Contract
Dear Dr. Martinez,
As a first year at not only SIUE, but college in general, I am working towards an A. I have compiled several goals that I wish to fulfill that will show you I deserve that grade. In addition to that, I will use this class, as well as my time here on campus, to improve academically while also growing as a person. This will in turn widen my abilities in a vast amount of academic areas, allowing me to not only fulfill my goals, but gain life skills that can be used in my daily life.
The first goal that I strive to achieve is 2c, which is reworded as follows. “Transforms ideas by gaining knowledge from multiple sources and point of views that have been researched.” The actions I will take to achieve this goal will be to practice improving ideas I have created, or found, by researching different sources such as articles, blogs, experiments, interviews, etc. The reason behind me choosing this goal is because I want to have the ability to take ideas and improve them in many different ways. I want this ability because I believe it will benefit my cohort to be able to change and improve one idea to make it into many. This will allow us to bring many options and possible solutions to our research since we are dealing with a wicked problem. The artifacts that I plan to submit as evidence that I have worked towards my goal will be the finished products of my transformed ideas; including documentation of the process. These finished products will be the final drafts of my multimodal compositions because I will be able to showcase how I transformed my papers by using the edits that you have provided. How we’ll both know that I have met my goal will be determined by the ideas and MC’s I have transformed. The weight this goal should have on my grade is 20% because I will submit two different ideas and papers that I have transformed and improved.
The second goal I strive to achieve is 4c, which, using my own language, states, “Gain knowledge and skills to implement sophisticated, workable solutions to address complex global problems using interdisciplinary perspectives.” The reason I chose this goal is because I want to acquire the skill of being able to find real, feasible solutions for real world problems by using knowledge and skills I already have. I believe this will also bring an aspect to my cohort that will push us further in being able to come up with a solution to our wicked problem. The actions I will take in order to achieve this goal will be to listen and participate diligently in my Transdisciplinary Communications class because it will bring me closer to achieving this goal. The artifacts that I plan to submit in order to prove that I have worked towards my goal will be the multimodal compositions from our assignments this semester. I believe that I will be able to showcase my newly acquired knowledge and skills through those projects. How we’ll both know that I met my goal will be determined by how well I do on those MC’s. The weight this goal should have on my grade is 30% because there a multiple MC’s that I will use to showcase as proof for this class.
The third goal I strive to achieve is 8a, “Uses clear organizational patterns and is skillful at presenting content cohesively.” Being able to use clear organizational patterns, as well as presenting content cohesively, has been a major struggle of mine in oral communication. Therefore, this has led me to choose this goal in order to push myself to become better in that area. The actions I will take to achieve this goal will be to practice presenting content regularly, and receive feedback from the audience in order to make my presentations more clear, concise, and organized. The artifact that I plan to submit in order to showcase that I have worked towards my goal will be my source analysis presentation, as well as my presentation in the showcase at the end of the semester. How we’ll both know that I have met my goal will be determined by my performance in those presentations I have provided. The weight this goal should have on my grade is 10% because paired with the fifth goal, which shares the same presentations, will be worth 20%.
The fourth goal I strive to achieve is 9c, which is reinterpreted as follows. “Learn how to address multiple contextual factors by implementing solutions.” The reason I chose this goal is because I still need to learn how to address multiple contextual factors, and doing so by implementing solutions will allow me to take that skill one step higher. Additionally, this will also help me to understand how we will implement multiple solutions to resolve our wicked problem. The actions I will take to achieve this goal will be to participate and learn in my CODES research team since I will be learning how to implement multiple solutions in order to resolve the many different factors to our wicked problem. The artifact that I plan to submit in order to showcase that I have worked towards my goal will be the final project for my research team, and I will pair that with my multimodal compositions. How we’ll both know that I have met my goal will be determined by how well I do in completing that final project and the MC’s. The weight this goal should have on my grade is 30% because it is the final project for my research team along with the MC projects.
The fifth goal I strive to achieve is 13b, which I reworded as follows. “Use appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate mastery of the subject.” The reason why I chose this goal is because I have a bad habit of getting off topic when it comes to presentations, essays, etc. So, by choosing this goal, I will learn how to stay on track, as well as use relevant items, when executing writing pieces as well as other forms of visual and audio presentation. The actions I will take in order to achieve this goal will be closely aligned with my third goal. The reason behind this is that I will use this same presentation as the artifact that will showcase that I have worked towards this goal. Therefore, the presentations will prove that I have acquired the skill to use appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate mastery of the subject. The weight this goal should have on my grade is 10% because paired with the third goal, it will be 20% for that presentation.
In conclusion, the goals I picked and rewrote will help me to gain life skills that can be used in my daily life, while also helping me to improve academically and grow as a person. Consequently, I believe that after I fulfill these goals I have set out for myself, I will be in a position that will prove that I deserve an A in this class.
Sincerely,
Ayiana Baynes