January 15, 2013 Enmariel Crdenas Journal 2

Evaluative Comments about Files

Undoubtedly, the files we have worked in Reading and Writing so far have been a good and different way to learn. The contents have been quite clear and easy to understand, of course, it helps a lot that our teacher Audy Castaeda explains some of the things in classes, but I think the way the files are done are clear and it doesnt make the classes complicated at all. The contents of every file have been really helpful and also the exercises we have done after every lesson because we practice the things we learn in each class. In my opinion, all files have an excellent quality and I also think our teacher has done a great job. Talking about the files, I have to say that at first I was really confused because I didnt understand the way we would have to work with a subject as Reading and Writing; the files by e-mail and all about that, but then I realized it was not difficult at all. File 1 of writing was a good way to introduce the topic of the writing process because I never used to think about the stages people follow before writing. I learned that we cannot just sit down and start writing, we need to think first of what we want to write about and make some notes so that, we can give an order to our ideas and finally make the changes we think are necessary for a better understanding. We did an exercise about knowing our classmates; it was really fun and interesting to improve our writing techniques. After the first file of writing, our teacher sent us some more files about writing. For week 3 it was about the Prewriting processes in which people choose a subject and it is better if people are really interested in the topic they choose because it will be easier to focus on the ideas they want to make clear about it. A second step is the choosing an

audience and a purpose because it will make us to write in different ways depending on the audience we are writing for: kids, adults, etc., the purposes of writing can be for explaining things, entertaining people or just to convince them about something. Another step is the choosing a specific topic of what we want to talk about so that, we can avoid talking about many things that are not really necessary. We only focus on what we want to talk about, something really specific. Finally we look for the best technique to start writing such as brainstorming, asking questions and some others. These things were kind of difficult for me because of all the steps that sometimes we just dont mind. All we want is to write and we dont care about the steps that help us to organize our ideas to write in a good way. Besides the steps I mentioned before, we learned about the sentences in a paragraph. They are really important in a paragraph because it expresses the thoughts of the person who is writing it. To write a sentence we can use series to combine several ideas, use relative pronouns such as where, which, who, etc., we can also use a phrase for ideas which are less important and some other ways. Learning about the sentences, we learned what a Topic sentence is and how to create one. I noticed it is really important because it says a lot about what your paragraph is going to be about. We need to follow an order and give ideas as clear as we can for people to understand easily what we are trying to explain. The paragraphs must be supportive and show enough evidence to be a well done paragraph. There are several types of paragraphs, but we have learned so far the narrative, expository, definition and persuasive paragraph. The writing paragraphs has been kind of difficult and fun at the same time for me because now that I know the processes writing involves, I have to be careful before start writing even a little paragraph. I also think it is fun because our teacher has allowed us to write about topics we are interested in; therefore, it makes the assignments easier to do. Definitely, all these files about the sentences and the writing process were quite helpful for us to follow the next step which was the writing types of paragraphs. I couldnt expect more from the files because I honestly think they were really well explained and its really easy to read. The first paragraph we had to write was a definition one. At first I didnt know

how to start writing, but then I checked the files and it helped me. I wrote about an abstract word: Friendship, I liked that exercise. Then in class, we made an activity in which we corrected the paragraphs of our classmates and we made corrections we thought were necessary, so that, they rewrote their paragraphs which were the final version. Theyre supposed to be better done than in the first draft. Next week, the writing file was about the Narrative paragraph. Frankly, at first the class was a little strange because our teacher couldnt come to classes; therefore, Professor Vanessa had to explain the files we needed to work on that week. I learned how to create a narrative paragraph following some steps to make it clear and I also learned how to give enough information to support my ideas in a paragraph. At the moment I had to write my narrative paragraph, didnt know what to write about, but then I remembered something that happened to me when I was a child and it helped me a lot. As usual, we checked the paragraphs in class to make the corrections and write the final version. The two paragraphs I had done before made me realize that writing is not as boring as I thought it was. Certainly, we were learning all that writing process and thats why we were doing different types of paragraphs every week. The next paragraph we wrote was a descriptive one, which is a paragraph where we describe an idea, a picture, a person, etc. I think this is the easiest paragraph because it wasnt the first time I had to describe something. We are always describing things, so its easier than the others we had done before. The explanations were clear and the exercises were easy to do. One of the exercises was about writing a situation in which a friend of us was flying to a foreign country to meet a friend of us there and we had to describe our friends personality because they were going to live together in that country. It was easy and a good way of practicing this type of paragraph. Another type of paragraph is the expository, this paragraph presents facts, give directions, define terms and so on. I learned that there are some ways to write a descriptive paragraph: process, definition, comparison and cause and effect. With this file we had to write a cause effect paragraph. In my opinion, it was quite easy and my paragraph was

