Evaluation

Evaluation

 

This year I’ve been very busy with classes and work.  One of the classes that is keeping me busy is English 111 by Stephen Brendan.  This is one of the classes in a History-English learning community I am taking.  The purpose of this class, as cited from the learning outcomes, is to educate one about adapting your personal writing process, producing text grounded in evidence, demonstrating academic integrity, learning and using college-level communications skills, and using traditional and digital technologies to compose and present papers.  Other criteria for the class are to understand the rhetorical situations and triangle.  We are also expected to employ critical thinking in reading and writing as well as developing oral communication skills.

            In the next part of this paper I intend to evaluate my learning and my effectiveness in putting it into practice.  First, I will talk about my writing process.  I started the course with an unspoken and unknown writing process that I had developed in high school.  Coming into this class I learn about the six steps of the writing process: pre writing, drafting, revising, proofreading/editing, publishing, and reviewing.  I realize that my own writing process was similar, but the amount of time I spent on each step was out of proportion.  My main weakness was not spending enough time on pre writing or drafting.  My main strength was that I did have the process down even though I called some of the steps by other names. 

Next, I will write about my text being supported by cited sources.  When I started this course, I had a poor concept about needing to cite sources.  I knew how to cite web sites and books, but did not, and still don’t, know how to cite my opinions, as well as the information I’ve learned in past classes.  I believe that this will be covered more in the coming weeks. 

In regard to the academic honesty policy, I understand it, and have no problem obeying it.  My strength in the subject is that I was raised in a faith environment that appreciated these factors.  My weakness with this is that I don’t know how, or even if, you need to cite knowledge learned in high school so I might have accidentally not cited something I should have. 

As for demonstrating college communication skills, my strength in this is that I’ve been learning communication in this class I have also started this course with a well rounded vocabulary.  One of my main weaknesses is that throughout my life, I’ve been a poor speller-- often forgetting how to spell basic words.  This sometimes renders my vocabulary useless as I cannot spell the word that I would like to use.  It is also one of the reasons I’ve developed a  well-rounded vocabulary since I often need synonyms to skirt words I don’t know how to spell.  I often avoid the problem of misspelled words in my paper by asking members of my family the correct spelling of a word or speaking it into my ipod dictionary. 

In this class I’m also learning how to use electronics to present my work to a greater audience.  I’ve learned about blogs as well as Blackboard.  Coming into the class, I already knew about turning in hard copies of papers.  In this class we’ve also learned about citing books and will learn about citing web sites. 

In regard to demonstrating an understanding of the rhetorical situation, my strength in this aspect is that I have paid attention in class and so know about the rhetorical triangle and the allegory of the cave.  My main weakness is that there’s still much to learn.  Adopting my form, formality, and format also fall under the same category as above, where we have learned a little, but there’s still much to learn.  My strength in this is that I have learned in the past about judging the level of familiarity you should use with an audience.  My weakness is that I am a relatively laid-back person and what I consider fine vocabulary and grammar may not be the same for others. 

Another criteria for this clase is having an effective writing process.  My strength is that, as stated above, I had a writing process coming into this class.  My main weakness is that I often don’t leave enough time for pre writing or drafting.  Part of this is because I’m very pressed for time, part of it is because I don’t know about the assignments soon enough, and part of it is just because of procrastination.  I am also supposed to produce 15 pages of informal papers and 12 pages of formal writing.  My strength in this is that I have been taking notes during all the classes and therefore have well over 15 pages of informal writing.  I also have over 10 pages of formal writing with several more writings assignments to do.  I feel that my writing could be improved and I should allow more time for pre writing and drafting. 

Another criteria for this classis to integrate the ideas of others with my own using appropriate documentation.  My strength is that I’ve already started this in this class working together with others using Google documents.  My weakness is that I have not learned how to appropriately document co-written documents.  In this course I’ve also started to produce blogs, having a j Sarge one as well as one of my own.  In addition I have read the writing today course text book. 

Another part of this class is to participate in interactive discussions and oral presentations as well as peer reviews.  My strength in this subject comes from the fact that I have done peer reviews in the past as well as a small number of oral presentations. In class I have also engaged in intense small group discussions.  My main weakness is that, even though I have done some oral presentations, I am still not comfortable standing in front of large groups of people and presenting.  By the end of this course we’re also supposed to be able to use non verbal clues, in order to pick up on audience opinion.  We have not learned much about this in class yet-- only covering the very basics.  I do, however, know a small number of non verbal signs that I learned in my high school education. 

The last criteria has to do with using digital technologies.  We are to use them for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing text.  We’re also expected to be able to locate, evaluate, organize, and collect material.  I, of course, know how to use a computer for drafting, reviewing and revising papers.   I also take advantage of the spelling and grammar checker on Word.  I, however, need to work on my time management skills when on the computer so as not to get on facebook or get caught up reading a story.

            This learning community is an excellent introduction into the college world.  The whole process of attending this class, having homework due, and working is challenging, but I can tell it is improving my skills.  Overall I believe that this is a much needed course to develop a foundation of academic writing, communication, and knowledge.  Based on what I have learned in class I under stand why this class is required for many degrees.