In this course, you are going to be exposed to a lot of information about women’s health. But how does this information actually connect with you and the women you know personally? What difference does this information make to you, the women who are in your family, those who are your friends, or women living hundreds of miles away from you? This writing assignment is specifically designed to give you an opportunity to build connections between the information you are taking in from your coursework and connect this information back to your life and the lives of others.
How are does this work? Essentially by going to a “primary source” by interviewing women you know, women working in your community, or women living in your community and listening to them. You will be prompted to ask them questions related to what we are learning about in class. After you have listened, you will talk. You will describe what you are learning about — and then the two of you will discuss, compare, and explore the bridges between experience, learning and application of knowledge. Following the interview, you will be writing about the interview and your reaction to it. In your paper, you will provide a brief synopsis of the interview and then describe your reaction to what you heard and describe what you learned.
Reflective writing is a bit like combining being a journalist with journaling. Three of the keys to effective reflection is to listen deeply, observe keenly, and describe in detail. For this assignment, I expect you to:
• Provide a concise synopsis of your interview and a detailed description of your reactions.
• You are expected to include examples of how you felt, what you heard, saw, etc, and to describe what you learned.
• Connect what you learn in class with what you see, hear, learn and understand from the women you interviewed
• Include your name, course code (HS 3133.50/HS 3133.51), and Assignment title in the top left corner. Double space your paper and use Arial or Times New Roman 12 font.
Since this is an informal writing assignment, you are not required to format your work in formal APA structure. However, you are expected to compose your work using conventional spelling, grammar, and essay structure. There is not a word count for this assignment but you are required to address the elements listed in the prompt and as described here in the instructions. You may use “I” and you may write in a conversational tone. Ready? Read all of the information below before you begin. And, as always, if you have any questions, post them in the Q&A folder in the Discussion Board.
Chose just one of these three prompts for the interview portion of the assignment:
Prompt 1: Interview 3 women of different age groups. For example, interview a teen, a young adult, and an elder. You may interview them all together or separately. Ask each of them to talk about and describe what messages they are receiving about women’s health and women’s health needs. Specifically ask them to talk about what messages their family, their culture, and the media are telling them about women and health. How do these messages influence and shape their self-perception? How do these messages make them feel about being a woman today? Are there any health messages which empower them? Scare them? Move them to want to take action? After they have talked, describe to them about what you have been reading about in your text book. Have a discussion in which you compare and share their perceptions in connection to what you have been learning in class.
Prompt 2: Interview a woman from another country or culture. Ask her to describe what she believes are the three biggest health concerns for women in her country. What are these concerns? What is being done about these concerns? Is this action working? If yes, why? If no, why not and what does she believe needs to change. Next talk with her about her perceptions of women in this country and your perceptions about women in her country. Talk with her about what you have been reading and learning — how would the approach to these topics differ in her county? What did you two learn from this exchange?
Prompt 3: Interview your grandmother or other elder female relative and ask her to describe the most significant changes she has seen in women’s health in her lifetime. What has changed for the better? What has changed for the worse? What still needs to be changed? In her opinion, what do women need to be doing more of in order to be an active part of the change(s) she has identified? Talk with her and compare/contrast what she has told you with what you have learned/read about so far. (Chapter 1 may be a section to go over with her) Talk with her about the significant similarities and differences between her generation and yours.
Book: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htfYk6PkV6kFHyeRYUaTv0_NTPq3pBOL/view