about eating chocolate. Of course, I had to do some researches to give enough information to support my ideas, but it was ok. Probably, all these files have been easy to understand because our teacher has been an excellent guide for us to do our exercises and that is really important because sometimes lessons can turn in a difficult way for students. The last paragraph we did was a persuasive one, this paragraph is made to support or prove something and it tries to convince people that one idea is correct. I learned some of the connectors we need to use at the moment we write a persuasive paragraph to make it easier to read. Besides that, we need to give evidence to prove the ideas we are talking about and it helps us to convince the reader of something because thats the purpose of this paragraph. In Reading and Writing we have also worked with files about reading. This has been something that goes hand in hand with writing. In file 1 we worked on some tips or steps we should think about before start reading, during the reading and after it. Looking at the title, pictures, predicting what the text is going to be about, connecting background knowledge, drawing conclusions are some of the steps we should practice in every reading. To this file we did an exercise in which we had to answer what things do we do when were about to read, during the reading and after reading. We also did an exercise about making predictions after reading some paragraphs of a story; those exercises were helpful for us to learn how to predict things to make the reading process easier. In file 2, we worked on something very interesting: Guessing meaning from the context. This content was excellent; I learned how to forget about understanding every word and focus on the context so that, I can guess or have an idea of what the words I dont know mean. I learned I have to think of the categories of the words, this is very important because it helps me to know at least the kind of word Im dealing with. Nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, suffixes, prefixes are kinds of words we have to recognize at the moment of reading when we dont know some words. A new knowledge for me was the content words; those who belong to the dictionary and those who belong to the grammar called function

words. Its something I did not know. The exercises we did in class were quite easy and I learned a lot with the content of that file. As a complement for file 2, number 3 was kind of more specific about guessing meaning from the context. Thats an important reading skill because not all the time we know what some words mean and that is why we need to have a look at the words around the unknown word. Fortunately, there are some clues we can have in mind such as synonyms and definitions, examples, antonyms or simply general knowledge. With the exercises of this file I was kind of confused because there were words I had never seen before, but we worked in pairs and it made the exercises not that difficult. Next file about reading was about scanning and main idea. At first I was a little concerned because I think it is difficult for me to find the main ideas in a text, but this file and another file which was all about the main idea, helped me a lot. I also learned two skills we need to put in practice when reading: Skimming that consist of reading a text quickly to understand the main ideas and scanning which consist of reading quickly to look for specific information. We apply these skills when we just do not have much time to read the whole text carefully and that is why we skim or scan just to look for interesting information we want to know. Finally, with file 5 which is the last reading file we have worked so far, we worked on making inferences. In here we did an exercise in which we had to read an article and answer some true, false exercises. The point of that was to learn how to recognize the purpose of an author in a text and guess what is he trying to tell us, even when the information is not shown in an obvious way. Honestly, there is nothing wrong I would have to say about our teacher and the files she has done for her students because everything has been so clear and understandable. In this reading and writing I have had to improve my skills, skills I never practiced before because I was not aware of all these knowledge. In my opinion, I have to recognize that now I am being more careful at the moment I read or write something and that is why I try to do my best. Definitely, Reading and Writing has been a huge help for me as an English student

and future teacher. I still think I am a disaster with punctuation, but there was also a file in which I learned some tips about the use of it. It has been quite interesting and fun the writing and reading subject and I have to say thanks to my teacher. Shes been very helpful and generous with us and also the files she prepared for this subject are really well done. As an advice for future students taking this course I would honestly recommend Professor Audy Castaeda or at least a teacher who can work with her files because they are a big help the lessons are easier to understand. I think she has done a complete and excellent job.