Most class meetings feature a brief objective reading quiz based on the day’s assigned readings.

• Quizzes are given one time only and cannot be made up.
  

• f you come in after the quiz has been given, or you miss a class, please do not ask if you can take the quiz. I appreciate your not asking me and dislike being asked. You lose more by asking than by missing the quiz.
   

• Even if you don't know the answers, turn in a quiz with your name on it, as quizzes are used to take attendance.
   

• Answer questions accurately but briefly, as they are graded quickly. A few words or phrases usually suffice. Complete sentences not required.
   

• Grades range from “checks” for correct answers to “X’s” for no right answers to combinations of these grades with pluses or minuses for combinations of right and wrong answers.
   

• Occasionally one or two students in the class receive a “check-plus” for answers that are not only accurate but unusually entertaining, insightful, or otherwise impressive.
   

• You are expected to make checks or check-minuses on all but one or two of your quizzes. Failure to take or turn in quizzes, or overall quiz grades noticeably lower than the class average, can result in a much lower overall course grade, beyond the declared weight of the quizzes.

Sample Reading quiz

Literature of the Future (1990s)                 Name:_________________

Quiz 10: 1^st reading quiz on Red Mars

1. Answer one of the following questions regarding John Boone: How did he die? Or, What was he most famous for?

2. Describe another member of the “First Hundred” besides Boone.  It’s best to give a name, but give enough details to demonstrate your reading.

3. Describe some of the action as the Ares spacecraft nears Mars.  For example, what begins to happen among the crew? Whom does Maya see who upsets her? What kind of “storm” does the ship pass through?