Florida Atlantic University
Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Fall 2007
Course Title: Being cared for: Reflections from the other side of the bed
Course Number: NUR 1016
Credit Hours: 3 credits: A writing across the curriculum (WAC) course
Placement: Equivalent to ENC 1102
Pre-requisites: ENG 1101
Schedule: e-College platform (asynchronous): Weekly participation is required for successful completion
Course Site: http://faunursing.net (See direction at site for password information)
This is an asynchronous, totally on-line learning experience. Visit the course site and view the technical requirements to see the computer hardware and software needed to fully participate in this learning experience.
Faculty: Deborah A. Raines, Ph.D., RN
Professor
Office: NU 323
Primary contact: via Cyber-office on course WEB-site
Cyber-Office Hours: Monday 10 a.m.-12 noon
Thursday 9-11 p.m. (By appointment)
· Course site is monitored daily. Items posted to the weekly question area or the private office will be acknowledged within 48 hours.
On-Campus office Hours: Monday 10 a.m. – 12 noon
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Exploration through writing, reading and thinking about the concept being cared for and it’s meaning to the individual as a member of society as well as a future human service/health care professional. Journey will encompass a variety of writing assignments based on readings and reflections on the situation of being cared for.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
· Examine the image of caring in situations across the life span.
· Express in writing an understanding of “being cared for” as illustrated in literature, poetry and art.
· Develop innovative written expressions of “being cared for”
· Discuss the writing process as a way of coming to know others.
· Develop writing skills to enhance critical thinking and active learning abilities.
· Write a critique of a peer’s written work.
· Revise written work based on self-reflection and constructive critique.
· Compose a scholarly paper exploring the concept of “being cared for”.
CONTENT OUTLINE:
The concept of “being cared for” is the unifying thread as we explore and progress through the journey of learning to write as a mode of coming to know, of critical thinking and exploration and of innovative ways of expression ideas and scholarly discourse and critique.
I. The concept “being cared for…”
a. Images
b. Understanding
c. Illustrations in literature, poetry and art
d. Self-reflection and personal meanings
II. Reading to write…writing to think…thinking to learn
a. Writing, thinking and knowledge
i. The connection between writing and thinking
ii. The connection between writing and coming to know
b. Reflection and critique
i. Reflecting on what you write
ii. Critiquing the work of others
iii. Building towards better written expression
iv. Revising and re-writing
III. Being cared for: The EDIT approach to writing about a situation
a. Exploring
b. Describing
c. Interpreting
d. Telling others
IV. Writing across your career
a. Types of writing
b. Writing as a
i. Necessity
ii. Skill
iii. Talent
iv. Desire
V. Valuing professional and personal writing
VI. Being cared for….the story of your journey.
READINGS:
All readings are posted in Doc-Sharing on the e-college course site or are available full-text from one of the FAU Library databases. Be sure you have a FAU OWL card and have set-up a proxy server to facilitate off-campus access to the resources of the library.
GRADING:
You begin this course with ZERO points. You will have opportunities to earn points throughout this course. Points are earned based on you providing evidence, through course assignments, activities, projects, papers, on-going dialogue and journaling of high quality writing and the ability to effectively present and communicate in the written form. The maximum number of points available for each course activity is specified in this syllabus on the course outline. The grading scale delineates the number of points you need to earn to achieve a particular letter grade. At the end of the course, there will be no opportunity to earn extra points. Your grade will be determined by the points YOU earn during the course through the demonstration of your knowledge and abilities and the quality of the work you present as evidence of your knowledge, abilities and skills.
This is a writing course. Therefore the quality of your writing is important in all activities. Any written assignment, not presented as a finished professional example of your writing talent will be returned with the notation – “Not ready for grading”. You will have one opportunity to re-submit any assignment returned because it was “Not ready for grading”. However the maximal point available on the re-submission will be ½ of the original number of points allocated for the assignment. The types of issues that make a paper “not ready for grading” include but are not limited to: a lack of attention to spelling, grammar, or structure of the paper (i.e. introduction, body, conclusion, etc), lack of logical organization or flow of ideas, use of biased language and other items outlined in the APA 5th edition manual.. If your work is returned as “not ready for grading” you will be required to complete and submit an error log as well as a finished version of the paper. Both the error log and the finished version of the paper are due two weeks from the day the “Not ready” paper is returned to you. Failure to submit both the error log and finished paper within the 2-week interval will result in a grade of zero. The faculty may specify specific activities that you must complete to remediate the identified deficits prior to the re-submission being acceptable.
