American Autobiography

Spring 2008

Dr. Meehan

Final Conference

During the final exam period, you will have a final conference with me. During this conference, you will turn in your self-reflection. We will discuss your work in the course, your reflections on that work and the progress you made with your chapter, and where you plan to go from here with your autobiographical writing and with writing in general. Here are guidelines for the work you will do for the conference.

1]Portfolio: Self-Reflection.

Your portfolio consists of the three essays you wrote in the course: craft, culture, and the autobiographical chapter. You will turn in (by conference time Friday) a 2-3 page self-reflection that looks book on and assesses your work and learning in the course: explore and discuss what you feel you have learned about autobiography both as a reader and a writer. Some specifics to identify: See questions for conference below. [note: the three essays are already in Blackboard, so you need not re-submit those]

You will post this self-reflection into Blackboard assignments. If you are selecting the electronic publication option for participation extra-credit, your self-reflection should also be included there.

2]Questions for Conference (and specifics for your self-reflection).

These are questions you should be prepared to answer in the final conference, should I ask them of you. They are also the kinds of questions you can take up in your self-reflection.

Reflect back on the craft and culture essays you wrote: what are some key lessons you take from your reading of our course texts? What have you learned about the craft and the culture of American autobiography?

Which of the authors we read was most influential to you as a writer and why?

Assess the achievement of your chapter: What do you feel you accomplished with it? Does your writing achieve what you had wanted?

What is one of the strongest features of the chapter? What more might you do with it?

What is next for you as an autobiographer, and more generally as a writer? Where do you go from here?

Assess your achievement of two key course objectives (achieved, partly achieved, did not achieve): [1]Developing creative capacities in writing; [2]Gaining a broader understanding and appreciation of the intellectual/cultural activity of autobiographical literature and writing.  Identify where you see the achievement of these objectives or lack of it?

3]Extra-Credit Option: Electronic Publication

For anyone interested in gaining extra-credit for your participation grade, you may elect to publish your portfolio electronically. Even if you aren’t interested in extra-credit, I welcome all to consider this since publication of one’s work is important for the process of writing. You will develop a web portfolio that would include your self-reflection and clean versions of your three essays from the course. You could do this by creating or adding to a web site you have through the Morningside Web (for those interested, I can show you how to do this). You could also find another place out there on the web to publish—for example, a blog, maybe even Facebook (?) or MySpace. Explore some new media options for your autobiography.

Evaluation

The rubric for my evaluation of your self-reflection/final conference:

A [90-100]: Excellent, thorough, and thoughtful reflection on what the reader/writer experienced in the course.

B [80-89]: Good reflection on course learning and experiences, thoughtful and thorough in most areas.

C [70-79]: Average and sufficient reflection on course learning and experiences, thoughtful in some areas and some lack of thoroughness.

D [60-69]: Weak reflection on course learning and experiences, demonstrating lack of thoughtfulness in most areas

F [below 60]: Did not complete self-reflection or final conference as assigned and expected.