. . .
Also available as a Google doc here.
Final Reflection: Deep Thinking in 2 Parts
Due May 13th, 11:59 PM
Seminar Bb>Reflections
20% in Seminar | 125 points in MUSI 1306
Part 1: Deep Thinking with Creativity (25%)
All semester long in Learning Community AM, you have been studying and admiring the great creative works of music from Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and others. Now, it’s your turn to be creative. Create something that has some depth. Make a statement with your creativity. Your goal is to convey an idea, a feeling, a mood or you can advocate for a cause or capture some element of the human experience. Acting as an artist, you should simply strive to fully engage in the creative process and to make your audience think and engage with your creation.
Please do not self-plagiarize something from last semester or high school or 3rd grade. Create something brand new. You choose your genre/format/mode of expression. Here is a list of possibilities:
- Poem or short story
- Music — create your own song or piece of music
- Drawing or Painting
- Sculpture
- Photography (you can use your smartphone)
- Collage/Mixed Media
- Video/short film
- Or anything else you can come up with
Remember that artists and creative types throughout the ages have built upon, added to, and deconstructed the works of others! You can do this too!
Once your creation is completed, you will need to title it. The title can be programmatic in nature or absolute. Also, you will need to create ONE MORE THING — an artist’s statement. This is simply a brief explanation/commentary on your creative process. Make it thoughtful and thought-provoking. The idea is to convey how and why you have chosen this particular subject and medium and why it matters to us as human beings!
Part 1: Thinking Deep – The Creativity Project (50 points) Rubric
- Submission of an original creative work (20 points)
- Creative work is title (10 points)
- Artist’s statement (20 points)
- Clearly presents ideas and concepts in a way that is thought-provoking and compelling
- Demonstrates creativity and ingenuity
- Careful editing and proofreading is evident
Please look here to see 2 Samples!
Part 2: Deep Thinking with Personal Reflection (75%)
We started this semester with the idea that we were going to focus on the idea of “depth” in music, research, learning, intellectual engagement and community involvement. Obviously, the semester did not go as planned (Covid-19, thank you very much 😣). However, in many regards, the pandemic has afforded us with a unique opportunity to reflect on ourselves and the roles we take on as learners and members of a society in a complex and ever-changing world.
Here are our learning community goals for the Spring 2020:
- Being mindful and engaged students through active learning – listening, critical thinking, researching, and analyzing and solving problems
- Appreciating and valuing music, art, and intellectual achievements in society and everyday life
- Developing a sense of intellectual agency, self advocacy, and empowerment through learning and participating in a community (personal responsibility)
- Using music, creativity, quantitative data, and reflection to make discoveries about the self and the world
Your professors, Dr. Pool and Professors Hood and Burnett still believe that these goals are worthy and relevant even in the midst of a pandemic. In our Mid-Term Reflection, we focused on engagement and responsibility. For the Final Reflection, we will focus on the following semester goals:
- Appreciating and valuing music, art, and intellectual achievements in society and everyday life
- Developing a sense of intellectual agency, self advocacy, and empowerment through learning and participating in a community (personal responsibility)
Use these goals to structure a reflective essay that presents an argument for your “depth” as a student/learner/member of a community. For each goal, you should provide at least one specific example from personal experiences with learning in our LC and/or college at large as evidence for the claims you are making about yourself. In your reflection, you should strive to discover why these goals are significant for you and for our society as a whole during this particular juncture in time.
Advice and Requirements:
- Honesty is always appreciated. It is okay to admit that you might not be as engaged and/or responsible as you (or I) would like you to be.
- Your reflection should be well-organized, with an introduction that includes a thesis statement, smooth transitions between well-defined paragraphs, and a satisfying conclusion. Students who do well on this type of reflection typically write at least 3 pages of written text.
- APA format with a title page and running head. Do not provide an abstract. Your text should be 12-point, Times New Roman, and double-spaced with 1” margins. Save the file in Word or PDF format before you upload it.
Grading Rubric for Part 2
| Criteria | Needs Improvement | Average | Good | Excellent |
| Organization | Writing lacks logical organization. It shows some coherence but ideas lack unity. Serious mistakes Essay may not have a contextualizing introduction or a thesis statement | Writing is coherent and logically organized. Some points remain misplaced and stray from the topic. Transitions evident but not used throughout the essay. Intro is present but may be perfunctory in nature | writing is basic and little effort is put forth to be engaging | Writing is coherent and logically organized with transitions used between ideas and paragraphs to create coherence. Overall unity of ideas is present. Intro sets context for the entire essay in a way that is engaging and compelling A thesis sentence is present providing a blueprint for the rest of the essay | Writing shows a high degree of attention to logic and reasoning of points. Unity clearly leads the reader to the conclusion and stirs thought regarding the topic. Intro sets context for the entire essay in a way that is engaging and compelling A thesis sentence is present providing a blueprint for the rest of the essay |
| Level of content | Shows some thinking and reasoning but most ideas are underdeveloped and unoriginal. Few to no connections to personal learning, course content, and the world-at-large are present | Content indicates thinking and reasoning applied with original thought on a few ideas. connections to personal learning, course content, and the world-at-large are present | Content indicates original thinking and develops ideas with sufficient and firm evidence. Makes valid connections to personal learning, course content, and the world-at-large | Content indicates synthesis of ideas, in depth analysis and evidences original thought and support for the topic. Makes insightful connections to personal learning, course content, and the world-at-large |
| Development | Main points lack detailed developmentIdeas are vague with little evidence of critical thinking. | Main points are present with limited detail and development. Some critical thinking is present. | Main points well developed with quality supporting details and quantity. Critical thinking is weaved into points | Main points well developed with high quality and quantity support. Reveals high degree of critical thinking. |
| Mechanics | Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors create distraction, making reading difficult; fragments, comma splices, run-ons evident. Errors are frequent. | Most spelling, punctuation, and grammar are correct allowing the reader to progress through the essay. Some errors remain. | Essay has few spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors allowing the reader to follow ideas clearly. Very few fragments or run-ons. | Essay is free of distracting spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors; absent of fragments, comma splices, and run-ons. |
Images: Mr TT and Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash