CODE 221 Learning Contract

Your Goal Grade

Highlight the header for the column below to indicate which grade you plan to work toward in the course. Meeting the basic requirements for your chosen letter grade, according to the table below, is mandatory.

A Work	B Work	C Work
-Misses one class or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates all readings thoroughly -Makes substantive comments in discussions -Completes all assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Work demonstrates intellectual engagement, care, effort, and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates substantially, contributes to vision, works equally with peers	-Misses two classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates readings -Often participates in discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes most SAs on time -Work demonstrates care, effort and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates equally, completes required work	-Misses three classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Completes most readings -Sometimes adds to discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes at least four SAs -Meets minimal expectations on assignments; shows limited growth in response to feedback -Completes required collaborative work

First-Week Introduction

My five chosen goals are in the areas of civic engagement, skills for lifelong learning, ethical reasoning, written communication, and information literacy. I feel that these skills will be especially useful for this upcoming semester with all of the field work and community collaboration I will be doing. I am really looking forward to conducting more oral history interviews and surveying members of the community.

Midterm Introduction

I am about halfway through the semester and my plans for the course have changed slightly but I am still headed in the right direction. Initially I planned on conducting more interviews along with my surveys, but it doesn’t look like I will be having enough time to prepare, conduct, and transcribe interviews. However, I have gotten a handful of responses for my renter’s rights survey. So far, I have done a lot of communication between community partners, specifically with Arianna from the Cahokia Public Library.

Final Introduction

Now that my semester is coming to an end, I generally feel good about what I was able to accomplish. I conducted a survey and was able to publish data from that survey onto a webpage. I believe that my pages on the website will be able to help out future Cahokia residents. I did not get to conduct any interviews this semester, but I plan on doing that again next semester. I feel that my research project has helped me grow as a student and has prepared me for the future.

Course Goals

Choose five goals from the CODES Student Learning Outcomes that you’d like to work toward. Choose goals that are relevant to the scope of this course, select artifacts/examples based on activities assigned for this course, and explain characteristics in a way that illustrates how your artifacts/examples demonstrate your progress toward the goal.

Goal 1 (30%) Civic Engagement: Demonstrates ability and commitment to collaboratively work across and within community contexts and structures.

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
I will effectively work with our community partner and other stakeholders I come across throughout the semester.	My reflections throughout the course and receipts of contact with community partners	Content in my reflections should demonstrate my active collaboration with community partners and stakeholders.

The first artifact listed is a paragraph from reflection #1. In the paragraph I discuss a conversation I had with a one of our community partners, John from Heartlands. In the conversation John pointed me towards some grassroots organizations in the area that could possibly help me out with my project. The next 4 artifacts are emails sent from me to another one of our community partners, Arianna from The Cahokia Public Library. Throughout this semester there was a lot of communication between Arianna and I. The last artifact is a paragraph from reflection #3. In the paragraph I am discussing a conversation between Arianna and I in which she gave me a pointer that was helpful towards my project.

Goal 2 (20%) Skills for Lifelong Learning: Explores a topic in depth, yielding a rich awareness and/or little-known information indicating intense interest in the subject.

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
I will develop a rich awareness/deeper understanding of my topic.	I will display excerpts from my data collection and content assignments	The content displayed as my evidence should show that I have developed an interest/deeper understanding of my topic

The first artifact is five essential landlord-tenant laws that I thought were the most important to put on my website. I concluded that these were the most important laws to know as a tenant through my research on the topic. The second artifact is an excerpt from the website that lists steps on what to as a tenant when your rights have been violated. I received this information from not only online research, but from conversations with people who have been through the process. The third artifact is a paragraph from my data collection analysis. In the paragraph I reflect on why some data came out differently than I initially thought it would. The last artifact are conclusions from my survey. These conclusions come from the overall themes throughout the responses that I received in the survey.

Goal 3 (10%) Ethical Reasoning: Recognizes multilayered ethical issues and the cross-relationships among them.

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
I will Identify ethical issues and relationship dynamics throughout my research.	Excerpts from reflections	Excerpts should display me breaking down an ethical issue pertaining to renting.

These two artifacts are from my data collection assignment and my first reflection. In the paragraphs I am discussing why renting in Cahokia Heights can be ethically conflicting because of the increased risk of flooding/water damage to homes in the area. With these harsh living conditions tenants can be more likely to just pay for repairments themselves instead of waiting for their landlord to do it.

Goal 4 (20%) Written Communication: Uses appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate mastery of the subject, conveying the writer’s understanding, and shaping the whole work.

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
I will use relevant, appropriate, and compelling language to illustrate my mastery of the subject to my audience.	Excerpts from reflections and content assignments throughout the semester	My language should express that I am confident and well versed in my subject area.

The four artifacts above are from my data collection assignment and reflections throughout the semester. In the four artifacts above I display my increased knowledge of the limitations that were on my survey about renting in Cahokia, how to convey a conversation with community members that is about a topic that could be sensitive, why renter’s rights is an important conversation to have in Cahokia, and how to structure a survey in a way that will get a higher number of participants.

Goal 5 (20%) Information Literacy: Responsibly integrates research and demonstrates full understanding of the ethical and legal restrictions on information use.

What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill?	What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning?	What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal?
I will make sure that any data published from my research is not morally or ethically conflicting.	excerpts from interview transcripts and data from surveys	data published should not contain identifiable information or any other unethical content.

The first artifact is a consent form that was in both the electronic and physical copies of my survey. The consent form assures participants of full anonymity for their responses throughout the survey. The second artifact is the list of questions asked in my survey. Every question asked does not ask for any identifying information from the participant and some even allow for no response at all. The last two artifacts are data from the survey that is available on my website. The data displayed on the public website does not share any identifiable information.