Engagement and Reflection

Throughout the semester you will be planning for and reflecting on your engagement in the course with the prompts on this page.

Engagement Promise

Staying engaged in this course, with your peers, and with me is important to getting the most out of the course and to building a strong classroom community. Now that you’ve had some time to get acquainted with our course structure, it’s time to set intentions for engagement in the remainder of the semester. The hope is that instead of simply having an attendance policy or requirements for classroom participation, a promise that you come up with yourself will be more meaningful to you.

Think of this document as a contract between you and your instructor – but mostly with yourself on your goals for engagement, participation, and being a good member of our class community.

First, reread the Guiding Values section of our syllabus.

Make a copy of this Google Doc, and add your name to the document title. This is where you will write a response (a few paragraphs at most) reflecting on the following:

Task 1

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “needs lots of improvement” and 5 being “excellent”, assess your typical level of participation in classes like this for the following categories. Write a sentence or two explaining your rating.

  1. Attendance and tardiness
  2. Being prepared for class, submitting assignments on time, etc.
  3. Participation in small group work
  4. Participation in full-class discussion
  5. Other ways of being an engaged “citizen” of our class community. Examples include: attending office hours (your instructor’s, or preceptors’), helping other students, and visiting the Science and Quantitative Center.

Task 2

Create three specific, measurable, and actionable goals for improvement in your engagement-related skills and habits. Aim to cover at least three of the above categories. Write a paragraph describing your plan to achieve those goals, and what support you will need.

Task 3

Tell me about what you are hoping to gain from this course. How are you hoping to grow?

When you’re finished, share the document with me so that I have editing privileges. Submit the URL to your document on Moodle.

Due date: See course schedule. (No extensions on this assignment because it’s important to set engagement intentions early in this course.)

Ongoing reflection on your engagement promise: There will be 3 monthly reflection assignments (see below) in which you reflect on how your engagement promise has been going. These reflections will be a space for us to have a continued conversation about this aspect of the course.







Reflection 1

Prompts for February’s reflection will be added later







Reflection 2

Prompts for March’s reflection will be added later







Reflection 3

Prompts for April’s reflection will be added later