Steve Ortiz GPS Reflection

Saturday, October 29, 2011

1. Please provide a detailed summary describing the artifact and its purpose. The artifact in question is an essay, more specifically; it is a personal narrative about a strong belief that has significantly changed me. It consisted of sensory details and 500 words. It incorporated using an authentic voice, which means giving the reader a sense of me narrating the essay. This artifact was an English class assignment that required being uploaded to the This I Believe website in order to share my essay with the world. The belief I used had to have a story behind it. My essay had to include my belief, the story behind it, how I feel about it, how I have grown from it, and a description of my new perspective on life. The purpose of this assignment was to help us develop our ability to recognize our perspectives and our ability to communicate our ideas. 2. Identify and list the GPLO(s) that were satisfied in completing this artifact. In addition, please explain how these GPLO (s) were met by specifically referring to the examples or evidence from the artifact. (Please specifically refer to the indicators within each domain, and do not simply state that you Took Action or Communicated Ideas.) There were two GLPO(s) that were satisfied by this essay. One of them was Recognize Perspective. In my essay, I had to analyze my old perspective on life before my moment of realization. In addition, I was also required to analyze my new outlook on life after my moment as well. Recognizing my perspectives are just as important as everyone elses. The second GPLO, is Communicate Ideas. It was my responsibility to clearly define my belief as an idea that can change a life since it changed mine. It had to make sense to anybody who read my essay. 3. What skills and concepts were learned throughout the process of completing this artifact? How has process of completing this artifact positively affected your future? This artifact helped me learn new concepts and comprehend those that I did not fully understand. A skill I learned to use was sensory details. I learned about their critical role in helping the reader understand the story by looking for them in other essays as examples. Another concept that I learned was that clichs are not only annoying, but bad in literature as well by analyzing pieces of literature with clichs in them. In my assignment, I had to be careful not to choose a clich as my belief. This assignment has helped me prepare for my future by showing me one way of communicating my ideas as a good writer. We all need to be good writers in order to be able to explain our perspective on certain topics. 4. Looking back on the process of completing this artifact, what might you do differently if you were able to recreate or revise the final product? There are certain things that I would have done in order to better my essay if I had the opportunity to redo it. One would be to take the time to carefully put more sensory details. I would try to put sensory details were they are dearly needed. Another thing that I would have done was to be more descriptive of what I meant. My teacher had a hard time reading my essay in my perspective. One final thing that I should have done was describing how much I have

grown from my experience. I didnt write much about the growth I went through after that moment.