Part 1: Reflecting on Your Labor
- How would you describe the overall quality of your labor output in this course? Why? I think that my work has significantly improved compared to the beginning of the semester and that I’ve also gained more understanding how to direct myself in this course.
- What would you describe as your strongest work from this course? Why? My strongest work has to be my weekly assignment on cultural violence. While doing this assignment, I felt really confident in my ability to understand the reading for that week and showcase that in my work.
- What would you describe as your weakest work from this course? Why? My assignment on week 3 for culture, I had no sense of direction when I did that assignment and took a faulty risk. In the end, I completely revised and reworked to something that I preferred in the long run.
-What learning outcomes did your labor help you achieve? Give details and examples for each outcome you achieved. Referring back to my last two self-assessments, I aimed to achieve the objective of “defining and discussing basic concepts and terms used in cultural anthropology” and “developing and refining critical, analytical, and reflective thinking skills”. In my early work, I only wanted to focus on understanding the basics before engaging with higher level thinking later in the semester. I think I can confidently say that my work now reflects those objectives as well as the addition of “articulating the major points and themes of anthropological readings” and “developing and refining critical, analytical, and reflective thinking skills”. Much of the work completed late in the semester relied on testing my knowledge and forced me to apply what I know. This is in the case of the ethnographies and articles that we read and had to make connections on.
- Did you take any risks with your learning and labor? If yes, explain with details and examples. If no, provide details about why you did not take any risks. I have come to realize that I actually ended up taking a risk early in the semester with the assignment on culture. In this case, it totally backfired on me and made me shy away from doing anything risky, so for the majority of my assignments I stuck to writing short essays with the occasional PowerPoint if I was feeling fancy. However, I saw a chance at taking another creative risk with the major/minor assignments, putting myself out there to record, script, and edit an entire recipe video was a risk I was willing to take, not to mention the fun that I had when doing it. To be honest, sometimes I felt like it was going to completely blow up in my face, but in hindsight, I’m glad that I took those chances on myself because at least I can say that “I did that”.
-Did you have any unexpected issues with your labor this semester? Explain with details and examples. I believe that I reference this in a past self-assessment but I was having doubts about my work. Sometimes I would work on an assignment and nothing would click together or make sense to me. If I was in some kind of funk, I would almost throw my laptop across the room out of frustration. I had no idea how the work was going to get done or when.
- Is there something you produced that you are especially proud of or happy with? Explain with details and examples. Doing the media analysis came easy to me (I just really like picking apart things that I enjoy), I encountered bumps in the road when it came to what I was going to talk about. Despite feeling like my Gossip Girl one was stretch, I had a lot of fun watching something that brings me serotonin and being able to connect it to topics that I’ve learned about. I’m also really proud of that mooncake video, I don’t care what anyone says about it, I worked hard on it and it came out great. It felt good exploring another culture through very tasty food.
Part II: Reflecting on the Course
- Thinking back to your course survey from the beginning of the semester:
§ What did you hope to get out of this course? Did your hopes for the course change as the semester progressed? If so, how? If not, did you get what you hoped out of the course? Explain with details and examples. Initially, I wanted to gain more understanding of how people and society operates. And really, that didn’t change throughout the semester. I think that other classes in the Learning Community helped with that, because at first, I could not understand how this class tied in the other classes until we reached the middle of the semester, then everything kind of clicked. A lot of topics discussed across the classes started to crossover and made sense. I began to talk about topics discussed in Anthropology in other classes, like Ethics and Literature.
§ What did you hope to contribute to this course? Did these hopes change as the semester progressed? If so, how? If not, did you contribute what you hoped? Explain with details and examples. At the end of this class, I wanted to provide another perspective on the topis discussed. I think that never really changed at the end, it only came out in a different way. Usually, I am not the kind of person to heavily engage in raw discussion, I prefer to be an avid listener and express my thoughts in my writing, it keeps me from being all over the place when I want to talk about something.
- What did you learn the most about from this course? (Note: this need not only be limited to course topics! It could include something totally unrelated to the actual course content, such as your own learning style or insights about university life.) I think that learned how to approach things from an anthropological view with more awareness, but I know how to turn it off and on so I can avoid overthinking everything that I encounter now. Sometimes I like to turn it on when I’m on campus because of how interesting it is to view things or when I rewatch movies/shows from my childhood that I didn’t may much attention to before.
