Crowdsource a Problem

We're a week into classes, and just past the add without special permission date.  But our chair was working with a student, and that student needs to get into my class.  So the chair asked me.  And I said yes.  (It's not worth debating my yes, but let's imagine I have good reason both for the student and the chair.)

Here's the problem.  The students on that very day are to turn in a short paper worth 10% of the total grade, and based on a group and classroom experience, reading, and discussion.  (In short, they did a performance project in groups where they all worked with the same short scene and performed it, read about early modern theater in McDonald's Companion, talked about it as a class, and then wrote a short paper about their experiences.)

So now I'm trying to think of something to have this student do that will provide a reasonably parallel experience so that zie doesn't totally lose that 10% of the grade (making it impossible to get an A in the course, and fairly difficult to get a B.

I grade quite leniently on the response paper because I'm more interested in them thinking about their response than in saying something brilliant.  I'm pretty happy if they demonstrate that they've learned.


For those more assessment oriented, I'd say the goals for this assignment include:

Working well in a group to solve complex problems
Getting to know some other folks in class
Grappling with a short scene
Performing in front of the class
Watching other performances and thinking about them
Thinking about space and performance
Thinking about their theater experience and the early modern theater we read about
Beginning to see Shakespeare as a performance text
Writing about their experience, focusing on one or two things


I think the assignment does a lot of "work" in the course, and I'm not sure how to give an individual student a parallel experience.

Ideas, please?