Alberto's Final Portfoilo

http://headstart102.weebly.com/

At the beginning of the semester I hated writing. In fact English was the bane of my existence. When I entered this English course I thought it would be a miracle if I passed the class. The thought of writing page after page of papers made me feel a bit little nervous. Even with that in mind, I told myself to try and put some effort into this class and try to grow as a writer. I asked myself what can this course do for me? Can it teach me anything new or be of something useful?  Over the course of the semester I came to realize and appreciate the knowledge that I was receiving in this course.

When Unit One was started, I was really curious to be using the blogger website to post our assignments. I don’t know what about blogging that made it so appealing to me. It was a new medium for my writing. When we had to post the 500 + word entries to our blog I  was a little hesitant.  In the beginning 500 words seemed a lot of writing to me. I could follow the prompt and answer the questions. But usually I would be short of the required 500 minimum post. A lot of times I had writers block. I couldn’t think what was I going to say next? Will it be enough to reach that 500 quota? The thing was I didn’t have a good flow. I didn’t get lost in my thoughts and just write whatever was on my mind. When we did things like a free writing in class that made me a better writer and thinker.  This is important because I it becomes easier to expand  my thoughts and  reach  those word quotas.  

As a writer I’m use to writing for my instructors, for their eyes only. On the blogger website my writing was available to all of my group members & the whole class as well as my instructor too. This openness made me more aware of my audience. What I write will be read by people I may or not know. This made me self-aware what I do and how I do it.  As the semester progressed from Unit One to Unit Two that self-awareness feeling became more and more noticeable. In Unit One we had the extended bib’s and the group responses. While in Unit Two we had to build a website.  The scope of my work changed from individual posts to an entire website. I had a bigger part, which meant I had a bigger audience that I could potentially reach. Not only that but when did group commentary and workshops I feel more confident in my writing and became a better learner.  The group teamwork helped molded my writing and thinking processes. When group responses were due during Unit 1 I became more aware of my thoughts and how I’m writing.  The comments that my group members left and when I commented on theirs made me reflect upon on how I writing and how I should approach things.  What they said about my writing gave me a direction of where to go next. 

With my revision process I started it off by asking my group members and my roommates to look at it and give me feedback. I also had to reread my website because it had been a while since I turned it in. When I got the feedback about website from my group members I compared to the feedback that I received for my Unit Two Grade. They talked about similar stuff  that was recommended that I should fix such as fixing the bullet points on some sections.  But they also talked about different stuff than my Unit Two feedback. Things like bolding certain questions like on my Home Page. Or aligning and moving around certain paragraphs to look better was because of their feedback, an example of this would be the About Head Start page. I also deleted, rephrased, or added sentences too. When I reread my website, I saw that certain sentences didn’t flow right with the rest of the paragraphs. Sometimes the sentence itself wasn’t needed, it was fluff, so I just deleted it. Sometimes I added more information because my Unit Two feedback suggested it or I felt it would help improve my website. When I was expanding the About Head Start page, I reused one of my sources that was only cited on the main page. So instead of researching for new sources I just reused the source that I already had. This research strategy was extremely useful because it saved me time. In the beginning it took hours and hours to find a good source. From there if you wanted to use another secondary source as back up you would needed to spend more time just to find another good source that you could use. Now, with my draft already done if I really needed to use another source I could use lateral research to back up my claims. 

In this English 102 course I feel more comfortable as a writer. Next time when I’m writing in my future courses and I have a report, response, or a paper due. I’m going to think about what I learned in my English 102 course. There’s lots of things to consider. Like what do I want to add to the conversation? Where do my ideas diverge from the author? Does this piece of writing make me ask questions? Is so and so creditable?  What’s the technical jargon associated with this field? What’s the controversy or conflict in this area? I’m going to be inquiring, researching, and using multimedia to enhance my writing. Whatever I do, I’ll be sure using what I learned from this course.

Amanda's Final Reflection

This course was comprised of material to enhance our education regarding blogging and working with a service learning agency; however, these were not the topics I learned or grew the most from. My overall knowledge of conducting research and adding my own voice in the community of discussion is where I expanded my understanding the most.

