Reflection Journal Assignment Sheet Summary Field trips and ... | Lecture notes History

Reflection Journal Assignment Sheet

HIST 387: Introduction to Public History – Dr. Philip Grace - Fall 2016

Summary

Field trips and guest speakers are irreplaceable experiences. Attendance/participation scores for

these class periods will be equal to three days of normal class attendance/participation, and attendance

is required to complete the reflection journal. After each field trip or guest speaker, students will

write an informal journal entry of 600-900 words (2-3 pages) in which they reflect on the experience,

connect it to other class materials and/or previous experiences, and so forth.

Assignment Experience Date Due Date

Field Trip (Institute of Texas Cultures) Sept 6 Sept 8

Speaker (Community Archivists) Oct 20 Oct 25

Speaker (Nancy Avellar, SACS) Nov 3 Nov 8

Field Trip (Gonzales) Nov 15 Nov 17

Journals are always due the class period after the experience itself, via turnitin.com. Each journal is

worth 2.5% of the course grade.

This assignment asks you to write some exploratory thoughts about what was significant about this

experience. This assignment is quite different from more formal assignments. It is not argument driven

or conclusion-oriented. Instead, it is about exploring, about “chewing on” and “digesting” the

experience. This may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable at first.

Freewrite

Part of the reflective process is to simply spur yourself to write, to express, to get out onto the paper

screen the half-formed thoughts in your head. This means bypassing the “inner editor” that we spend so

much time trying to develop. So I encourage you to write a lot—say, 4-6 pages or even more. Don’t edit.

Just write what comes into your head. If you get off-topic, don’t delete it, just start writing about the

topic again; start with a different prompt if you need to.

You could use the following prompts to get started. You could also just start writing about what was

important to you about the experience. Complete the sentence (use the prompt to start out, but then write

freely for awhile).

 The thing about this experience that stuck with me the most was… (why?)

 The thing about this experience that surprised me the most was… (why?)

 The part of this experience that made me feel frustrated was… (why?)

 The part of this experience that I was most excited about was… (why?)

 This experience was boring because….

 This experience was boring, so during it I…

 In the lead-up to this experience, I thought… (how did it match up to those expectations?)

 During this experience, what I was doing inside was…

 This experience made me remember…

 I think this experience has a connection to…

 This experience connects to our class readings in that…

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Reflection Journal Assignment Sheet HIST 387: Introduction to Public History – Dr. Philip Grace - Fall 2016

Summary Field trips and guest speakers are irreplaceable experiences. Attendance/participation scores for these class periods will be equal to three days of normal class attendance/participation, and attendance is required to complete the reflection journal. After each field trip or guest speaker, students will write an informal journal entry of 600-900 words (2-3 pages) in which they reflect on the experience, connect it to other class materials and/or previous experiences, and so forth.

Assignment Experience Date Due Date Field Trip (Institute of Texas Cultures) Sept 6 Sept 8 Speaker (Community Archivists) Oct 20 Oct 25 Speaker (Nancy Avellar, SACS) Nov 3 Nov 8 Field Trip (Gonzales) Nov 15 Nov 17 Journals are always due the class period after the experience itself, via turnitin.com. Each journal is worth 2.5% of the course grade.

This assignment asks you to write some exploratory thoughts about what was significant about this experience. This assignment is quite different from more formal assignments. It is not argument driven or conclusion-oriented. Instead, it is about exploring, about “chewing on” and “digesting” the experience. This may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable at first. Freewrite Part of the reflective process is to simply spur yourself to write, to express, to get out onto the paper screen the half-formed thoughts in your head. This means bypassing the “inner editor” that we spend so much time trying to develop. So I encourage you to write a lot —say, 4-6 pages or even more. Don’t edit. Just write what comes into your head. If you get off-topic, don’t delete it, just start writing about the topic again; start with a different prompt if you need to. You could use the following prompts to get started. You could also just start writing about what was important to you about the experience. Complete the sentence (use the prompt to start out, but then write freely for awhile).  The thing about this experience that stuck with me the most was… (why?)  The thing about this experience that surprised me the most was… (why?)  The part of this experience that made me feel frustrated was… (why?)  The part of this experience that I was most excited about was… (why?)  This experience was boring because….  This experience was boring, so during it I…  In the lead-up to this experience, I thought… (how did it match up to those expectations?)  During this experience, what I was doing inside was…  This experience made me remember…  I think this experience has a connection to…  This experience connects to our class readings in that…

 This experience made me imagine that in the future I could… It’s fine to use more than one prompt, but the idea is not for you to briefly answer all (or even most) of them—instead, they should be a way to start delving into what was most significant about the experience to you.

Sift Most of your freewriting will not be good, which is fine. Once you have finished, go back and reread and sift through it. Highlight, underline, or somehow mark the better parts. The purpose of this is to save me from reading all of it. If you think that all of it is good—you’re wrong.  When you reread it, you may find something that gives you a great new idea: start writing again (don’t delete; just add to the document). You may find that there’s only one good sentence or phrase in the whole thing: highlight it and start writing from that. You may find that there is not a single worthwhile thing in the entire freewrite. In that case, start writing using this prompt: “I don’t think any of this material is worthwhile, because worthwhile would look like…” Repeat this cycle until you have about 600-900 words highlighted. It does not need to be polished or fixed up or anything. Submit it to turnitin.com.

Grading: You will be graded on how well you provide evidence of 1. interaction with specific details or aspects of the experience, 2. intellectually robust processing of the experience: this can include making connections, uncovering implications, self-evaluation of your own reactions, raising worthwhile questions, and other things. 3. Part of that reflection is your own “sifting” of your reflective free-writing, since that is what I will be actually reading.

Reflection Journal Assignment Sheet Summary Field trips and ..., Lecture notes of History

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