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 two classes or fewer, OR makes up excused absences – Attends all CODES labs or has verified excused absences – Completes all readings and contributes deeply to discussions – Completes all assignments and meets deadlines or has approved extension – Work shows engagement, care, effort, and growth – Abides by the CODE of Conduct and classroom norms | – Misses three classes or fewer, or makes up excused absences – Misses fewer than three CODES labs or has verified excused absence – Completes most readings and participates in discussion – Completes all assignments and meets deadlines or has approved extension – Work shows care, effort, and growth – Abides by the CODE of Conduct and classroom norms | – Misses four classes or fewer, or makes up excused absences – Misses fewer than two CODES labs – Completes most readings and sometimes adds to discussion – Completes all major assignments, and meets most draft deadlines – Meets minimal expectations on assignments; shows some growth – Abides by the CODE of Conduct and classroom norms |
First-Week Introduction
With my first semester at SIUE beginning, I would like to take advantage of the opportunities this university offers to advance my academic, personal, and professional growth. My passion is to be a nurse anesthetist; therefore, it is important that I learn how to be a good communicator, critical thinker, collaborator, and a good problem-solver.
The five goals that I selected are Civic Engagement, Critical and Creative Thinking, Reading, Collaboration, and Written Communication. The reason why I have selected the competency of Civic Engagement is that I want to see how the knowledge gained from college can be used to solve practical issues in communities. Critical and Creative Thinking is a very important competency because I want to develop my skill to analyze a problem and find its solutions from different angles. Reading is very significant for me as I want to improve my ability to absorb information from texts. Collaboration is a very important competency because I am aware of the fact that working together with others will be a very important skill in college as well as in my future profession.
Of all the assignments that I am excited about this semester, it would be the multimedia essays. This is because CODES enables us to present our learning through various means of communication. The final team project assignment will probably be the hardest. This will require me to collaborate with others, incorporate their perspectives, and present an intricate community problem in a comprehensible way.
For me to be successful in this semester, I must stay organized and avoid procrastination. keeping the habit of being deadline-oriented, completing my readings prior to class, participating in discussions and group work during this class, and updating my ePortfolio are part of the plans I have to be successful this semester. Criticism and feedback on my work are also very important since I need to learn how to improve based on what I am told. Open-mindedness is the most important part since CODES’ main objective is to work with other communities that may not be similar to mine.
Midterm Introduction
[Speak about the skills and content you’ve learned during the first half of the semester. What did you most enjoy? What did you struggle with? What goals do you think you’ve most excelled at meeting and what do you want to continue developing during the second half of the semester? What goals haven’t you yet met, and how will you make them a priority in the second half of class?]
Final Introduction
[Now that the semester is over, use your introduction to reflect in-depth on your process. How well did you meet the goals you set out to meet? What did you learn that surprised you? Focusing on your goals for this class, what do you want to remember to take with you into your future courses? What strategies can you use to continue developing toward these goals?]
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 (20%)
Based on 1c: Civic Engagement: I want to become better at working with community members and adapting how I communicate so that I can listen to and understand different people and perspectives.
| 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 participate in community activities, listen carefully to community partners and classmates, and reflect on how different people experience the problems we study. I will also pay attention to how I communicate with others and adjust my approach when necessary. | I will use examples from the community partner visit, community engagement activities, stakeholder map, class discussions, and reflections. I will eventually include 4 examples that show my progress. | My examples should show that I listened to other perspectives, participated respectfully, connected class learning to the community, and became more comfortable communicating with people outside of my usual experiences. |
Evidence examples I can collect:
Community partner visit notes/reflection
Stakeholder map
Community engagement activity
A later reflection showing how my understanding of the community changed
Goal 2 (20%) — Based on 2a: Critical & Creative Thinking: I want to become better at looking at complicated problems from different perspectives, questioning my assumptions, and developing thoughtful ways to understand problems.
| 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 question my first assumptions about the problems we study, consider multiple factors that contribute to them, and use class readings and discussions to develop a deeper understanding. | I will use my system map, stakeholder analysis, multimedia essays, class activities, and reflections as evidence of my development. I will collect 4 examples that show how my thinking changes over time. | My examples should demonstrate that I can identify assumptions, recognize multiple factors connected to a problem, and develop more thoughtful explanations instead of relying on a simple answer. |
Evidence examples I can collect:
Initial stakeholder map
System map
ME #1
A reflection showing how my understanding of the problem developed
Goal 3 (20%) — Based on 11a: Reading: I want to become a stronger reader who can understand important ideas in a text and connect what I read to the community problems and issues we are studying.
| 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 complete the assigned readings before class, annotate important ideas, ask questions, and think about how the readings connect to our CODES project and discussions. | I will use group annotations, reading reflections, activities connected to Our Common Ground, and later readings as evidence. I will collect 4 examples that show improvement in my reading and analysis. | My examples should show that I am going beyond simply understanding what a text says. I should be able to identify important ideas, make connections, ask meaningful questions, and apply what I read to our work. |
Evidence examples I can collect:
- Introduction annotation/reflection
- Chapter 1 group annotation
- Chapter 2 group annotation
- A later reading annotation showing growth
Goal 4 (20%) — Based on 12c: Collaboration: I want to become a dependable team member who contributes ideas, listens to others, completes my responsibilities, and helps my group reach its goals.
| 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 participate actively in group work, complete my assigned responsibilities on time, listen to my teammates, and build on their ideas instead of only focusing on my own. | I will use examples from group annotations, team activities, system mapping, multimedia essay work, and the final project. I will collect 4 examples that demonstrate my contributions throughout the semester. | My examples should show that I consistently participated, completed my responsibilities, contributed useful ideas, and supported my teammates. They should also demonstrate growth in how I communicate and work within a group. |
Evidence examples I can collect:
Final project collaboration
Group annotation
Group stakeholder/system map
ME #2 team work
Goal 5 (20%) — Based on 13a: Written Communication: I want to become better at writing clearly and intentionally for different audiences and purposes.
| 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 practice writing for different audiences, use feedback to revise my work, and pay attention to how my organization, evidence, wording, and overall message affect the reader. | I will use my first-week writing, ME #1, ME #2, revisions, and final project writing as evidence. I will collect 4 examples that demonstrate how my writing develops throughout the semester. | My examples should show clearer organization, stronger explanations, appropriate content for my intended audience, and improvement based on feedback and revision. |
Evidence examples I can collect:
Final project writing/revision
First-week introduction
ME #1 rough/final draft
ME #2 rough/final draft