Course Description:
The Reflective Woman: The Reflective Life (TRL) is a discussion-based course intended to develop knowledge, values and skills in critical and creative inquiry, effective communication, and an understanding of diversity. As the title implies, the course uses a variety of approaches uniquely responsive to learning styles of women. In its three units, the course explores identity development within social contexts, different approaches to truth and evidence, and ways to work toward community and justice.
Course Purpose and Philosophy:
CORE1000 is designed to provide a common experience for all new St. Catherine University students and is an introduction to the life of study here at St. Kate's. The course focuses on the history and mission of St. Catherine University, as it relates to your life, community and career. It is multidisciplinary: the readings come from all academic fields. It is critical: you will be asked to raise questions and not simply accept answers. It is interactive: you and your instructor will talk, listen, and debate as a team exploring together. It is skill oriented: you will be asked to develop reading, thinking, and writing skills that will serve you well not only in this course, but in all of your courses. It is personal: you will bring your own story to the course content and then be offered the chance to incorporate this content back into your story.
CORE1000 is not a course in which your instructor lectures you about facts, principles, or theories which you later recite or explain in an exam. In this course, the instructor’s role is to work with students to discover the knowledge inherent in a text, essay, story, or art object, then to help students use this knowledge to form their own views and develop their own wisdom. Your instructor’s job is to guide you toward interesting questions, help you process difficult readings, offer opportunities to build excellent academic skills and help focus discussions. The rest is up to you. Each of us is unique, so to some extent what we get from the course will be unique and, of course, dependent upon what we put into it.
The St. Catherine University mission is the foundation for this course:
Inspired by its visionary founding in 1905 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet,
more than a century later the University serves diverse students, with a baccalaureate
college for women at its heart and graduate and associate programs for women and men.
At all degree levels, St. Catherine integrates liberal arts and professional education
within the Catholic tradition, emphasizing intellectual inquiry and social teaching,
and challenging students to transformational leadership. Committed to excellence
and opportunity, St. Catherine University develops ethical, reflective and socially
responsible leaders, informed by the philosophy of the women’s college and the spirit
of the founders.
If you are working toward a baccalaureate degree at St. Kate's, you will have the opportunity to complete Global Search for Justice as a junior or senior. That course is the culminating common mission course for baccalaureate students.
Course Structure:
There are three major sections in this course, constructed around the belief that a common experience builds a stronger learning community and highlights our unique institutional mission:
1. Composing a Life
You will be asked to enter into the story of your life, as your story connects to the mission and history of St. Catherine University, in order to think about how lives are composed around values, meanings and social constructs.
2. Searching for Truths
In alignment with our mission, we will explore truth as a value. We will look at various pathways to discovering truths—artistic, scientific, social, philosophical, and religious—and examine what constitutes grounds for believing something to be true.
3. Working for Community and Justice
We will explore the values that form our communities. Through further exploration of our mission, we will explore ways to move what we have learned into action.
LIFE Goals and Course Learning OutcomesThis course connects to the St. Kate’s LIFE Goals and Outcomes. As a participant in this course you will engage in significant study of the central themes of the St. Catherine University mission, as you:
Citation Method:
For all written assignments, please use APA citations. Here is an Introduction to APA Citations. For more information, please see: APA Citations and References.
Weekly Videos:
Each week, a video is posted that will give you the big picture of your learning for that week. You should make a habit of viewing these videos before beginning any of the assignments.
Course Process:
Some of you may have taken online or hybrid courses before, while for others this may be an entirely new experience. Regardless of the delivery method of the course, we are committed to your growth as a student, and you should feel welcome to contact your instructor at any time with any questions.
There will be a heavy load of reading and writing each week, and it will be necessary that you read the assignment instructions carefully, incorporate your instructor’s feedback into your assignments, and turn in your assignments on time. Our class, no matter the format, will evoke kindness, respect and professionalism.
You will sometimes be asked to post your annotations (i.e., text notes) for your readings. You may post your assigned annotations in any way that makes them readable: screen shot, photo, word document, etc.
