Naomi Michel
English Composition
Self Assessment Essay
November 28, 2021
The Growth of my New Writing Era
English class has never been a class that I hated but up until the start of my college years, I never treated it as an essential practice for my future career. I believe that this would be understandable to others because as the years increase while you’re in school, grades start to hold more and more value. Through time we are told about the importance of needing to get acceptable grades in order to be accepted into a certain academic institution. In highschool I have learned helpful content in my english classes but my brain grasped it only for the moment (short term). The most I remember now is my 11th grade year. It feels pretty concrete in my memory. As we know, 12th grade year was fully online due to the pandemic so students (on a wide scale) were completing assignments just to pass and get the year over with. Bringing it back to college (the present), I had a shift of drive and my professor implemented many ways for us to be aware and recognize strategies. Ways to build on our english writing composition. Practicing it frequently by doing in depth based assignments really pushed the knowledge of it in my head. Discovering that I had ADHD also pushed me to learn strategies that are personally helpful for my individual literary growth. That (in turns) makes my English class easier to get through. I am Still having bumpy roads but I have been benefited through this discovery. I will now begin to discuss the growth of my new writing Era.
I am proud to say that I have achieved a significant amount of the learning outcomes throughout this semester. A variety of strategies have been taught in order for me to analyze readings and to use them for building on our assigned essays. This has been the main theme throughout all 3 phases based on my observation. Learning outcome 3, “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”, perfectly links to this observation. To be more specific, Rhetorical Appeals (which consists of ethos, pathos, and logos) and how to do an rhetorical analysis (which is paying close attention to the texts intended audience, purpose, reasons, evidence use, and writing style) has been the main lessons for our assignments. It has become a routine to utilize these lessons when consuming new content. Going on to learning outcome 5, In class breakout rooms, I have witnessed how my classmates proceed to revise given draft examples. Participating in discussion with my peers when reviewing and getting to know about their work by asking further questions has also been a significant practice. Hearing ways that I can approve built my writing as well. Lastly, as we were introduced various readings in the start of the semester, we “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations” (#2) was being accomplished by using our thought processes and more. With that being said, learning outcomes 3,2, and 5 have been consistently experienced through phases 1-3.
Unlike the other phases, Phase 1 was an experience to dive deep in a personal way. Already having knowledge on the issue that a large number of immigrants and their family members face adversity when it comes to language, it was great to hear more about it from my own classmates and being reminded that it is still happening. “Mother Tongue” and “Nobody mean more to me” played big parts in the continuation of this discussion and its reality. Learning outcome 1 (Recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing——- being open to communicating across different languages and cultures) was able to be accomplished during this time. What made it even more interesting was presenting our stories on a more creative ground. We had to create powerpoints which had to have multimodal aides like photos, music, videos, quotes, and so much more. Speaking and explaining my powerpoint to my classmates helped me with public speaking as I went over how to present on my own time. It was a great opportunity to build on visualizing what we wrote about and making others understand it better. Learning outcome 6, “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences, was grasped through completing this visual assignment.
Below is a screenshot of one of my google slides that I had to present to my peers! (#6)
In my opinion Phase 3 was my 2nd favorite. This is the time period when learning outcomes 7, 8, and 9 were absorbed. These all happened as a thread. Combining (composition) was a main topic, as I had to synthesize and integrate sources within my essay source which is something I never really focused on. I always just naturally added into my writing but knowing the more professional ways has been beneficial. It helped me better navigate and prepare how this essay will be cultivated (#8). Finding sources and learning more about our chosen topics steered my thoughts and allowed me to become more familiar with it which built on composing texts that integrate into my stance (#7). Interpretation was my strongest suit I believe. My Practice of systemic citation became stronger as these were being obtained for me to complete my phase 3 assignment (#9). Moving on to phase 2, I have completed the essay late which has caused me to rush through it. Every worksheet and classroom discussion in this time period was not properly being grasped with understanding. Learning outcome was able to be achieved despite this but not as I wanted it to be. I still believe I should practice with this lesson a bit more. I am becoming closely familiar with recognizing these terms and their definitions. I am to take all of these lessons and use them throughout my career. Thank you for tuning into the growth of my new writing era.
