I must admit, I wasn’t too thrilled signing up for this class for the second time as a senior, but I had grown to honestly look forward to Mondays, for our “F2F” meetings on-campus. Additionally, I have already gained an immense amount of knowledge within the past few weeks.
THREE OF MY FAVORITE IMPORTANT CONCEPTS:
1) PLOT: Before beginning this class, of course I knew what a plot was. What I didn’t understand though, were the different forms of plots and the total dimension of understanding a plot. Before, I just thought: “Oh, plot! It’s the storyline – simple.” But it’s much, much more than that. It’s the “exposition,” rising action, climax, falling action, and denouncement – but not always in that order and generally with some kind of conflict (human vs. self, human vs. society, human vs. nature, and so on). Oh, and I particularly loved reading Atwood’s Happy Endings.
2) CHARACTERIZATION: When reading any form of literature or media prior to taking this course, I would look at a character and assume. Horrible, but true! I would think to myself that the character that was in question was just born or “written” that way – it is what it is. However, one MUST always question and never assume. As a reader, you should always ask yourself the 10 questions (if all are applicable) involving the characterization of a character to give yourself the most accurate perspective possible.
3) POETRY: I’ve never looked too much into poetry. As a child, it was included into the curriculum at my elementary school – but that was the extent of my exposure (other than the obvious lyrical form found in songs). I knew what a ballad was and I knew what haikus and quatrains were -- but aside from those, I didn’t know much. I was especially surprised to learn that what is sometimes written on a headstone is considered a poem. Crazy!
THREE ACTIVIES I LIKED OR DISLIKED:
1) I love the journal entries that we do in class. Those five minutes are absolute bliss for me. Sometimes, when writing, I focus on getting the grammar right more so than the actual content of my writing. I believe that this is a common issue among students and individuals my age. Having those five minutes to free write – not having to worry about grammar, spelling, or any form of punctuation – is extremely liberating.
2) I did not like the collaboration of sorts with a group on an assignment at the last 15 minutes of a few of our classes. I found it extremely different, with only 15 minutes, to accomplish the tasks at hand for an assignment – as individuals all digest information, process information, and produce results at an extremely different pace. Maybe I’m just not much of a team player…
3) I LOVED our initial assignment of creating a plot and a respective presentation. It allowed us to express our creativity while processing and demonstrating the information that we were to learn for that week. It was both liberating and informative, which are two things that I definitely appreciate when it comes to any kind of schoolwork.
THREE SENTENCES TO REPRESENT ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT WHAT I LEARNED AND DID IN CLASS:
1) I am more than pleased with my choice to enroll in this course and have already obtained an expansive amount of knowledge with the activities that I have participated in.
2) I love the activities and assignments in which I can exercise my creativity, while also applying forms of critical thinking.
3) The creative freedom that I feel a student possesses in this class is overwhelming and is the element that I appreciate most when taking a course.
THREE OF MY FAVORITE IMPORTANT CONCEPTS:
1) PLOT: Before beginning this class, of course I knew what a plot was. What I didn’t understand though, were the different forms of plots and the total dimension of understanding a plot. Before, I just thought: “Oh, plot! It’s the storyline – simple.” But it’s much, much more than that. It’s the “exposition,” rising action, climax, falling action, and denouncement – but not always in that order and generally with some kind of conflict (human vs. self, human vs. society, human vs. nature, and so on). Oh, and I particularly loved reading Atwood’s Happy Endings.
2) CHARACTERIZATION: When reading any form of literature or media prior to taking this course, I would look at a character and assume. Horrible, but true! I would think to myself that the character that was in question was just born or “written” that way – it is what it is. However, one MUST always question and never assume. As a reader, you should always ask yourself the 10 questions (if all are applicable) involving the characterization of a character to give yourself the most accurate perspective possible.
3) POETRY: I’ve never looked too much into poetry. As a child, it was included into the curriculum at my elementary school – but that was the extent of my exposure (other than the obvious lyrical form found in songs). I knew what a ballad was and I knew what haikus and quatrains were -- but aside from those, I didn’t know much. I was especially surprised to learn that what is sometimes written on a headstone is considered a poem. Crazy!
THREE ACTIVIES I LIKED OR DISLIKED:
1) I love the journal entries that we do in class. Those five minutes are absolute bliss for me. Sometimes, when writing, I focus on getting the grammar right more so than the actual content of my writing. I believe that this is a common issue among students and individuals my age. Having those five minutes to free write – not having to worry about grammar, spelling, or any form of punctuation – is extremely liberating.
2) I did not like the collaboration of sorts with a group on an assignment at the last 15 minutes of a few of our classes. I found it extremely different, with only 15 minutes, to accomplish the tasks at hand for an assignment – as individuals all digest information, process information, and produce results at an extremely different pace. Maybe I’m just not much of a team player…
3) I LOVED our initial assignment of creating a plot and a respective presentation. It allowed us to express our creativity while processing and demonstrating the information that we were to learn for that week. It was both liberating and informative, which are two things that I definitely appreciate when it comes to any kind of schoolwork.
THREE SENTENCES TO REPRESENT ABOUT HOW I FEEL ABOUT WHAT I LEARNED AND DID IN CLASS:
1) I am more than pleased with my choice to enroll in this course and have already obtained an expansive amount of knowledge with the activities that I have participated in.
2) I love the activities and assignments in which I can exercise my creativity, while also applying forms of critical thinking.
3) The creative freedom that I feel a student possesses in this class is overwhelming and is the element that I appreciate most when taking a course.
Great points Jade. I wasn't too excited to sign up for this class as a senior either but it has been fun I must say.
ReplyDeleteJade, you mentioned words like 'liberating' and 'freedom' in your post. That is exactly what teaching should be about. Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors. Have you read any of her novels? Happy Endings was a story I read for the first time and I absolutely loved it! You did a great job with the scenario you wrote on that story. Welcome aboard the Freedom bus!
ReplyDelete