Checklist to determine whether your notes or essay are ready to be handed in

• Notes or essay are typed and edited.
  
  
• Notes or essay are written to demonstrate a careful understanding, reflection, synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of the concepts discussed in the texts, not simply repeating what the book says. Don't summarize...analyze.
  
  For example, simply writing "In chapter 3, Glasser is talking about lead management and boss management. Glasser defines boss management as, "the boss sets tasks and standards and tells the worker rather than shows the worker," would be an inadequate response. That's just copying what the author says. In addition to noting the ideas the author raises, you should make explicit connections to your own experience, use examples from your own life to illustrate the concepts, reflect on how the concepts might be applied in your own work, analyze how the concept may or may not apply in various settings, and/or evaluate the utility of the concept given your experience in schools or with children. One or more of these sorts of higher order analytic skills needs to be demonstrated in each response. Please see the example response below for more details on how to write truly reflective notes that display higher-order thinking skills.
  
  
• Please use the format I demonstrate below. It helps you (and me) see how you are emphasizing your reflections and analysis over simply repeating what the author says. Label your reflections ("My reflection") to distinguish the analysis portion of your reflection.
  
  
• Notes or essay discuss all or nearly all of the major concepts in the book, not just a few.
  
  
• Your responses to the quiz questions should be approximately 300-500 words for each of the 11 questions. A comparable level of depth is expected for the essay/notes, but remember, quality is more important than quantity.
  
  
• Notes or essay display college-level writing skills (full sentences, discrete paragraphs for each main idea, good grammar, APA format, etc.).
  
  
• Notes or essay is submitted via GoogleDrive, making sure to save or convert the document to GoogleDocs format.
  
  
• The title of the document is, "My Name - Glasser Notes," (this example is for the Glasser book. Of course, insert the name of the author whose book you are reviewing).

If after reviewing this checklist you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the instructor.

Excerpt from a recent student's Glasser notes that are exemplary. (This is a very short sample. Obviously you would discuss all of the major concepts in the book, not just a few. Note the emphasis on making connections to one's own life and experiences, not just repeating what the author says.)

Chapter One: Quality Education Is the Only Answer to Our School Problems

Glasser asserts that while the majority of students understand what quality work is and are capable of doing it, the current way that teachers manage their classrooms results in students not producing quality work and not caring that their work is subpar.

My reflection: Overall, I really enjoyed my K-12 schooling experience, but there were certain subjects that never held my interest, particularly history. The set-up for most of my history classes were as follows: attend lecture, take notes, memorize notable people, places, and events, and regurgitate this information on a test. The discussion of how this information was relevant or meaningful to myself and my peers was essentially nonexistent. As a result, I did not care about the academic content of the class. Many of my assignments were graded on completion, so I spent little time working on them; I made sure I had an answer for every question, and then stopped working on it. I understood what quality work looked like in other classes or extracurriculars that I enjoyed, but I had no desire to produce this in my history classes.

I believe humans are selfish by nature; people do not want to do things that are not meaningful and relevant to their lives. If students do not find value or quality in what they are being taught, they are not going to produce quality assignments/projects/arguments and will mostly likely not be motivated to complete the academic work at all. During my field placement at Xxxxxx School, I worked with 8th grade students taking Algebra 1. My host teacher’s management style, choice of content delivery, and unsuccessful attempts to make the mathematics content and assignments have value resulted in essentially the entire class not doing work or doing just the bare minimum to pass. As teachers, it is crucial that we are getting to know our students as individuals; if we understand our students as people, then we have a basis for developing quality lessons, assignments, projects, and assessments.