Final Reflection

College Writing Final and Reflection Erik Anderson

A. General Questions: Make sure you rename this document as your (last, first) name and save it to your desktop. Type in (or copy and paste) your answers when it is appropriate. Please type your answers in a different color or font to make sure I can see it when you submit me your document. Write as much as you want. Generally those who have complete and coherent answers will do better than brief, limited or missing answers. When you are completely finished with your final, please make sure you used conventional English and used spell check before you email it as an attachment to my preferred email address. Save your work frequently in case your computer or Internet is slow, etc. When you are finished with all of your answers, please go to the top of the screen and click “File” and go down to “Export.” Choose the file “Word DOC.” Make sure your document is named your (Last, First) name Final and click “Export.” Please attach this file and email it back to me. Once I have confirmed receipt of your email, you should clear the entire desktop of your laptop by dragging everything into the trash. Go to the Finder at the top of your screen and empty the trash. Once you have completed the entire final, you must also post it to your blog. Call your blog post “Final Reflection.” If your blog has working links and pictures that link to their original sources, you will do better on this final. Good luck and thank you!

What Miss Boeser’s preferred email address?
eboeser@bloomington.k12.mn.us
What is another email address Miss Boeser might use for other purposes?
missboeser@gmail.com
Fill in the blanks with the missing information from your course standards/parent letter:
A student’s grade will be divided into the following components:
45% Academic Writing: essays must be handed in on paper with a Turnitin originality report.
30% Participation:
BLOG/WIKI/NING: Each student is required to post journal entries online
CLASS DISUSSION/WRITING GROUPS: Students will respond in class to literature, nonfiction and journal posts, as well as work together to proof and edit papers.
PEER REVIEW: Students will read and respond to the work of their peers in writing groups
10% Homework: including vocabulary assignments and daily assignments
5% Tests and Quizzes:on novels and nonfiction from class, including vocabulary
10% Final Exam:on novels, stories or terms we have covered in class.

Explain what you would do or where you would go if you need help with MLA format. Post links below if you need to.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/

What website do you use to turn in your papers?
Turnitin.com
What “website” or webpage did the Media Center set up to help you with your Problem-Solution Paper?
They only have teen issues and Biography research on their links. http://fcweb.bloomington.k12.mn.us/~cvanblar/
If you wanted to look up something in the Academic Search Premier, which database would you use?
http://web.ebscohost.com/src/search?vid=1&hid=106&sid=8b929d9c-c8af-4585-89cc-b3fc9ef3024a%40sessionmgr103
If you wanted to get an article from the StarTribune, but you can’t find it at HYPERLINK "http://www.startribune.com" www.startribune.com, what database would you use?
I don’t know
If I want to find information on school or district usage policies, where would I go?
http://www.bloomington.k12.mn.us/departments/superintendent/policies_and_regs/index.html
Over the last two terms, we have read four books as a class. Rank them in order from the book you liked the best (#1) to the book you like the least (#4). First, fill in the title of the book under the rank (number) you are assigning. Below the title, write in the author. Last, assign the books a percent out of 100, so that the sum of your scores equals 100.
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow
50
Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
35
Beloved
Toni Morrison
10
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
5

Write a brief reflection about why you liked your favorite book of the four.
The book wasn’t confusing at all. I was easily able to relate to the book and characters within the book. It was also easy to imagine the setting of the book.

Write a brief reflection on your least favorite book.
The Perks of being a Wallflower just had no point in my mind. It was extremely confusing and tormenting to read. The only positive thing that I can think about the book is that it is a very small books so the torment didn’t go on for an extremely long time.
Write the name and author of the book you chose to read on your own or with your book group. Make a link to your book’s wiki:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I’m glad that we choose that book, mostly because it was a huge load off my mind considering all the crap most of the other books in this class put on. It’s a good book as well, it is easy to follow and still holds lessons and values that we should hold today.
Second, Divide 100 points between your group members, explaining what you felt each person contributed to the paper, vocab, etc.
I think everyone in my group should have equal shares of the credit because we all worked hard on our projects.
Third, write anything else you want to say about your involvement in this project before I grade it.
Making our own wiki was a great idea.

