Kelly+R's+Reflective+Letter

This course has expanded my understanding of teaching writing by volumes. When I began this course, I felt pretty clueless about what teaching writing would look like. Throughout the semester, I have learned strategies for teaching and evaluating student writing. I have learned the importance of mentor texts and of choosing relevant and intriguing writing prompts.

Artifacts:

Unfamiliar genre: I chose to explore quatrains because I have little experience in writing poetry and thought it would be a fun change of pace from the typical college essays that I am used to writing. I did enjoy the experience, although I was not completely confident. I am a last minute writer, so I often felt like my creative was constrained due to being in a hurry. I struggled with rhyme scheme and meter because it often felt forced, unnatural, or cheesy. There were times when I actually resorted to rhyming websites, which felt silly. When revising, I tried to change some of the words into imperfect rhymes to help solve this problem. The free verse poems were much easier and comfortable.

Persuasive essay: This piece was fairly easy for me because I am interested in it. My desire to further explore this subject motivated my research process. I wanted to write about something that I cared about, but I did not feel like being too controversial. Buying local is a low pressure subject that I wouldn't get over zealous about. As far as my writing process, I started out with an outline. This is the only piece that I used an outline for. It was much easier to start out this way. Once I was organized, the essay flowed and I was not struggling to fill space. When I revised, I focused on adding the citations and expanding on some of the ideas that were a bit thin.

Expressive/reflective piece: At first, I struggled with what to write about. I changed my mind after my first idea and settled on something that I was passionate about. I knew that I had stories to support my piece, so that helped confirm my decision. Since this genre is almost journal-like, I just started writing until I was done with the first draft. During the revision process, I filled in some details, added some stories, and checked for grammatical errors or awkward phrase structures.

I think my persuasive piece is the best artifact. I put the most time and research into it. I think I have a compelling argument with support behind it.

My weaknesses in writing are often related to my pre-writing and revision processes. I have often tried to jump directly into writing without outlining it first. This is much more difficult and causes me stress. A simple outline gives me direction, fluidity, and detail. I have learned to allow time for brainstorming and pre-writing. I also struggle with procrastination. I usually write my pieces the night before they are due, which leaves very little time for revision. Instead, it is better to write something and then come back to it later to revise it. I enjoyed being able to turn in a final portfolio so that I could polish and improve my writing before turning it in. This has helped teach me how to continuously work to make my writing better.