Syllabus
This artifact was the first piece of written material we received from you regarding the course, Ms. Rebecca. I knew I needed to keep it (and that you followed it) because I had you as my English 1101 teacher. This piece of paper was vital because it had all the information regarding your ENGLISH 1102 class. I knew who you were because I had had you as my English 1101 teacher and I liked the way you taught. On the first page, I wrote the word identity multiple times because I was super excited that this was the topic in this class. Coming into college this year, I felt like I was beginning to question my identity. I underlined the book that we needed for the class and wrote "cheapest?" because I had not yet gotten the book and I knew I did not want to pay a fortune for it. The grading for this course was going to be quite different from any other English class I had in the sense that the assignments were going to be completed in parts. The Inquiry Sequence Assignments were each worth a different percentage of our grade. I bracketed this grade breakdown because I wanted to remember how much each part of the inquiry project was worth and I could calculate my own grade if necessary. I boxed in the Writer's Portfolio section since it was going to be a major part of our final grade. Without the portfolio, I would not receive a passing grade in the course. Last but not least, the last couple of pages has yellow highlighter marks to signify completed assignments, arrows to signify the switching of assignments to other dates and scratch outs to signify we are no longer doing that assignment. I interacted with this text by creating my own little "ThinkMarks"; which allowed me to think and reflect more about what I've read and to understand the text more deeply.
"Starting With Inquiry"
The first reading we received dealt with inquiry and habits of academic writers. I had written essays before and completed research but I didn't truly know what "academic writing" was. I underlined the first sentence in the reading with stated, "Academic writing is what scholars do to communicate with other scholars in their field of study. It's what you have to learn so that you can participate in the different disciplinary conversations." I knew that the focus in the English 1102 class was going to be based around inquiry but I had no clue how to go about it. Like the second paragraph of the reading stated, "Fair warning: It isn't easy. Initially, you may be perplexed by the vocabulary and sentence structure of many of the academic essays you read." This statement could not be more true because even though I had never experienced reading as hard as this as time went by I realized that the difficulty I had with academic writing helped me discover new ways of looking at the world and of making sense of it. I bracketed the purposes of academic piece which is usually to make an "argument." I highlighted the purpose of this chapter which was to introduce the habits of the mind and core skills of academic writing. After reading this, I realized that in order to create a meaningful piece I had to further develop my critical thinking skills. I had to learn my own patterns of thought that lead me to question assumptions and opinions, explore alternative opinions, and identify the causes and consequences of ideas and events. I interacted with this text by writing in the margins, bracketing/ circling, highlighting and asking myself questions and making connections from this reading to previous things I already knew about writing.
Humans of New York
At the very beginning of the semester, our English teacher wanted us to get into the mode of a "researcher." She wanted us to learn how, and what type of questions to ask that would promote deeper thinking and more answers. She knew we knew how to ask questions like Who? What? When? Where? but she knew many of us struggled to understand that what "good inquiry questions" were. For this activity, the entire class gathered around in a circle passed around pictures of someone people from New York who participated in this activity. For example; with the picture below, we were told to ask questions like:
1. Why is the girl not smiling?
2. Are they a couple?
3. Where are they going?
4. Do they know each other?
4. What's in her purse?
These questions were open-ended and did not only have one answer. I really enjoyed this particular classroom activity because it allowed me to make my own generalizations, statements, and comments based off what I saw. This activity helped me with my Inquiry project because I learned that Yes or No Questions would not provide me with meaningful insight into a person or situation. I interacted with this text by writing down everything I saw only based off of a picture. I was forced to come up with questions that would possibly lead to a topic and gave provided me with answers.
1. Why is the girl not smiling?
2. Are they a couple?
3. Where are they going?
4. Do they know each other?
4. What's in her purse?
These questions were open-ended and did not only have one answer. I really enjoyed this particular classroom activity because it allowed me to make my own generalizations, statements, and comments based off what I saw. This activity helped me with my Inquiry project because I learned that Yes or No Questions would not provide me with meaningful insight into a person or situation. I interacted with this text by writing down everything I saw only based off of a picture. I was forced to come up with questions that would possibly lead to a topic and gave provided me with answers.
