INITIAL REFLECTION
My strengths at being a writer involve being able to stay on topic, and I feel that I'm pretty good with coming up with things to say. My weakness, would have to be that I have a sort of "love-hate" relationship with writing. I like reading more than I do writing. I like reading books with action, great characters, and plots that keep you on your toes. The "Harry Potter" series is definitely behind this feeling about what books I like to read.
School writing is different from non-school writing for me because, outside of school, when I write, it's usually little notes about songs, art I would like to make, games I want to play, television shows I would like to see, and books I might read one day. When I'm in school, the writing usually consists of thinking about a subject longer than I usually would, and trying to transfer those thoughts onto the paper. It also usually consists of some form of research, whether it's prior knowledge of something, or actually having researched something on the Internet or out of a book.
Research is the process of learning about a certain person, object, event, or location (I hope I didn't leave anything out), through methods of looking through various sources of information. My primary experience with research is either for school papers, or for my own personal use. I expect that while in college, I will continue doing research for papers, essays, and reports. After college, I hope to be an Art teacher, so I suppose I would do research on potential lessons I could teach to my class.
There are several differences between "good" students and "bad" students. "Good" students put effort into their work, get good grades, are prepared for class, and complete their work accordingly. "Bad" students, on the other hand, don't get good grades, make life difficult for the teacher, act up in class, don't put effort into their work, and most likely don't even do the work at all. "Bad" students defeat the purpose of going to school, which is to get an education. School and education are here for the purpose of helping make society. But that isn't always the case, like with "good" and "bad" students, there are "good" and "bad" teachers. "Good" teachers are prepared for class, show interest in teaching, and helping out their students, and willing to put in the effort necessary for a successfull learning experience. "Bad" teachers put no effort into helping students learn, don't care about teaching, and in my personal experience, have some sort of emotional baggage that they drag with them wherever they go. I have had the happy and sad experiences of knowing both types of teachers throughout my school career.
In my elementary, middle, and high school years, I would say I was your typical student. I got good, and bad, grades. I did my work, and sometimes I didn't (but I usually got my work done). I've never failed a class, and I don't ever plan on it happening. I would say I'm the same student I was then, except I get all my work done, and if I miss any, it was an honest mistake.
My goal for this class, is to of course do well, and pass. But I also want to better my writing and research skills throughout the semester. I hope that this class will be helpful, while still being fun.
MIDTERM REFLECTION
When looking through the dialogic journals done for class, I find that the comments on my own work that help me the most are the comments that question my opinion and get me to think differently about a subject. Like on the article about intertextuality, and I compared the idea of intertexuality to stitching together the squares of a quilt. My classmate Brianna wrote: "...but what if it doesn't look good, or something doesn't sound right in the text? Things don't always fit together perfectly. It might take some rearranging to get it right". Those types of comments get my mind thinking differently than the way I'd previously thought about a particular subject.
I would say when I'm the one who is commenting, I tend to agree with what a person is saying, or I can relate in some way through an anecdote. I would like to be a little more questioning and not so agreeable when I comment on someone's writing. I want to get them thinking in different ways, not that they are wrong about whatever they are writing about, I'd just like to be more thought-provoking.
FINAL REFLECTION
Well, here we are in the final stretch. Just a couple days of school left before summer! English class this semester was nice, I definitely feel like I did much more work than I did in my previous English class last semester. My teacher was very good, and helped me improve on my writing by working with me so that I could work in a comfortable way. This portfolio webwsite, Weebly, that we used was also very helpful in keeping track of the bigger assignments we did this semester; assignments such as the Exploratory essay. The first, second, and final draft.The dialogic journals we did in class were sometimes, a bit of a hassle, but I was able to draw my thoughts on the readings instead of writing them down, so that helped. Here are some the ones I liked:
My strengths at being a writer involve being able to stay on topic, and I feel that I'm pretty good with coming up with things to say. My weakness, would have to be that I have a sort of "love-hate" relationship with writing. I like reading more than I do writing. I like reading books with action, great characters, and plots that keep you on your toes. The "Harry Potter" series is definitely behind this feeling about what books I like to read.
School writing is different from non-school writing for me because, outside of school, when I write, it's usually little notes about songs, art I would like to make, games I want to play, television shows I would like to see, and books I might read one day. When I'm in school, the writing usually consists of thinking about a subject longer than I usually would, and trying to transfer those thoughts onto the paper. It also usually consists of some form of research, whether it's prior knowledge of something, or actually having researched something on the Internet or out of a book.
Research is the process of learning about a certain person, object, event, or location (I hope I didn't leave anything out), through methods of looking through various sources of information. My primary experience with research is either for school papers, or for my own personal use. I expect that while in college, I will continue doing research for papers, essays, and reports. After college, I hope to be an Art teacher, so I suppose I would do research on potential lessons I could teach to my class.
There are several differences between "good" students and "bad" students. "Good" students put effort into their work, get good grades, are prepared for class, and complete their work accordingly. "Bad" students, on the other hand, don't get good grades, make life difficult for the teacher, act up in class, don't put effort into their work, and most likely don't even do the work at all. "Bad" students defeat the purpose of going to school, which is to get an education. School and education are here for the purpose of helping make society. But that isn't always the case, like with "good" and "bad" students, there are "good" and "bad" teachers. "Good" teachers are prepared for class, show interest in teaching, and helping out their students, and willing to put in the effort necessary for a successfull learning experience. "Bad" teachers put no effort into helping students learn, don't care about teaching, and in my personal experience, have some sort of emotional baggage that they drag with them wherever they go. I have had the happy and sad experiences of knowing both types of teachers throughout my school career.
In my elementary, middle, and high school years, I would say I was your typical student. I got good, and bad, grades. I did my work, and sometimes I didn't (but I usually got my work done). I've never failed a class, and I don't ever plan on it happening. I would say I'm the same student I was then, except I get all my work done, and if I miss any, it was an honest mistake.
My goal for this class, is to of course do well, and pass. But I also want to better my writing and research skills throughout the semester. I hope that this class will be helpful, while still being fun.
MIDTERM REFLECTION
When looking through the dialogic journals done for class, I find that the comments on my own work that help me the most are the comments that question my opinion and get me to think differently about a subject. Like on the article about intertextuality, and I compared the idea of intertexuality to stitching together the squares of a quilt. My classmate Brianna wrote: "...but what if it doesn't look good, or something doesn't sound right in the text? Things don't always fit together perfectly. It might take some rearranging to get it right". Those types of comments get my mind thinking differently than the way I'd previously thought about a particular subject.
I would say when I'm the one who is commenting, I tend to agree with what a person is saying, or I can relate in some way through an anecdote. I would like to be a little more questioning and not so agreeable when I comment on someone's writing. I want to get them thinking in different ways, not that they are wrong about whatever they are writing about, I'd just like to be more thought-provoking.
FINAL REFLECTION
Well, here we are in the final stretch. Just a couple days of school left before summer! English class this semester was nice, I definitely feel like I did much more work than I did in my previous English class last semester. My teacher was very good, and helped me improve on my writing by working with me so that I could work in a comfortable way. This portfolio webwsite, Weebly, that we used was also very helpful in keeping track of the bigger assignments we did this semester; assignments such as the Exploratory essay. The first, second, and final draft.The dialogic journals we did in class were sometimes, a bit of a hassle, but I was able to draw my thoughts on the readings instead of writing them down, so that helped. Here are some the ones I liked:
I picked these dialogic journals in particular because these are the ones that stuck out in my mind, because I actually understood the articles and was able to make a connection with it. Also, I liked the drawings I did for the journals. :)