Major Topic Assignment: Learning Profile

In this assignment, I am asking you to keep a learning journal/portfolio. During the semester, I would like for you to reflect on not only what you are learning, but how you are learning it. What connections are you making between the topics throughout your readings and your own life experiences? What are you observing about your habits (strengths and weaknesses) as a learner? Do you see yourself as part of a learning community helping other students to make connections or to see things from another perspective?

Although it might feel a bit unnatural at first to reflect on your own learning, each semester I have had a great response from students at the end of the course. Many have said that this was one of the most beneficial activities that they completed, as they rarely had taken time to think about themselves in this way.

Specifics: Write a minimum 1600-word paper that incorporates your responses to each of the following elements (200 words per response to the elements noted below):

Due Date: March 8 (Thursday), 2007. This is our last day of class.

Elements to Include in Profile Each of these questions should be answered in a minimum of a 200-word paragraph:

1. An overall summary of the common themes you read in the text.

2. An analysis of what you feel are your strengths as a learner. What activities seem to come easily to you? What class activities, content (ideas, theories, factual knowledge), or skills do you think you could help a student new to this class learn?

3. An analysis of what you feel are your weaknesses as a learner. What capacities did you notice in other learners that you wish you had? What tasks seemed to give you the greatest difficulty or to take up the most of your time? Which of your skills and capacities do you think need most work if you are to get more out of a similar course in the future?

4. A summary of your learning in this class. What can you do now, and what do you know now, that you couldn't do and didn't know when you first came in to this course? Also, what was your most important realization concerning the subject matter of the course? Why did you judge this to be of particular importance to you? What was the most important skill you learned? Again, what was it that was so significant about this skill?

5. An assessment of the merits and relevance of the assignments that were used in this course. What readings, presentations and activities in class, did you find particularly relevant for your life? Please say specifically what it was about these that was so meaningful. What topics did you believe were not as relevant or meaningful for you?

6. An analysis of how well the course worked, from your perspective as a learner. Of the content we covered, what should be dropped (and why), what should be kept at all costs (and why), and what should be added (and why)? Of the methods and activities we used in class, what should be dropped (and why), what should be added (and why), and what should be kept at all costs (and why)? Of the way in which your work was evaluated, what should be dropped (and why), what should be added (and why) and what should be kept at all costs (and why)? What would be the most important advice you would give me on how to design, conduct, and evaluate the course the next time it's offered?

7. A summary of what you think students who take this in the future should know about how to survive and flourish in this course. Some themes that you might consider writing about are: 'What I know now about this course that I wish I'd known when I came in'. 'The three most important things you should make sure you do to keep your sanity in this course'. 'The words that you should hang on a sign above your desk about how you make it through this course'.

8. A reflection on how your experiences as a learner in this class will affect the way in which you live and work. What things will you do differently in your life (and/or work) as a result of spending the past few weeks learning new skills and knowledge? This goes beyond thinking about the course topics specifically...and relates more to the general way in which you have gone about perceiving new ideas, incorporating them into your life, completing assignments, interacting with your fellow classmates, your instructor, etc.

Brookfield, Stephen. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers,1995.