Reading Reflections

Introduction

Often you will need to turn in a short reading response for a reading assignment. The syllabus makes it very clear what you need to do and when. These encourage everyone to stay on schedule and to read carefully enough to absorb the main ideas of the readings.

In general, these are meant to be somewhat creative exercises to get you to compare and contrast different aspects of the reading and to give you a chance to riff on what you thought was most interesting about them (we all find different things interesting!). Sometimes I just ask you to restate a main point or answer a specific question or two.

Whatever the prompt, there are two motivations for these reflections: 1) encourage you to think critically about the readings 2) allow you to show me that you’re keeping up with the readings (and earn points!)

Basics

• ~250–300 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.
• Specificity: General statements are good ONLY when supported by examples from the readings. Otherwise it looks like you didn’t read very carefully.
• Polished writing: Don’t try to sound like an academic, but your post shouldn’t read like a text message, either. Overly informal posts will ultimately lower your grade by 1/3 to 2/3 grade (A to B+, for instance).
• Posted ON TIME at UNM Learn: ON TIME means by MIDNIGHT on the due date. As explained on the main syllabus page, you can occasionally turn work in up to two days late for full credit, but that’s it. After that, you will get a zero. Too much leeway with assignments creates too much temptation to let them slide, and then they aren’t effective and serve only to create busywork.

Objective

The main point of these reflections is to show your familiarity with the readings and make clear the work you have put into the course. You might use AI to genereate your drafts, or you may prefer the process of thinking through everything on your own. The question is, and what I’m looking for: how good can you make them?

There is no such thing as a “correct” answer—only more or less informed and deep reflections. To get any points, it has to be obvious to me how you’re going beyond providing a generic summary.

Grading considerations

Each reflection you submit will be graded as: .66: provocative; highlights nuance .44: interesting; adds value .22: some merit; shapely .00: uninteresting (= flat and generic)

At the end of class, I average your scores, and add these to the grade points you’ve already earned. Let’s say you average a 3.2 on your other required work. That’s a B-. Let’s say you have fun with the reflections, put time into them, and average a .45 (basically the middle value, which is not hard to get). Your final grade goes to a 3.7, which is probably a B+.

Basics

• ~400 words
• Submitted on time via Canvas
• Show effort to reflect thoughtfully
• Differentiate yourself from AI, according to the grade scale

Reflect more than summarize

This exercise is NOT about just regurgitating the readings or identifying the “most” important points—everyone will learn something different from them. The goal is show me you can think critically about the questions USING ONLY THE ASSIGNED READINGS! You must ensure your reflection makes sense in the context of the course.

Use smart prompts and iterate

GIGO! (garbage in, garbage out!) Vague prompts -> vague response. Take time to guide what kind of response you want from AI, points you want to emphasize, and so on. Once you get a response, ask what might be missing, decide to emphasize certain points. Your the editor, not the writer at this point, so guide from a bird’s eye view. This can take longer than jsut writing your own reflection, which is going to be obviously different from AI, so proceed deliberately.