When I began this class and the accompanying readings, the school year had not yet begun and I was hoping to discovers ways to engage my students and help them motivate themselves. I had had a negative experience with my seniors last year (2016-17). Many failed English or dropped out, and I had a handful of students who were disrespectful and generally rude, bringing down the classroom culture as a whole. I wanted to make sure that this year, students would have a valuable experience in their last English class of high school and that they would find fulfilment in the curriculum and the classroom community I was hoping to build. While the year is not over, the methods and lessons I learned and developed through taking this course have greatly impacted a positive learning environment. I do not know if it is what I did or if it is merely the nature of my students this year, but I am having a wonderful year with these individuals. They are kind, respectful, motivated (for the most part!) and just plain delightful to be with. Mission accomplished!
Most valuable to my building of a respectful community were the lessons that I developed based on the first part of Ferlazzo’s book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves. I am glad that I began this class before my year started, as “setting the stage” was the crucial take-away from my reading and I modelled the first two weeks of my teaching on Ferlazzo’s ideas. I began with many of the suggested reading materials, including
Ever since I can remember, I’ve struggled with writing. It just wasn’t something that came natural to me and always resulted in a very uncomfortable process. Throughout this class, I have become more comfortable with writing and its components. Though, this is only writing 101, my skill level has increased immensely. Before starting this course, writing was uncomfortable and confusing, but towards the end, my knowledge has expanded and I can more comfortably take on the majority of writing assignments.
Throughout the course of English composition 101 I had participated and worked on many different assignments that lead to better understanding and enhance of skills I had already learned in while in high school as well as the learning of new techniques and process in which to imbedded into my writing to make it better. Some of the assignments and in-class activities that lead to this included the several essays I wrote, presentations, actively-reading assignments, and in-class lectures. These assignments and in-class activities led me to better understand how to compare essays, use and develop a writing process that work efficiently for myself, better organize essays, learning to use grammar and punctuation better, identify creatable sources to use in papers, to read critically through another person work, and citing sources using MLA format. Although I had already learned the basics of many of these learning objectives throughout my high school education this course helped better enhance these skills and better prefect my writing for the future courses and careers.
In what ways will the content of this course help you in your quest to make your school and classroom more meaningful and effective for all students? One way in which the content of this course that will help in my quest to make my school and classroom more meaningful and effective for all students are reshaping the curriculum. According to Nieto, "Schools must take a serious look at their curriculum, pedagogy, retention and tracking policies, testing, hiring practices, and all the other policies and practices that create a school climate that is either empowering or disempowering for those who work and learn there"(Nieto,1996). The curriculum should be integrated, interdisciplinary, meaningful, and student-centered. Also, it should include issues and topics related to the students' background and culture. Moreover, it should challenge the students to develop higher-order knowledge and skills.
In this assignment I address the pivotal moment in my development as a writer and how this event is changing me. I reflected on college English class at Azusa Pacific University that I am currently taking. Initially In this essay I will be discussing my driver for this class and explore how English course is a fundamental skill in my nursing career.
The toilsome component this semester was transitioning from being a high school level writer to a college-level writer. However, English 10 has by far been my best experience in writing. By taking this course I have retrieved many helpful elements, that will help me become a successful writer throughout college. In high school, essays often gave me stress and anxiety, however, when taking English 10, I was able to learn to enjoy the process of writing purposefully and mindfully. Even though, I have taken advanced placement English courses in high school and have taken a practice run of college level English over the summer with Professor Brenda Venezia, I was still able to retrieve a lot more from this course. To showcase my progress in
What have I learned in English 102? When I began this class, I had not taken a formal English class in over thirty years. I understood sentence structure and essay writing to a point. To elaborate my understanding was based on story telling rather than research and factual commentary. Of course, rhetorical review and research was foreign to me. I had a loose understanding but had never practiced or been in a position to apply these skills. Or at least that is what I thought. Since beginning this course, I have found it both challenging and enlightening. I feel that my skills have developed over the last few weeks and a greater understanding of what it takes to identify and understand complicated subjects has progressed. Not just that I can read difficult scholarly text, but that I can focus on what they are trying to say, their argument, and then develop my own counter argument in support of or against the authors statements. It is more than just saying I concur or I do not agree with you. It is stating how my point of view differs and supporting my statements logically and directly with facts, not just conjecture. Within the following paragraphs I will discuss, in more detail, the specific areas where I feel I have matured and how I intend to apply this new-found knowledge to my future writing as well as reading materials to assess their value.
