Week 7 Self-Assessment

Take some time to sit with where you are at right now in terms of your life this quarter and the work you’ve been doing as a researcher, writer, critical thinker, human being, student, son/daughter, and more. Being conscious about how you think about your processes (including thinking about your thinking) can provide a snapshot of what moves/motivates you at this moment in time. Each assessment then becomes an artifact that chronicles your relationship to your thoughts and actions held within a specific historical context. The act of self-assessment can be very simple, such as tracking how you felt doing a certain assignment, or some small insight your research or writing uncovered–there’s no need to feel like you have to be profound or figure out your deep internal workings once and for all. Week-7 Self-Assessment Assignment:   Write two paragraphs (or more) addressing one or two of the following prompts. You can also choose to create and respond to your own prompt.  In many ways, an investigation of prison abolition also includes an interrogation of what it means to be part of a community, either one that is policed and incarcerated, or one that comes together on the outside to communicate/advocate for changes to the status quo, or one that includes a mixture of many elements. What is YOUR relationship to the idea of community? In what ways do you feel part of a community (or communities), or not? What keeps you connected to your different communities? What keeps you isolated and stops you from finding a community? Name and describe a source you’ve read or watched that shifted your idea of and relationship to the idea or experience of community. You can also describe a recent scene in your life, either school related or not, when you experienced a feeling of community, even if it’s with one other person or simply just yourself.   What is your experience of writing a fictionalized autobiography (or biography)? What aspects of your own lived experience did you include? Describe how this exercise made you feel. Why do you think you felt this way? How did your research prepare you, or not, for inhabiting someone’s life story, whether or not the story was a hybridized version of your own story? Briefly describe a moment when you were writing/composing your autobiography. For example: Were you sitting in a soft chair, looking out the window, what was out the window, what was on the wall, what were you thinking?  What has been the hardest moment for you these last few weeks, either in your personal life or something related to the work you’ve been doing in class? If you feel comfortable, unpack and describe this moment as fully as you can using sensual details (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch) to create a dimensional picture of the moment.  Craft a question or set of questions that probe(s) essential elements of your experience (either in the class or in your life) this last month.  I am a Chinese International female student, and now I am studying and staying in America. I am the senior university student.  Previous Next