assembling a final learning reflection

It's time to start working on your final learning reflection, offering concrete examples of some of the more important things you've learned over the last year. Here's how I propose it be done. Normally at this point I would say that you should decide whether your minimum grade, determined by the formula I set out in the course introduction, is one you're satisfied with. This year my expectation is that almost everyone will need to do it, because almost no one will have a minimum mark at all, since the proportion of completed tasks is lower than in any class I have ever taught. A person who did barely two-thirds, or even much less than half, of the assigned tasks has a great deal to prove. The totals will be posted on the usual records page later today.

So, budget a few hours -- at least what it might have taken you to study for, and write, a final examination -- to write a convincing demonstration of your learning over the course of the year. This document should be no more than 2000 words long, and should be a presentation of the most important things you learned over the year, with specific examples, identifying instances of exactly what you learned, and how, and from whom or what. Be selective. This is not a matter of quantity, or proving that you read and remember all those plays and ideas and pieces of information and dates: it's about what new understandings and evaluations you have built through your engagement in the work of the course, and explaining those changes in a convincing way.

To write this, you should look back over everything you've written and participated in, and read, during the course -- especially your weekly learning journal, but including your contributions to the online forums, your writing posted on the wikis, etc. Equally important, you should look at what other people wrote, on the forums and wikis and in their learning journals, that you have found illuminating or useful or informative. Writing a learning reflection is one of the most powerful opportunities for learning you'll have in this course, in part because it invites you to reflect on the experience at some distance, thinking about the kinds of things there are to be learned from it.

You can structure this any way you like, but you need to be aware that I will be reading it looking for specific kinds of things. As you write, it may help to read through my explanation of how I read learning reflections. As you work, you should pay particular attention to the list of things that I always begin my reading by crossing out as irrelevant. Don't waste time on issues that I'm going to ignore.

organizational suggestion

Here's a suggestion for a way to organize a reflection that has the best chance of demonstrating that you have come to a deeper understanding of the theatre and drama of the Restoration and eighteenth century through the experiences I've tried to offer in this course. Don't think of it as an essay; you don't need an introduction and transitions between things: think of it as a set of separate sections, perhaps each with a heading.

I would suggest strongly, especially if you are demonstrating learning in the absence of a record of tasks completed -- in other words, trying to show that you learned in spite of having missed a substantial amount of the tasks the course set out -- that you choose any five or six of the sentences below, and begin a paragraph with a version of each, in which you substitute your own example for the phrase in [square brackets].  You may find it useful to use one twice, recounting different experiences, but be aware that your aim is to demonstrate a range of different kinds of learning. Make each paragraph both concrete and general: that is, tie it to a particular experience, text, or reading, and also make it clear how the learning has implications beyond the immediate instance -- how, for example, it changed the way you understood or responded to something later in the year, of how you expect it will change the way you respond to something in the future.

• Because I read [this particular reading -- it might be a specific passage or section of a play, a passage in a textbook, a forum posting on a play, a learning journal entry] I understood or approached or responded to, or valued, a play or kind of play differently, and this is what the difference was and how it happened.
• Because of [a particular experience -- of the kind listed above] I now read plays differently, and here's a concrete example of how, and an explanation of why that's important.
• I read [these particular plays], and through that reading developed an idea of a pattern, a strand of similarity, a theme, which runs through the drama of this period, or much of it; this is what I learned and how it appears in those particular plays.
• Here is an instance of something I wrote earlier in the course that I would think differently about now, and here's why that matters to my understanding of the theatre and drama of this period.
• In doing research on [this particular question or issue], I learned [this specific thing] about the way in which research in an area like this can most effectively be conducted.
• In doing research on [this particular question], I learned [this] about what kinds of information, opinion, and insight can be found in different locations and by using difference sources.
• In presenting and editing my own work I learned [this] about formatting work in proper scholarly forms and why that matters.
• In looking back over writing that was done, by me or by others, in connection with this course, I see that [this particular example] could have been improved in a particular way; I learned this [in this way], and this has relevance for me beyond simply making that piece of writing better.

There may, obviously, be issues I haven't listed in the list above that may be important for you: I've created the list mainly to suggest some areas and approaches you might not immediately think of. It might also help to look at what other people have written -- in their learning journals, or in their reflections, if they post them early  (they'll become available as people save them) to see if other people have written about some kinds of things that you hadn't thought of, and perhaps choose to write about them in your own reflection.

As frequently as possible, include specific references to documents -- written by you, or by others -- to illustrate and substantiate your claims about learning. If can create a link to the document, feel free.

As you work on this, save it on your page in the Final Learning Reflections wiki. There is a link to this wiki on the main course page; the learning reflections include copies of those written at midterm. Have a look at them, and perhaps especially the examples of learning reflections I posted in advance of the midterm evaluation exercise. You may see things others say that remind you of things you might have talked about, as well; add to (or revise) your own.

Had this course had a final examination, it would have been scheduled for April 16 at 9:00. Thus the deadline for posting  your final learning reflection will be noon of that day.

Providing feedback

I want to do this somewhat differently, building on the form we used at midterm. There will be a link to a feedback form very much like the one we used then, except that for each item there will be a copy of the responses to the form that people offered at Christmas, and my responses, where I commented. What I would like is for you to respond to the comments in light of the earlier comments. If you have nothing to add, don't add anything.

This form will be accessible from the main Page and the Stage Web site by Friday morning. As before, I will have no way to know who said what, or didn't say anything at all. Please go to the course Web site, click on the Feedback on the Course link, enter your name at the top, and click "Submit" at the bottom. The departmental assistant who receives the form as email will pull the names off and let me know who has submitted forms, but when I get the responses they will be anonymous. You need to do this by April 29. I hope that between the time you enter your name at the top and click "Submit" at the bottom, you will respond to at least some of the items.