Reflection Journal

Creative reflection journal (working drafts: pages about 8pages)

Though this course has been focused on Indigenous spiritualities and place-based philosophies, the intention is not only to provide you each with greater understanding of this essential part of many Indigenous peoples’ experiences but to offer moments of self-reflection and an invitation to situate yourself within your own unique and storied experience. The discussion forum prompts, as a central part of this asynchronous course, have centered creative and comparative practices to encourage multidisciplinary synthesis in your creative reflection journal. 

A collection of personal reflections will be due at the culmination of the course and should reflect critical thinking, engagement with assigned texts, and your own synthesis of ideas. The collected entries from the creative reflection journal – 15 entries minimum – will be submitted in lieu of a final exam. This assignment will be completed in two parts: the creative reflection journal working draft (due 11/19) and final submission of your creative reflection journal (due 12/9). 

For those of you that feel called to shape your own journal format – whether that is personal reflection on materials and concepts discussed in class or creative responses to the emotional process of relating throughout the course – you are welcome to take creative liberties! For those of you who are project oriented, I have provided some “prompts” to build from. Understanding that each of you has a lot on your plate – other courses, families, self-care, work, and so on – having an anchor for how to approach this assignment may be helpful. 

prompt #1:

For this assignment, create a web or visual archive on one of the issues, texts, authors, or covered in class of at least 15 pages or slides, which you may eventually choose to publish on tumblr or other web format. You must use at least 5 sources, 3 of which should be from course readings and visual or sound-based media. For the remainder of your sources, it’s up to you to determine the type which would most appeal to your audience. Your visual or multimedia archive may be a creative format, but should integrate an overview or a table of contents, headings, credited photos, and numbered citations. 500 words of the assignment should be an introduction to the topic of your archive, the intended audience, presence or absence of an existing archive or creative document, and, if it does exist, how your perspective differs from existing ones.

prompt #2:

For this final creative reflection, find a piece of current or in process legislation, policy, or environmental issue that impacts Native communities and their ability to practice their spiritual sovereignty or place-based philosophies here in the United States. In 15 multidisciplinary pages or slides, offer a close analysis of the narrative the law or issue is crafting, outline the legislators, industries or communities who support it as well as those against it, detail its impact on affected communities, and if or how the law/bill/issue is in conversation with other legal texts impacting Indigenous nations or peoples, past or present. This assignment should offer your own critical perspectives, using literary sources from the class and outside research to support your argument, but may also use creative form, like Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas. You are required to utilize a minimum of 5 citations or references, using at least three from the course readings or discussion forum supplemental “texts,” to support your thoughts and perspective.

prompt #3:

Drawing inspiration from the intergenerational focus of Deborah Miranda’s shared histories, Layli Long Soldier’s poetic documents, and/or my own chapter about family and place-based histories, craft your own mini-memoir reflecting on lives of your own family members or community/communities of origin and the impact(s) it has on your own lived experience. As our texts are multi-disciplinary, inclusion of images, creative writing, poetry and other forms of storytelling practices are welcome additions to the development of your mini-memoir. There are many ways that you could approach this task, but it may be helpful to consider specific facets of experience such as food and diet, holidays or family gatherings, traditions, migration stories, labor or work histories, gender(ed) experience, education, spiritual practice and so on. You are required to utilize a minimum of 5 citations or references, using at least three from the course readings or discussion forum supplemental “texts,” to structure your thoughts and argument. In completing this assignment, you are encouraged to interview at least one member of your family or extended kin –  interviews can count as one or more of the five required sources for this paper.

“prompt” #4:

If not drawn to the included prompts, students may propose a final project or reflection focus that connects their own research interests, creative inspiration, or personal perspectives to topics in the class. Forms that have been proposed in the past include straightforward literary critique or comparison, a research paper that uses literary sources to support its argument, short story, creative nonfiction, a body of visual work or a poetic response to an author, topic, or written form/style. You are required to utilize a minimum of 5 citations or references, using at least three from the course readings or discussion forum supplemental “texts,” to support your thoughts and perspectives.

Students are responsible for selecting a medium that resonates most with their personal preference and mode of expression- whether kept in a paper journal, sketchbook, embroidery, iPad or other digital method, audio responses, music, etc. For submission, both draft and final iterations are to be submitted as a PDF, word document (if text based), or link to online format (i.e. website, database, google slides, google drive folder with images/scans included, etc).

To successfully complete the working draft portion of the creative reflection journal (due 11/19), please submit the following:

• The completed “working draft” will be a minimum of 8 pages or slides

• 400 word (minimum) proposal or introduction to your creative reflection journal
  • Page “1” of your working draft
  • This should outline the approach you intend to take with the assignment, noting a prompt followed (if any), medium(s) used, and personal process.
• 7+ pages of draft or completed materials
  • Students may find it helpful to use techniques like mind-mapping, pulling citations or references that are generative, and including text-based or visual outlines
  • Alternatively, you may submit images, slides, or audio files that are works in progress.
  • Depending on your process, the images included in your working draft may or may not be included in the final assignment – this is just to get a glimpse of the process underway.
• creative reflection journal working drafts are to be submitted to this assignment as a PDF, word document (if text based), or link to online format (i.e. website, database, google slides, google drive folder with images/scans included, etc).