Adilene Tolentino

Professor Brittany Stephenson

English 2710
4 December 2017
Reflection
Through this course, I was able to learn a lot of new and fun interesting ideas. It was
interesting how for every class I had this semester, I had to have some kind of Thick Notebook,
Writers Notebook, or some kind of notebook to have throughout the duration of the semester. In
this class, we had a Thick Notebook. This was my favorite activity that we had in this class. I just
think that holding some kind of record of your work is always a useful tool. Its a tool we can use
to track our own progress as writers. This Thick Notebook was separated into four different
sections, and wed turn it in after we finish a unit in class. I also liked the field notes journal we
had. It was fun going to the cemetery, the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, and other places of
our own choice and connecting those places with our knowledge on folklore. I also really
enjoyed the class presentations and projects, its such a good experience to be able to get
involved with your classmates and work together.
The field notes journal was able to help me achieve two of the course objectives of the
class. These objectives were: 1. Collecting folklore through field work and traditional research
methods and 2. Developing an ability to interpret folklore in its cultural, social, individual, and
comparative settings. Because we had to attend other events other than the two field trips we
took as a class, attending these events were a great way to achieve these objectives. For example,
I went to the Utah State Fair and Comic-Con, because I attended these two places, I was able to
collect and interpret folklore that was going on around me in terms of material, verbal, and
customary lore. It wasnt only the people around me in which portrayed lore, but also the setting
and environment, which was super cool to notice!
The Rites of Passage and Interpreting Folklore Presentations were one of my favorite
parts of this course. Although my public speaking skills suck, I had fun doing these. Both of
these presentation also helped me achieve course objections in this class like, understanding how
to classify folklore in various genres and contexts, gaining appreciation for the diversity of
beliefs, values, and practices representing folklore in various cultural groups, discovering
meaning in my own cultural/familial groups and their folkways, and sharing knowledge with
classmates through collaborative learning, discussion, and writing. For example, for the Rites of
Passage presentation, I did my part on death rituals in the Hispanic culture. I am a Hispanic and
by doing my presentation on my culture, I thought I knew what was going on, but when I did my
research, I learned new things that I did not know about my own culture. Also, for the Day of the
Dead unit, we had to watch a film. The Day of the Dead has always been a tradition in my family
for as long as I can remember and watching this film taught me new ideals I wasnt aware of
which was really nice. I thought I had known everything about the Day of the Dead, but I ended
up catching onto new things through this film. As a class, we also made a Day of the Dead
exhibit at the Utah Celebration Culture and it was just great how I was able to celebrate the Day
of the Dead with my family and with my classmates. Its definitely been my favorite class this
semester. It was great working both on my own projects and working in group projects as well.
Overall, this class has been the one where weve come together as a class and worked
collaboratively to learn about the universal concept, folklore.