Class Response!

In this class, I have grown as a student by becoming more diligent and organized in my work... Upon receiving a paper that I knew I needed to revise eventually, I found myself doing it right away and looking through it again. Also, I don't think I missed any days in this class so it made me feel better knowing that I came every day as expected! The most challenging ideas for me in this class were the research paper method of writing. It's always challenging for me to come up with a thesis, and get on with the rest of the paper. I have improved as a writer by cutting out excess words in my sentences, and knowing MLA format like the back of my hand!

The texts I responded more positively to were Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, American Born Chinese and A Midnight Summer's Dream because these books were entertaining and I understood the points of them. They were pretty good books! I struggled with The Bluest Eye because I did not understand the way the author wrote things. Her style was confusing and I did not really enjoy reading that book.

My perspectives on the graphic novel as a literary genre has been challenged because I never read any of them until this class. I always thought they were just "comics" and they'd be short and sweet. Graphic novels are whole stories with pictures and are, of course, comic-esque! My thinking evolved regarding this genre because it has opened me up to read more different kinds of texts. I enjoyed reading the graphic novels and they have encouraged me to read some more in my spare time.

The assignments and activities I enjoyed the most were the blog!, writing the response papers, and discussing the texts in class. I have heard of blogs but I have never come close to making one. When we started to do it in class I thought it was fun, adding your own personal style to a webpage! Writing the response papers was a fun way to do writing in a short way. I liked to explain myself and the text in these papers and when we got them back, graded, I saw what I did wrong/right, and what I need to work on so it was eye-opening. Lastly, discussing the texts in class really made me understand the texts whenever I did not understand what was going on. Hearing other people's perspectives and thoughts on the texts helped me understand and interpret it a lot more. The activities and assignments I disliked was the research paper! Haha. I knew it was coming, but I just had a hard time looking up an article that was relevant to my thoughts about the text.

I feel better prepared to think critically about a variety of texts because now I like to know and understand more than the story when I'm reading a book. Overall, I think all my expectations were achieved in this class! =)