Notebook Guidelines

Students are required to maintain a field notebook for the entire semester. Minimally, you should have an entry in your field notebook for each linking day of class. (If you would like to use your field notebook as your general notebook for this class, that is fine as well.) For your field notes, during class you should take notes on what is being said in both the group discussion and chat. Then after class, use those jottings to summarize both the class discussions and your chat sessions for each class day. Reflections on your experience in the class and your insight into both your culture and your partner’s culture should also be included in your field notes. Finally, as you write your field notes and think through what you have learned, more questions will arise, which should also be included in your written reflections. At the end of your entry you should also include issues that you would like to explore further with your partner, including specific questions you would like to ask them.

Requirements:

• The journal must be brought to each class period

• Minimally, there should be an entry for each linking day

• Each entry must be properly documented with the partner country, the date, and topic of discussion.

• Journals should be used to write papers and prepare for the final examination

Format:

A typical entry should be about one page in length and should contain all of the following:

Jottings / Notes

Notes about newspaper discussion

Notes taken during chat and discussion

Do not rely solely on your memory! Jottings or scratch notes are the brief notes you should take while in chat or group discussion. These are just short things that are meant to jog your memory. They are meant to be short so that taking them does not interfere with your interaction with your partners and the flow of conversation. If you try to write everything down you will inevitably miss other things that are going on. Again, jottings are simply brief notes (words/phrases) designed to help you remember what went on during your discussion/chat. Depending on how detailed they are you may want to go back after class and rewrite your notes to include a fuller description. Remember, your field notebooks are your primary source of data for your mini-ethnographies.

Analysis / Reflection

Highlights of discussion of the day

Surprising comments or attitudes of classmates & partners at both universities

Thoughts on the day’s discussions

Given what you described and experienced, what insights can you make about this other group of people? What do you think of what they told you? How do you feel about the things they do / believe? How do you think they are similar and/or different from us? Why do you think they do things the way they do? How do other things you know about this group relate to what you discussed? How did you feel about talking about this topic? Did you feel comfortable / uncomfortable? What about them? Do you think they were comfortable talking about the subject? Do you think they judged your ideas / practices / beliefs? Did you judge theirs? Why? How does the information / understanding you now have help you get a more general understanding of this group as a whole? Etc.

Questions to ponder

After reflecting on what you learned, it is inevitable that new questions will arise. Based on what you have already learned, what else would you need to find out in order for you to understand this issue more fully? What general questions have now developed that you would like to ask your partner? Write down your follow-up questions and then be sure to follow-up these issues in e-mail and chat.

At the end of our link with each culture, include an entry of reflection that synthesizes the entire link and compares it to your other links.

Questions for students to ask themselves:

What did you find most interesting about this culture?

What do you really like / dislike about this culture?

How do you like the people in this culture?

What are their biggest differences from us?

What are their biggest similarities to us?

What can we learn from them?

What can they learn from us?

Would you consider spending a year living there? Why / Why not?

How would your life be different if you were to move there?

Assessment:

There is no required length for each field note entry. Use the space you need. Consistency is the key here. Although your professor will not be collecting your notebooks to thoroughly read them, over the course of the semester your notebooks will be checked to ensure you are making a good faith effort towards keeping field notes.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31