GRADE SCALE:
GRADING SCALE:
The following is the new uniform grading scale approved by Faculty January 29, 2007. A grade below C is not passing in the Undergraduate program in the College of Nursing.
Points Earned / Percentage / Letter grade / Points Earned / Percentage / Letter grade3750-4000 / 93-100% / A / 3080-3199 / 77-79% / C+
3600-3749 / 90-92% / A- / 2920-3079 / 73-76 / C
3480-3599 / 87-89% / B+ / 2800-2919 / 70-72 / C-
3320-3479 / 83-86% / B / 2400-2799 / 60-69 / D
3200-3319 / 80-82 / B- / <2400 / 0-59% / F
A WORD ABOUT GRADING:
When it comes to grading - it is unrealistic to think that just because you "do something" you willget the maximum number of points for an assignment.The maximum score is for those who are truly outstanding and go above and beyond expectations. Those who do "exactly what the assignment states" are meeting the minimum competenceor are averageand thereforeearned an average score (remember "C" is average). Therefore if you are doing exactly what the assignment states you need to do or the minimum to be satisfactory- that is what you earn...a passing score or about 70% of the available points. If you do good work - that is, provide evidence of some additional effort beyond "just getting it done" you are earning points consistent with B level work - or about 82-85% of the available points. Excellent work is rewarded with approximately 92-95% of the maximum points. Whereas the maximum points availableare for work that shows extraordinary critical thinking skills, creativity, and writing skill and is truly work that is above and beyond expectations. Remember your work is evaluated on the quality of your writing, evidence of knowledge, thinking and communications of the material covered in the course content. While there are clearly stated minimum requirements to receive credit for an assignment, how you present your work, the quality of the effort that is evident in the presented product and your ability to provide evidence of your evolving knowledge of the meaning of caring within your career aspirations is the basis of assigning a number of points to or grading your work.
I believe the students in a course can all be outstanding, can all be average, or be a mixture of both. The choice is yours. If you believe you are outstanding...show me the evidence through your writing and thinking, as evidenced in your written work.
SUMMARY OF WRITING ACTIVITIES:
In the process of this course students will experience a variety of writing activities. These activities include:
· Journaling: a process of personal reflection on self as writer and personal goals, aspirations and desires. There is a theme or focus for each entry and your writing needs to respond to the designated theme.
o Students will submit at least 3 journals with a minimum of 500 words per journal. There must be a minimum of a 2-week interval between Journal entries and all entries must be completed no later than the date indicated on the syllabus.
· Reflective Essays: a structure mode of writing to measure a student’s writing proficiency. Students will demonstrate specific thinking and organizational patterns in the creation of an essay that consists of the writer’s ideas about literary texts and the concept of interest.
· Dialogue: On going and continuous communication between the writer and peers to clarify, explore and refine understanding. The writer will revise and explain intention of written work after synthesis of peers input. Both the frequency of contribution and quality and substantive nature of the posting will be considered.
· Concept papers: a scholarly paper to clarify and organize ideas in a written form and provide a basis for constructive critique and reflection using a personal/professional situation.
· Aesthetic Writing: a creative writing opportunity. Students will create an aesthetic expression of the concept “Being cared for” using the written word. Example may include: poetry, haiku, short stories and others.
· Peer Critique: a peer review of the student’s work to provide feed back focused on the strengths of the writing, the areas needing further development and the overall impression the paper leaves on the reader.
o Students will complete both on-line/interactive and individual critiques on peers work. All critiques will be shared with the author of the original work and with the course faculty.
· Scholarly Paper: a formal paper incorporating research, critical thinking and scholarly writing skills to demonstrate an understanding of and the application of the concept of “being cared for”. or
· Manuscript for Publication: a formal, scholarly paper focused on the understanding and application of the concept “being cared for” prepared and submitted for publication in a journal (journal must be approved by the faculty in advanced).