If you are struggling to understand the materials or have significant issues with the mechanics of writing, you may be contacted by your instructor to work one-on-one, seek outside tutoring, or review additional materials for more practice. The online writing assistance, called Thinking Storm, is available to all students.
This class will be rigorous, and will demand significant work to improve your writing. You are strongly encouraged to be proactive and contact your instructor if you have any questions or concerns.
Student Disability Resources:
St. Catherine University is committed to equal access for all and recognizes that disability is an aspect of diversity. The University’s goal is to create learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to the learning environment and/or the accurate assessment of your achievement, please contact Student Accessibility & Accommodations as soon as possible.
If you are registered with Student Accessibility & Accommodations and have been granted an accommodation, please contact your instructor to review how the accommodation will be applied in this course.
Critical Skills:
CORE1000 will provide development in multiple academic skills that will be necessary for your success here at St. Kate’s. Specifically, this class will provide instruction in RTW, a method that connects critical reading (R), thinking (T) and writing (W.) Bookmark your RTW Materials, as you will be using this site weekly. The course will engage you in:
Required Textbook:
You will not have to purchase a text for this course, as all learning materials are provided as open-source or free materials.
Academic Integrity:
As a student in this course (and at this university) you are expected to maintain high degrees of professionalism, commitment to active learning and participation in this class and also integrity in your behavior in and out of the classroom. You are expected to abide by the University’s policies on academic integrity, behavior, and conduct. Please refer to the "Academic Integrity Policy" in the Undergraduate Academic Catalog. You must be logged into Kateway to access these resources. We assume that all students strive to attain the highest level of academic writing and academic honesty.
Attendance:
Class participation and preparation are essential. Because of the nature of this course, attendance is of the utmost importance. Should you be unable to attend, please contact your instructor. Excellent attendance includes thoughtful contributions to the discussion board, timely assignment submission, and regular communication with the instructor. For St. Kate’s official attendance policy, please follow this link:
http://minerva.stkate.edu/academiccatalog.nsf/web_retrieve/mina-7lgc4t?OpenDocument
Late assignments:
Late assignments will only be accepted if previous arrangements are made with the instructor before the due date; late work will only be accepted within one week of the due date. Late discussion board posts are not accepted regardless of the reason for being late, as the purpose of those boards is to engage in meaningful interaction with your classmates. Please note that there is no extra credit available for this course.
Grading:
Your grade will be based on discussions, writing assignments, project and oral assignments. Here is a Grade Chart that you can use to track your grade:
The Reflective Woman: The Reflective Life (TRL) is a discussion-based course intended to develop knowledge, values and skills in critical and creative inquiry, effective communication, and an understanding of diversity. As the title implies, the course uses a variety of approaches uniquely responsive to learning styles of women. In its three units, the course explores identity development within social contexts, different approaches to truth and evidence, and ways to work toward community and justice.
Course Purpose and Philosophy:
CORE1000 is designed to provide a common experience for all new St. Catherine University students and is an introduction to the life of study here at St. Kate's. The course focuses on the history and mission of St. Catherine University, as it relates to your life, community and career. It is multidisciplinary: the readings come from all academic fields. It is critical: you will be asked to raise questions and not simply accept answers. It is interactive: you and your instructor will talk, listen, and debate as a team exploring together. It is skill oriented: you will be asked to develop reading, thinking, and writing skills that will serve you well not only in this course, but in all of your courses. It is personal: you will bring your own story to the course content and then be offered the chance to incorporate this content back into your story.
CORE1000 is not a course in which your instructor lectures you about facts, principles, or theories which you later recite or explain in an exam. In this course, the instructor’s role is to work with students to discover the knowledge inherent in a text, essay, story, or art object, then to help students use this knowledge to form their own views and develop their own wisdom. Your instructor’s job is to guide you toward interesting questions, help you process difficult readings, offer opportunities to build excellent academic skills and help focus discussions. The rest is up to you. Each of us is unique, so to some extent what we get from the course will be unique and, of course, dependent upon what we put into it.
