Dr. Ponder walks on our first day of reflection. This day we would have to speak about how the goals of this class would benefit us personally and professionally. Being an English major it is easy for me to see how reading, writing, and arguing will benefit me in the future because that is my major is all about. My response to these questions during reflection were always the same. By being English major means always reading, writing, and arguing. However, I did not realize that these skills would benefit me now with my current job. I have had many times where I had to read e-mail and manuals that made no sense to me. I have had to write documents for my bosses as well as sometimes constructive argue with customers who want us to give in under …show more content…
This essay argues that I have improved in this class. First, I have improved in this class, because I have improved my reading. The goal that I had for improving my reading in my introduction essay was to not zone out and miss half the chapter of any books I read that I find boring. I have improved on this through being able to read more closely and find mean in what I read as well as researching the book beforehand to get a better understand of the plot of books I do not like. I have been able to this skill of reading more closely when writing my research paper for both this class and others. A comment from one of my paper from my strengths about my reading is “read texts carefully to find unused data”. This means that I could find and argue about different means being different characters, symbols, and settings. I made more interesting arguments by using pieces of text that would not be normally used. By improving my reading, it will benefit me beyond this class because when I am in graduate school, I will need to be able to read dense texts that will be difficult to comprehend. By being able to not zone out, I will able to catch important detail that I could use when trying to prove my …show more content…
In my introduction essay, my goal for improving my arguing was to be able to better understand the opposing argument. Although I improved on that somewhat I improved my arguing in another way through being able to connect claims back to the thesis to make my arguments stronger. While writing papers for this class, I was difficult to find words that encompassed the words used in the claims. This would mean using a thesaurus to look up alternatives for each word trying to find a common theme. A comment from the strength’s section of my paper was that “connect claims to thesis in logical ways”. By improving my arguing in this class, I will better able to argue while I’m a graduate student. When I write papers, I will need to show how all of my claims in my essays relate back to what I was arguing in my thesis. While in graduate school, I will always be arguing my thesis. I must argue my thesis to my professor as well as my fellow classmates. With the skills, that I learned in this class, I will hopefully be able better to argue my
In high school, I struggled to make a developed thesis. I am argumentative by nature and that helped me when coming up with research questions and the foundation for a thesis. However, I had trouble asking the next set of questions to really show the depth in my arguments, which is necessary in college. While at Mason I have progressed with my thesis’, which can be seen when I wrote:
This course and writing these essays has drastically improved my writing capabilities. Before this course I could not write an enthymeme or effectively write an argumentative paper. Establishing a clear and strong enthymeme to a question at issues helps me organize my ideas within the body paragraphs and keeps me from becoming repetitive. I understand now that addressing a counter argument strengthens my paper and helps tell the reader that you know your topic and have strong reasons. I look forward to using the writing skills I learned in this class towards future writing opportunities either with my studies or outside of school. I will continue to use enthymemes to effectively state my claim and reason and to strengthen my argument.
A person could clearly see that by simply looking at the grades that I have made on my final essays. On each essay so far this semester I have been able to earn a higher grade than the previous essay. One thing that I was able to correct by looking back on was usage of the word “it.” As stated by Schwartz, “It is a pronoun, so it must be replacing a noun or pronoun, what is it replacing?” By reflecting to my previous essays and reading this comment I was able to further understand the usage of the word it, and along with this I would be able to correct it in essays after that. Along with getting better grades on my final papers, I was able to further understand the purpose of pre-writing assignments. In the beginning of the year I would look at pre-writing assignments as almost a waste of time, but as I progressed through the course I would see just how much of an impact they could have. Whenever I would do badly on a pre-writing assignment it would usually translate over to a mediocre rough draft. Whenever I realized this I was able to grow off of previous mistakes and spend more time on the pre-writing. The more time I spent on the pre-writing the better grade I would get on that assignment as well as the rough draft. Despite me constantly reflecting to my previous essays, it is still one thing that I need to work on. During one of my essays I was making the same mistakes that I had made in previous essays, so much that my professor stated “See comments in previously graded assignments and apply them to the writing in this one” (Schwartz). I was making so many of the same mistakes that I had to go to my previous paper to see what I was doing wrong. After I read this comment I realized how vital it was to assess the comments made on my papers and apply it whenever I am writing. During the final parts of the course I was able to comprehend comments made by
Writing this evaluative essay is both beneficial to the teacher and the TCC English Department. The professor because she had given us a chance to critique her and tell her, her strengths and weakness of her teaching; it favored the English department because they now know how effective the textbook is and how effective this class is to the students actually taking it. Because I had a teacher who was willing to help when in need, English 111 wasn’t as hard as others portrayed it to be. I had a good professor, peers, and the writing center to help me with this class. I hope to continue to be successful in the second part of the course. Although I do not enjoy writing essays this is an essay I enjoyed writing.
