The Sacred Journey

ISEM 101

Assignment 3: Cass Pilgrimages - Journal of Class Discussions, Reflective Writes, Textbook Notes

submit all journal entries via email to: rfrey@uidaho.edu

This is a seminar in engagement. In order to more fully explore and, in turn, understand the rich meaning and insight messages offered in the seminar, you need to engage in the seminar's learning activities.  Attend all class sessions, and have the assigned readings completed before class sessions.  Come to class prepared to discuss.  There will be opportunities for you to share your thoughts and questions on the assigned readings and class sessions, one verbal, during class, and one written, in your journal. 

Class Discussion: Throughout the semester you are expected to contribute, voluntarily, to the on-going class discussions.  Add your voice to the class dialogue. 

Maintain a Journal: Include in a loose-leaf binder, your notes from class and notes from the assigned readings, as well as your reflective responses to guided questions asked of you during class sessions.  Go to good note-taking for a review of note taking skills. Your journals should reflect all materials gathered over a two-week period, and will be collected on every other Thursday and returned to you the following Tuesday.  There will be a total of seven (7) submission entries during the course of the seminar.  Remove the appropriate pages from your binder and submit your entry, paper clipped, with your name on it.

Outlines and Reflective Responses to Assigned Readings:  Notes from the assigned readings should entail good outlines of key ideas and concepts presented in the text, doing so in your own words, and also include reflections on those key ideas and concepts.  You should provide a response to only those assigned readings marked with an asterisk *.  You are asked to do a minimum of three (3) outlines/reflections for each of your seven (7) submitted journal entries.  Each of these entries should be minimum of a significant paragraph in length.   It is your choice of which sections within the assigned readings you wish to outline and reflect on.  Try to select sections from your readings that are the most challenging to you, or is new to you, introducing a new idea or concept, or that is of particular interest to you.

Reflective Responses to Guided Questions: In addition, you will be periodically asked  to respond in writing to a specific question posed by the instructor on a given assigned reading or class presentation.  These responses will ask you to reflect on the significance and meaning of a specific passage or idea conveyed in the reading or presentation.  There will be approximately 12 or so guided questions asked of you during the semester.

To reflect is not to summarize, but to seriously contemplate and consider the cultural meanings, assumptions and implications of a specific text, i.e., a textbook reading or a video.  It is an act of introspection.   Your goal is two-fold.  1. Seek to articulate your own cultural, philosophical and religious perspective, as well as, 2. seek to understand what you consider to be the cultural and religious perspective of those represented in the encountered text, be they from the Indigenous or Taoist tradition, for example. 

Your Journal entries will be collected every two weeks for review and assessment.  Submit via email to rfrey@uidaho.edu 

Points: there are forty (40) total points possible for your entire journal.  There will be seven (7) submissions during the semester, with each submission worth up to five-six (5-6) points each.  One (1) point will be given to each of the reading outlined/reflected upon.  Your elect which text readings you wish to engage.

Grading criteria:

• For the In-Class Discussion:  Respond with clarity and relevance, as well as an informed position to any class questions asked of you.   Pose your own poignant questions and effectively contribute to the entire class in discussion of the reading assignments.  Participate in a constructive fashion, spawning a lively discussion within the entire class. 

• For the Journal: Provide good notes on your readings and class lectures.  Reflect on the implications of the points posed in the text of the reading assignment, both from the perspective of an adherent of that tradition, and from your own spiritual perspective. Journals will be submitted 7 times during the course of the semester for review and grading. There will be three (3) points for the outlines/reflections on the readings for each of these seven submittals, for a total of 21 points.

• There will be approximately 12 or so Reflective Writes during the course of the semester.  If you miss a reflective write via an excused absence, it is still your responsibility to complete the assignment.  Ask a fellow student or the instructor for the question asked.