Reflection of English 111

Decemeber 1st, 2009

When I enrolled in English 111, I was very apprehensive about what to expect. I had only had English 3 last semester, and ninth grade English class before that about twelve years ago. Although I did well in English 3, a college composition course seemed overwhelming. At first, this course seemed slightly laid back and fairly easy with the pass or fail assignments. Unfortunately, even though I had the course calendar and assignments available to me, I was not prepared for the extremely fast pace of the final month of class. I knew in the back of mind that the course was going to eventually be rough with numerous assignments at the end.

My personal learning style is a lot of verbal instructions, and I felt like this class was a teach yourself course. I am used to the professor being prepared, teaching a course, and going over the assignment. Then, having the class start the assignment with a given due date. It seemed that in the class that I was supposed to start on assignments before they were even taught or explained to the class. As were I received a 100 percent in my last class that was ideal for my learning style, all I can do is hope that I can receive at least a D so that I do not have to pay the military back for this course. Some people learn well with creative and thought productive learning, but with out the basic foundation of English, some people tend to struggle. In my opinion a class should be designed for the majority. During this course several of my classmates either swapped the course or dropped the class all together. To me, this class is not intended for the majority. If you are a single mother, and you do not have help with family or friends, this can add to the stress and difficulty on this mostly internet based course. This class requires a large amount of time and attention.

The only assignment that was extremely hard for me to accomplish was the argument essay because it took so much of my time to research the topic. I wish this assignment was explained earlier in the class schedule so that I would not have felt so rushed. The more rushed and stressed I become over classes the more it show on my grades. I loose my concentration and motivation for the course. Even though the assignment was in the course calendar, I only focus on the assignments that are being gone over at the present time. In which is one of the lessons I have learned in this course.

On the other hand, I have learned a new method of learning. Although I prefer the more organized method of instruction based classes, I will be able to achieve more in a future class if I found my self with the same type of instructor with a different teaching idea. During this course I have also acquired more knowledge on things that I was not aware of before like blogging and the use of the library resources. These I believe were useful. I like the idea of blogging so that I can express my ideas to the public. In turn, I can receive ideas from other points of view. Also, this is first class I have taken at Tidewater Community College that ever went over the various resources that this college has to offer.

After this course, I do find myself a slightly stronger writer due to the fact that I have learned more about the resources available to me for my research papers. This will do me world of good when I take a history class next semester.

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