800 Word Minimum; Bring a Solid Draft Monday, September 21

Douglass 1

Prof. Douglass

English 80

DUE: 23 September 2015

Educational Autobiography

800 word minimum; bring a solid draft Monday, September 21

In this paper, I would like you to tell me the story of your educational history, the good, the bad, and any key bits in between that will help illustrate you to me as a learner in a school setting.

Make it detailed so I can learn more about you, and thoughtful so you can start to consider some of your own history in the context of ideas you have been learning about. I would like you to include the following sections; you should consider making each section a paragraph with one golden sentence (main idea) that answers my direct question or instruction and that the paragraph is built around:

1. Describe one specific good experience you had in your past education (in any subject) and discuss or

analyze what was good about it.

2. Describe one especially bad experience you had in your past education (in any subject) and discuss

or analyze why it was so bad.

3. Talk about how ideas from Carol Dweck’s “Brainology” relate to your educational experiences in

any subject. Do you think you’ve ever had a fixed mindset about yourself as a learner? Have you

ever had a growth mindset about yourself as a learner? Can you recall any moment when you shifted

from one mindset to another?

4. Discuss your past experiences with academic reading and writing. If you like doing these things,

why? If you don’t, why not? Do you feel confident in these areas? Do you have a growth mindset

towards these areas, and if not, do you feel like this semester you might be able to develop that (can

you give specific examples of your growth mindset or how you think you can work on that)?

5. Please close by bringing me up to now. What do you want to get out of English 80 this semester?

What are you concerned about? What are you excited about? 2

This assignment will be worth 2% of your grade, and as long as it is at least 800 words and on topic, you will get a for-credit “A” for doing the basics. Responses that are less than 800 words or totally off topic will fail with some credit points; no response gets a zero. But the more important part of this is the feedback you will get from me in my notes and comments on the paper, and what you are telling me about yourself as a learner.

Here are some goals for the craft of your writing once you feel you’ve covered the basics of the assignment:

 Illustrate that you understand Dweck’s ideas and can apply them to your experience. (This is

a critical thinking goal.)

 Present your ideas in a way that someone who hasn’t read the article and isn’t in your head

can follow along. Think about how your ideas should start, how they should develop, and

how they should close. (This is an organization goal.)

 Be detailed when talking about your experiences. (This is a development of argument goal.)

 Try to write sentences that are clear and direct and that make sense when you read them

aloud, separate from the others around them. (This is a grammar/writing goal)

 If you use the exact words (phrases or sentences) from something you’ve read, be sure to put

it in quotes, so your reader knows you aren’t claiming that the work is yours.

At any point that you have questions, contact me or Adam for help or to clarify. See me in office hours or via email for help with any part of the writing process.

[email protected] / Quad 222F