Assignment
Journal
This is your opportunity to reflect on the course content and apply the skills that you will be learning throughout the course. The journal will provide the opportunity to relate your readings and discussions to experiences and observations.
The questions, both from the book, "Difficult Conversations" and the course material provided on Moodle sections, will act as "take-home" exam questions that you get to run by classmates in our weekly discussions.
Note that specific reference to the course material is essential, and will determine your grade. Refer to the discussion and book club log posted on Moodle and distributed in class. Please pay careful attention to what is required and ask if you have any questions.
The style is informal and personal. You are only encouraged to share what you feel comfortable having the instructor read. Journals are treated as strictly confidential. Each weekly journal entries should be 2-3 pages long. Please refer to the rubric below to guide your responses.
Journals and Reflection Based Assignments
Personal reflection for academic purposes is both art and science. More than simply sharing your thoughts and feelings on a particular topic or situation, academic journals require you to make specific connections to ideas, theories, tools and approaches from this class, our discipline, and others. The purpose of journal assignments is to help you build and articulate your understanding of how you learn what you learn, and what it means to you. This knowledge will let learn and build new ideas more effectively in the future.
Use this list as a checklist, however not all questions will always apply to every question:
1. Connections
- How do you connect the content of this course to your life and where you'd like to take it?
- How does this course content connect with other courses you've taken?
- How does this course content connect you to others?
- How does your learning in this course connect with what you already know and how you learn?
2. Observations
- What is your physical, mental, virtual interaction with the world?
- Are you able to slow down, be present, and question your assumptions?
3. Descriptions
- Can you describe your experience in detail, including emotional responses?
- Are you able to make careful observations with evidence?
4. Evaluation
- Can you generate possible explanations for experiences with close attention to detail and complexities and paradoxes (wicked problems)?
- Can you use theories and tools to unpack and derive meaning?
- Can you look at the interplay between theory and practice?
5. Experimentation and Action
- What could you do or try, based on this experience and what you've learned?
- How do you take responsible action?
6. Is your journal well written and properly annotated?
- Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, organization, references all in place.
"A" Range - Exceptional
- Responses reflect the fullest possible range of relevant criteria listed above
- Clear and creative articulations of examples and thoughts
- Key concepts and tools from each week are clearly identified and applied
- Any additional references are properly cited in APA or MLA style
- Strong sentence structure, grammar, and spelling
- Ideas are organized in a logical order
- Writing style reflects a strong interest in the topic
"B" Range - Accomplished
- Responses reflect an acceptable range of relevant criteria listed above
- Clear articulation of examples and thoughts
- Theories and tools are often identified and applied
- Relatively strong sentence structure, grammar and spelling
- Ideas are organized relatively clearly
- Writing style reflects interest in the topic
"C" Range - Developing
- More responses reflect relevant criteria listed above are needed
- Examples and thoughts could be better articulated
- Theories and tools are infrequently identified and applied
- Sentence structure, grammar and spelling could use work
- Organization could be improved
"D" Range - Beginning
- Insufficient number of responses of criteria listed above
- Examples and thoughts are not well articulated
- Theories and tools are missing
- Sentences, grammar and spelling limit the understanding of the author's ideas
- Better organization of content is needed
1. For your journal, consider how our text "Difficult Conversations" might address bullying at work and at home. What might this approach be missing? Consider what we have discussed and read so far and brainstorm a list of strategies for dealing with bullying in the workplace and in our private lives.
Note: I don't have the material from the text. Try to figure out from the video below
Bully in the workplace
Youtube Video- "Manage Conflict: The Bully in the Workplace, Backstabbing Friends, YOU!"