The St. Catherine University mission is the foundation for this course:
Inspired by its visionary founding in 1905 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet,
more than a century later the University serves diverse students, with a baccalaureate
college for women at its heart and graduate and associate programs for women and men.
At all degree levels, St. Catherine integrates liberal arts and professional education
within the Catholic tradition, emphasizing intellectual inquiry and social teaching,
and challenging students to transformational leadership. Committed to excellence
and opportunity, St. Catherine University develops ethical, reflective and socially
responsible leaders, informed by the philosophy of the women’s college and the spirit
of the founders.
If you are working toward a baccalaureate degree at St. Kate's, you will have the opportunity to complete Global Search for Justice as a junior or senior. That course is the culminating common mission course for baccalaureate students.
Course Structure:
There are three major sections in this course, constructed around the belief that a common experience builds a stronger learning community and highlights our unique institutional mission:
1. Composing a Life
You will be asked to enter into the story of your life, as your story connects to the mission and history of St. Catherine University, in order to think about how lives are composed around values, meanings and social constructs.
2. Searching for Truths
In alignment with our mission, we will explore truth as a value. We will look at various pathways to discovering truths—artistic, scientific, social, philosophical, and religious—and examine what constitutes grounds for believing something to be true.
3. Working for Community and Justice
We will explore the values that form our communities. Through further exploration of our mission, we will explore ways to move what we have learned into action.
LIFE Goals and Course Learning OutcomesThis course connects to the St. Kate’s LIFE Goals and Outcomes. As a participant in this course you will engage in significant study of the central themes of the St. Catherine University mission, as you:
- apply an understanding of social justice, as an active member of the St. Catherine community of scholars, with a particular focus on dismantling systemic racism;
- apply knowledge and skills, using various perspectives from the liberal arts traditions, women-centered scholarly work and Catholic social teaching;
- apply excellent critical thinking, critical reading and scholarly writing skills (including excellence in sentence level fluency, organization, voice and audience); and,
- lead and influence as an individual, and in community and career through effective listening, writing, speaking and presenting to diverse audiences.
- frame persuasive arguments to their learning community in response to a case study on systemic racism;
- organize an analysis of a social justice issue through the lens of three liberal arts perspectives;
- demonstrate and incorporate a scientific voice in summarizing a research study on the environment; and,
- demonstrate organizational, paragraph and sentence strength in their final course reflection.
Citation Method:
For all written assignments, please use APA citations. Here is an Introduction to APA Citations. For more information, please see: APA Citations and References.
Weekly Videos:
Each week, a video is posted that will give you the big picture of your learning for that week. You should make a habit of viewing these videos before beginning any of the assignments.
Course Process:
Some of you may have taken online or hybrid courses before, while for others this may be an entirely new experience. Regardless of the delivery method of the course, we are committed to your growth as a student, and you should feel welcome to contact your instructor at any time with any questions.
There will be a heavy load of reading and writing each week, and it will be necessary that you read the assignment instructions carefully, incorporate your instructor’s feedback into your assignments, and turn in your assignments on time. Our class, no matter the format, will evoke kindness, respect and professionalism.
You will sometimes be asked to post your annotations (i.e., text notes) for your readings. You may post your assigned annotations in any way that makes them readable: screen shot, photo, word document, etc.
If you are struggling to understand the materials or have significant issues with the mechanics of writing, you may be contacted by your instructor to work one-on-one, seek outside tutoring, or review additional materials for more practice. The online writing assistance, called Thinking Storm, is available to all students.
This class will be rigorous, and will demand significant work to improve your writing. You are strongly encouraged to be proactive and contact your instructor if you have any questions or concerns.
Student Disability Resources:
St. Catherine University is committed to equal access for all and recognizes that disability is an aspect of diversity. The University’s goal is to create learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to the learning environment and/or the accurate assessment of your achievement, please contact Student Accessibility & Accommodations as soon as possible.