- Which course activities stand out to you (for example, in- or out-of-class activities that you enjoyed or hated or were surprised by)? Why? Surprisingly the class discussions, even though there were times that started slow, I learned some really interesting things from them. I also think that this comes from the class I was in, I am so thankful for not only the people in my TLC, but also the people in the general course that I had the pleasure of interacting with.
- Name at least three course readings that made an impression on you and explain how they (re)shaped your thinking. Johan Galtung’s Cultural Violence is a definitive favorite for me, I’m not trying to sound pretentious, but his concept of violence as a cycle that feeds on each other proved what I thought about how everything is connected. This article also came at time after learning about methods of “othering” in my Ethics class and around that time I began to relate a lot of aspects of media that I consumed to it. That article provided a better explanation of what I was thinking about regarding it. Dr. Kline’s ethnography was also a favorite. When it came to undocumented immigrants, I really only knew about the injustices that happened at the Southern border as well as the exploitation that many migrant workers had to deal with. And while I had a feeling that undocumented immigrants faced hardships, I never actually saw it and I never took the time to find out. Having to read Dr. Kline’s work helped me to understand how our current systems in health work to oppress another group of people, something that I probably wouldn’t have paid attention to. Finally, those Sapiens articles, I like the fact I can have a choice in things, so I had fun during weeks 9 and 10. I felt like those articles allowed me to practice my anthropological thinking skills and actively discuss my thoughts among a smaller group of people as well as bounce each other’s ideas off one another.
- Which assignments/topics did you find challenging? Why? How did you overcome these challenges? I think the week on subsistence and economics got me assignment wise, I had so much trouble trying to work with that topic, the only way that I managed to work my way through it was by taking multiple breaks and constantly returning to it. To be honest I felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out while re-reading that chapter and the notes that I made over it.
-Has this course changed your worldview/understanding of anything? Explain with details and examples. I don’t think it has; I mean I still hold a realist view of the world, so it didn’t make me an optimist. I will say though that, it made me understand somethings a whole lot better than before this class. Like I gained a better understanding of how gender and sex work as well as what intersex was (at first I only knew it as a buzzword, but now I know how to properly explain it to others). It made me more open to talk about sex and gender in relation to Western society and confident about what is believed and what is correct ( it also gave me great ammo at the Thanksgiving table).
- What questions linger for you as the semester ends? What are you still curious to learn more about? I think I still want to learn more about language, as someone who’s major requires me to be familiar with more than one language, I think it would be beneficial to understand how language in general works so that I can apply that knowledge no matter where I am in the world.
- How did you feel about ungrading at the start of the semester? How do you feel about it at the end? What did you find most fulfilling about it? What did you find most troubling? What would you change about it (aside from going back to grading)? In the beginning, I hated ungrading. I didn’t understand it and thought that it was a waste or time, but I eventually grew accustomed to it, or I would’ve withdrawal from the class. Right now, I’ve come to terms with ungrading and have accepted it. However, it is still not my first choice of evaluation, but as much as I would prefer a test a week and a paper, this class is a breath of fresh air while staying academic. I don’t feel as enclose and limited in my work compared to my other classes, and I have the choice to limit myself if I want to or take a risk once in a while. I was shaken by the fact that I only got two grades for this class and believed that they were one-timers with little to no chance to improve, but I liked the aspect of going back revising work. I liked that I was given a second chance to prove myself.
Part III: Self-Evaluation
- How many class meetings did you miss? None
o For those you missed, did you make up that time? If so, how? If not, why not? N/A
- How actively engaged in class would you say you were (this includes all in-class activities, whether it was full class discussion or breakout groups, and need not only refer to talking)?
o Attention level (select one):
§ Fully engaged with few/no distractions**
§ Mostly paid attention with few distractions
§ Paid attention with some distractions
§ Struggled to pay attention
§ Uninterested, spent time distracted
o Contribution level (select one):
§ Contributed regularly to class activities
§ Contributed occasionally to class activities**
§ Contributed rarely to class activities
§ Did not contribute to class activities
o What were some factors that affected how actively engaged you were in class? Which of these were unavoidable? Which were avoidable, and how might you avoid them in future coursework?
