Self Reflection Paper Assignment Sheet
CADV 350: Spring 2016
Instructor: Dr. Jo Anne ShwayderPandey
California State University, Northridge

The goal of this paper is for you to reflect on how material learned in class about a specific topic relates to your own learning experiences, and how these experiences and material might then affect your own future profession in working with children and adolescents and/or their parents, or how it will affect your own parenting practices or how you relate to other children in your life. This is an individually written paper.

Selecting a particular topic
This is one of the most important parts of the paper. You may write about anything we discuss in class or in the text. You have a wide selection of topics – so choose well. A narrower topic will help your paper to be more concise and focused. For instance, factors that increase intrinsic motivation would be a better topic than general motivation or even intrinsic motivation. You may wish to start your search for a specific topic with a chapter/general topic that interests you and then narrow it down. This can be done by thinking about how the general topic relates to your life. For instance, during class you might think, “Oh, that explains why I always was very good/bad at … my teacher was doing …(some concept from class that we are discussing)…” Then you can narrow it down to a particular topic from there.
You should choose a topic that you can describe well in 2 to 5 paragraphs including definitions of important concepts. You should also choose a topic that you are interested in and one you can write about well. You are trying to impress me with your understanding of the topic. Moreover, you should choose a topic that you can relate in specific ways to your previous experience and to your future work with children whether as a professional, a parent, or other relationship with a child/adolescent. If you cannot do this, choose another topic. For instance, you should choose another topic if you cannot say something like, “Now that I understand (insert your particular topic here) better, I know in the future I will do (insert specific example of practice related to the topic) when I am a teacher/mother/uncle.”

In your paper you should:

 briefly describe important aspects your topic that relate to what you will be reflecting on, including definitions of important concepts (make sure to cite your sources in APA style – you must have citations in this section). Your goal here is to describe in-depth the aspects of your specific topic that relate to your experiences. I am looking for a more in-depth discussion, not a general summary of the topic.
 describe how the topic relates to your own experience using specific examples
 briefly describe the future profession (or parenting) you will be discussing
 discuss how you think your knowledge of the topic and your specific experiences with it will affect you future profession or parenting
 include a reference page
 DO NOT include an abstract
 Remember that the objective of this paper to impress me with your ability to reflect on how your in-class learning relates to real life
 In order to protect privacy, pseudonyms can be used in your discussion of specific examples

Length: Your paper should be 3-5 pages long

Grading rubric (quarter and half points are possible):

Accurate description/discussion of topic 3 points
Clear and relevant description of own experience with topic 2 points
Concise description of future work with children and how it
relates to topic 1 point
Clear and relevant discussion of how knowledge and experience
will affect future profession 3 points
Overall clarity and use of APA style 1 point