If you are registered with Student Accessibility & Accommodations and have been granted an accommodation, please contact your instructor to review how the accommodation will be applied in this course.
Critical Skills:
CORE1000 will provide development in multiple academic skills that will be necessary for your success here at St. Kate’s. Specifically, this class will provide instruction in RTW, a method that connects critical reading (R), thinking (T) and writing (W.) Bookmark your RTW Materials, as you will be using this site weekly. The course will engage you in:
- Critical Reading: In order to ensure thoughtful, close reading, you should thoroughly annotate each of the class readings. This will assist your level of retention and your ability to consider the concepts presented in each reading. It also will save time in the long run, as you will have notes that will help you remember key concepts from the article.
- Critical Thinking: In order to ensure understanding of the readings and clarity in your writings, we will ask you to consider critical questions as you work through the assignments. You will post your response to some of these questions on the discussion board; some questions are designed to guide your reading and writing.
- Writing: The Reading-Thinking-Writing (RTW) method requires students to read course material closely and critically, and to be able to apply critical thinking skills, first, with a specific paragraph format. This course will provide you with the opportunity for guided practice in working with this method throughout the semester, leading to the consistent writing of excellent paragraphs, essays and researched papers. An essential part of this RTW method is sentence fluency. Crafting consistently excellent simple, compound and complex sentences is an important part of the work of the course. Early in the semester, your writing will be diagnosed for the most frequent errors. You will be expected to work on your ability to identify and correct these errors in order to demonstrate growth. There will be multiple checkpoints in the semester where assignments will be specifically graded on your mastery of correcting these errors. Students in the course will be expected to write at college level, and should consistently turn in polished work.
Required Textbook:
You will not have to purchase a text for this course, as all learning materials are provided as open-source or free materials.
Academic Integrity:
As a student in this course (and at this university) you are expected to maintain high degrees of professionalism, commitment to active learning and participation in this class and also integrity in your behavior in and out of the classroom. You are expected to abide by the University’s policies on academic integrity, behavior, and conduct. Please refer to the "Academic Integrity Policy" in the Undergraduate Academic Catalog. You must be logged into Kateway to access these resources. We assume that all students strive to attain the highest level of academic writing and academic honesty.
Attendance:
Class participation and preparation are essential. Because of the nature of this course, attendance is of the utmost importance. Should you be unable to attend, please contact your instructor. Excellent attendance includes thoughtful contributions to the discussion board, timely assignment submission, and regular communication with the instructor. For St. Kate’s official attendance policy, please follow this link:
http://minerva.stkate.edu/academiccatalog.nsf/web_retrieve/mina-7lgc4t?OpenDocument
Late assignments:
Late assignments will only be accepted if previous arrangements are made with the instructor before the due date; late work will only be accepted within one week of the due date. Late discussion board posts are not accepted regardless of the reason for being late, as the purpose of those boards is to engage in meaningful interaction with your classmates. Please note that there is no extra credit available for this course.
