Final Reflection Piece Kelsey Sexton English 1102

Overview: This paper will be a final reflection of my semester in English 1102. I hope to take you through my semester with all of the pieces we have done, documented on my portfolio, and explain some of successes and failures that I have experienced in this class. The first thing you will notice is that my page is extremely personable in the form of music. I loved the fact that Mrs. Steele allowed us to really show who we are with this portfolio. It may be a little much for some people, but I love that my love for music and the cello are pretty much splattered on all of the pages. Revision: The main documents that I have on my portfolio that pertain to revision are my monster essay and the academic paper for my inquiry project. There is a Monster Essay tab and a Science of Stage fright: Academic Aspect tab where you can view these pieces. I have posted my first and final drafts, although I do not have any highlighted differences. I know that I may not have completed the assignment fully because of this portion, but the way I revise is to usually read over what I have and the comments that other people have given me, and kind of rewrite everything in a final draft. I do not usually map out exactly what I am going to change; I actually find it kind of difficult to do that. It is very interesting to me that some people use this method all of the time (I am aware that I will have to do so for projects in the future), and this class has helped me to be honest with myself about this aspect of my personality and work ethic. Inquiry: I thoroughly enjoyed the inquiry project that we were assigned for the semester. As we were allowed to choose any topic for the inquiry, I kept my project within the realm of my major. I first started with the question Why is stage fright a monster? and I wasnt sure where I wanted to go with the project. This was a great opportunity for me to really think about why I chose this topic and what I hoped to accomplish with it. When I figured out what to do for the three pieces, it hit me that I really wanted to figure out something that would stay with me for the rest of my life and in my career. First, the academic paper made me document formal research and findings, and come to a conclusion on my inquiry. The social aspect was much less formal and pretty fun, and allowed me to carry out the project in a practical manner. Performing the stage fright case study on myself actually produced some very good results and I hope that they can be of use to other people. I chose to display this part in a blog to allow people to see my updates and comment if they so desired. The creative aspect forced me to think about how intricate and complicated this project could be, so I decided to

condense everything into a quick guide for young musicians. I think it is very important to have these skills from an early age or level, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to create something that would instill them in future musicians. You can see a description of the project and all of the different aspects under the Inquiry Project tab and its sub tabs! Collaboration: From the very first day, we were collaborating with our classmates through different exercises. I didnt even know their names or faces. The Interview Pieces tab in my portfolio marks the very first day of class where we were, quite literally, interviewing our classmates to learn more about them. I have also included links to each of my classmates portfolios so that you can follow up on them and see how their semester has progressed! Another place to find these links would be under the Dialogic Journals sub tabs. Each journal is based on a different assigned video or reading, and offers responses from a different classmate. I am missing a few due to absences throughout the semester, but hopefully the ones provided will offer you good insight into the inner workings of our class. There are also reflections on midterms and other portfolios available to demonstrate even more collaboration. I can honestly say that I am going to miss this class; we had some great, deep discussions, and I was so happy to find out that there are quality people still out there in the world today. Intertextuality: This one is pretty straight forward. Intertextuality is represented in a few of the tabs mentioned above, mostly the academic portion of the inquiry project, as I took research and transformed it into my own interpretation. The dialogic journals are a smaller example of this. In the first two columns, we were asked to write a summary and a response in our own words. This was very interesting, as everyone was able to really express their own point of view and find out what their peers were thinking. I think it is very important to be able to take information and synthesize it into your own views, without plagiarizing. It is definitely difficult to do, but it will be useful for your whole life. You are able to really develop your own views of the world and find the essence of yourself. Rhetorical Awareness: I am not totally sure how to sum this up. It feels rather hard to explain; I guess it is all about my responses and the way I react to other people. You will find most of my responses to others in the Dialogic Journals tab, but there are also other links available to the responses on the workshop forums. I will not lie by saying that I agreed with everyone all the time in this class. There were many discussions where I had formed my own very strong opinions, and sometimes that may have been apparent in my dialogic responses. I have always tried to be open-minded and listen to others beliefs, but something about this class made me want to do so even more. I was able to really question my own views (not in a bad way!) and really dig to find the reasons why I believe or feel certain things. I think the best thing about this class was that we were able to have very open and honest discussions; if there were disagreements, they were handled maturely. I really appreciate everyone keeping the

piece and being accepting of others. It is not often that you meet a whole room of people who are like that. I think I was lucky to have registered for this class last semester. Keep it up, Mrs. Steele! I think this class is very worthwhile and will continue to be so for younger students to come.