At the beginning of this semester my methods for conducting research and transforming that into a paper was completely different. Research was not a concept that really applied to my writing. I would look up the information I needed in order to have a basic idea of the subject matter, and then I would rephrase the same ideas the authors presented in their paper for my own paper. I would obtain the number of sources required for an assignment, and that was it. Research to me was pretty much finding sources to cite in my paper. Looking back at my previous outlook on researching for a paper, I cannot believe how uninformed and lack-luster my papers really must have been. I expected this class to contain another set of assigned papers I had to “get done,” however, I ended up learning a great deal on how to really develop a well formed paper that speaks back to my topic of discussion.

There are a few key pieces of content presented in this course that have guided me to transforming my thinking and research methods. The E-textbook modules “Lateral Research” and “Keywords” really helped me by teaching me how to find other applicable sources for my research. Instead of googling or doing mass searches, narrowing the keywords used can really help you find the information and support you are looking for. I had never thought to look at the sources at the end of a paper to expand upon my own research, so “Lateral Research” really opened my eyes to the possibilities out there for me to utilize for my own personal assistance. Rewriting “Forwarding and Countering” was one of the best articles to really help me understand what it meant to add a new thought to the conversation. This is because it talked about how you need to learn about what is already being said about a topic in order to develop your own stand point. In this way you are not just restating what other sources have already said, but can now use the knowledge you have gained to address the topic in a new light, or address a topic by highlighting a different area grazed over by others. This was so important to the development of my writing because I had never realized the importance of developing your own point of view on a topic- as insensible as that sounds. I felt that the sources I had read must be more knowledgeable than I was, so whatever they were saying must be the truth and the way to view certain topics.

Writing analytically chapter 8 specifically addressed this issue with the first section titled “developing a thesis is more than repeating an idea.” The ideas of “1 on 10” and “10 on 1” really helped expand my realization of how sources really speak to each other to develop their main ideas. One main point can be supported by ten sources, and ten sources can come together to formulate one main idea. In this way sources form a complicated web of communication. A particular source and be used to support one idea and refute another. This all depends on the way you interpret and integrate that source into your research. This is what helped to develop my understanding of reading with and against the grain. The information in a source can be helpful or a hindrance according to how you, the reader, decipher it. Overall the way the assignments were organized throughout the semester really allowed me to integrate what I was learning. The stages in the syllabus provided “baby steps” in which we could slowly progress and really focus and apply ourselves to each step. Because we actually had to perform each segment I feel everyone in the class developed a better appreciation for taking the time to perform the preliminary step to writing a paper.

This has impacted my writing because I really became informed about the topics I was addressing in my research. In this way I was able to perform exactly what our previous class work prepared us for: I was able to address my area of concern specifically with a new voice in the process. Due to the fact I had a large foundation of knowledge to fuel my writing, I was able to forward on the basic elements from my research in my own writing with my own insight applied. I feel that this has greatly impacted my current writing because I feel like I am an active part in communicating the thoughts on child education. This is truly an expression of the knowledge I have gained from my sources, but I am still using these sources to support my new outlook- just as the “1 on 10” explains. I feel very successful and satisfied with the final product I produced with my website. I discovered what research really is. I found out that I can contribute to the community of thought, and it feels really good because it is my own opinion, but it is still valid because I have support of other valid sources behind me. I feel I can identify areas that are weak because of a lack of discussion on them, and use what I have learned to address these areas. I will be able to apply the entire transformation of thinking and research to other classes by doing what I have just been describing. I now understand what research truly means and the process in which to conduct this research. I feel I will be able to develop papers in the future that really give back to the conversation and spread a new light on the topics I am discussing. This class has helped me to develop my methods of argumentation through writing, which provides a universal applicable in which to persuade and inform others. An example of this can be seen in my website: engece.weebly.com

Final Reflection

At the first of the semester, I had not written in over 15 years. I still wrote as I had learned in high school. I had seriously considered dropping this course. I knew it would require a lot of homework. Many times during this semester, I felt unable to keep up with assignments from this class and other classes at the same time. At the first part of the semester there were over ten hours of homework for this class, plus the required homework for other classes. There were the required 15 hours of service learning hours. I worked as many full time students do. And last, but not least, I have children.

