Alternative English 1010 Major Assignment with Activities and Handouts Portraits Overview. In the Unit 1 Letter to Students, I introduced you to the idea of threshold theory and the first two threshold concepts we will explore in this unit. In this document, you are given two different assignment options. You should only choose one option to complete. Both the assignment options will facilitate your understanding of the threshold concepts, will give you the opportunity to engage in your writing process, and will help you discover things about yourself that you might not have otherwise. Additionally, both assignment options ask you to use field research to collect information, or data, that you will use to complete your assignment. Effectively, through the various processes of collecting and analyzing data, drafting, revising, and reflecting, you will encounter the foundational idea that effective or meaningful writing is achieved through sustained engagement in literate practices and through revision. But the options ask you to engage differently with the other threshold concept we are considering in Unit 1, Writing and language are resources. In Option 1, you will research a type of writing that you ve produced to discover how writing has been a resource for you in a particular writing context. If you undertake this option, you ll study and demonstrate how you ve already used writing in past experiences to do things and make things that have been useful to you, and you will illustrate how you are already a literate person. In Option 2, you ll use writing as a resource to help you understand who you are at your best. If you undertake this option, you will use writing to do things and make things to help you understand yourself in a way that you didn t prior to writing and help you think about how you might apply your new knowledge in the future. Option 2: Reflected Best Self Portrait Purpose and audience: The purpose of this project is to use writing to discover who you are at your best so that you can use this knowledge to successfully navigate future endeavors at work and school. For the next two weeks, you ll collect writing from a diverse array of people you know and from your own reflections that identify situations in which you fulfilled your potential and that identify who you are at your very best. For this assignment, you are writing for yourself first and foremost. Writing this portrait will give you the opportunity to discover what you know about you at your best important knowledge for you as you choose future actions that support and enhance your best self. Of course, the portrait will also be read by your instructor and will be assessed using the grading rubric below. Deliverables: You will write a portrait of your best self, which is grounded in the descriptions you collect from others and your own reflections. It should be 400-500 words. To develop the content of your portrait, you will read more about the 1
activity and complete the exercises in the Option 2 Steps Document. Along with your portrait, you ll also write a 400-500 word reflective essay that considers the following questions below. What was most challenging and what was most enjoyable about researching and writing your portrait? How does your portrait correspond with the sorts of things you spend the bulk of your time doing in your day-to-day life? How can you prioritize your life so that you maximize the potential for your best self every day at school, work, and home? How has this assignment changed or reinforced the way you think about your future? Additionally, you ll need to submit your original reflections, analyses and the descriptions you collected from others (at least 6) as appendices for this assignment. Important details for both options: Notice that for each option, you will be writing at least 750 words total, which is about three double-spaced pages. You ll also be including additional texts that you wrote as part of your process work. To begin the project, go to Files and find the appropriate Steps document for the option you ve chosen. This document will walk you through the steps you should take to complete your research and draft the texts. Read the entire document as soon as possible. You must integrate direct quotes from your research into the body of your portrait. Including direct references from your data will help orient your reader and will make your portrait more impactful because it will include research-based evidence. Your assignment should include the data you collected as appendices (this will include copies of your textual artifacts as well as the other data you documented through research). This will give your readers access to your data so that they can see how you ve come to your conclusions about the data you ve collected. Your peer review draft is due on Thursday, June 23rd. Your final assignment is due on Thursday, June 30th. The assignment should be submitted as a.doc,.docx, or.pdf file on Canvas by 11:59 PM. You should submit only one document that contains all components of your final project. 2
Option 2: Reflected Best Self Portrait Steps Document Step 1 Identify people from whom you wish to solicit feedback. You should choose a variety of people from a variety of domains in your life (home, school, work, community). This assignment does not work well if you do not have feedback from a variety of people who come from different areas of your life. You must receive written feedback from at least 6 different individuals. Not everyone you will ask will have the time to complete the feedback before the deadline; therefore, you should send out a request for feedback to at least 12 individuals (more if you can!) and you should do it ASAP (preferably today!) Please note that feedback can be written in any language, not only English. My advice for you is to think creatively about who you will ask old friends from school, camp, sports, and church; coworkers from former jobs (paid or unpaid); a random family member or two; teachers, mentors, and supervisors from work or school. Your feedback will be richer and it will be easier to write your portrait if you go broad and deep with your solicitations. Make a list of all the potential