Return to Summer

Summer Reflection Paper

keep-calm-and-reflect-50

Due Date: August 18, 2016

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. This paper is an opportunity to step back from the crazy rush of the everyday, to take a moment to think and reflect on what has happened till now, and what is coming up next.

Consider this paper as having two key parts: looking back and looking forward

Looking Back

This section is an opportunity for you to thoughtfully engage with the ideas explored in this course. At the start of the course we will ask you to start a Google Doc, and provide you time at the end of each day to record your reflections of the course and your progress over the two weeks. Feel free to include excerpts of your notes or to use these notes as a springboard for writing.

More specifically, in the Looking Back portion of the paper, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What have I learned this summer?
  2. What is new about this experience (if at all)?
  3. How does this learning experience matter to me (if at all)? Why?

Provide examples and stories or events that help illustrate your response to these questions.

Looking Forward

This section is an opportunity to look ahead and think about how you can use what you learned in your own classroom. This is a chance to play with these ideas, tweak them, break them, or completely rebuild them.

For the Looking Forward piece, try to think of the following questions:

  1. How do I see this summer’s experience influencing me in future?
  2. How does this experience change what I think about teaching (if at all)?
  3. What am I taking from this experience and how can I use that when I go back to my classroom?

General Instructions

You can build on what you read during these two weeks, but you must seek to go beyond repeating the authors; even while demonstrating that you have read the course readings, participated in class activities and discussions, and conducted out-of-class research.

Your writing should be coherent and well argued. It is never enough to say that you think or feel something is right or wrong; you must develop an argument in support of your position. You should support your position by referring to key positions or arguments expressed in your reading and research. References to the readings may support or refute the authors’ positions, but must be included in the papers. If you cite any readings or articles, include a bibliography in the end. This will not be counted towards the total word count.

This paper should be between 1,000-1,500 words in length