This reflection paper (minimum 800 words, submitted via email) gives you an opportunity to reflect on the work you have done this semester, to assess and evaluate your learning and development, and to think about ways you can continue to improve throughout the rest of the semester.
Before you begin writing the reflection, collect all the work you have completed for our class this semester, including all writing assignments and anything you have written during our in-class activities. Review this work to get a sense for how you have done this semester, where your work has been most and least successful, what you have learned, and how you have progressed.
When you write the Midterm Reflection, your thinking should address the following prompts. Be sure to include specific examples and make direct reference to experiences you had with our writing assignments, readings, and in-class discussions and activities:
- How would you describe the efforts you have made this semester? Consider both the amount of effort you put into your work and how productive and effective this effort was. How much time did you spend on different aspects of the writing process – reading, researching, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, etc.? Which efforts felt most productive and effective? Least so?
- How would you describe your participation in class conversations and activities? Which conversations and activities have you found most beneficial? What did you learn from or get out of our in-class activities?
- How would you describe your learning during the first half of the semester? It would help to make reference to the dimensions of learning from the Learning Record.
- Confidence and Independence
- Skills and Strategies
- Knowledge and Understanding
- Use of Prior and Emerging Experience
- Reflection
- Creativity, Originality, Imagination
- In the last part of your reflection, assign yourself a specific letter grade (you can use +/- grades: A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc.) for your overall grade and support your thinking as to why you should get this grade in our class. Generally speaking, to get an A, you will need to demonstrate that your work, your effort, and your learning have been “excellent”; the B range would need to be “good”; the C range and below would include some combination of “okay” or “unsatisfactory” work, incomplete work, and lack of satisfactory participation or investment in the course. In what ways has your work, your effort, and your learning been “excellent,” “good,” “okay,” or “unsatisfactory” so far? What can you do to improve going forward?
Keep in mind our grading guidelines. In order to earn a B, you must achieve the following:
- Regularly attend class (or otherwise keep up with main class activities) and complete assigned readings;
- Meet the criteria (such as minimum length requirements and main objectives) for all main assignments;
- Miss no more than one short assignment throughout the semester (to earn an A- or A for the semester, you cannot miss any short assignments);
- Put in a good faith effort on all assignments (including revisions for main assignments), using our assignments as an opportunity to learn, challenge yourself, and do good work.
You can move into the B+, A-, or A range by exceeding these expectations, particularly through the amount of effort you put into the class and the quality of your work and your learning. You can move into the B- or C, D, or F range by failing to meet these expectations, particularly through a lack of effort or engagement with the class, failing to submit work, or submitting work that is incomplete or fails to demonstrate a good faith effort. I am happy to discuss grading expectations further if you have questions about how to achieve or avoid a particular grade.
Matt King 