individuals and figure out how to contact them. Step 2 Complete this step by Thursday, June 16 th. Solicit feedback from the individuals you identified in Step 1. Send each of your contacts a personal request for best-self feedback. Your request should include the official letter request from me, a personal note written by you, and the Best Self Reflections handout. Be sure they understand the feedback is for you, not for me. Give your contacts a strict deadline I would use Wednesday, June 22 nd. Step 3 While you wait for your feedback to come in, complete the self reflection exercises. Please complete these exercises before you read any of the feedback from your contacts you ll want to first consider how YOU see yourself at your best before you begin to account for how others have seen you at your best. Step 4 Send reminders to your contacts who have not yet provided feedback, but that you believe would likely do so. This is at your discretion. You may decide not to send reminders to certain people, depending on the circumstances. If your responses are thin, you might try to invite a few others who you think could complete the feedback quickly. 3
Step 5 Now its time to analyze your data. Your contacts will have provided you with short descriptions and stories of when she/he saw you at your best, and you will have completed the exercises that provided you with reflective data about yourself. At this stage, you should look for developing themes. Use the Best Self Data Analysis document to help you. Step 6 Draft your texts: the Best Self Portrait and your reflection. A sample passage from a Best Self Portrait is found here. Again, your reflection should respond to the following questions: o What was most challenging and what was most enjoyable about researching and writing this portrait? o How does your portrait correspond with the sorts of things you spend the bulk of your time doing in your day-to-day life? How can you prioritize your life so that you maximize the potential for your best self every day at school, work, and home? o How has this assignment changed or reinforced the way you think about your future? Be sure you check and recheck the assignment sheet so that you know you re meeting all the assignment s requirements. Step 7 Submit your writing for peer review, come to your writing conference with your instructor, and complete peer reviews for your classmates work. Step 8 Revise your texts based on all the feedback you received from your peers and your instructor. Submit your assignment with all required deliverables. You re done! 4
Self Reflection Exercises Reflecting Upon Moments When Your Were Your Best All of us can recall moments when we felt our best self was brought to light and put into practice. Think about four times in your life when your were at your very best. For each episode, write the story of what happened, including how the episode got started, what kept it going, and how it came to an end. Write at least 300 words for each episode. Best Self Episode #1: Best Self Episode #2: Best Self Episode #3: Best Self Episode #4: Characteristics of Your Best Self After you ve written about four times when your were at your best, the next step is to review what you wrote and search for patterns of behavior and experience that emerged in the episodes. Write at least 150 words for each question. What patterns do you notice after re-reading your writing? What strengths did you display during the episodes? What emotions did you experience during these episodes? Were other people involved in any of your episodes? If so, how do you think they experiences you during these episodes? Predicting What Others Will Say about You Before reading any of your feedback from others, predict what they will say about you. You can make particular predictions about the stories certain people will tell, but you can also guess overall what character traits your contacts will point to when describing who you are at your best. Write at least 300 words. 5
Personal Note Examples Example 1. Personal note to an old friend Hi Sheila, It s been a few years since we worked together on the United Way campaign. Can you believe how fast the time has passed? How are you and what have you been up to? I am currently working on my general education coursework at Salt Lake Community College. As part of one of my classes, one of my assignments is to write a Reflected Best Self Portrait. The assignment requires input from people who know me and who might be able to recall a few moments where they saw me at my best. I thought I d ask you if you might be able to help me with this assignment. Will you take a look at the official letter from Professor Marlena Stanford that gives more details on how the assignment works? You would have until to send me your feedback. Please let me know as soon as you can if you think you will be able to help. Thank you, and either way, I hope we can get back in touch soon! Stephen Example 2. Personal note to a past teacher Hello Mr. Jones, I hope this message finds you well. I am currently pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education at Salt Lake Community College and I am enrolled in English 1010: Introduction to Writing. One of my assignments is to write a Reflected Best Self Portrait. The assignment requires input from people who know me and who might be able to recall a few moments where they saw me at my best. Do you think you might be able to spend a half hour to write down two-three moments where you saw me doing well possibly what you might thought to have been my best? The idea of the exercise is to help us understand our strengths so that we can learn how to more deliberately use them in the future. It s not just about getting people to tell us how great they think we are! You would have until to send me your reply. Please let me know if you can 6
provide me with your feedback in this time frame. I know your schedule is busy, so I will understand if you aren t able to help. I have attached an official letter from Professor Marlena Stanford to give you more details in case that s helpful. Thank You, Maria 7
