Reflective Essay

 Content: Write an essay of three to four pages (typed or handwritten) to discuss your experience in EWRT 1AS this quarter.  Review all the work you've done for the class and our modules and reflect on your experience in this course and of course with online learning.  In addition, you may examine and discuss the experience of sheltering in place and the pandemic.  And you also may want to discuss the events coming out of the Pandemic that are further revealing systemic racism and the activism happening in its wake.

Your overall purpose, though, for this last essay is to demonstrate how your writing, reading, thinking and/or studenthood (how you are as a student) have changed as a result of what you have learned in this class. You must provide specific evidence for your claims, meaning quotes from your essays or detailed descriptions of specific events or processes.  You will be using evidence/quotes from your essays, class materials, my comments, comments from your classmates, and anything else we have covered.

• Introduction: What were you like as a student, a reader, and a writer, before you took EWRT 1AS this quarter? What experiences did you have in previous English classes? Or in school in general? How did those experiences shape your attitudes when you began the quarter in our class? 

• Discuss any reading strategies you’ve picked up or enhanced over the quarter in EWRT 1AS (1 paragraph). You might discuss annotating or using vocabulary. 

 

• Discuss what you have learned as a writer in EWRT 1AS. This might include practice in organization, analysis, development, vivid examples, construction of better sentences, proofreading, writing process, and so on. (This is 1-2 paragraphs.)

 

• Pandemic/Shelter in Place. We are living during unprecedented times through a pandemic and being quarantined.  What have these last eight months been like for you?  What have been some of the challenges?  Have there been any silver linings?  (1 paragraph)

 

• How has online learning been for you overall?  What in our class was helpful?  What could you have used more of?  Or less of?  What seemed more effective online?  What might have been lost because the course didn't have any face to face time, besides Zoom?  Would you have preferred a face to face class?  Why or why not?  What about a hybrid course?  What kind of mix would be ideal?  How so? (1 paragraph)

 

• Writing is learning. To demonstrate how this worked in your case, choose one  topic from your writing, and explain how your understanding of these issues changed as a result of reading and writing about them. What did you understand or believe about these issues before EWRT 1AS, and how do you see those issues now? How does that impact your personal, career or academic life?  Give an example, e.g . what it means to be a citizen or how folks live long and happy lives. (1 paragraph)

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• Social Justice: We also witnessed what happened to George Floyd in Minnesota and to too many others  across our country.  We are now seeing the massive effort in protest, awareness, and other actions.  If you choose, you can include thoughts on the Black Lives Matter Movement, your experience participating or viewing different protests and what you've learned here or will pursue in the future in terms of systemic racism.  

(1 paragraph --This part is optional; the others are required.)

 

• For the conclusion, you can reflect on all of this--and my goodness is there a lot to reflect upon!  What still needs improvement?  Write about what you'd still like to work on with your writing, reading, and even you as a student. Remember that all of us are still trying to be better writers, so what are you going to focus on in EWRT 1AT and beyond?  

Audience: De Anza English teachers

What I'm looking for in the reflective essay:

• a solid introduction and thesis

• Clear organization with topic sentences

• Well-developed paragraphs that show critical thinking about your own writing and learning process

• Specific examples, details

• Well-constructed sentences

• Correct grammar and punctuation

• Form: typed, double-spaced 

Due: You must complete this essay by:

• Tuesday, March 22 for full credit

• Wednesday, March 23 for reduced credit

• You can use the graphic organizer to assist you.