Instructor: Connie Schrader
Office Hours: 8-10 T TH and by appointment Office Number: 232.5652
Email: cschrader@unca.edu
Course Web Connection:
http://facstaff.unca.edu/cschrade
Goal: The goal of our course is to understand ways we can choose to foster our
abilities and dissolve barriers to well-being so that we can choose
to be in an Optimal Performance state.
Premises to be explored
Participation
Your participation in the course will involve three components:
1. Active involvement in class sessions, and weekly preparation for these meetings such as timely completion of readings and associated writing,
2. Self-assessment at three intervals
3. Completed writer's portfolio with a minimum of 20 edited pages of your own writing
Participation Assessment
The Participation Paper (details below) is a required element of this assignment and is worth 50 possible points.
The Participation paper will ultimately be a four-five page typed analysis of of your participation. This paper will be submitted in installments, due dates indicated on the course calendar.
Installment One: reaction to and assessment of the class-generated participation policy and your own participation goals for the semester. Due August 22nd.
Installment Two: one-page mid-course progress report reflecting on your own participation and making any modifications to participation goals as necessary. Due October 9th.
Installment Three: one-page final assessment of your participation as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness of this process in this course and in your own education. Link to Participation Assessments Page
Attendance is critically distinct from participation. Students who attend class are indeed physically present in the room and often benefit from being there but whatever benefits they receive are entirely personal. To participate is to be involved in a reciprocal relationship with the instructor, the other students and the person you were when the session began. You will not receive credit for attendance but you will be required to honor the class-authored participation policy and meet your own individually generated goals.
To receive credit for the course as a WI you need to submit a minimum of 15 edited pages. To earn all 50 possible points, you will need to have done more than this minimum.
Your portfolio should be a collection of writings that are evidence of progress you have made over the course of the semester. The portfolio will contain your first drafts (all marked up), the summative comments of your reviewer, and the final draft of each of your writings. These documents can be contained in the file folder provided to you at the beginning of the course. Work that has been submitted to me in final form via email ALSO Needs To Live In This Portfolio in Hard Copy.
You are expected to reflect on your strengths and your weaknesses as you submit material so that the satisfaction of having accomplished improvement can be yours. Students who continually struggle with the same kinds of difficulties will be encouraged to arrange consultations with folks at the University Writing Center--a free resource. You are always encouraged to use this service and such a consultation counts as Peer Review.
You may use writings from your journal to add to to your portfolio but submissions need to be a minimum of two pages and need to be peer edited. It may be that your mentoring reflections do indeed take you into essays that deeply examine issues in Optimal Performance and you are both welcome and encouraged to include such compositions.
Papers that have been effectively peer reviewed but show no evidence of development in the final draft will not be counted toward the total number of edited pages. Only those that show evidence of revision will be considered as having been edited. WI portfolio's will be awarded points as follows:
8-15 edited pages: 35 points 11-15 edited pages : 45 points 16-25: 50 points
We do not have a core text that follows our
course week-by-week. Readings will be assigned and placed on e-reserve in
Ramsey Library. For most of these
readings I have prepared questions to guide your encounter, be that a writing
response or a discussion guide.
These questions are posted on the course web site.
Active Learning Project
100 possible points. This project will commence in the second month of our course, after we have some theoretical and practical tools and we have established relationships within our class community. As you can see from the total points possible, this is an important aspect of the course experience.
One of the goals of the course is to enable participants to make choices about being in a state of Optimal Performance. As undergraduate students in a liberal arts university, you have chosen to pursue an education that will prepare you to think critically and broadly about the human project and your place in it. Ideally your education will enable you to act for the common good and enable you to do so effectively. " A full account of competence, including occupational competence, must include the abilities to exercise considered judgment, appreciate the ends as well as the means, and understand the broad implications and consequences of one's actions and choices. Education is not complete until students not only have acquired knowledge but can act on that knowledge of the world." (Colby et al, pg. 7)
A necessary corollary of our course goal is to explore barriers to being in Optimal Performance. What are the barriers and challenges that this population is perceived to have? What choices are truly available? How does their situation relate to or impact your own? What impact can you have in this setting? In one life?
The project will entail a minimum of fifteen contact hours working directly with the population you have targeted. You will not be "volunteering" but rather will be doing personal research exploring this issue, the potential you have to impact the issue, and the nature of the assets both you and your target population have in addressing this issue. At the time of this writing, efforts to coordinate our class initiative with other LSIC classes is still being negotiated. By the end of August we will learn whether the transportation issues have been resolved or whether our class will need to pursue this initiative independently.
The fruits of your research will be presented to the class during our final class meetings.
“Hey! That’s
personal!”
It is important to me that students master the theories and practices related to Optimum Performance. In many cases, this mastery will come from direct encounter with techniques introduced in class. If, however, you find you are uncomfortable with a specific exercise or a line of inquiry you are free to use someone else as a subject. In other words, you may choose to interview another person or answer the questions as you suspect another person would answer. You are strongly encouraged to discuss your concerns with your instructor should you feel uncomfortable.
Your grade reflects the degree to which you have shown evidence of learning. There are six requirements that give you the opportunity to produce such evidence. The word "learning" is used here in the broadest possible context. You are encouraged to think of learning as transformation rather than acquisition.
| The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning - truth that has been assimilated in experience. - Carl Rogers |
Reflective writings 10 points 60 points
Active Learning Project 100 points
Writer's Portfolio 50 points
Infolit competencies 5 each 60 points
Participation 50 points
Participation Paper 25 points