Where Do I Stand Now? Personal Reflection

Well the time has come for me to evaluate my progress and learning experience for ENG 251 up to this point! I will begin by outlining the Learning Outcomes for the course:

1. Know the basic literary terms and methods
2. Know the basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write Literary Arguments
4. Engage in literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

My goal from the beginning of the term was to fulfill these. Furthermore, after having identified in my personal learning plan my weakness in poetry, I have placed learning focus in the literary genre. Here was what I mapped out on my plan (PO):

1) Becoming acquainted with the different types of poetry
      - I will attempt to do this by studying samples of each type (LO #2)

2) Acquiring skills that will aid me in understanding and analyzing poetry (LO#1 and #3)

3) Develop a work of my own from a chosen genre after gaining enough understanding of it (LO#4)

4) And finally, learn to really appreciate this form of literature (through sharing with my experiences with people in social media and learning from others) (LO#5)

Along the way I tailored my plan to match whatever we were focusing on in class. So how have I done so far? Let's examine (as categorized by learning outcomes):

Personal Learning Update

It's strange to think that our term is almost over when it's barely even started. I wrote my original personal learning plan with the main goal in mind of reading a few books that I've also wanted to and was able to incorporate them into our class learning outcomes.

1. Know basic literary terms and methods for analyzing and writing about fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. I wrote a post about the basic elements of plot and dove further into poetry terms with this post about an Oasis song by analyzing the lyrics as poetry.
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts in fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. I wrote about Greasy Lake, which is a great representation of a short story. I wrote about contemporary poetry also, which was probably one of my favorite assignments of the whole semester. And I loved this drama, which is a film that has stayed with me in many ways.
3. Write literary arguments. I wrote about how poetry appeals to different styles of learners with its visual appeal, and was happy to see that Jocelyn agreed. I also made a claim that the best kinds of literature make you squirm, which got some discussion going :)
4. Engage literature creatively and socially. I created a Goodreads profile and talked about ways to make poetry interesting visually through methods like concrete poetry and played with color and form in my personal literary narrative analysis.
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods. I talked about YouTube as a channel for poetry that appeals to the visual side and interpretation for visual and audio learners. And dang it, I've tried to join our class group on Goodreads like 6 times and it always says "page not found." 

I've talked about updates to my reading plan with my post about The Secret Life of Bees and The House on Mango Street, which so far I've really enjoyed reading. I've really enjoyed conversations with my group and others on my posts. The first was about Neil Gaiman. I loved Danielle's comments and suggestions about Gaiman and his unique writing style. I also appreciated Lindsey's comments on my post about The Secret Life of Bees, and Jocelyn's comments on New Media and Poetry. It's great to be able to speak with people honestly about their opinions on literature.

For the next part of our class, I want to focus on finishing the books on my reading plan and making more thoughtful and honest comments on other people's posts.

 

Progress!

My very first post on this blog was my original learning plan for this term, which I added to when planning my personal reading during our poetry unit.

I've definitely been able to get a good handle on one of my goals in my personal learning plan, which was to get reacquainted with all those literary terms and genres I've forgotten. I'd say I'm doing pretty well, and I've been able to analyze works both in class and on my own utilizing that knowledge. This can be seen in my personal literary narrative detailing aspects of the poem "Tulipomania."
Another of my goals was to absorb more literature on my own, and I've done pretty well with this. I finished a great novel and read a few volumes of poetry in correlation with our units, and I've been able to view each with a critical eye based on our learning. I also planned the personal reading I'll do for our nonfiction section.

I've also been able to critically examine poetry and the way it has evolved through the use of new media, and how it can evolve even within what might seem like an already set sub-genre. I've also been able to share the way traditional poetry has been marketed using new media.

One of the best things I've done this term has been taking new leaps with my interaction regarding literature on social media. I've had a Goodreads account for a while, but I was never brave enough to post a review until a couple of weeks ago. I felt that I was under-qualified to give reviews and self-conscious about who might read them. But after posting my first review, I was almost immediately rewarded! One of my friends texted me and said that she thought my review was "lovely" which was really encouraging. I plan to continue posting reviews and interacting more fully.

