UW Seattle, Bringing it Home

Reflective Practice 40%
Final Reflective Essay 30%
Final Presentation 15%
Final Evaluation 5%
Class Participation 10%

Reflective Practice 40% of grade
The purpose of the weekly reflective is to help you keep up with readings and encourage you to bring the readings and classroom discussion into dialogue with the service experience and your international experience(s). In simpler terms, they have the purpose of helping you to come to terms with what you have read, what you are doing, and where you have been. Activities will be structured to help in the development of your final presentation as well as the final paper. During the first class you will be introduced to a structure for your reflective practice that you are expected to follow. Like a musical instrument this skill takes time and repetition and this structure will provide you with a starting point for working through the reflective learning cycle.

Generally, the reflective assignments will be due the following Wednesday, by 10:00 am.

The length should be no longer than 3 pages, double spaced
The lowest graded assignment will be dropped.

Student On-line Portfolio:
Weekly reflectives will be submitted online through the Catalyst Portfolio tool. For those of you unfamiliar with the Portfolio Tool, it allows participants (students) to collect, annotate, arrange and display a variety of digital "artifacts" that illustrate their accomplishments throughout their University careers. Portfolio also allows instructors, advisors, and career counselors to guide students through the process of creating and organizing online portfolios. The main benefit in using the Portfolio tool is that all of your documents, and our comments back to you, will be collected in one place online. You can even add other relevant documents, like papers or projects, and publish the Portfolio to friends, family or prospective employers. Beyond this course, you will also be able to edit the Portfolio contents.

To access your individual portfolio, goto portfolio.washington.edu, and log in using your UW NetID. On the front page, you will see assignments that we have sent to you. You can also set up the preference so that an email alert is sent to you every time a new assignment is created or returned to you.

Reflectives can be copied and pasted into the text boxes, or attached as Word documents.

Final Reflective Essay: 30% of grade
This is an exercise to integrate all of your weekly reflectives.

Does not need to be in written form—please check with instructors if you have an alternative suggestion.
Details on the structure of the Final Reflective will be provided midway through the quarter.
7-10 pages, double spaced and, if necessary, fully referenced.

Final Presentation: 15% of grade
During the final two weeks of class, students will have an opportunity to formally share their final reflective, service experience and/or future plans with their classmates, as well as (if they wish) visitors from the community organizations they have worked in.

This will be around 20-25 minutes in length.
Details on the structure and content of the presentation will be provided midway through the quarter.
Students are strongly advised to meet with Britt and/or Josephine before the presentation.

Final Evaluation: 5% of grade
As a part of the final project, students will submit a critical evaluation that includes a reflection on the service experience as well as an evaluation of two people's final presentations. In total, this will be 2-3 pages in length, double-spaced. Details on the structure and content of this critical evaluation will be provided midway through the quarter.

Class Participation: 10% of grade
This involves coming to class prepared, having completed the readings and ready for discussion. It also includes ‘active listening' in class discussions, being respectful and attentive to others, and committed participation at service learning site. On a rotating basis, students are responsible for presenting readings for each class meeting.

Grading Scale

97 to 100 pts 4.0
95 to 96 pts 3.9
94 3.8
93 3.7
92 3.6
91 3.5
90 3.4
89 3.3
87-88 3.2
85-86 3.1
80-84 3.0
79 2.9
77-78 2.8
75-76 2.7
73-74 2.6
72 2.5
71 2.4
70 2.3
69 2.2
68 2.1
67 2.0
54-66 each point = .1
53 and below fail

NOTE: This class is rigorous, however students who show up and actively engage in classroom and service activities with thoughtfulness and care will find that course assessment is related more to effort and participation than prescribed performance measures.

As a 400 level course, we expect a high level of participation from all class members. We expect that you will read the assigned readings before coming to class, attend class regularly and participate in an active and thoughtful manner. Additionally, for the service project, we expect that you will treat it as you would any professional opportunity. More on the specific expectations of the service project are covered in a later section.

Attendance: Attendance at all class meetings is mandatory. Please make every effort to be on time to class meetings.
Grading/Assessment: This is a co-taught course and we will both be reading all of the assignments and providing feedback to each of you. Grades will be determined jointly.
Late Assignments: Assignments turned in after the due date will only receive partial credit. With each 12 hours that the assignment is late, the overall grade will be lowered .1. Incompletes will be given only in the event of medical or personal emergencies.

Grading Complaints: Complaints regarding grades may be submitted during the 24 hour to two week window period after an assignment has been returned to you.

If you have a question concerning a grade you have received, you should:

Wait 24 hours, but not longer than two weeks
Write out an explanation of your question, including the reasons why you think that your grade should be changed
Submit your written concern/question to us, and make an appointment to meet with one or both of us in person.

Plagiarism: The other side of sharing and collaboration is giving credit to those whose ideas have helped you. The longstanding prohibition of plagiarism stems from this tradition of honesty in collaboration. All direct quotes included in your written work (from books, articles, websites, movies, radio, personal conversations and so forth) must include a proper citation of the source. Ideas of others that you use in your own work must similarly be credited to their source. Failure to cite your sources constitutes plagiarism and will be cause for denying credit for this course.