I have struggled through this course and I have complained about the excessive amount of work required by this course. But all in all, I have learned that I can complete everything that is required of me by the due date. I have also learned that I can accomplish a lot more than I thought that I could. Although, I may have lacked sleep as many college student do. As the workload in this course lightened a little, I was able to apply myself more to this course as well as other courses and other areas of my life.

I have learned that helping others as in service learning alleviated the stress level a little. This helps give a little more energy to accomplish more. Helping others makes me feel good because I was doing what I could to improve someone else's life. And by helping a non profit organization a government ran program, I was helping my country.

I am no longer terrified of trying new things even if it sounds overwhelming. I just have to make a start instead of procrastinating a perceived unobtainable goal. I have learned that many things are in fact not an unobtainable goal at all. The website was one of these so called, "unobtainable goals" that was obtained by starting and working through the steps needed to obtain this goal. I thought I would need help in creating this website. In fact, I created and worked on the entire site by myself, http://play-basedlearning.weebly.com/index.html.

Research also seemed impossible to accomplish because I was very busy in other areas of my life. At the beginning of this semester, research took a lot longer because I did not realize I should narrow my searches. One hundred percent of my research was done on the internet to save time, also most of my research was conducted at three or four AM. Search engines and narrow searches helped me to minimize my time spent on research.

Because all of my sources were all saying the same thing, that play-based learning is best for children, I really had to do a lot of research to find someone who opposed this idea. This opposing source did not directly disagree with the other sources, this source wrote about a different prospective than the other sources.

I had decided in the beginning of the semester, to write for people wanting information about Head Start, such as potential target families. People with a high school education. Since creating the website, my decision had evolved for my audience to only include people trying to obtain a college education. This was to create a quality product.

In the beginning of the semester, I had a difficult time beginning my writing because I was writing as I was taught to write in high school. This is not how you write in college. This instructor, I had learned wanted writings as if it was a conversation, which is difficult at first, only because it is directly opposite to how I learned to write. But becomes easier as I practiced writing in this way. Also, while performing my service learning, this gave me my own perspective on my subject, I have my own opinion.

I plan on using what I learned in this course in other courses with any written assignments that I am assigned in my college career. Also, I will use my knowledge on how to conduct effective research while minimizing the time used on research for these written assignments by narrowing my searches. I will consider my audience, which will usually be my instructor, and occasionally my fellow students and on rare occasions the general public. Revision is very important because writing, reading what you wrote then rewriting helps to clarify what was originally written. I have learned finally that a perceived unobtainable goal is obtainable with proper planning, research, writing and revision.

Riley's Final Portfolio

Website!! http://childnutrition.weebly.com/

Coming into this class as a freshman I figured I might be up for a bit of a challenge, but to me that is a good thing. I had been lucky enough to have had Bruce Ballenger, who is an amazing professor for 101, but we didn’t go over a lot of grammar or MLA. Which is exactly what I was expecting this class to be based around. I have always been a pretty good writer. All through High School I was praised for my writing skills and even won the English award my senior year. That has never really been an issue for me. Grammar and formatting on the other hand are my worst fear. I was on the school newspaper last semester and really struggled with the formatting. It was extremely complicated and structured. It overwhelmed me to the point that I was unwilling to go back into it this semester. So while fearing that aspect of this class I was looking forward to gaining more confidence and ability as far as grammar and MLA goes. I was also really looking forward to the service learning aspect. I am a strong believer in using real life stories and interviews to strengthen your writing and credibility. It makes a factual piece more interesting and adds depth to the topic. I also knew going in that volunteer service is a great way to increase your understanding of certain issues. This was very exciting for me, and really the main reason I chose this class.

