As I wrote back in December, I decided to continue using the Quality of Failure essay as a final meta-cognitive reflection. But given the course’s emphasis on community engagement this semester, I thought I should modify the assignment a bit, in part by tying it to a classroom activity: map-making. A few weeks ago I had each student draw a map of the local community — the place where most live for eight semesters prior to graduation. The purpose of this exercise was to make them aware of the fact that their knowledge of the people who live nearby — their neighbors, in a sense — is quite limited. After some discussion, I collected the maps. Toward the end of the course, I will have students draw the same map, then return the first version so they can see how their thinking has changed. I hope this process will generate some awareness about how the meaning of “community” can differ, even among people living in close proximity to one another.
The instructions for my modified meta-cognitive essay are shown below:
Read:
- The rubric.
- Danusha Veronica Goska, “Political Paralysis,” reprinted in Huffington Post, 15 July 2014, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-loeb/political-paralysis-from_b_5311305.html.
- Robert J. Moore, “My Biggest Failure? Failing to Recognize Failure,” The New York Times, 16 June 2014, https://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/my-biggest-failure-failing-to-recognize-failure/.
- Adam Bryant, “Soledad O’Brien: Seek Out the Curious and the Fastidious,” The New York Times, 10 June 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/business/media/soledad-obrien-seek-out-the-curious-and-the-fastidious.html.
Write a 2-3 page essay that analyzes what you learned about yourself, the community, and globalization from the project with the community partner. Were your experiences in the project like those of Danusha Goska, Robert J. Moore, and Soledad O’Brien? Why or why not? Reference the community maps you created during the semester as evidence of some of the things you did or did not learn.
Links to all posts in this series: