CLASS REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
This is a writing assignment that is required when you are not in class to attend the lecture and sign the attendance sheet. You will submit these if you miss a regularly scheduled class for any reason at all (you’re ill, out of town, at a wedding, etc.) Or don’t submit any; C’s earn degrees. And EVERYONE will submit these when we do not have class in 100 Thomas for a given reason. On those days, everyone will watch a video of a previous SOC 119 class and then submit a Class Reflection Assignment.
Remember, attendance is an assignment and each class meeting has points assigned to it. Under no circumstances will we ever just give you the points because you have a note from your coach or your doctor in Mount Nittany Hospital. The only way to earn the three attendance points for 28 days of SOC 119 is to attend class and take the two Attendance Quizzes or to submit this assignment for that day. Why not 30 days? Because we don’t take attendance during the first week of the semester.
It is MUCH EASIER to come to class and sign the attendance sheet if you can because it is less work for you. But things happen and we understand that sometimes you cannot be there.
You can only “miss attending class” THREE times (outside of any days that we announce ahead of time that we do not have a live class). After three occasions, then you only receive half credit for any Class Reflections Assignments that you submit. And it does NOT matter if all three of your missed classes are “excused.”
These points will not be uploaded to Canvas until each assignment has closed and the assignments are graded.
Logistics of the Class Reflection Assignment
There is ONE submission needed for each of the classes you miss in person and each submission is composed of THREE separate written reflections related to three different moments of class. Some of you have really active minds and could probably find three things to comment on during the first ten minutes. We understand. However, we want you to watch the entire video, just like when you come to class and stay until the end after signing the attendance sheet.
Each of the three reflections must be AT LEAST 1700 characters (280 - 300 words).
Why must it be 1700 characters? Because the Google Form on which you are submitting the assignment will not allow you to hit submit UNTIL you reach 1700 characters.
So you will submit your three reflections in the following way:
Reflection #1: Related to the first 25 minutes of class
Reflection #2: Related to the second 25 minutes of class
Reflection #3: Related to the last 25 minutes of class
Class Reflection Assignment Submissions SP24 can be found HERE
Once the assignment is live, there will be a button on the top of the SOC 119 website homepage that will send you to the Submission page.
How to do this most efficiently and securely?
Because you cannot edit the Google Form that we are using, and because your computer might shut down or internet connection suddenly becomes unstable causing you to lose your work, you probably should write these reflections in a Word or Google Doc and then copy and paste them into the Google Form. (This is not required but take it as a warning.)
There are three parts to each of the three reflections:
A "time code" from the video that indicates what part of the video that you’re writing about. For example, if you are discussing something that begins at 17 minutes and 20 seconds of the video, you would write: 00:17:20. (hour:minute:second) in the corresponding question on the Google Form. (The Google Form explains this when you do the assignment.)
A quote from one of the student volunteers, a guest, or Sam. (Or you can write about data from one of the slides.) For example, if you want to write about what a student volunteer named Khalid said, then you should write what he said (the quote) and then start writing your answer/reflection around that idea. By the way, we WILL be checking if that was an actual quote from Khalid and whether the time code matches with the video content.
Your own development of the reflection in a minimum of 1700 characters. (Remember, you cannot submit the form until you've reached 1700 characters (280 - 300 words) in the part of the form in which you are directly responding to the quote you wrote at the beginning.)
You will have one week (7 days) to submit your Class Reflection Assignment since the class was live-streamed. For example, if the class happened on Tuesday 1/23 and you missed it, then you will have until Tuesday 1/30 at 6:00PM (ET) to submit the assignment. We won’t give deadline extensions for ANY reason. One week is enough time to write the reflections.
At this point, you should have realized that we are not asking for random topics or definitions that can be found on any search engine. We are looking for YOUR RESPONSE to something that happened in class and made you feel curious about it and want to comment on it.
THIS IS NOT TO BE WRITTEN AS A FORMAL RESEARCH ESSAY. IN FACT, THE MORE FORMAL YOU MAKE IT, THE MORE LIKELY IT IS THAT WE WILL FLAG IT AS SOMETHING THAT WAS GENERATED BY AI – AND YOU WILL RECEIVE ZERO POINTS.
If you meet all the requirements for each reflection, then we will give you the corresponding attendance points for that missed class. However, if you do not meet all the requirements for each reflection or if you use AI, then you will receive a ZERO for that reflection.
It is important that you know we are not assessing your opinions, perspectives, or point of view on any given topic. We are interested in reading what you think about things that happen in the class.
How can you convince us that you did not cheat?
As you already know, the world is being upended by AI tools that allow machines to compose written essays for real people. It is quite the CF if you’re a professor who wants students to put their own thoughts into their own words, to be honest, but it’s also quite awesome that we have developed this technology. There are many valuable ways in which a person could use AI and not have it be considered “cheating.” In fact, this would be true for students in some limited situations. However, in this class, for what we are asking you to do, using AI would be dishonest and, therefore, unethical.
For our part, we have no interest in having you hone your AI skills and just input random questions into an AI content generator and copy the result into our Google Form. Any monkey can do that. And so our dilemma is to organize this assignment so that you cannot use AI.
If we think that you have used an AI tool, or if we discover that you have copied another student’s essay, then we will flag your response. We do check each submission for duplicate essays from other students in the class.
We may or may not give you a warning the first time we flag you, however we will discount the points. If it happens a second time, it will result in a Zero for all reflection posts for that class. You might protest, but your protest will be in vain and you will be forced to rewrite your reflection(s). A second violation will result in us reporting you to the Office of Judicial Affairs and, yeah, that is not good. But you’ll have to work it out with them.
We have a team that is reading every. single. reflection essay. Clearly we’ll get better as the semester unfolds and we will definitely make some mistakes. Sorry about that in advance. But this is the life that we’re living right now and this is just how it’s going to be. Welcome to 2024.
Remember, if we flag you, then you cannot appeal. There is no appeal. And so if you have no plans to use an AI tool, then your obvious question should be, “How can I write these reflections so that you believe that I’ve actually written my own essay(s) and did not use an AI platform?”
Here are things that you can do to decrease the likelihood that you’ll be flagged:
Type accurate Time Codes and an accurate quote from the video. The more precise you are, the easier it will be for you and us to identify the moment of the video you are commenting on.
And if you have inaccurate time codes, that tells us that you’re trying to slip something past us and we’re automatically going to be suspicious.
Write the quote that you are using as accurately as possible. Don’t just say, “I’m going to discuss what that White kid said about his skin,” because, again, that makes us question whether you actually watched the video.
Do NOT write these as formal essays. This is NOT a research paper.
Use your own words in the reflection construction. Refer to your own experience in your hometown or discuss how your family talks about this particular topic.
Discuss something you “realized” or thought about “in a new way” while watching the video. Discuss how that new way of thinking applies to another example in your life.
You could include something about why it is that you selected that particular segment of the video/class. How is it personal to you? Perhaps you’ve never considered this and, because of that, you can imagine that you need to reconsider x or y in your thinking.
Connect your reflection to a recent event at Penn State, your hometown, or your family. Definitely stay away from generalizations and saying things like, “All human beings…” or “People tend to be…”
If you want to communicate with the SOC 119 Class Reflection Assignment Grading Team, send an email to: cra@soc119.org