Midterm Reflection
2007: assign Mon, Mar 26 for Fri 30 MarSee MidTermDiscussion2007
from the syllabus
About mid-term or a little after, we'll meet f2f again a few times to compare notes, sort out any difficulties, see where everyone is with their projects. Then, we're back to blogging and wikiwriting, weekly readings, responses, and visits.
and from the course description
Some theory. Much practice. Much reflection.
Theory +++++++++++
Practice +++++++++++++++++++++++
Reflection +++++++++++++++++++++++
Theory +++++++++++
Practice +++++++++++++++++++++++
Reflection +++++++++++++++++++++++
For the past four weeks, you've been engaging in the practice part: keeping your blog, designing and writing your wiki; taking part in the discussions, and so on.
This is the reflective part.
writing a reflection
The purpose of composing this wiki topic is to give you a chance to reflect on what you've done so far in this course, what you see others doing, and what that doing might mean, for you, at this moment in time. It marks where you are now, at mid term, so you can look back on it later. But writing the reflection can also give you the chance to reconnoiter: to consider where you are now to see what you might pay attention to as you progress.Length: Once you get past a couple of paragraphs, this is up to you. My general advice is long enough to do yourself justice. After all, you're being asked to look at your own work: Perhaps you don't have much to say about that. But you want to linger on matters long enough that it will useful to you now and later.
method
Over the week, we'll be talking in class. I'll work with some questions to get us started, but we're bound to go in new directions. So,- Create a wiki node off your WikiName page titled YourWikiNameMidtermReflection. As we talk in class over the week, use this space for some notes to help shape your reflection.
- Later, return to your notes to develop them further into a reflective essay.
- You can also use the MidtermDiscussionFall2006 notes and the notes taken in class during the week to help you think about things.
- You'll want to look over some of your early postings on your blog to get a sense of where you started.
- You'll want to look at what you wrote for the collective FirstReactionsToWiki and on your own page of first reactions.
- You'll want to look at what you wrote on HowTheWikiChangesWriting and HowBloggingChangesWriting.
- You'll want to look over what your visitors wrote about your project on the first studio tour.
- And you might want to look at RedefiningBoundaries to see if and how you might approach what you've been doing on your blog this semester.
There is a list of assignments on the CourseSyllabus to jog your memory.
You'll want to make notes as you do this.
What you come to include and focus on in your reflection is up to you. You can concentrate on your project if you'd like, or look to other areas as well. You can confine your reflection to what you're doing, or look as well to what others are doing and what we've read.
Often, initial reflections are vague and impressionistic, seen through a glass darkly. Perhaps they are necessarily so. We need to get something in writing so we can work with it further. So the first tempation is to write quickly, intensely, and... um, unreflectively.
But to be useful to you - marking where you are now and helping you reconnoiter and redirect - it helps to ground your reflection in particular examples, cases, substantives. So
- Get in close and stay on the detail long enough to reach complications.
- Link to or incorporate examples when appropriate: substantiate, exemplify, interpret. Keep the object of your reflection in front of you. Try to ground your impressions in particulars that will help you illustrate how you interpret those particulars.
- It also helps to stay in first-person: work with what you're doing, seeing, and understanding in particular.
evaluation and points
The reflection is more for you to learn with than for me to teach with. While it is possible - and useful - to for a teacher to review a reflection for what the writer has articulated and point out to the writer what she might not see, I'm not going to. I'll let you do it.Include in your reflection an indication of the number of points you're writing to earn. I will record the points you request.
- 50 - drive thru: quick fly by, burger and fries, way too busy to stop and think...
- 75 - deli lunch: had an hour to kill so I had a quick look round, knocked off this draft and did a quick edit. Thanks very much.
- 150 - long lunch: I started as a deli lunch, but as I worked it got interesting, and I got serious about it - and it shows in the writing.
- 200 - dinner: This is the closest and most insightful I can get in the 2 - 3 hours I put into this. Couldn't add another thing, not even a paper-thin wafer.
When your reflection is finished, post a link to it on the Daybook.
Deadline is 'Fri 31 Mar, midnight.'
See also MidTermDiscussion2007 - questions for discussion
CategoryExercise