Transcendent Practices/S04              Final Self Evaluation Working Outline

Your Name:					         Seminar Group:

Background Documents 

Get copies of the following documents:

•	The S04 Syllabus and S04 Program Description, 
•	Your weekly response/reflection sheets and seminar papers,
•	Anything else that records your process (journals, sketchbooks, notebooks, etc.) 

Work through the following working outline for your midterm self-evaluation.  Don’t bog down writing prose, just make lists in the spaces provided.

Working Outline

Material for your opening paragraph:
•	Describe your experience, hopes and learning goals at the start of this program this term and this year. 

•	Describe your performance in the program to date. (How was your attendance?  Did you attend fully?  Were you fully engaged? Did you complete the work assigned?  Did you work hard?  Did your effort reflect your abilities?

Material to draw from for your central paragraphs:
Here is a list of the major program activities.  Try numbering them in the order of their significance to you, and then address them in that order.   Characterize your learning in each and what you feel were especially significant experiences and insights for you.  

•	All Program Activities Monday AM Yoga (physical practice and Body and Earth connections) / Monday PM guest lectures / peer group meetings / Body and Earth “To Do” work and/orTrail Guide to the Body work / Body and Earth Chapter Project (What was your topic and how does it relate to program themes?) /  weekly response/reflection work and Thursday  all program integration sessions / Interview project.  Describe your efforts:

•	Yoga Focus Group (Sarah) (Tuesday AM practice; Tuesday PM check-in/workshop – your attendance and participation; on-going progress re: your individual study plan, especially answers to the five questions; self-assessment skills re: embodiment of Rumi’s “two intelligences” in relationship to your individual study plan; completion and presentation of your individual study plan.)

•	Individualized Studies (Bob) Identifying and planning your study; attendance and participation at weekly check-ins; challenges and successes, what you learned and how, documenting your learning, your presentation…)

•	Bronze Workshop  Assess your progress in the following areas: Sculpture concepts (scale, frontality vs. in-the-round, activating space, basing the work, multiples), The lost wax casting process,  Wax work, Investment, Pouring, Chasing, Finishing.  Life drawing concepts (gestural drawing types, anatomy review, proportioning, cues to form and space, scale and 'overlaption,' composition strategies.)  

•	Poetry   Participants in Poetry Workshop should comment on what they've learned about themselves as writers and readers in terms of the intensive focus that is the aim of Transcendent Practices' Spring Quarter.  What is it like to spend 20 hours/week on poetry and poetry-related topics?  What sustains your poetry-writing practice, and how does the practice sustain you?  What have you gleaned from your reading of the Alexie, Cisneros and Hass texts?  How would you relate your definition of Transcendence to what you've experienced so far, either as a writer or as a reader/critic?  How have your critical skills developed/improved?

•	Seminar (How’s your ability to explore ideas in dialogue?  Did you make progress?  What insights came out of the discussions for you?

•	Writing (Journal entries, note-taking, research papers, seminar papers, poetry… What kind of writing can you do now? Improvements? Changes in your thinking?)

•	Thinking and Judgement (Critical thinking-insight into your own and other’s work, integrative thinking-making connections between ideas, investigations, methods, etc.)

Material for your final paragraph(s):

•	How would you characterize your grasp of the skills and ideas presented?  Passing?  Fair? Very Good?  Excellent?  Detailed or general? 

•	What “light bulb” have you had? (Discoveries, realizations, career ideas…)

•	Has your perception of yoga, sculpture and poetry changed?  How?

•	How has your understanding of the terms transcendence, practice, grounding, flow  and sustenance  changed?

•	What progress did you make toward the goals you listed above?  What have you learned about yourself?

•	What will your next steps be? (Next term? Long term? New hopes? New goals?…} 

Your Final Self Evaluation-Instructions

1.	Write your first draft. Try using the simple Introduction/Body/Conclusion format suggested in the Working Outline.  Edit this for gross errors, and spell check. Maximum length is one page, one inch margins.  Use 11 Point Arial or Times New Roman type font.  Print three copies.  The question to keep in mind is this: How would you summarize your learning for someone unfamiliar with your efforts in the program?

2.	At the Self Evaluation Workshop, get together with two other students and have them critique your draft. Be fearless in offering constructive criticism. This is a very important step. You, in turn, should review the drafts of two other students.  Sign each draft that you review.

3.	Revise your own draft  final self evaluation.

4.	Save the Word document on a disc and/or e-mail it to yourself.

5.	Turn in your final double-spaced draft and two edited copies by the end of the final self-evaluation workshop.  That is Thursday, May 27, 2004. Your seminar leader will review this draft.  If we think it needs more work, we’ll turn it back to you by Tuesday of Week 10 for another revision.  

Next steps:

6.	 Make three copies on the official form. (One for your seminar leader, one for yourself and one for your transcript.)

7.	Turn in one final copy, on the official form, to your Seminar Leader’s mailbox by 9AM on Friday, June 4, 2004.  

One more note:

Consider the voice you use.  Does what you say about your work sound vague? Pompous? Overly personal? Defensive? Obsequious? Apologetic?  Strive to write clear, well-crafted prose.  Note your accomplishments without over-inflation.  Tie generalities back to your own experience.  Be objective.  Consider quoting yourself or your own writing in regard to personal and heartfelt work.