- Approximately how many of the readings did you complete (meaning you read them thoroughly for main ideas/concepts and took notes/wrote in margins):
- Did you visit the professor/TA outside of class (office hours, scheduled meetings, etc.)? If so, how many times and how did the meetings affect your performance in the course? If you did not visit, why not?
o Did you visit the professor for a one-on-one meeting to discuss your portfolio? If so, what did you get out of the meeting? If not, why not? No, I decided on not scheduling any meetings with the professor or TA because the times I felt like I was stuck, I managed to come out it by myself with minor help. However, I always knew that if needed some serious help I could always shoot them an email.
o Did you fail to turn in any assignments during the semester? If so, which ones and why did you fail to turn them in? Did you submit unrevised versions of those assignments in the final portfolio? No, I turned all my assignments during the semester.
o How many of your assignments were NOT turned in on time? ___Zero___
§ Did you request extensions on these? If so, how many of them did you request extension for? No, I did not.
o Did you complete both of the mid-semester self-assessments? If not, why not? Yes, I did.
o How many peer reviews did you complete (in other words, how many of your peers’ assignments did you provide feedback on)? I completed every peer review for this semester on time.
o Did the quality of the feedback you gave to your peers improve over the semester? If so, how and why? If not, why not? No, most of the work that my peer did was mostly short and sweet and I knew (like myself) that we could expand on ideas and talk a little bit more about what we learned.
o Did you incorporate peer review feedback in your revised weekly assignments? If so, explain what kinds of feedback you found the most useful (examples are encouraged). If not, explain why you did not incorporate peer feedback. Yes, I made sure to take it into account. I believed that feedback I got was reasonable to incorporate into the revised submissions. I liked when feedback came with examples of what I should do to improve my work, such as a starting point on what to expand on.
- Did you talk about class material with people who were not in this course? If so, what did you talk about and to whom? If not, why not? Yes, besides the people in my learning community, I would talk to my parents about what I was learning (whether they were willing to listen or not), most of the time it was stuff in relation to what the news would talk about. For context, the news plays like white noise in our house, so random discussion occur throughout the day when something comes up. Whenever I felt confident about a topic being discussed I began to add my two cents with adding information from class, most of the topics were about race, class, or gender.
- Did you post on the Q&A forum? If so, what did you contribute? No, I did not participate.
- Indicate from the following what you included in your final course portfolio:
o Table of Contents (or a menu if digital) (This is included)
o Portfolio Abstract/Summary (This is included)
o Number of MAJOR portfolio assignments: _____One_____
o Number of MINOR portfolio assignments: _____Three______
o Number of REVISED weekly assignments: ____Seven______
o Number of UNREVISED weekly assignments: ____Zero______
o Copies of the feedback you received that helped you with your revisions? Yes
o Copies of peer review feedback you gave to peers? Yes
o Did you clearly indicate if you worked with others on portfolio work and what labor each person contributed to the final product? I did not collaborate with anyone on my portfolio, with the exception of my mother working as my camerawoman for my mooncake video. Her contribution has been indicated in the description of that post.
o Anything else included in portfolio not listed here that you would like to list please do so here. N/A
Part IV: Final Course Grade
- I decided on giving myself an A as my final course grade because I believe that my work has showcased the understanding of an A-grade student for this class. At the beginning, I only believed that I had done the average amount of labor in this class to earn a B, but as the semester progressed, I grew more confident in my ability to complete my work diligently. As someone in the Honors section, I knew that the majority of my grade rising would come from my projects. I decided on taking on both options, I wanted to do multiple projects rather than the bare minimum, but I also wanted that work to be really good quality. I did three minor assignments with two of them being media analysis because I knew that I could spend a while drafting, editing, and revising them without feeling totally drained. I also chose the infographic because of how easy it was. Despite only doing one major assignment, I wanted it to be the best I could do, not only in content but in aesthetics as well. The two and a half weeks that I spent researching, experimenting, filming (and re-filming), recording, and editing had to be the most stressful weeks of this semester, but it was also super fun. To me, going above and beyond in those assignments was the make or break for having a B+ or an A. Even though taking the time revaluate and revise my work was also a huge chunk of my labor at the end of semester, it’s a required guideline to follow as well as provide all the feedback I provided for this course. Not to mention the fact that I submitted all the weekly work and peer feedback on time and in it’s entirety, I guess that would also qualify going above and beyond and not just submitting the minimum 13 feedback copies and the 12 copies of weekly work and their revisions. Despite not always talking in class, I always wanted to make sure that I was engaging in different ways. Whether it was note-taking or having discussions outside of class, I never wanted to feel like I was missing out on something important to remember or that I wasn’t proving myself enough through my work. Compared to myself at the beginning and the middle of the course, I feel that my level of understanding in this class has risen thus, boosted my self-confidence, and I also think that my work had definitely shown that I’m worthy of deserving this grade.