Sarah Talley Professor Ingram English 1102 April 14th, 2014 Portfolio Essay Throughout the semester I have

learned how to accept and incorporate ideas from other students who have different insights into my subject matter. I have also learned how to be flexible in my subject matter and realize its not always going to be a straight, smooth road to a conclusion. Being introduced to new techniques in writing has been beneficial to my knowledge of writing. The organization of my Weebly site reflects the complexity of my path throughout the semester. Ive been able to make connections throughout the semester with my work. Ive placed related articles that compliment or relate to each other together on my Weebly site to show my progression throughout the semester.

1. Blog a. English 1102 has provided me with a great writing experience. It has enabled me to broaden my knowledge of different forms of writing. At the beginning of the semester we had to start a blog in which we would record several writing assignments. Throughout the semester I used my blog website to be able to make connections. Our blogs reflected the readings we were assigned. I was able to make connections and reflect on my readings to express my thoughts to

complete each blog. By completing each blog I gained new knowledge each time. The reading provided me insight on writing to help me improve. In blog post 3 I learned about ethos, pathos, logos and kairos, which helped improve my writing greatly. These were all new terms to me, which I later used in my multi-genre project. Learning about these four terms helped me express my multi-genre project effectively. 2. Exploratory Essay a. The first major writing assignment was the Exploratory Essay. I had to complete a paper on my passion, something I cant ignore. I decided to write about cooking because I love to cook and do it very often. We werent given any instructions on how the paper should be written. All we had was our topic. This was scary for me because I felt like without instructions or key points to follow, I wasnt going to be able to write the paper. After writing the paper, I looked backed and realized it was probably my favorite assignment. I wasnt stressing about leaving something out or constantly following instructions. It gave me the opportunity to write a paper, completely on my own. b. After receiving feedback from my instructor on my exploratory essay, I realized I needed to broaden my paper so much more. For example, in my paper I said, My favorite recipe is one of the very first recipes I used from Pinterest, its called corn cornbread. My feelings for cooking are intense because it provides me time to myself. From the

feedback I received, I realized I could develop these two sentences into a more detailed explanation. I could expand and explain what corn cornbread is, what are some other favorite recipes, what is time to myself and why is it so valuable? I gained a lot from the feedback. I learned that providing as much as possible in detail helps the reader to understand my passion better. c. I knew that writing about cooking wasnt going to give me a lot to write about so I was going to have to broaden the topic as much as possible. I usually skip process work and just start writing. After being given a topic like this, I realized that process work is an important part because I needed some sort of outline. I then decided that creating an outline would help me expand my paper to and give me more to talk about. The outline is provided under process work in my e-portfolio. As you can see, I expanded cooking as far as going to the grocery store because its my least favorite part of cooking. 3. Mid-term a. For my midterm we had to write a paper answering three questions. In the first question we had to provide a key concept we were struggling with. I decided to use peer review because until this semester I had bad experiences with the idea gaining helpful advice from peer review. I was hesitant to talk about peer review because I didnt want to come off as being negative in my opinion. I chose to still talk about peer review and explain Ive had trouble but have a positive

outlook for the semester. Looking back I have had a positive experience with peer review. Ive learned through our assigned readings and consistent practice, how to read and provide commentary to help my classmates, as well as get helpful comments in return. For the second question we had to analyze an e-portfolio and then give the student the grade we think he/she is deserving of. After careful analysis and adding to my knowledge base, I would reconsider my grading for the student because of my lack of knowledge of all key concepts. Intellectual growth and maturity has had an effect on my ability the make judgments on a students work. After learning the requirements for the portfolio essay and Weebly site I now know that he provided organization, key concepts, and analyzed and explained how his work has improved. I would change my thoughts on giving the student a B to an A. In the third question we had to tell what our main inquiry question is and identify at least 4 people who would be at our round table and explain why. I had to start by putting my topic into a clear question. I then began my research inquiry here because I had to find out who would be involved with my topic. 4. Wild Card Artifacts a. I chose these two artifacts for wild cards because they were a turning point in my Extended Inquiry Project. I began my EIP with the question, Does North Carolina Public Schools provide the nutrition in

cafeterias needed for the students. After doing lots of research I came across the Eat Smart Nutrition Standards for grades PreK-5. It states the guidelines that cafeterias in public schools must follow now. After reviewing these I discovered that the nutrition guidelines had changed drastically and the menus had changed accordingly. Due to this discovery my research question was then invalid because I had no argument. From this experience it taught me to be flexible with my research and writing. This predicament has enhanced my ability to use independent inquiry effectively. I then had to choose a new question and start over. Without changing my approach entirely, I looked at it from a different perspective. I learned that the menus are now nutritional but wondered if the students would be willing to eat the new foods provided. i. One piece of feedback I chose directly relates to my wild card artifact above. The piece of feedback I chose was on one of my reader response letters. The reader response letter was on research and creating an argument. The feedback I received said, Needing both sides of an argument is really important to having a conversation rather than something one sided. I couldnt agree more with this statement. Above, I talked about realizing my research wasnt creating an argument so I had to change my topic. When I completed this reader response letter I was starting to have difficulties with my EIP because I was

