Critical Reflections
In academia we almost always use the word "critical" to indicate something that needs the use of your skills in reasoning (i.e. "Involving or exercising careful judgement" – meaning no. 2 in the Oxford English Dictionary). Outside of academia, we generally tend to use the word "critical" to denote "given to adverse or unfavourable criticism; fault-finding" (meaning no. 1 in the OED). When we talk about "Critical Reflections" or "Critical Analyses" it means that we want to see an argument based on evidence and logical reasoning, not that you need to be mean to your subject material.
Profile
Well, you actually don't need to be too critical in this one actually.
Since we won't be meeting in person (in first term, at least), I want all the students to put together a profile page which gives your fellow students a sense of who you are, why you took the course, how many cute animals you have, your social media id's (if you want) ... Here is a simple profile page I've put together for myself.
To get started on cuPortfolio, students will need to copy the collection, "Coursework" to their portfolio and then share with the class (instructions here). Then edit the page entitled "Profile".
I want you to:
Select a layout that works and doesn't look super ugly after you have added content. My sense of aesthetics will be pained if you retain the three column layout that cuPorfolio defaults to, but then cram your text only into one column. Beware my wrath.
Include a picture of yourself. And figure out how to add a caption to it. Even better, figure out how to cite it using Chicago style.
Write up 500 words or so about yourself. It can be formal, it can be casual. It must use proper syntax.
If you exist online elsewhere, you can draw attention to such things (if you want) by linking to your Etsy business, your Soundcloud (whatever that is) etc. You can integrate your twitter feed or your youtube channel.
The point of the assignment is that your classmates will get to know you and have a better sense of who you are. I ask you to include a photo of yourself (not just your adorable cats and ferrets) so that your classmates can learn to associate your name with a face. These "Student Bio" pages can only be viewed by the class not people outside (unless you actively choose to make it more widely visible).
Critical Reflection No. 1
Before beginning this assignment, I would recommend that you take some time to look through the Profile pages of your fellow students to get a sense of how others are using cuPortfolio.
For this assignment, you are asked to reflect on what knowledge you bring to the study of the Middle Ages. From a young age, we all are exposed to representations of the Middle Ages both in popular culture and in school. At this stage, some of you have more formal academic training in the Middle Ages, while others come to the field from another path (video games anyone?). Neither is better or worse preparation – what is key, however, is to be open about the dominant tropes of the Middle Ages that you believe/ think to be definitive of the period. Questions to guide your reflection might include:
What does “Medieval” or “Middle Ages” mean to you?
What do you know about the Middle Ages?
What experience have you had with the Middle Ages?
What do you hope to learn by the conclusion of this class?
Where do you get your Middle Ages from?
The reflection should be written in suitably formal academic/ journalistic style, roughly 500 words in length. Please ensure spelling mistakes, syntactical errors, capitalization problems are eliminated before you submit officially (You could ask a fellow student to give your refection a quick read!).
If you make references to books, works of art and other media, they should be properly referenced in Chicago style. If you make reference to the commodified Middle Ages (toys, products, advertisements), please offer links or embed videos in your page (part of your reflection could simply be a sidebar list of links)
A guide to proper Chicago style can be found here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/home.html). Please note that cuPortfolio does not have a “footnote” button, but if you cut and paste from Word (etc.) footnote formatting is retained. Or let Zotero do it for you.
Critical Reflection No. 2
After submitting and receiving peer feedback on your pop culture commentary and revising your draft into a final version, describe the experience. Questions you may wish to address include:
What did you change?
What did you learn from your peers?
What mistakes did you note in your peers’ work?
what makes for a well-written commentary on a historical document?
what might you do differently next time?
Critical Reflection No. 3
The final reflection of the class asks you to revisit your first critical reflection. Questions you may wish to answer include, but are not limited to:
How has your perception of the Early Middle Ages changed?
What tools have you learned through the course?
How is the study of the Middle Ages relevant today?
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