Why critical reflections?
The goal of critical reflections is give you the opportunity to critically analyze the experiences you have and the works you read, listen to, or view in pursuit of answering your essential question, and to make relevant connections between these experiences and works and the world. Each CR is short and in a format that is designed to encourage taking risks in your thinking. You will do one critical reflection each week during your Senior Project Experience.
We believe these critical reflections will provide a structure that allows you to figure out what you think, what you care about, what the Senior Project Experience means to you, and to share your ideas and questions with your primary audience—your cohort.
In addition, critical reflections will:
- record the development of your thinking about your Senior Project,
- help you define your critical interests and understanding in preparation for SP Presentations,
- allow you to determine topics for cohort discussion,
- give you the chance to raise the questions you find most compelling, challenging, problematic, or interesting,
- keep your writing muscles well-exercised — college is coming
What does a critical reflection look like?
A CR is a ONE PAGE (3-5 paragraphs) consideration of ONE IDEA, MOMENT, IMAGE, or EXPERIENCE. The basis of your reflection should be analytical. Ask yourself: What do I want my audience to understand?
A critical reflection should open up conversation. Questions can be a great way to open or close a critical reflection. You are not required to have a traditional “thesis,” but you should have a clear focus. In many cases, you may want to conclude with new questions that have been raised for you, given that a rich essential question (EQ) is not answered easily and each revelation should lead to new questions or shift your thinking on your EQ.
Types of Critical Reflections
EQ Investigation: You could write about a single experience or moment, even an artifact, and ask: how does this moment, experience, object, or encounter relate to my essential question?
Comparative: You might look at learning, and compare the learning you are doing in Senior Project with learning experiences you have had elsewhere, whether in or out of a classroom, at LREI or elsewhere. You could also compare the ideas — for example, how does your internship in business compare with ideas learned in Tom’s economics class?
Text and Personal Response: How does this idea resonate with or challenge my own beliefs, experiences, or practices? Be sure to give concrete and specific examples.
Text and My World: Make a connection between an idea/moment/experience and current events, or discuss some of the outside reading and research you have been doing. For example, if you are looking at the role of the curator in the audience’s perception of art, you could look at catalogs from museum exhibits and write a response to that document.
Tips for Success:
- All Critical Reflections are to be posted on the Senior Project blog (select your cohort group and advisor as categories).
- Use the following naming convention for your post “Name – Critical Reflection #X”
- Make sure you include your Essential Question on each CR; if your essential question has shifted, make sure to include the most current version.
- Get to the point! You should dive right in. There is no time for waffling around. Introduce your idea clearly in the first sentence or two.
- Edit, edit, edit. It is usually easiest to start writing and go until you run out of content without worrying about length; you can edit down after. You’ll figure out quickly what is absolutely necessary. (If you don’t have enough to fill a page you might be asking the wrong questions.)
- Refer to the “text.” Base your discussion on a particular and specific moment, idea, or observation. This is essential.
- List your most resonant questions and then answer them.
Presentation, Citation, and Submission:
If you reference outside pieces of writing or other media, please hyperlink or append a basic citation (author, title of book or title of essay/article AND title of publication, year. Do not worry about the formatting of the citation — we want you to focus on the writing — but make sure enough information is provided that anyone reading your CR can find the referenced source.
Style:
Use (find!) your voice. You can use a more informal, exploratory tone than an academic paper — this is closer to a personal essay or super smart blog post — but this is still a crafted, finished piece. You can use first person. Proofread! The expectation is that your work will be free of typos, spelling errors, and grammar mistakes.
Gentle Reminder:
It is critical that you complete your CR and post it by the day it is due. If you have a planned absence, you are still required to submit your work.