The reading at the beginning of this class was, I admit, a little discouraging for me. The articles were long, dry, and really hard to get through. Although the topics were interesting, it seemed as if many of the authors were struggling to get to a certain page count, and were missing the whole point. I began to question academia at this point and the many rules behind it. The idea was becoming more and more absurd to me. Even now I fail to understand the method to the madness of “academic” writing. However in the class discussions I gained a stronger respect for it. Several people had some great explanations as to why it exists, and why it is a good thing. I still feel there has to be a better way, but I understand it better. My creative writing teacher in high school used to tell me “you have to learn the rules to break them.” This is something I have always taken to heart. When we started into the digital rhetoric aspects of the course I noticed there was a huge shift in writing style. I began to feel like I could be more human in my writing. This was a big relief for me. I prefer creative essays and writing above all else for this very reason. Along with this though came all of the citations and MLA. Needless to say I spent many hours in the library talking to the ladies at the help desk. I also had Owl at Purdue pasted on the bookmark tool bar of my computer. I do wish that we had spent more time focusing on the MLA hand book. I feel like it would have been a great source, but I just became so lost in it. It was much too confusing and is now another dust collector on my book shelf. Hopefully this summer I will have more time to spend on it. However it seems like I have said this many times before, and still failed to do so.

My favorite project this semester was the website. It was definitely challenging, but I liked that. I did end up changing my topic last minute, but I believe this was of huge benefit to me. The topic I was hitting on before was extremely difficult to define. Not to mention there were next to no articles on the efficiency of the public education program vs. that of early education. I was surprised by this as it has always been a big question for me. In the end I think it was just too narrow. This actually had happened to me several times in my 101 class as well as in my senior project. I tend to narrow in too far and then struggle to find enough information. I think keeping my topic broad was a valuable lesson that I finally learned in this class. Finding information on nutrition and the education system was much easier. There was a plethora of information that, although hard at times to narrow down, was extremely impacting to me as a reader. Especially when I looked up Jamie Oliver like you mentioned. When I found that video I was really inspired to do a good job on my website. I also knew quite a bit about nutrition already and was able to use that background knowledge to delve deeper into my readings. I feel like I was also able to better explain everything in a way others could understand. On top of this I was seeing solutions to many of the problems I was facing in my writing such as child pickiness, proportion control, etcetera, when I went to Head Start that I was able to incorporate into the website.

I feel like the greatest reward was knowing that others would be reading what we wrote. Why write for one person when your writing could have an impact on hundreds of people? It was intimidating at first though. I felt like my writing wasn’t good enough yet. Soon, I learned that no piece of writing is ever going to be perfect. As a perfectionist that was a hard lesson for me learn. I am one of those people who will sit and pick at a piece of writing for days on end, trying to get it right. I have to say I feel sorry for the people who get stuck with me during peer reviews (sorry guys) for that very reason. I think people get discouraged sometimes when I look over their pieces because I always have a lot of suggestions, but I do it to my own work too. There were times that I thought that I was a bad writer because I could never get it right. That is probably the most important thing my college career has given me so far. The understanding that all writing can be improved.

In the end I feel like I am coming out of this class not only as a better writer but a better person. Looking back on all the things this class and Head Start have taught me I realize how much I have changed. Although my grammar and MLA still need help it has improved, and I can now accept that there will always be challenges in my writing. Recently I changed my major to Anthropology and I am already beginning to see the benefits this class is going to have on my future college, and life time career. In a field where involvement in the community is key, I believe both the service learning and digital rhetoric aspects of this class will put me ahead of the game. This has been a great experience for me. I have had a lot of fun with my agency and met some truly amazing people along the way. Every struggle I went through in this course was truly worth it.

Josh's Final Portfolio

Website:
http://headstartinformation.weebly.com

Looking back at all the skills, experiences and assignments I have gained or written over the semester in this English class, I reflected on the words of T.S. Elliot; “A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good.” As I have reflected on this class, this time as a whole, I have thought about what I have learned and how it has helped me not only in school but in my life as well. I have thought about how I wrote and thought at the beginning of this class compared to now, at the end.