Before taking this class I never liked my English classes more specifically writing essays for them. I didn’t understand much of how to use strategies while writing essays and focuses little on learning it. By taking this class and using the strategies that I was provided with it made taking this class easy and enjoyable while writing analytical essays. I was willing to put in the effort and do my part in order to get a good grade in this English class and it worked. I feel that my performance in an English class has improved significantly.
It's hard to believe that it’s already time for Midterms in my English 101 class. The adventure has been a lot easier than I at first anticipated. In any case, I am happy that I am taking the class and learning from it. In the beginning it appeared somewhat hard however I was resolved to compel my way through this class regardless of what difficulties I needed to persevere.
The Fall Quarter here at Bellevue College has helped me increase and further enhance my writing capabilities. Having to forget all my past knowledge in high school level writing was challenging but necessary. In the past, my writing never had the opportunity to progress. My high school essays were all carbon copies of each other. I would do the bare minimum and not put any effort into my writing, but still I would somehow receive a passing grade. The majority of the time I would wait until the night before the essay was due to start it. It would usually take me less than three hours to complete a paper. I became more focused on doing exactly what the teacher wanted than working on developing my style and enhancing my writing skills. After taking English 101, I have learned that writing is a process and I can’t write an essay the night before it’s due and expect a satisfactory grade. Taking English 101 has led me to think more critically towards my writing and others, develop style and tone, and learn how to use collaboration to my benefit.
Not only has this course prepared me for English classes in the future, it has also directed me in becoming a more well-rounded student. One major lesson that I learned throughout the course of this class is to always be on top of my homework and finish my work on time. When the professor had explained the importance of coming to class prepared I realized the importance of starting work preemptively. By beginning work ahead of time I am able to read and annotate text far more efficiently. When I had learned how to properly annotate and decipher text, the teachings of my professor had it trickled into other classes. Being prepared for your class is something that is necessary for all college classes. On that day I learned the true importance of planning ahead for essays and prioritizing my time efficiently.
Reflecting on my english career on all of my english classes as a whole one of the areas of habits of mind that I have not only felt that I am drastically improved, but also believe that is one of my strengths as not only an english student, but a student in general is my strong ability with analyzing situations and responding with high level critical thinking. I have prided myself and also been told by almost every english teacher that I have had that my ability to articulate what I am thinking in a presentation and be able to analyze text, images and people is on a very high level. I am comfortable when speaking in front of people and I believe that some of my best work in High School have been presentations. As I discussed this year with my teacher where I fall short is the ability to translate what I am thinking and how exactly I say it and translate that into writing. This has something that I have struggles with not only this year but most of my life writing essays. I don;t believe that I write poorly, but can very easily recognize that my writing is not at the
When signing up for class I knew that I had to take an English 101 class. But there was a little bump in the road to having the class. When I got back form winter break I looked at my schugle and saw that there was no English class. So, I went down to the admiration office to speak to my advisor and see if I could get into any English 101 class. Luckily there was one class available that worked with my schugle. Taking English 101 has help developed my reading and writing skills on hobbits of mind, aniotating an article and using ethos, pathos, and logos. When it comes to writing, and reading my weakness is trying to come up with a good thesis. But my strengths are writing an excellent body.
Throughout Honors English II, I not only became a more advanced reader, I also became a more experienced writer. All throughout the semester, I learned to analyze works of literature and look for themes in the novels I read, which also helped me to become a more thoughtful writer. I also greatly improved my vocabulary throughout the semester, which helped me achieve more advanced writing and reading skills. Overall, by using new writing techniques and new vocabulary, I was able to build on my previous reading and writing skills, and I hope to see a continuation of advancement in my reading and writing abilities in the years to come.
This semester, we have practiced several reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Many of these that have helped me become a better writer this past semester. The readings, writings, and critical thinkings were not the only things that helped me become a better writer. I highly believe that the constructive criticism from yourself Professor Freeman is what helped the most. Every Time you graded a paper and left comments it pushed me to do better and improve on the next. So if I was to take anything to English 101/Composition 2 it would be a combination of determination to be better and all of my skills i’ve learned over this semester, such as outlines, organization, analyzing, and how to write a working thesis.
This first semester at the University of Akron has flown by. I learned many new writing concepts that helped me become a better writer. English composition was a required class that I had to take in order to get my degree. Although this class was required I still wanted to take this class to become more knowledgeable about writing. Coming into English Composition I was worried about all of the papers and the workload that I would have to complete. I knew that I was going to have to write a lot more than I previously had in highschool, but I was unsure of just how much. The works that I decided to include in my portfolio comprise of my Literacy Narrative, Image Analysis Paper, and essay titled Mayas Hardships based on Maya’s experiences in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I selected these works because I felt that they are the ones that require the most improvement to them. The papers i've chosen show how far I’ve came In English Composition.