History of Science OnlineCourse Info: HSCI 3013 - section 995 - Fall 2008 |
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Reflection essay and Peer Responses
| # | Due Date | Pts | Activity | Time |
| 5 | Sunday 11:59 p.m. |
6 |
Reflection Essay + Peer Responses think about all that you did this week, including reading the Interpretation Essays of other students, and share your thoughts and ideas with other students in the class |
30 min. |
Learning Objective: The weekly Reflection assignment helps you to step back and take a broader perspective, and to creatively reflect on the week's work, and to engage in discussion with other students in the class.
Four Steps: This assignment has the following steps, described below, which must be completed in the following order:
1. Peer responses to two other students' Interpretations (2 pts)
You will read and respond to other students' Interpretations
at Yuku.
The Interpretation essay provides a setting for interesting interaction with your fellow students about the material you are learning each week. I strongly believe that interaction with other students in a way that is not mediated by the instructor is one of the chief advantages of an online course. When you read others' Interpretations, pause and do your best to understand where they are coming from. Take advantage of this opportunity to get to know them; you will be "seeing" a lot of them online through the course of the semester. Many students find this student-to-student interaction to be one of their favorite aspects of the course!
Each week, you are required to respond to at least two other students. Just hit the Add Reply button, or you can click on the Add Reply link that appears as part of their post (just under their name on the left hand side). When you write your responses, make your comments as specific and as analytical as possible (obviously, sarcasm, combativeness and hyperbole are inappropriate here!). You are expected to provide at least two or three sentences in your reply, making it clear that you have read what the other student wanted to say, and that you have taken a few minutes to think carefully and analytically about what you want to say in your reply.
2. "Famous Last Words" for your own Starting Assumptions
(1 pt)
Post a final response to your own Starting
Assumptions in Yuku. Revisit your Starting
Assumptions and comment on how they may have changed since you wrote them.
Your response should make it clear that you have read the comments that others
have left for you.
3. "Famous Last Words" for your own Interpretation (1 pt)
Post a final response to your own Interpretation
in Yuku. Your response should make clear that you have read the comments
that others have left for you.
Note: You must wait until there is at least one reply to your Starting Assumptions and to your Interpretation in order to complete the "Famous Last Words" steps. Please make clear that you have read the replies that other people have left for you. I do read the "Famous Last Words" that people post, and if it seems like you are not reading the replies left by the other students, you will hear from me...
4. Reflections Essay expressing personal reflections on the week's
learning (2 pts)
Each week write a short (250-500 words) personal creative essay
reflecting on the week's readings and topics. Instead of dealing with
historical evidence like the Interpretation
essay, in this Reflection you may convey subjective impressions like a journal.
And instead of dealing with one narrow issue, this essay differs from the Interpretation
essay by taking the broadest possible perspective and encompassing the entire
week's work (potentially including all of the issues raised by any participants,
not just the one you wrote about in your Interpretation). It is a chance for
you to reflect on what you learned during the week, and how the comments of
the other students might have contributed to your learning experience. Did
anything this week light a fire? (See Yeats quote below.) It also gives
you the opportunity to offer reflections on how what you are learning is affecting
the making of your Web Project.
After you write your brief essay, post it at Yuku.
Create a New Topic on Yuku when you post your Reflection, just as you did
when you posted your Starting Assumptions and Interpretation, by clicking the
New Topic button in Yuku.
Most of the writing you do in this course is for other students, and to preserve the environment for student-to-student interaction, I rarely post comments to the Interpretation essays (although I do read at least one third of them to get a sense of the ongoing conversations that have started, and to spot check for any problems or difficulties that may arise). However, in the Reflections you are writing not only for yourself, but also for me. I always read each and every Reflection.
About the due date: Sunday 11:59 p.m. A lot of students will choose to complete this assignment on Sunday night, right around the deadline, but this is NOT a wise schedule! You are absolutely not required to do this work on Sunday! A lot of students will be doing this assignment on Friday, or even earlier. In fact, keep your weekend completely free of class work if you want, and finish this and all the week's assignments on Friday instead of waiting until Sunday/Monday. The choice is up to you!
Here are the instructions you will see for the Reflection essay and Peer Responses assignment:
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Instructions for the Reflection Essay and Peer Responses (complete steps in order):
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HSCI 3013. History
of Science to 17th century
Many thanks to Mythology
and Folklore and other online courses developed by Laura Gibbs.
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