As I have stated in previous reflective entries, I did not have the best writing or comprehensive skills for a college student. As I have gone through college, my writing style has been geared more towards engineering, which is my major. I wrote more as a calculator than a opinionated person. Going through this english class, however, I have begun to write outside my normal comfort zone and share my views instead of rewording someone else's. Some of the comments made about my first writings in this class were spot on about how I wrote. Riley, from the class, commented on my first paper; “Although you had some really good questions at the end it might help to be more skeptical. That is really hard to do. I struggle with it a lot. It is really easy to take everything you are reading as true, and agree with it. I noticed at one point you started writing like you were one of the people doing the study.” As I mentioned above, My writing was very factual with little to no opinion. I never shared my voice or my ideas in my writings. This was one of the biggest struggles I've had to overcome thus far in my writing career. Throughout the semester, this has been the focus of every paper I write; to be more skeptical in voicing my side of the story. I feel that now at the end of the semester, I have in someways climbed that mountain and feel satisfied in where I am at in my writing abilities. I found that Wachovski's writings have actually helped me the most. I always thought that writing, especially in an english class, was more of a debate and throwing out facts than it was about feelings and emotions. Reading Wachovski I have come to understand that I can talk about colors and emotions and true human characteristics. I have come to realize that writing doesn't have to be black and white like students are taught in high school, it can be a reflection of one's inner self filled with colorful thoughts, ideas and expresions. I feel that this will help my writings as I continue through college and even into my career.

Another lesson that I feel has impacted me the most over this semester has been the way I think about writings and others thoughts. I have already mentioned that my own writing has improved, but that is only a portion of the battle, I feel. As the semester began, I would read an article and take it as it was. I wouldn't dive into the meaning or try to examine different ways the author could be bringing their point out. I read very linearly. I finally realized this when another classmate commented on one of my analysis papers, saying, “Try to step back and look at it from an outsider point of view. Act as if you have not yet concluded anything.” This took me by surprise. I had thought that I was a good writer and that my writings were meaningful. As the semester continued, I tried to take their advice and analyze the meaning behind what I was reading. I found that once I started reading articles over and over agian, I caught something new every time and found a different perspective about it. I feel that my understanding has deepened in the sense that I try to find a deeper meaning to what i am reading than what is on the surface. I have found that this has helped me over the course of the semester and i believe will help me in later classes as well. I feel that with my writing and understanding improving, I can be a more persuasive writer in the rest of my school years and in my future career. Even though my writing and understanding have improved since taking this class, I know there are still areas of importance that have improved as well.

As I have been thinking about this class, have reflected on how I interact with others in the class. I have made several comments about feedback that I have recieved from peers. I think back to the beginning of the class and how this feedback affected me and my writing. I was never one who took kindly to others analyzing my work, or giving criticism. Criticism has always been a hard thing for me to take, especially when it's been about my work. I have always been someone who loves what they do and doesn't like to change or make adjustments to their work once it's complete. I have always found it very difficult to take criticism, especially from peers. This has been an area that I have been reflecting and constantly working on to improve. I have found that as the semester has gone by, I have become more and more willing to accept criticism from others. In many casses I have found that it has actually helped my writing. As I have mentioned above, one peer had commented on how I need to be more skeptical. As I have applied what feedback I got from my work, I have noticed that my writings were meeting the college level. I actually revel in the opportunity to receive ideas (criticism) now from someone to help further my writing ability. I feel, now, that I couldn't just write something perfect without having it revised and read by someone else. I feel that this will most definitely help me in future classes as I will have to take criticism, whether from my writings or project, or whatever. I feel that this will help me be more successful in life.

As I have reflected on these certain areas that I fell I have improved in, I feel that I have become more successful. I think of the quote, “Success is not measured by what one brings, but rather by what one leaves.” I feel that I brought a fair amount of knowledge to this class, but as I have reflected these past couple of days about this class, I have found that I am leaving with a greater understanding of writing and appreciation for criticism.