Grading:
Your grade will be based on discussions, writing assignments, project and oral assignments. Here is a Grade Chart that you can use to track your grade:
Week |
Points Possible |
Points Earned |
14 Points
|
/14 |
|
19 Points
|
/19 |
|
19 Points
|
/19 |
|
19 Points
|
/19 |
|
24 Points
|
/24 |
|
14 Points
|
/14 |
|
24 Points
|
/24 |
|
19 Points
|
/19 |
|
40 Points
|
/40 |
|
4 Points
|
/4 |
|
30 Points
|
/30 |
|
25 Points
|
/25 |
|
20 Points
|
/20 |
|
10 Points
|
/10 |
|
19 Points
|
/19 |
|
Total |
300 Points |
/300 |
Grading Scale:
A 94– 100%
A- 90 – 93%
B+ 87 – 89%
B 83– 86%
B- 80 – 82%
C+ 77– 79%
C 73 – 76%
C- 70 – 72%
D+ 67 – 69%
D 63– 66%
F < 63%
Weekly Themes of the Course--At a Glance
Week 1 (Introduction and Composing a Life)
Week 2 (Composing a Life)
Week 3 (Composing a Life)
Week 4 (Composing a Life)
Week 5 (Composing a Life)
Week 6 (Searching for Truths)
Week 7 (Searching for Truths)
Week 8 (Searching for Truths)
Week 9 (Searching for Truths)
Week 10 (Searching for Truths)
Week 11 (Working for Community and Justice)
Week 12 (Unit 3: Working for Community and Justice)
Week 13 (Working for Community and Justice)
Week 14 (Working for Community and Justice)
Week 15 (Working for Community and Justice as a Lifelong Commitment)
A 94– 100%
A- 90 – 93%
B+ 87 – 89%
B 83– 86%
B- 80 – 82%
C+ 77– 79%
C 73 – 76%
C- 70 – 72%
D+ 67 – 69%
D 63– 66%
F < 63%
Weekly Themes of the Course--At a Glance
Week 1 (Introduction and Composing a Life)
- Embracing the St. Catherine mission: women, Catholic, liberal arts
- The power of critical reading, thinking and writing
Week 2 (Composing a Life)
- History and enduring values of the founders of St. Catherine University
- Making the vision of the Sisters of St. Joseph a reality
- Expectations of college-level writing
Week 3 (Composing a Life)
- Themes of Catholic Social Teaching
- Exploring identity within social contexts
- Summary writing based on a deep understanding of an author's ideas
Week 4 (Composing a Life)
- An international view of women and feminism
- Claiming our education
- Understanding social themes through poetry
- Synthesis writing--making connections between ideas
Week 5 (Composing a Life)
- The eternal relevance of the liberal arts
- Liberal arts and vocation
- The liberal arts and critical reading
- Thesis writing for a synthesis essay
Week 6 (Searching for Truths)
- Searching for truths via various liberal arts disciplines
- Searching for truths on racism by considering truths from various disciplines
- Critical thinking and the active search for truth
Week 7 (Searching for Truths)
- Exploring truths on environmental justice through science, art and Catholic Social Teaching
- Searching for truths through understanding quantitative and qualitative research
Week 8 (Searching for Truths)
- Reflecting on complex issues which demand evidence from a variety of perspectives
- Framing a research question
- Writing a sentence outline for a research paper
Week 9 (Searching for Truths)
- Increasing your capacity for reflective judgment on matters of fact and conflicting ideas
- Developing academic literacy through information access skills
- Planning and organizing an extended scholarly essay on a social justice issue
- Writing an RTW researched essay
Week 10 (Searching for Truths)
- Connecting careful reading, critical thinking and clear writing to the active search for truths
- Using the research process as a tool for discovering one's position on complex issues
- Creating excellent, scholarly writing that is connected to the mission of St. Kate's
Week 11 (Working for Community and Justice)
- Working toward community justice as an individual
- Becoming a participant in artistic expressions of a social justice issue
- Exploring words that break silence
- Reflecting on words as social action
Week 12 (Unit 3: Working for Community and Justice)
- Working for community and justice as an individual
- Reconnecting to the Sisters' mission: finding your role in a socially just community
- Defining community and "Dear Neighbor"
- Engaging in everyday activism
Week 13 (Working for Community and Justice)
- Working toward community and justice with a group
- Considering racial justice issues in a structured controversy
- Taking a stand as we meet the needs of the time
- RTW persuasive presentation
Week 14 (Working for Community and Justice)
- Leading and influencing others to work for community and justice
- Understanding justice and taking action for the common good
- Interviewing someone who works for social justice
- Writing a professional email on your interview results
Week 15 (Working for Community and Justice as a Lifelong Commitment)
- Closing the circle: reflecting on mission
- Your connection to Catholic Social Teaching, women-centered education and the liberal arts
- How will you live the legacy of the Sisters of St. Joseph?
- Making a personal commitment to social justice
- Reflecting on your development as a writer and a scholar