Course Journal

Introduction

One of your central learning activities this term will be writing a journal. Think of this writing as talking out loud, or thinking out loud. In it you should combine reading notes and responses to assigned questions with your own thoughts and ideas. Realize that some of your most interesting and productive journal entries may well begin with questions that you can't immediately answer.

The journal is intended to be a mechanism to help you think and respond to the readings for each section of the course. Use your journal to try out ideas or notions that you're not sure about. Pose questions, including those for which you have not answers yet. Don't worry about reaching conclusions in every entry; if you end up confused, temporarily lost, or at a dead end, the entry is still reasonable and even useful. Build on earlier journal entries; rereading your journal often provides interesting insights which can become new entries. Finally, you should feel free to bring in your own life to the journal; after all, what we have to bring to our reading is our own lives, our own emotions, and our own intellects.

The Journal counts as 30% of your course grade. It will not be graded according to format or sentence structure; so feel free to write quickly to sustain a train of thought. Punctuate in whatever way makes sense to you at the moment. Spell so that you can figure out what the word means; don't get distracted by correctness. Journals will be collected early in the term, and again at the end. On both occasions, you will evaluate your own journal using the Journal Evaluation Sheet below on three criteria: commitment, ambition, and engagement.

Note that the Journal Evaluation Criteria below gives descriptions gives descriptions of "A", "C", and "F" journals; "Bs" and "Ds" fall somewhere in between. Rate your journal according to each criterion, using two or three sentences to explain your rating, and then arrive at an overall grade.

I'll read your journal and your evaluation, and use the same criteria to guide my feedback to you and arrive at your journal grade at the end of the term.

Journal Evaluation Sheet

Name _________________________________ Date____________________________

Evaluation of COMMITMENT
Grade _________________
Reasons:

Evaluation of AMBITION
Grade ________________
Reasons:

Evaluation of ENGAGEMENT
Grade _______________
Reasons:

Overall Grade: _______________

Journal Evaluation Criteria

An "A" Journal

COMMITMENT

Journal shows regular and frequent entries (averaging 3-4 or more per week). Entries are provocative, spirited, lively, and varied. Although lengths may vary, they should generally fill more than a page in order to reflect extended thought.

AMBITION

Entries regularly pose questions which engage the writer, but for which the writer may have no ready answer. Entries show a willingness to speculate and try to make connections between this course and other courses, and between course material and the writer's experiences. Writer is clearly trying to get as much from the journal writing as possible.

ENGAGEMENT

Entries show that writer has regularly reread earlier entries in order to comment on them, contradict them, or find some order in them. Over time, questions, issues, or concerns evolve which are specific to the writer, and specific journal entries identify and explore these issues.

A "C" Journal

COMMITMENT

Journal contains regular but less frequent entries (2-3 per week average). Entries are sometimes lively and spirited, but sometimes a little tired or flat. Occasionally entries are lengthy and complicated, but often they are brief, and sometimes sketchy.

AMBITION

Some entries pose questions or speculate, but most discuss conclusions rather than reach for them. A few entries seek connections outside the course, and some may include the writer's experiences.

ENGAGEMENT

An occasional entry shows that the writer has reread earlier entries or returned to earlier questions or issues. But overall, the journal gives only an intermittent sense of progress or deepening understanding.

An "F" journal

COMMITMENT

Entries are irregular, with noticeable time gaps between them. Or entries tend to bunch up, with perhaps two or three in a week, followed by none for a week or ten days. Overall, there are fewer than 3 entries per week. Entries are rarely lengthy, usually brief, and often fragmentary.

AMBITION

Entries seem cursory, the result of coersion rather than interest. There's little or no effort to speculate or to reach for more than obvious conclusions. Also, little or no attempt is made to connect to other courses or life outside this class.

ENGAGEMENT

Journal shows little or no evidence that the writer has reread earlier entries. There's little or no sense of progress or deepening understanding, of evidence that the writer has reflected on much beyond the immediate entry.