Our Websites

Alberto's Website
http://headstart102.weebly.com/
Amanda's Website
http://engece.weebly.com/
Tina's Website
http://play-basedlearning.weebly.com/
Josh Website
http://headstartinformation.weebly.com/
Riley Website
http://childnutrition.weebly.com/

Amanda's Reflective Blog #3

Throughout my time volunteering at Head Start I have learned immense amounts about this facility, as well as factors affecting the individuals who use the services provided by Head Start.

First of all, throughout the process of making our service learning (SL) video, I was able to learn a lot about the Head Start organization and the way it operates. When we interview Andrea, she answered the questions we asked her with immense knowledge and information. The largest pieces of information I took away from that was that Head Start’s goal is to transform the whole family from all angles. This includes informing parents about what their child is doing in class, but by also encouraging them to be active in their child’s education. Parents come visit the classroom on a regular basis. Many come and eat lunch with the children- which again enforces the entire family transformation. Head Start also has a plethora of resources available for parents who may need assistance to provide proper healthcare and nutrition, resources to provide the things children need for kindergarten, resources for transportation, resources for parental education, and as they stated, “almost anything you can think of?”

From interacting with the teachers I have learned how to talk to the children in a way that they can really understand. This is hard to describe, so I will use an example. When we were outside one of the children ran and hid behind the shed- somewhere they weren’t supposed to- because the teacher could not see them. Instead of going over there and telling them to “get out” or “you’re not supposed to be behind there” she said “It makes me really scared when I can’t see where you are.” In another example two children were pushing and shoving. Instead of telling them to “stop” or “don’t do that” she said “that doesn’t make me feel safe when you do that.” In this way the children can understand why they shouldn’t do what they are doing instead of just being told they are not supposed to do a certain action.

My prior beliefs about Head Start were that it was just like any other daycare. I felt that it was just another place parents could leave their children to be watched. However, the children only attend Head Start for four hours a day, and so it isn’t like a normal childcare center. During this time Head Start really focuses on educating the children in all aspects- not just the typical academic ones like letters and numbers. This takes a holistic approach to learning compared to a single playing field. So my initial ideas have been challenged by showing me a deeper educational side presented to children who attend Head Start.

From working with the community I have discovered that Head Start provides fun activities/ events/ experiences to children who would not be able to normally experience such things. Some activities these children are able to participate in include: planting class gardens, growing their own plants, watching their own classroom caterpillars transform to butterflies, creating artwork that is displayed in a community art viewing, learning how to make food- such a hummus- in the classroom, visiting botanical gardens, visiting zoos, and visiting the discovery center. I have discovered that Head Start is not the typical daycare I expected it to be.

My project experience relates to my personal life because it has made me think about how one organization can create such a large impact on the community. In my research a few sources had reached a conclusion that in order to increase the literacy rate in America, decrease the poverty rate, and also decrease the number of criminals we need to approach educating children from a 360 degree approach. Academic education in the classroom, internal factors, is not the only subject that needs to be addressed. External factors such as the health of a child, parental support, home life, community life, and resources available to help educate children all need to be addressed to reach these goals. So personally it makes me think about how I can help make these things a reality. My experience makes me want to help the efforts of this cause of providing education to children by creating a transformation of their lives via the community. It has definitely shown me there are ways to make this vision a reality.

My project experience relates to my academic life by affecting the way I think about communication. This experience has broadened my understanding of how one type of individual expresses themselves to another individual. Age plays a very large role in how we talk to each other. Children need to be addressed differently at each age- whether they are 2, 5, 8, 13, or 17. They are developing all throughout these ages and henceforth are developing their communication skills. This is therefore applicable to my future plans because I plan to become a physician’s assistant. I will work with a variety of ages and need to be sensitive to how I should communicate with them. Children are concerned with being informed, and not deceived, about the medical procedures; they like to feel like they are making their own decision. Teens and young adults are concerned with their image of appearing sick, and are concerned about maintaining their privacy. Adults are most concerned with how receiving medical care will affect their career and families. Senior citizens are most concerned with maintaining their health without taking un-necessary medical action. So as a current and future medical provider I need to be aware of these aspects, and my time at Head Start has helped to better shape my views and ways I think and address this issue.