Reading Reflections

You have a short reading response due most days that there is a reading assignment. The syllabus makes it very clear what you need to do and when.

These are meant to be somewhat creative exercises to get you to compare and contrast different aspects of the reading and to indicate what you thought was most interesting about them (we all find different things interesting!). **Do not summarize the readings. You don’t want to write those, and I don’t want to read them. The best advice I can give: do the reading, think critically, and be yourself!

Basics

  • ~200-250 words. Write more or less as you need/want to per assignment, but don’t be consistently too much above or below the target.
  • Original thinking! Avoid summarizing readings except to restate a point that you want to elaborate on.
  • Informal writing, but no typos and basic grammatical errors. Consistently sloppy posts will lower your grade by 1/3 to 2/3 grade (A to B+, for instance).
  • Posted ON TIME (= MIDNIGHT on the due date). Late work once in a while doesn’t really affect your grade, but consistently late work does. But turning work in a day or two late is FAR BETTER than not at all. Plus, you can then still get extra credit.

Connect, don’t summarize

These posts are meant to be something of a creative exercise. I (and your classmates) are much more interested in reading about what YOU THINK, rather than a summary of the assignment. This exercise is NOT about just regurgitating information or identifying the “right” answer. There is no right answer. Everyone is going to have a different take on what’s interesting, how things connect, how they don’t etc. We can all learn a lot from each other.

Scoring and how these factor in your grade

  • 5 points: Your post clearly demonstrates broad familiarity with the reading assignment, original thinking, and is clearly articulated.

  • 4 points: Your post demonstrates some familiarity with the assignment and some original thinking but could use refinement in either thinking or writing.

  • 3 points: A decent effort, but doesn’t show much engagement with the reading or is primarily summary rather than original thinking.

  • 2 points: You posted something, but it looks like you were posting without actually reading. Often such posts asks questions that are clearly addressed in the readings or ignorantly contradict them (as opposed to carefully argue against them).

  • 0 points: Nothing posted, or otherwise so unintelligible that I can’t even guess at what you were trying to do.

The idea here is that these reflections should in sum account for a significant but not large portion of your final grade without being unduly stressful to complete. And they should hold everyone accountable for keeping up with the reading and not falling behind.

Bottom line: missing a few posts won’t affect your grade, but if you’re consistently missing them or being very superficial, they end up lowering your grade.