Self-Evaluation Guidelines

Oftentimes, a letter grade does not reflect the effort that students put into a course, the amount a student has learned, or the skills that a student has acquired.A self-evaluation should illustrate and document your participation in the course. It should be a one-page, typed single-spaced paper in which you address such topics as:

  1. class attendance
  2. study time devoted to the materials
  3. timely completion of the readings and assignments
  4. class participation (some evaluation of the quality of your contributions would be helpful here)
  5. the ways in which you think you improved or not
  6. some of the skills or knowledge that you acquired (for our purposes, this is probably the most important)
  7. what you might have done differently or what you might have added or what you have determined to do differently next time
  8. events, lectures, and other activities pertaining to history that you attended or participated in

Since this is a writing assignment, it should be well-written with a thesis sentence and paragraphs that develop your assessment of your participation in class. As I said in seminar, these papers will not be graded but will be used to help me in giving students the benefit of the doubt. The self-evaluation can only help you; it will not be used to detract from your mark. It must, however, be submitted.

To keep the process as fair as possible, the self-evaluation should not be an assessment of the class or the instructor. Class evaluation will be done during the last class meeting. Class and instructor evaluations are kept confidential, and the instructor does not see them until after the final grades are in the registrar's hands. Take this opportunity to reflect on your own commitment to the course and to ascertain what benefits you have derived from our time together.