Midterm Analysis and Evaluation

b1.
Throughout this semester, English 103 has taken many approaches to helping me learn how to argue. I feel that we have touched upon the five course strands and that they have really helped me understand argumentative rhetoric.
With everything we do, research is involved. I have used various types of research with every work that we have been assigned. For the Community Based Writing Assignment, we were required to have four sources. My sources were two websites, a poll, and an interview. I consider all four of these sources to be research and were very helpful in my work. Using polls and interviews as sources taught me to think outside of the box and that you don’t always have to use books and written information as research. Another type of research that has been a huge part of my learning experience was observation. I used observation in the Shakespeare Review and the Art Opinion Piece by going to a play in the Brooks Center and Lee Art Gallery and use what we saw to write an opinion paper.
A huge part of this class is based on collaboration. For the first few weeks, we were in groups constantly and were required to work together to complete assignments. This taught me a lot because we were required to work together and use teamwork to succeed. Also, during the debate we were divided up into teams and hearing everyone’s point of view on the subject of text messaging vs. phone calls was really helpful in making our argument. Another part of collaboration I feel is being able to communicate with the teacher and I feel that Erin has a lot of feedback to offer and has really helped me understand what to improve on and how. I plan on using this feedback to my advantage over the course of the rest of the semester and really improving my work.
As far as critical and rhetorical thinking are concerned, I have always struggled. This class is helping me see how to be more involved with thinking and ways to improve. I feel that I did really well on the Art Opinion Piece by interpreting what I felt the artwork had to say and by putting my thoughts into words. Erin also had positive feedback for this and helped me to see that critical thinking isn’t as hard as it may seem, it is simply putting your complex thoughts and ideas into words so that others can understand your viewpoints and where you are coming from.
The blogspots have been an awesome part of expressing ourselves though information and technology. I love doing the blogs because it allows us as students to share information about ourselves with Erin, information that we otherwise probably wouldn’t have the chance to discuss in class.
Lab has also been a very important part of this class because it allows us extra time to go over and have a better understanding of material we are covering in class. We haven’t gotten any assignments back in lab yet but I really feel that I am doing well in there and that it will help me succeed in class.

c1.
Evaluation: I feel that the grades and feedback I have received are pretty accurate when looking back over my works and considering what I could have done differently. I would like to be able to take the comments and grades Erin has given me and use them to improve my work over the course of the rest of the semester. I will work harder to use more explanation in my writings. Overall, I feel that the grade I received on my midterm assessment reflects the works that I have done and my overall effort.
Midterm Grade estimate (student): A-