While interacting on the blog, I've really appreciated some of the comments on my posts. On my first spoken word post, I especially appreciated Briggs', Sined's, and Richard's comments, because they helped me feel that I was showing them something or someone new that they could be interested in. This was especially meaningful since spoken word is something I am really passionate about. I also really appreciated the comment from Kirsten on my second post about spoken word, in which she encouraged me to look at one of her blog posts, and we were able to have a brief discussion in the comments about the emotional aspects of performance poetry. It was really great to be able to find similar likes in another member of our class.

Personal Reflection on the past 16 days in ENGL 251

Let’s look back, wa-ay back in the term when we started these blog posts..I believe my first post was May 1 ( a whole 16 days ago). In that post I outlined my personal, outside of class, learning plan to fulfill the learning outcomes. This is roughly what it said:

1.Know basic literary terms and methods - Write about texts I read and use the literary terms I’ve learned

2.Know basic literary genres and representative texts- Read literature from the basic genres so I can know texts for each.

3.Write literary arguments- Practice writing arguments on the blog

4.Engage literature creatively and socially- By blogging about it in creative ways (blogging in itself is social)

5.Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods - Teach what I’m learning in a social media platform (the blog) which is an emerging communication tool.

So the question now is, how did I do on these outcomes in the past 16 days. In the following list, I've categorized all my blog posts into their corresponding learning outcome. Click on all the happy links and enjoy. (Some posts overlap into several outcomes.)

1.Know basic literary terms and methods 

• I identified some literary terms for fiction in Analyze Yourself.
• I took inspiration from symbolism in two texts we've read for class in my post, In My Purse.
• I identified poetic literary terms in my Personal Literary Narrative.
• I found more poetic literary terms in my analysis of Barbie Doll.
• I identified literary terms in my analysis of Since Feeling is First

2.Know basic literary genres and representative texts

• I identified The Ice Queen as a fictional work in my post, Ice Cold
• I came up with things that I want to read and categorized them into category by genre. Out of the list so far I have read most of the poetry.
• I identified the genre of a book I was reading as well as the genre of another book mentioned in the first book in my post, Perception is Reality
• I identified an example of poetry in my post Poetry in Russian
• I found more poetry examples in my post Life's not a paragraph...

3.Write literary arguments

• In Analyze Yourself, I made a literary argument for a fictional piece that I wrote.
• I wrote a brief literary argument for The Ice Queen in Ice Cold
• I wrote a literary argument for a favorite poem of mine in my Personal Literary Narrative.
• I wrote a literary argument for Barbie Doll in my post, Poetry in Russian.
• In Life's not a paragraph... I attempted to write a literary argument for Since Feeling is First.

4.Engage literature creatively and socially

• In Analyze Yourself, I attempted to analyze a creative writing piece that I wrote.
• In the post Why Write? I creatively talked about why writing is important in our community.
• I creatively talked about reading and literature in my post, Ticket to Everywhere.
• I creatively personalized poetry with my poem In My Purse.
• I creatively analyzed Barbie Doll by translating it in and out of Russian.
• Additionally, I set up a Good Reads profile here to engage in literature socially.

5.Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

• I linked to my personal blog in Analyze Yourself, which is an emerging communication tool.
• I used videos of spoken poetry in my post Life's not a paragraph...
• I used video clips from The Dead Poet's Society to make a point about analyzing in my post The Dead Poet's Society.
• Here are a few posts that I had a good conversation through comments: this one and this one and this one.
• With the other contributors of this blog, I taught my English class about analyzing fiction through a jeopardy game.
• Additionally, all the posts I did were on an emerging communication site (this blog).

As far as assignments go, I have done all the common readings, as well as readings on my own. This is my Personal Literary Narrative and this is my Poetry adaption analysis. The post you're reading is my midterm reflection post.

Questions? Comments? Cupcakes?