Class is Over Already?
As we reach the end of my first semester at City College, I could see a difference in my writing and my attitude towards literature. Coming into my first semester, I was so annoyed that four of my five classes were non-STEM. I never had a love or interest for writing long essays and summaries. But taking English 110 with Professor Buño has significantly impacted my mindset in English. I went from tolerating the assignments to actually enjoying them.
The first assignment that we got was a literacy and language narrative. We were all given the chance to present our assignments. I really enjoyed this assignment because not only was this assignment not about us, but also how our experiences are universal and showing the problems in society making it harder for non-native English speakers to thrive. This assignment allowed me in a way to indirectly connect with my peers. I learned I’m not the only one who spent ages 1-5 in a different country, I’m not the only one who struggled with combining two identities, and I learned that some of us are really good with poetry while others are better at essay writing. I learned about different cultures from my peers, their cultures. The assignment helped me achieve the first course learning outcome, “Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress lanager users” In a lot of the narratives, people talked about how hard it was for them to settle in American or how their identity felt hidden because they were not encouraged to speak their native language. Then in my research essay, I was able to write an essay about empowering the younger generation to be more confident in their bilingualism. Instead of telling kids to speak Standard American English, we should tell them that knowing another language is a superpower.
“Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.” In this class, we explored multiple genres such as poetry, essays, and stories through videos. I was able to achieve this course outcome the most with the summary and response assignments. In these assignments, I had to choose 3 pieces that we were given in class to write about. Not only did we give a summary, but we had to relate it to something of significance to us. For the first SAR I did, I used a TED-talk. For my second and third SAR, I used essays. In doing so, I realized that although these texts were in different forms, they all conveyed the same message. It allowed me to see why my professor encouraged us to write in our own style and not to code-switch. It did not matter in what way we wrote it because it will still tell the story we wanted to tell.
Because we all wrote so differently, it was intriguing to do peer review in this class. It helped with the 3rd learning outcome, “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” In reading my classmates’ work, I had to remind myself to give them feedback based not on what I would do, but questions I would have if I was in the audience. I had to pretend to be the audience for them. In doing so, I realized that I had to do the same thing for my essays before I submitted them for instructor feedback. When I got lost in my writing, I alway took the time to reverse outline. When writing my research essay, there were many times I lost track of what I was trying to say so I had to stop and create an outline. I had to write what my purpose of each paragraph was, since it was such a short paper I needed to make sure that every paragraph served a purpose.
“Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” In almost all my writing, I had to use ethos. I had to establish my credibility with the readers. I had to give them a reason to listen(read) and believe the words I was saying(typing). I did this by giving them my experience and talked about the significance of the topic to me. I used pathos in my research essay when I talked about the opportunities stripped away from people who do not speak Standard American English. In my essay I say, “What I didn’t realize at the time was how her “broken” English was the reason why she was limited in her opportunities. People didn’t take her seriously because her letters sounded too ‘broken’, too ‘dull’ and just ‘imperfect’.” This may have appealed to my readers because they may know people in the same situation. I used logos just by simply saying that being bilingual is a desired trait; I’ve never met anyone who would give up the chance to know another language if they were able to.
Lastly, “Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.” In my research essay, I used the CCNY library. It gave me a range of texts. Peer-reviewed, scholarly, journals, research, and more. I had to pick what would help my essay be simple with an un-simple topic. I used journals and research papers because they offered proof and had the same opinions that I stated. They backed up all my claims and helped defend it as well.
So to answer the question “To what extent have I achieved the course learning outcomes this semester?” I have been able to achieve all five of the course learning outcomes. Not only have I achieved the outcomes, I learned more about myself and explored my relationship with my languages and identity while also connecting with my peers as we all in a way had similar struggles with our languages. Coming out of this class, I not only feel like a better writer, but more confident in my identity and language.
