign-off on bibliography for final project.
- Week of April 6th
30-60 mins, Lazy Evaluation and Project Discussion - April 16th: Project Presentation
A public display of your project. - April 27th: Project Submission
Submission of your project and portfolio.
(I believe I have indicated these on the course calendar. When in doubt, the calendar is considered authoritative.)
You may, if you wish, consider the two 1-hour discussions as "oral exams" or "midterms" of one sort or another. These serve as an opportunity for you to demonstrate your growth as a computer scientist and your increasing knowledge of the design and implementation of programming languages.
Your final grade will be based on your portfolio. Given that your portfolio will be constructed from work you have already done during the semester, and you will have been evaluated (and had the opportunity to improve your work), your final grade is placed firmly in your hands, and really, truly, should be unsurprising.
Fallback
This mode of grading assumes that you are attending class and making a semester-long, observable attempt to improve yourself.
In the event that you are unwilling or unable to consistently attend class and turn in work related to this course, we will have a meeting and I will make it clear (in writing) that you and I will now fall back to the following:
The first three laboratories are worth 5% of your final grade each.
The RI, EI, and "Lazy" labs are each worth 10% of your total grade.
Your final project is worth 30% of your final grade.
Your oral exams constitute 15% of your final grade.
If I decide your attendance is problematic, I will begin to track it closely. Every missed class will represent up to 3% removed from your final grade. (Labs will be counted at double that rate.) Because you will often be working with a peer, your absence impacts the performance of other students—in which case, I reserve the right to penalize your delinquency heavily.