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Kate Garner

English 1101x

Jan Rieman

2/23/10

Midterm Reflection

English 1101x has been a very helpful class so far. Even though it’s only half way

through the semester I feel that I have learned a lot. I will never forget the first day of

class. Never have I ever started the beginning of a course taking notes on a syllabus. At

first I thought it was the silliest thing, but it benefited in two ways: it helped me know the

whole entire syllabus and it was a good start to effective note taking. We started out class

writing in our daybooks every class and reading an essay by Jean Anyon. With the Anyon

essay I learned how to read and take notes more effectively. The fact that Dr. Rieman had

us go back a few times and reread and add to our notes really helped me thoroughly

understand the material. Reading comprehension has always been a difficult task for me

and Dr. Rieman’s tactics have been very beneficial. Such as the new note taking skills

and reverse underlining.

Reverse underlining is a note taking method of rereading that focuses its attention

on previously unmarked parts of a text. It helps make connections and new conclusions

by going back and forth within the parts of the text. I like that it makes sense of the parts

that seem to be irrelevant when you first start to read. At first I did not know what reverse

underlining was, because I had never heard of it before. Before we went into depth with

this new concept of taking notes, we wrote in our daybooks about what we thought it

was. Luckily in our daybooks we can be honest, and there is no correct way to answer
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when writing, because I was clueless to the new method. I love being able to be honest

when I’m unsure without getting penalized.

Daybook entries are one of my favorite things we do in class, because I like free

writing. I feel most comfortable when writing in my daybook. I like when the writing is

about expressing yourself about any given subject. Starting class stating your opinion

about the topic of the day and responding to it at the end was always a great way to see

how productive and interesting the class activities were. The Pre- Peer Response Work

was a good example of a daybook entry that we wrote. Putting in my thoughts, ideas, and

opinions about how writing my papers were going became very useful. That way once we

broke up into small groups or either had to speak with the professor about our work I

knew exactly what I wanted to look at and discuss.

Participating in small groups has helped benefit my writing better, because I do

not always understand the teacher’s point of view. Hearing a student’s point of view gives

me a much better understanding. It’s almost a comparison to the student being a translator

from Chinese to English. Things always need to be broken down for me to understand

majority of the time. Also, when I’m looking over my peer’s work it helps me learn what

I need to look out for when I write. I also feel that I notice things more in other people’s

work rather than mine. Dude to my writing challenges though, I fear that at times I miss

important points to discuss with my peer.

My challenges always start with beginning a paper or an assignment. For some

reason I always get confused really easily. Sometimes the new method of note taking we

have been using can be difficult at times. It has helped me get a better understanding of

the material, but at first I was a bit taken back by it. There are times I still don’t get all the
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pieces of information being fed to me, so I get in a “stuck” mode. Taking everything to

class has helped tremendously and discussing it as well. Once I am out of my stuck mode,

writing the rest of the paper is fairly easy. I have to brainstorm and write down my ideas

before I begin and go into depth with writing my papers. The introduction and conclusion

are always the easiest, it’s the in between detailed paragraphs that take me the longest,

but I still manage to do a decent job. The detailed paragraphs always hold the most

information, and I always think that there is still something I’m not including. Overall

I’ve managed to do a good job.

Surprisingly I think I’ve done better than I expected myself to be doing in this

class so far. I’m pretty horrible at writing, or at least I think so. I’ve been able to keep up

with the curriculum and had a pretty easy time with it. Not meaning the material is easy,

but the work flow not being overwhelming. The goals of the classroom have helped me

keep up with the curriculum, such as understanding that academic writing is a

complicated, multi-dimensional task. The goals I have set for myself for this class is to be

able to succeed enough to receive an “A” or “B”. I don’t know my average currently, but

I hope I am on the correct path to reach my destination. The classroom culture document

that Dr. Rieman wrote helped guide me along the way with the classroom goals.

The classroom culture has been a wonderful atmosphere to work in. I like that we

all can give each other feedback and remain cooperative with one another. The fact that

the classroom culture encourages the students to get to know one another gives the class

comfortable vibes, so no one is scared to talk. Dr. Rieman being very open-minded

towards different learning styles benefits us all as students and makes it a fun learning

class. I really respect the classroom culture because it makes the learning and course
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activities less stressful. I wish more courses would set guidelines that were similar to the

classroom culture in their classrooms.

I have never been in a more uniquely organized English class. I think Dr. Rieman

has very intriguing methods to teaching. I know for fact that I will get a lot out of this

class, which makes me feel confident for many other courses ahead of me, whether it’s in

the writing or note taking category. Reaching my goal is my top priority in this class for

now.