...ragraphs that support the argument. The easiest part of this component was actually inserting it in my essay after I understood the purpose for it, because at the beginning I was confused on the whole thesis concept. The thesis was the most challenging because I kept asking myself "Can I really argue this for five to six pages?" and also "Is this even considered a thesis statement?" I noticed that I can speak and write more effectively when I'm thinking critically and intellectually. My sentence structure has always been strong and I feel it has grown because of the practice we have had in class with finding thesis statements in our readings. My overall issue with this component of the writing process is using a justifiable argument and remembering to support my argument with claims and trying not to put unnecessary points in my paper while maintaining my ethos.
This semester I learned many new things in my English 1301 class. I took this class last year but I had to drop it because I didn’t have a professor explaining the work to me. And I really didn’t understand what I was doing. At first, I was scared to take this class. During my high school years I wasn’t that good of a writer. I thought this composition class was going to be hard since I sometimes thought it was hard in high school. My writing experience was good and sometimes bad. This semester in the composition class I had many writing strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses is what helped me learn the errors I was making while writing essays this semester.
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...
This class has been significantly more difficult than any other English class I have taken all throughout high school. This semester, I have been introduced to different styles of writing that I have never been exposed to before. This class has been stressful, but also fun. With using all of the resources I have been given throughout the semester, I have been able to do my best to further my writing abilities and hopefully only continue to grow them as I finish my later years in college. Throughout this essay, I will discuss my failures, my successes, my overall performance in the class, and my skill development skills.
Understanding ourselves as teachers helps us to better determine how we relate to students, policies and practices that we use in the classroom or online and this is not an easy task. Stories are used to open up communication with the students and can identify you as a teacher. Stories can be looked at from different viewpoints and perspectives, depending on your belief system. Telling stories invites others to see you as a teacher and can reveal to us as teachers, how much we know.
Dr. Shook’s critiques directed me to revise for the lack of transitional phrases between main ideas within my essay, as well as my tendency to compose run-on sentences. Accordingly, I inserted transitions that connected the major points that my essay touched upon. In order to do so, I used phrases such as “furthermore” in order to create a better flow without compromising the important ideas that were essential in regards to properly communicating the context to my audience. By commencing the process of revising my first essay, I developed the understanding that one of my shortcomings as a writer at the beginning of the semester included compiling numerous ideas into one sentence, consequently making it too “heavy.” By taking corrective action, I separated sentences that surpassed three lines into two entities. I found that Informal Assignment 10: Writing with Clear Style, assisted in improving my understanding of how my style of writing assists in communicating to my audience. Initially, I failed to realize that clear communication is of the utmost importance in regards to becoming an astute college writer. I entered English 101 focusing on incorporating words with over three syllables to intelligently convey my argument instead of focusing on how clearly my argument will be received by my
There was a significant amount of knowledge given in this course, involving concepts that in our teaching career will be extremely important. From this course I have gained a significant amount of learning experiences. I had the pleasure learning about how the educational system has come to be what it is today and who were the important people in the creation of the public education, like Horace Mann. Watching the videos and reading the chapters required has opened my eyes more of how a teacher should respond to different situations involving a student, For example when we read the chapter on the laws that revolve around the educators and the students. I had absolutely no clue that students had rights while in school property. Another learning
For this reflection, I would like to reflect on my first full day of solo teaching without my mentor in the room. My mentor went to an in-district training for three days and I was able to be her substitute. On my way to school, I was really nervous about what the first day on my own would be like and would everything run smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised how easy this day ended up being.
Overall my experience of being in Lingleville ISD was a great experience that allowed me to learn a lot not only about the students in the classroom, but also helped me learn a lot about myself. Going in to this classroom I expected to only learn things about classroom management and maybe a few strategies. After spending a few days in this room I learned many other things. I did learn about classroom management but I also learned about content, strategies, organization, lesson planning, and inclusion adaptations. I learned that an inclusion special education student can really thrive being in a mainstream classroom, not only academically but also socially. It was a wonderful learning opportunity to get to be a part of that. My mentor teacher
Before entering this class, I thought I was prepared for college English. I had incredibly capable high school English teachers, who taught me detailed mechanics, creative writing style, and of course, the necessity of practicing good grammar. On entering this class, I quickly realized how little I had actually learned in my high school English classes. While most of my high school English essays I wrote were based on literature, the majority of the essays I wrote in this class have been more experiential and centered on real-life issues. I expected to be writing essays on books I read and articles I analyzed, but that was not the case. This class showed me in a variety of ways that things are often very different than they seem originally
This week had the biggest impact on my professional growth. During this week, I learned that meaningful reflection is " the practice or act of analyzing our actions, decisions, or products by focusing on our process of achieving them (York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere & Montie, 2006). There are many benefits of reflecting in the field of education. The most influential is the effect that reflection has on the learning that your students gain. If a teacher meaningfully reflects on their practices they will create lessons to better impact students. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson (2003), “Teacher reflection inevitably attends directly to students ' need for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge.” Each time a teacher reflects on their work, they empower their students to learn more. Students recognize their teacher’s reflection and mimic their behavior. I feel like learning about reflection impacted me most because it showed me that I should reflect on the good and the bad. Everything that I teach should be reflected on. The more that I reflect on my work, I will be closer to becoming an expert teacher. Reflection has the biggest impact on professionalism as a teacher. If I am willing to learn from my strengths and mistakes I will impact my students to strive to the best they