starting to find out there wasnt an argument. After receiving the feedback, I agreed with the Kylie and decided I didnt have an argument and was going to have to create a new question. b. My second wild card artifact was a part of my old research but flowed into my new research. This artifact was an interview from a Kindergarten teacher. After my research being invalid I came across this piece of research and it expanded my interest. I then decided my new research would be, Implementing the Healthy Kids Act for North Carolina Public Schools, can the school system promote the acceptance of foods, which meet the new nutritional guidelines? With additional information and research I decided to do a lesson plan for a tasting with kindergarten students. In addition I decided to create a picture book of nutritional information on a kindergarten level. After reviewing the teachers interview she had made several statements about teaching nutrition. I thought this could be helpful for kindergarten teachers to be able to teach and introduce the material in a fun way. I then decided to go even farther and use this teachers class as a test group. 5. Multi-Genre Project a. My multi-genre project turned into a large piece of work. After having to change my research question I then found a new approach that tied in with my original question as well as provided a new argument. My multi-genre project was made up of several parts. I began with

making my lesson plan on a tasting for kindergarten students. While making the lesson plan I decided I would create a picture book with nutritional information on a kindergarten level. My picture book would tie in with my lesson plan and be a part of the presentation. To integrate this in with multiple subjects I decided to provide the students with a chart where they would provide their own feedback on the food either being salty, sweet, bitter or sour. Then as a class we would accumulate the data. By doing this I introduced math, science and reading. My final step was deciding to actually teach this to a real class of kindergarten students. b. I didnt have very much process work for my multi-genre project. But I would consider the vast amount of online research I did as process work. When I started my EIP I was researching the nutrition in school cafeterias. After lots of research I found out that the nutrition in cafeterias had changed drastically. Then I had to take my EIP into another direction. Luckily that wasnt hard for me to do. I then decided I would focus on how to promote the nutritional foods now being served. So from there I had lots of research to start doing. I researched what I could do to introduce nutritional foods to students and I received the idea to create a lesson plan to teach a tasting to students. I chose kindergarten students so you can introduce the foods at an early age and theyll continue to enjoy the foods as they grow up. From there I had research how to complete a lesson plan,

what foods I should use in my tasting, pictures and activities for my picture book, research for my annotated bibliography, etc. My multigenre project consisted of lots of research as my process work. c. There was a little more process work I had for my multi-genre project. I decided to teach the class therefore I had to prepare everything to be able to successfully teach the lesson to the students. I had to completely get a visual of everything I was going to need that day. I would need the food, students charts, a class chart, plates, picture books, etc. So I began jotting everything I would need down. Then I drew up sketches of the class chart and the students chart. After I had everything written down that I needed and a idea of how I was going to make certain things, I then began to making the hard copies and preparing for me to teach the class. d. This was my first experience creating an annotated bibliography. I hadnt even heard of an annotated bibliography until I was informed of the assignment. Because I had never created one I was very confused at first. After researching annotated bibliographies, reading the instructions repeatedly and discussing the assignment with the instructor, I then understood what it required or at least I thought I did. I completed my research and wrote the summaries for each piece of inquiry. But after turning in my first draft I realized I still didnt fully understand the assignment. I learned that after writing my summary of the research I then had to explain why I used it. This was

a learning experience in itself. I have gained new knowledge on a segment of writing and will be able to use this in the future for research papers. I will also understand what a professor is talking about when he/she assigns an annotated bibliography. 6. Writers Notebook Artifacts a. My first piece I chose was about peer review, which was a big part of this semester. Ive had little experience with this form of evaluation in the past. Last semester was the first time I had experienced peer review and it was very poor. The instructor failed to help us understand the meaning of peer review and how to gain from it. So after being told this semester was going to consist of a lot of student commentary I wasnt looking forward to it. Although, I chose this artifact so I could comment on the fact that I have learned that this kind of input is very useful. After being told how peer review is suppose to work and how to be a successful reviewer Ive come to appreciate it and have had an outstanding semester getting commentary from my fellow students. b. The second piece I chose from my writers notebook was a rhetorical analysis on a rescue groups website homepage. I chose to use this piece because it was something new I learned throughout the semester. Its also something very important in writing and visuals. I learned how to recognize credibility, timeliness of the material, the emotions it evokes and if the organization is logical. A rhetorical

analysis consists of the purpose and audience of the text but I was already aware of how to identify those. After writing my portfolio essay and realizing how much Ive learned and applied, I would give myself an A. I have noticed that throughout the semester my work has consecutively progressed and improved. I would say that my work is thoughtfully arranged and is easily navigable with my idea to place pieces of work together that relate to each other. I think I have thoughtfully and thoroughly discussed my engagement with key concepts over the semester and explained my growth as a writer.