Alvarez 1
Nicole Alvarez
Triad E sec 246
Mrs.Deezy
November 22, 2015
Final Reflective for my First Semester
While gathering all the work I’ve done so far in my triad classes, I’ve been able to reflect on what works for me, tips on how to cope and future improvements to better myself, all academically. I wasn’t a big fan of my work as I reflected back on it, I was honest with myself as I started to realized I could’ve done better, my main issue was just getting my thoughts onto the paper. Adding to that, I knew I wasn’t a big fan of writing to begin with so I can honestly say I didn’t enjoy most of the work given out, as it mainly consisted of reaching word count, grammar and sentence structures.
The semester kick started off with an essay topic on William Berkeley and Nathaniel BaconHistory Essay(2).docx, where we were asked to discuss their tension and pick a side. As I compared my first draft to my final one I notice the lack in much of a difference. I remember having such a hard time with this essay because I was still semi confused on how to tell a story rather than just summarizing one that was already told. Besides the issue of getting my thoughts on paper, the way I expressed them lacked in structure. I failed to put a title, and started off to a bad start as my thesis failed to emphasize the issue as it bluntly stated “In the late 1600’s Nathaniel Bacon and William Berkeley were rivals because they both had different strategies towards colonizing the Indians.” I could’ve added more and introduced what I was going to argue better. I’ve always had a hard time concentrating, it was always “reporting” what I learned in high school, that when college asked me to analyze, my brain panicked and I started to stress. After receiving a 72 on that essay, I came to the realization I wasn’t going to make it by with those grades. Besides the big assignments that were very time consuming, in class assignments were what really gave me the opportunity to find what I had interest in.
Our first in class writing wasReading Strategies, which started off slow with general questions in regards to what the reading was about. It started to refresh my reading abilities which helped me because I failed to pick up a book over the summer, so that was something that put me back on track mentally. Following that we worked on"Learning to Read" Malcolm X, this reading had me engaged because of how motivating Malcolm was. His persistencegave me the timetoreflect on where I stood with mine, seeing to as I started to lose hope of how I was going to keep up with all the work as I started to feel overwhelmed 3 weeks into the starting of school.
I started to realize the curriculum was stepping up when we later than jumped into thePearl Reading: Composing Process, this reading was a struggle for me, mainly because I found no interest in the reading. As for the project that came along with it, which was myPearl Reflection, it was then I realized there was reasoning behind this assignment. Recording myself and watching it after only allowed me to see what I needed to work on. I tended to take a lot of breaks and get distracted easily. Re-watching and critiquing, I came to the conclusion that I have an extreme writers block issue, had a tendency to look around the room a lot and like to mumble in efforts of trying to get my thoughts together. After noticing that, I caught myself doing that during every writing after that which I found was a habit I wanted to work on.
Throughout the semester, while doing the essays assigned, I’ve come to learned that “nobody wants to read a shitty first draft” so from this we did multiple peer readings. I enjoyed doing these because of the feedback I would get back, and not necessarily in a good way but I had another perspective to improve my writing by. The last essay we wrote dealt with a topic of our choice, which was something I had interest in writing because it was a topic I wanted to talk about. My topic was on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation and upon writing about it, thefeedbackI got back really helped me finalize my final draft because the precise comments.
I got to emphasize Lincoln’s importance and what he did for America that brings us to have the diversity we have in today’s society. I was inspired to pay him the tribute he deserved through my project and commemorate how he helped shape America, in which I did through my presentation, visually and physically. I had a lot of fun decorating my board which came out to be a huge success, this is apictureof the process I madeand as for my power point, I feel like I did a good job in keeping my audience interested because of how simple yet straight to the point it was.The two together made my project very presentable because of all the information I had to tell my audience and being a topic I had interest in made the project easy for me.
Aside from projects, reflecting back on my writing style, I can honestly say improvements have been made due to certain techniques that have helped me such as outlines. I enjoyed doingoutlineswith Ms.Cofer because we thoroughly went through the essay question. My favorite outline we did was so detailed I jumped from a C on my first test to a B on my second because of the essay section. It was essay question 3 which dealt with the stages of slavery and the many perspectives it was seen by. I prospered on this essay because of how much knowledge I had on the topic. The outline was definitely something that helped because Ms.Cofer took us through every question and I retained a lot of information to make a case of the cruelty of slavery. During Seminar we were also able to go over thematching sectionthat were a big assist seeing to as they were 30 points on the test. Going over them allowed me to engage in class and in doing so it made the events easier to remember. She had made it a group effort assignment and turned it into a competition which made the activity fun yet educational. These type of activities really helped prepare me for the test and gave me the confidence I needed to take it.
Along with that the therough draft review sheetreally assisted me through these essays. The fact that it was an outline of what was needed and expected to cover all aspects of the question is what gave me a foundation to start off on. I liked that it asked questions that made it easy for me to break my topic into sections and just answer, turning it into an essay. Not being a big fan of writing this worksheet had me really analyze what was being asked rather than just reporting what I had read. The rhetorical questions made me think outside the box and do more research to back up my argument throughout my essay.
Aside from research the notes I took in class played a big factor in my studying technique. Not only was I jotting down what was on the slides, I made sure to get key points Dr.Wooster would say, only expanded my notes giving me more solid information to study off of. It was after the first test in the year that I realized I had a hard time concentrating when I wrote in pencil or pen, because it was appealing to look at. From that, I started getting creative with the ways I was taking my notes as I transitioned to takingcolorful notes,which helped me section out points. This came to be useful when I went back to studying because it wasn’t such the bore to stare at colorful writing that was only helping me out in the long run, and I found myself investing more time reviewing my notes. With the investment of taking the time to go over my notes, I made a B on my second test which was a big achievement for me since I wasn’t satisfied with my grade on the first test that was taken.
My studying techniques have changed in the course of 4 months as I’ve found ways to engage in my work, and from this I’ve only become more creative in finding what ways work for me. The responsibility of being a college student is exhausting and I came to accept that my first month into it, as I started to adapt and work with all the academic obstacles I was facing. My second week into the semester was when I came to the mental realization that the college system weren’t like high school, and as much as the professors wanted to help their students, the students had to help themselves first. From this, I made adjustments to better myself, only helping myself out in the long run.
This portfolio would be the last yet most important piece for me because of how critical I was with myself while reflecting on past work while I writing this. I’ve come to realize how much I’ve grown mentality and areas I still could use improvements on. My writing has come a long way from where I first started and I strongly believe through the pressure of aiming for a good grade through my writings, I was persistent in writing a good piece. The process of writing still hasn’t become enjoyable for me but has become easier, especially after a “shitty first draft” is out of the way. It’s taught me that writing takes patience and requires feedback to attain another perspective than just your own. This class has sharpened up my writing skills and allowed me to visualize how I write not only for me, but for my reader to understand and get my intended message or argument. Being able to reflect on the work and what I’ve done so far, gives me the general idea of future improvements, only allowing me to continue bettering my writing, in which is my intention as I am only to encounter more writing assignments in the near future.With the knowledge that I’ve attained I plan to apply it to my future assignments, only allowing myself to better my writings and be successful.