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, if you decide to do it (if your minimum grade, determined by the formula I set out in the course introduction, and which will be determined and posted on the course Web site by Thursday morning, is one you're satisfied with, you won't need to do it. My expectation is that most people won't be satisfied with that grade; in any case, you should bear in mind that it can't be lowered).

Budget a few hours -- what it might have taken you to study for, and write, a final examination -- to write a synthesis of, or reflection on, your learning over the course of the year. This document should be no more than 2000 words long, and should be a presentation of what you think are the most important things you learned over the year, with specific examples of 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 essays and journals and reports 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 during the course -- especially your weekly learning journal, but including your contributions to the online forums, your participation in collaborative reports, etc. Equally important, you should look at what other people wrote, on the forums and in their learning journals, that you have found illuminating or useful or informative. It's arguable that 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. If you haven't already done so, you should have a look back, before you start writing, at my explanation of Reading, composing and recreating learning reflections. As you begin, 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.

You might, for example, 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 text we read, a passage in a literary history or article, a forum posting on a writer, a learning journal entry] I understood or approached or responded to, or valued, a piece of prose or kind of writing 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 eighteenth century writing, or nonfiction prose, differently, and here's a concrete example of how, and an explanation of why that's important.
• I read [these particular texts], and through that reading developed an idea of a pattern, a strand of similarity, a theme, which runs through the writing of this period, or much of it; this is what I learned and how it appears in those particular examples.
• 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 nonfiction prose 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 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.

As you write this, save it on your page in the Final Learning Reflections wiki. There is a link to this wiki on the main course page. Have a look at those already there that other people have posted, and if you see things they say that remind you of things you might have talked about, as well, add to (or revise) your own.

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.

Had this course had a final examination, it would have been scheduled for Friday, April 20. That's when you need to have posted. If you have not posted by then, I'll assume you have chosen not to write one, and will submit the minimum quantitative mark as your grade in the course. But here's a catch: after Friday, if you've posted, you can read the final reflections of others and revise yours any time before Sunday night.

Providing feedback

You'll remember that at Christmas I invited everybody to submit an online feedback form. I'm going to do the same thing now, only this time it's required -- in other words, it's a requirement that you click on that link, scroll down, and click "Submit form" at the bottom.

As before, you do not have to answer all, or any, of the questions (I will have no way to know who said what, or didn't say anything at all ). To make sure everybody makes a conscious decision -- that people don't say, "Yes, giving Russ some real feedback would be a good idea," and then forget about it -- it's required that you do this by April 20. 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. 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 feedback form.

The feedback form will be accessible from the main English 3336 Web site. I've modified it from last time, to ask some questions I think will help me improve this course.