This morning, you will compose a reflective essay focusing on your experiences in English 1103 throughout the first half of the semester. Instructions for your reflective essay are included below.
Directions
Plan and compose a midterm reflective essay that documents your work in the first half of the semester, focusing on two or three assignments or aspects of the course that have contributed to your development as a writer and a student. Since you have already written a reflection devoted solely to your literacy narrative, your midterm reflection should focus primarily on other assignments or aspects of the course, including these:
- Keeping a journal
- Studying one or more of the class readings, including “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the excerpt from To Kill a Mockingbird, the excerpt from “The Falling Man,” “Runaround,” or one of the supertoys stories. On first reference, identify the reading by title and the author’s first and last name.
- Reading and editing sample student literacy narratives
- Creating and maintaining a WordPress blog and writing for an audience beyond the classroom
- Collaborating with your classmates on in-class writing assignments
- Playing Scrabble and collaborating with your teammates on Wordplay Day
- Writing longhand
- Limiting screen time
Include in your reflective essay the following elements:
- A title that offers a window into your reflection
- An opening paragraph that introduces your focus and presents your thesis
- Body paragraphs that offer concrete details from your work to support your thesis
- One relevant quotation from Dan Rockmore’s essay “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?”
- A signal phrase and a parenthetical citation for the quotation
- A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
- A work cited entry for Rockmore’s essay.
You are welcome to refer to any of your class handouts and journal notes as you write, but you are not permitted to consult any online sources or use any digital devices as you write. If you followed the preparation guidelines in yesterday’s class notes, the citation information you need is recorded in your journal.
If you choose to include an optional second quotation from another reading for the course, that quote should also be introduced with a signal phrase and followed by a parenthetical citation. You will need to include a works cited entry for that quotation also.
Kudos
Vivian Laliberte posted a blog entry about the HPU Book Fair, where she won a container of kinetic sand, picked up freebies (such as the ones pictured above), and learned about the HPU Libraries‘ resources. For her efforts, she received a bonus assignment credit.
Next Up
On Wednesday, I will return your handwritten drafts (with my notes), and you will have the class period to begin revising on your laptops. Because the first week of October is Fall Break, you have two additional weeks to revise before you submit your analysis to Blackboard and publish it on WordPress. The due date for your revised analysis is Wednesday, October, 14 (before class). The deadline is Friday, October 16 (before class).
