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
Entering my second year of CODES, I have learned that each discussion and assignment has helped me build character and gain knowledge. This semester, I’m excited to further my knowledge and continue working in the community as we collaborate with our community partners. The goals I have chosen will help me stay structured and pour myself completely into my work. Each goal will help me unlock new skills and become a academic weapon.
Midterm Introduction
As many weeks have passed in the semester, learned how to improve in many different aspects. I’ve been working hard to stay consistent with my assignments and time management. I’ve improved my ability to stay organized by planning and trying to keep track of all my assignments. I’ve been learning many essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration. Group collaboration has helped me be more open to different perspectives. I’m very proud of the work ethic I have been putting in so far this semester. Moving forward this semester, I plan to keep pushing forward and staying committed and consistent in this class.
Final Introduction
With the semester coming to an end, I have taken time to reflect. I was able to learn new things and about new organizations. Even though I wasn’t able to partner or get in contact with these organizations, I still enjoyed educating myself and others about the organizations and resources they offer. Since I had more responsibilities this semester, I had to incorporate different time management skills and organizational habits, but I was still able to maintain my workload. Even though things didn’t go as planned this semester, the challenges gave me lessons about discipline and hard work. This semester showed me how to adjust when things don’t go accordingly. I learned how to be comfortable with change. Everything I learned and endured this semester, I will take into next semester so it can be successful and smoother.
Course Goals
Goal 1 (15%)
Based on 12c: work independently toward goals by contributing and meeting deadlines.
This reflection shows how I’m able to analyze and contribute to the work while also having my own opinion and meeting the deadline presented.
| 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? |
| Working towards various goals set by me, my group, or my professors. Practicing time management to ensure all deadlines are met Always show up to class ready to work and participate | Reflections Class discussions Group projects | The reflections will show how I can analyze while also meeting deadlines. My participation in group discussions and research projects will demonstrate my commitment to collaborative work. The class discussions will help me evaluate my work ethic, so I can learn how to work independently and contribute to deadlines more effectively. |
Goal 2 (15%)
Based on 1a: 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? |
| Ensure that all members feel included and have an opportunity to participate Using healthy collaborative skills to ensure everyone is respected. Using healthy communication skills to ensure that everyone’s opinions get heard. Preparing and working independently to complete assignments Create an effective consensus | Group Discussions Group Projects Site Visits/ Meetings Reflections | The group projects will allow me to exercise my thoughts and ideas into a central message to show that I can work collaboratively while also practicing healthy habits to include my thoughts and respect others’ thoughts. During in-class & group discussions, I will be attentive, respectful, and engaged when discussions are happening to show my commitment and ability to work collaboratively. Site visits/meetings will allow me to show my collaborative skills while working with our community partners. Class-led discussions will give me the space to openly build upon others’ contributions. |
Reflection 3
You’ve completed a few site visits/Teams meetings. Hopefully, you are starting to understand your partners better, building trust, engaging in the work, and learning from your mistakes. Consider your self-presentation during your visits. Have you been confident, nervous, open to ideas, or quick to judge? How have your behaviors influenced the interactions you had? What do you think you are doing well? What could you do better? Give examples and tell stories.
Even though I haven’t had any site visits, my group has been having numerous online meetings with John from Heartland. Those meetings have been giving us a clear direction to work in and where we should focus our time. I have been very open to numerous ideas. Throughout this semester, we haven’t been able to see a lot of our plans through, so it has left me nervous and confused. I’ve been open-minded and I continue to be open-minded throughout the rest of this semester. After doing research, the grassroots organization that has interested me the most has been Empire 13. Empire 13 is a grassroots organization out of Southern Illinois University. There is a non-profit organization that helps fight civil rights issues, black lives matter, systemic racism, and also helps residents in lower-income areas. I think my research is what I’ve been doing well. I have been using multiple websites and apps to gather information and insight on Empire 13. I’ve been doing research across different platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and news articles. I believe if we had a more proactive plan, things would have been better and more productive. It’s hard to move along with a plan when you’re trying to work with other organizations or people who are just as busy or even more busy. It was a big disconnect this semester with organizations. Getting responses or even the time of the day made doing work this semester challenging because it gave me little to nothing to work with.
Goal 3 (20%)
Based on 9c: Implements solutions to address multiple contextual factors.
| 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? |
| Evaluate different solutions and create the best approach to solve the problem. | Reflection Project / Data collection Group collaborations Class work/discussions | The group Collaborations will help me insight into different perspectives and solutions Everyone can offer. The data collection will help let me outline the best way to solve the problem and learn about similar problems and them situation. |
The reflection shows how I contribute to all of my goals overall, by working hard, developing ideas, and analyzing while still meeting the deadline.
Goal 4 (25%)
Based on 13b: 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? |
| Using certain content to analyze data and information that’s collected. Using certain content to organize the information needed to complete my project. | Reflection Implementation Plan Class work Project Data Collection | My data collection will highlight the data and collect support for the information. The project will showcase my analytical skills, which are essential for conveying a clear understanding and developing effective messages with supporting materials. The reflections will enable me to properly illustrate the material provided. |
Data Collection
Community Orgs:
Empire 13
JJK
Cahokia Community Basket
Heartland’s
Empire 13 community partners: SIUE, Clean City Coalition, Loud For Liberation, PSL STL, Coffee Revolution, Build N The Foundation, Moms Demand Action, and City Of Joy Fellowship
Focus: Mutual Aid
Mutual Aid/ Community service done by Empire 13:
- Boots to the street (partner with SIU and SIUE student volunteers to carry out the campaign)
- Community clean-up ( cleaning up the community with volunteers, picking up trash and abandoned material)
- Tornado Clean-up ( cleaning up the aftermath of the STL tornado)
- No king’s protest ( peacefully protesting against current political issues and the presidency)
- Fighting Environmental racism ( peacefully protesting and doing things such as cleaning up and refreshing predominantly black neighborhoods)
- Earth Day clean-up ( cleaning up on Earth Day)
- Wear Orange Day (gun violence awareness, wearing the color orange to show support for gun violence awareness and gun violence victims)
- Help flood victims restore their homes ( restore homes and repair damage done by floods in the southern Illinois area)
Reflection #4: Data Collection
You have now implemented some aspect of data collection by this date. You might have distributed a survey, hosted an interview, convened a focus group, or conducted an experiment. Describe the experience in detail. If you completed an annotated bibliography, perhaps you can compare what you have read about to what happened in our context. What has gone well or been instructive? What problems didn’t you foresee? What do you wish you’d done differently?
Implementation Plan
The implementation plans showcase my analytical skills, which are essential for conveying a clear understanding and developing effective messages with supporting materials. It also shows the plan my group has for our project that will lead us into creating our website.
Goal 5 (25%)
Based on 1b: Connects and extends knowledge from academic study to civic engagement.
| 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? |
| Evaluate research and informational sources to connect with civic engagement. Create a pathway to connect knowledge learned in class to community work. Site visits can be used to extend knowledge from academic study to civic engagement | Reflections Site visit Group discussions Class assignments | My collaborations, such as group work and group discussions, will show how open-minded and intellectual I am when it comes to addressing and hearing different factors. My reflections will show my ability to be able to connect academic study to civic engagement. The group discussions and class assignments will help me extend my knowledge from academic study to civic engagement by collaborating and pulling from different opinions generated. |