Reflection #2.1 – Beginning the semester
1) Look back at your learning goals for this semester. Thus far, which goals have you had the opportunity to work on? How? Try to be specific and give examples.
Looking back on earlier this semester, my biggest goal was being able to speak Italian more proficiently. This is the first semester where I have been put on the spot and expected to have conversations with others in Italian about a particular topic, or expected to creatively
compose ideas in Italian in a group setting. While this has been scary for me, it has also helped me improve my ability to speak the language. I have also had the ability to apply my knowledge of Italian culture, Italian food in particular, to the society in which I live. I have learned more about how authentic and non-authentic restaurants in Durham are and how the culture has been integrated. I have also increased my vocabulary enormous amounts solely with this first unit on food.
2) Looking back at the first three weeks of class in general, what did you find challenging? What did you find easy? Did you change/adjust your initial goals? If so, how? What did you enjoy the most or find the most rewarding during these first weeks? Why?
In the first three weeks of class I found it challenging to keep with what my teacher was saying. This was in part because I wasn’t back in the groove of solely speaking Italian, but also because I wasn’t used to the pace at which we were now speaking. I also found it challenging to have conversations with others and apply concepts to reality. I found the grammatical structures easy, such as reviewing the comparative, superlative, and past tense. I changed my initial goals to fit how applied the course was to life at Duke and in Durham. In the first few weeks I enjoyed how much I learned because of how comfortable, yet challenging, the class was. In my previous Italian course I was hesitant to say anything in fear of being wrong, but in this class I feel like I can grow through making mistakes. I have learned so much and improved my Italian significantly just in a few weeks.
Reflection #2.2 – Group project
3) What were your expectations of the first group project?
I expected the first group project to be a learning experience, as we are getting to know each other and figure out our roles in the project.
4) How did the experience of the group project meet or not meet your expectations?
It met my expectations in the sense that it was slightly disorganized in my group, but it went a lot better than I expected it to go.
5) What did you find problematic or challenging?
My project was about Italian restaurants in Durham, so the most challenging part was trying to get the group to the restaurant. It was hard to coordinate schedules in such a limited period of time and so it became a more split project as opposed to a joint one.
6) What did you find rewarding?
What I found most rewarding was getting the opportunity to talk to people. I met the owner of Pomodoro Italian Kitchen and she told me about her family immigrating from Sicily to North Carolina and it was so cool to learn about how much culture was in one restaurant.
7) How would you evaluate your performance in this project? How would you evaluate your peers’ performance?
We split the project up into parts, so one of us did the audio version of the script, one visited two restaurants, and I visited one restaurant and made the entire movie. I think I ended up with the most work, but this was only because as a group we didn’t anticipate how much time each part would take as it was an unfamiliar project.
8) If you were the instructor, would have you organized the project differently? How?
I would split the project up into more steps like making the script, visiting the places, conducting the interviews, etc. in order for it to be a more organized first project.