Official Letter Request Template <Date> Dear <Respondent s Name>, <Student s Full Name> is currently enrolled in English 1010: Introduction to Writing at Salt Lake Community College. As part of this course, <Student s Name> is completing the Reflected Best-Self Feedback Exercise. This exercise was developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and is designed to help individuals learn more about their best selves. The idea is that those who understand who they are at their best will be able to leverage their strengths and make positive contributions in school, in the workplace, and in the community. In order to complete this exercise, <Student s Name> must solicit feedback from several people who know <him/her>. I would like to invite you to help <Student s Name> with this assignment. It should not take more than 30 minutes of your time. We are requesting that you provide two or three stories of when <Student s Name> was at <his/her> very best in your eyes. This will require you to think about your interactions with <Student s Name> and to identify moments when <Student s Name> added value or made important contributions. In writing, please be sure to provide examples so <Student s Name> can understand the situation, behaviors and characteristics you are describing. I have attached an example of what these stories could look like. Please use this only as a guide. You may provide examples from work or non-work related events. Please note that your feedback is for the student, not for me. Please be as personal and honest as you can; this is not a letter of recommendation nor is it an official document. Feedback Example: 1. One of the greatest ways that you add value is: Through your ability to get people to work together and give all they have to a task. For example, I think of the time that: Your team was working on the Alpha project. The team was getting behind and the stress was building. The team started to close down and get very focused on just meeting the deadline. You noticed that the team was not doing its best work and stopped the group to rethink the approach. You asked whether they wanted to just satisfy the requirements or whether they wanted to really do good work. You reminded the team of what they were capable of doing and how each of the members 8
could contribute to a better outcome. No one else in that room would have thought to do that. As a result, the team did meet the deadline and created a result they were all proud of. 2. One of the greatest ways that you add value is: Helping others to think clearly and make good decisions. For example, I think of the time that: We were talking about my plans for the future. You listened as I described a few possible scenarios and then helped me weigh each option relative to the others. I hadn't thought about many of the pros and cons that came up in our conversation. Because you took our conversation seriously and encouraged me to consider the alternatives, you helped me move closer to a decision that I could be confident about. The student can most easily interpret this feedback when it is communicated in writing; therefore, we ask that you please write your feedback and send it to <Student s Name> at the following email address: <Insert your email address here>. Please let <Student s Name> know as soon as possible if you will not be able to assist with this exercise. Thank you so much for your help. If you have any questions about this exercise, please contact me at marlena.stanford@slcc.edu. Sincerely, Marlena Stanford Assistant Professor Salt Lake Community College 9
Best Self Reflections Your name and relationship to the student: Student s name: 1. One of the ways this student has added value or made important contributions is: For example, I think of the time when: 2. One of the ways this student has added value or made important contributions is: For example, I think of the time when: 3. One of the ways this student has added value or made important contributions is: For example, I think of the time when: Additional Comments: 10
Best Self Data Analysis 1. Read all your feedback and your reflection exercises again and take notes on the key insights. Look for commonalities across the responses. Create themes where you find a commonality and link any relevant examples to it. The themes might include strengths you displayed during the different moments, emotions you experienced during the different moments, or how others experienced you at your best. Use the table below to analyze your data, and be sure to include as much data as possible. You may extend the table if you wish. There is an example in the first box that you should erase once you understand the task. Commonality/Theme Examples Given My Interpretation CREATIVE 1. Innovated with a final project I completed in my high school Spanish class. 2. Found a new solution to a problem we were having at my job at Kohl s. 3. Wrote a lot of fan fiction in the past that many people have said in the forums that they enjoyed reading. My ideas tend to be bold and creative. I am an innovative builder of the new. I tend to bring a new vision to the old. 2. Finally, consider the outliers. Were there stories or examples in your data that didn t seem to have much in common with other stories and examples? How can you make sense of these outliers? 11
Sample Passage from a Best Self Portrait At my best, I am a visionary. I create a vision, and then I develop the roadmap for achieving it. Being a visionary is not an isolated, lonely process. For me, it is inherently collaborative. In planning and executing, I incorporate others strengths and talents, so that they will be constantly reminded that their presence and their contributions are valued. For example, one of my past coworkers shared that she was encouraged by me to continue working on a project that our team thought was failing. One day when we met for breakfast, I helped her see that the project idea was brilliant but the implementation needed revision. We made a new plan together and pitched it to our team later. At my best, I help good ideas come into being through collaboration, encouragement, and persistence. My vision creatively weaves together systems, people, and experiences, such that the tiniest details will fit together in a coherent whole. [and so on ] 12