What does the term “research paper” mean to you?
I see the research paper as the culmination of the semester’s work for students. It gives the students an opportunity to explore areas of interest from something that they have learned over the course of the semester. Students should be allowed to take their discovery outside of the scope of the educational institution as their learning is largely guided by community, culture, language and roles they play. In turn, this gives them a text-to-self and a self-to-world examination that should be factored into research. While student’s are not necessarily researching themselves, these ideas connect to something they were interested in during the semester.

How might we expand our definitions of research and “research paper” to more fully contain the curiosity and delight of research and discovery?
Research should be all encompassing and less directed by the instructor.

What are some ways you have taught research in the classroom– successfully and unsuccessfully?

I give scaffolding assignments in the classroom as research can be overwhelming to process all at once. Then, I follow up with feedback and one-to-one meetings.

Final Portfolio – due XX/XX 5/15 @ 11:59 PM on Blackboard

The final portfolio assignment asks you all to accomplish three tasks. 1) It asks you to revise your selected work over the course of the semester. In so doing, it asks you to offer reflective remarks concerning each piece that describe the process and the evolution of the project over the course of the semester. 2) In addition to the revision and reflections of the individual unit projects, you will also write a narrative that explains your evolution as a reader and writer over the course of the semester. This narrative asks you to return to the first assignment you wrote for the class (the literacy narrative) and compare how your thoughts about writing and your practices about writing have evolved over the course of the semester. It is important to note that you should not simply state that your writing has changed over the course of the semester, but you should be able to specifically describe with sufficient detail particular moments in your assignments and in the semester where you could substantiate how your own growth was taking place. 3) Lastly, the assignment also asks you to consider how this course has prepared you for transfer—that is, for writing in other contexts.

The contents of your portfolios should be as follows:

• *Revised* Literacy Narrative + Reflection
• *Revised* Genre Research Project + Reflection
• *Revised* New Genre Project + Reflection
• Reflection on who you are as a writer now, after a semester of writing in ENG1121 (1000 words)

These portfolios should include each of these essays/reflections in a single document that you will turn in via Blackboard by 11:59 PM on XX/XX.

Prompts for Final Course Reflection:

Think back to yourself in January, before COVID, before we did anything together in class. What would you have thought of as your strengths as a writer? Weaknesses? How did those aspects change over the course of the semester? You should refer to specific challenges you faced while writing, specific things you learned in and out of class with me, and the effects of those challenges and learning moments. How do you feel as a writer now? How might what you’ve learned in this class TRANSFER into other areas of your life? (Again, this should be at least 1000 words).

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Prof. Ruth Garcia

English 1101, semester????

Portfolio and Final Reflection Assignment

Due: ?/?/2020

Assignment

Final Reflection and Portfolio

We have arrived at the end of the semester and are nearly done! I am so proud of you all for making it to this point. Now it is time for you to pull all your work together and, look at it as a whole, and reflect on what you have done over the course of the semester.

This is a two-part assignment but the final product is one large document (more details about this below).

Part I (Reflection):

Reflect upon the questions in the box below. You will then create a reflection of a minimum of 1000 words to accompany your portfolio. Make sure to quote from yourself to support your thinking. You must have at least three quotes from different pieces.

What have you learned about yourself as a reader, writer and scholar this semester?

How will you be able to use what you have learned this semester and transfer that knowledge to other writing situations—either in college or in your community?

As a way to begin gathering ideas and information for your Reflection, look back through all your work: in-class writing exercises, homework assignments, blog posts, earlier reflections, essays/projects, and so on. As you browse through your work, ask yourself about and take notes on the following questions:

• How would you compare/contrast work done early on in the semester to now? How have your developed as a writer?
• What was your favorite/least favorite assignment and why?
• What are some notable lessons that have stuck with you after completing certain assignments?
• What changed in your writing (and reading and thinking) as the genres changed?
• How did you make decisions in your assignments about content and design?
• What were your early assumptions/beliefs about yourself and writing? Have they since changed? Explain.
• What was your experience revising assignments?
• Was there any peer feedback that stands out to you and why?
• What was particularly challenging for you in our course this semester and how did you overcome it (or attempt to)?
• What did you expect to learn in this class? What did you actually learn? Is it the same? Different? Less? More? How do you feel about the class and what you have learned now that the semester is over?
• What advice would you give to students taking this course next semester?

Things to keep in mind:

• Don’t simply answer the above questions in your final reflection. In fact, you do not need to answer them all. Instead, use them as a guide to help you brainstorm ideas.
• Think about all of the essays we’ve read about writing this semester—some of them certainly hooked your interest while others… probably did not. The ones that did were well-written, they had a point, the writer had a voice that you felt was worth listening to. Try to do that in your own writing here.
• Remember that this isn’t just you writing off-the-top of your head; this is a finished piece of writing. Treat yourself as a respected author who has learned: you are someone with something to say.
• Make sure to include an MLA heading with your name, my name, our class information, and a heading. Also, make sure to give your reflection a creative title that reflects the content

Here’s what I will be looking for (and grading you on):

• Attention to audience. You need to have a “so what?” Don’t just list off a bunch of random opinions about your writing—write an article about what you’ve learned. Think about who you are writing for (hint: it’s not just me).
• Attention to organization. This does not have to be a traditional organization, but you should have paragraphs (not just a 1000-word paragraph, please) and some reason for why they’re in the order they’re in!
• Evidence and analysis. If you tell me you learned something about yourself as a writer, show me proof! By proof, I specifically mean quotes from your own writing. All reflections should have at least three quotes from your own writing this semester. And, it is really important that you don’t just drop those quotes in there and expect your readers to figure out why you’ve chosen them. Explain why that passage is important to your readers and to your “so what?”
• Care. Proofread. Make sure it’s long enough. As usual, you can use whatever language you see fit to use, but make decisions about your language—that is, the words that are there should be there for a reason.
• Timelines. I am as flexible as possible with deadlines, but it is the end of the semester and the final portfolio (including this reflection) are due ________ and I don’t have any leeway because I need to turn grades in. The rough draft is due________. Make sure to get this done on time! You’ve probably never written anything like this before, so I’m sure you’ll want to get some feedback!

Part II (Portfolio):

Put together a portfolio that includes final versions of all your major assignments (Units 1, 2, 3). In your portfolio you should also include two other written pieces from our semester that show your growth as a writer. These can be from your homework, blog posts, reflections, or other class work.

Note: You can choose to revise up to two of your major assignments. If you do revise, please make note of that in your reflection so I can read and regrade the revision(s). With any revisions, you should also include a short paragraph explaining the changes you made and why. This can be included at the end of the revised essay and put under a heading that says “Reflections on Revisions”.

Putting the portfolio together:

Please submit your portfolio as one document in the order below:

1. Final Reflection
2. Unit 1 project
3. Unit 2 project
4. Unit 3 project
5. Low stakes assignments of your choosing

Portfolio grading:

Your portfolio counts as 50% of your final grade. You have already received grades for each of the major assignments included in the portfolio and I will regrade any major assignments you revise using the criteria for those assignments. But your overall portfolio will be grades on the following:

• Care and attention to organization. Is the material presented in the assigned order and in a clear way so that I can easily find each piece? Are the pieces neatly and consistently formatted in terms of font, paragraphing, breaks between assignments?
• Timelines. Is the assignment on time?

Project 1: 10%

Project 2: 10%

Project 3: 15%

Final Reflection: 15%