B. General Reflection Questions:

1. What would you say is the most important thing you learned in this course?
I can’t really say I learned much in this class except how to use things like wikis.
2. What did you learn to do well? How do you know this?
I learned how to use a wiki, which I thought was very fun.
3. What would you say is your weakest skill in College Writing? Explain why you think this.
Finding time outside of class to work on papers, because I have Robotics and Science Olympiad that I literally commit about 90% of my spare time to.
4. What kinds of digital skills (those required to use new technologies) did you learn?
How to make a wiki.
5. Copy and paste in some examples of your best work (or the work for which you are most proud) from your blogs or wikis or Ning.com. Explain why you think they’re particularly good.
Burnbabyburn.pbwiki.com
I worked on most of this wiki and I thought it was very fun to do, it actually made class interesting.
Make working links to these posts when you upload your answers to your blog.

6. On which of the assigned papers do you think you did your best writing? Do you feel this way because of how peers talked about your work, how much effort you put into it, or the grade the teacher assigned? Explain your feelings.
I think I did my best writing on Little Brother because it was a book that I was really interested in and I had time to do out of class work.
7. As a result of taking this course, what do you think are some things you want to work on in the future in your writing?
Nothing really, I just need time to work on assignments.
8. How did you work best: alone, with a partner, and/or with a group? Did it vary depending on the assignment? Explain.
Alone, working in a group was harder because there are too many minds forced into a paper.
9. Was peer feedback valuable to your learning? How?
No, I don’t think it really helped.
10. How did teacher comments influence or change your writing?
I don’t see much difference in my writing except writing has become harder and I don’t have time to write papers.
11. Where physically did you work the best (at home, in class, the library, etc.)?
Class or Library, I’m rarely at my house anymore.
12. Explain which project you worked on that you liked the best or that you found most interesting. Explain where the project was done (its context, blog, wiki, paper, PowerPoint, Google Docs, etc.), why the project was done (its purpose), and what learning experiences were accomplished.
I liked the last wiki the best because we could build it from scratch.
13. How did your digital writing change at all over the last two terms? Do you think you will use any of these tools in the future because of these changes?
My writing hasn’t changed, I don’t think I have used any new tools other than the wiki.
C. Essay Assignments Evaluation
Please rate the assignments from 1 (low) to 10 (high) and write your comments in the space provided, including what you liked or didn’t like about the work you had to do. You may delete the row of numbers and leave the number you are rating the assignment.

1. College Application Essay: 8
Write a reflection on this assignment, including what you liked or disliked about it.
It helped give practice for something that is actually needed in life.

2. Compare/Contrast: ?
What was this essay?

3. Role-play Problem-Solution: 5
It was an okay assignment, but no reason to want to do it again.

4. Teen Issue Problem-Solution Paper: 3
The assignment was just frustrating.

5. POND Essay: 5
It seemed pointless, but at least it could have something you could relate to.

6. Argument Essay: ?
I don’t know what this essay was.

7. Literary Criticism: 2
I’d rather read The Scarlet Letter again.

8. Book Group Literary Analysis: 6
I could have done better if I had more time to work on it.


D. Tools Evaluation
Please rate the following electronic tools we used in the following aspects of interest and usability. First enter the URL (web address). Make sure you link it in your blog. Please rate the tools from 1 (low) to 10 (high) and write your comments in the space provided, including what you liked or didn’t like about the technology. You may delete the row of numbers and leave the number you are rating the assignment.

1. Class website: 8
URL: http://missboeser.googlepages.com/collegewritingterm2
Comments: Easy to follow and check for updates.

2. Personal Blogs from Term 1: 4
http://editsbyerik.blogspot.com/
Comments: Interesting to use, but kind of a hassle.

3. Term One Role-Play on Internet Access and Usage: 4
URL: http://roleplaycwp4.ning.com/
Comments: Once again, interesting to use but still a hassle.

4. Term Two Discussion Questions for Book assignments: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
URL:
Comments: What discussion questions?

5. Large Group Wikis: 6
URLs: http://tellmeyourdiamonds.pbwiki.com/
Comments: It was ok, but since I didn’t like the book, I couldn’t get interested in the wiki.

6. Small Book Group Wiki: 10
URL: http://burnbabyburn.pbwiki.com/
Comments: Fun to do and it was easy because I liked the book and it was easy to understand.




F. Use this space to write anything else you want to say about the course, your final total grade or comments to the teacher.