Final Reflective Letter
When I entered the classroom the first day of the course, I perceived the work load in front of me as overwhelming. I was being yelled at, told that I would seemingly fail the course if a small detail from a myriad of assignments was omitted. While I had the prior knowledge that the class was not indeed that strict, I was still very nervous about my performance in the class. My anxiety never went away completely, however by the time I had combined my first three papers into one, I felt a great weight lifted from my shoulders. This is not to say that the class was an easy feat; I considered dropping the course during the process of shifting my topic to its current area. However, I did not drop the class and I am thankful for the resulting experience. While I had the work ethic and responsibility to complete serious projects before I took the class, the research project has certainly reinforced those values. It reminded me that it is best to complete a project in its entirety, even if it takes a significantly longer time than only doing a mediocre job. In the end, it will take less time to do the project correctly the first time than to undergo major revisions each step of the way. While this class has had the greatest workload of any course I have taken at IUP so far, it has also been by far the most enjoyable.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the class is the open environment for discussion. While I may not have wanted to come to class every day because I wanted to work on my paper or project independently, I ultimately enjoyed the class regardless. The one day that we had an off-topic discussion about sexuality and gender identity was actually one of the most intriguing lectures. You should reserve a day in English classes just to provide this information to spread public awareness. This is just one example of the spontaneity in the class. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and occasional comments which lifted the spirits of the class, especially feedback from Heather and Brock.
One important thing that this class helped me do is to appreciate writing again. I had not had an English class since my senior year of high school. This class was not particularly engaging, and while I did well in the class, it discouraged me from freewriting or reading for pleasure for quite some time. While I did a lot of reading on the internet, I did not go to the library to read for pleasure until the summer of 2009, a full year after graduating. Additionally, I didn’t do any freewriting for pleasure until the beginning of this class. I had only worked on assignments for other classes. This class forced me to start writing on a regular basis again and was ultimately very beneficial to my life outside of the classroom.
I mentioned in my last reflective letter that I enjoyed the use of groups and how this was an effective and unique approach to the subject. The way that most groups work in other classes is that the majority of the workload rests on the person that cares the most about their grade. However, in your class, the groups were used as a type of support group where feedback could be sought. I still like this concept and I believe I will incorporate this philosophy into my own in the future. Towards the end of the semester, we did not use groups as often, but sometimes this was necessary because of the subject material being covered.
Other times, during “group therapy”, it was not especially helpful for me, but I understand it was beneficial towards the other students, therefore in the spirit of utilitarianism, I think it is still a beneficial practice. My only problem with the ‘group therapy’ was the undirected anger at the class or various persons. I interpreted this anger as directed towards myself, even though this was not the case. This led me to enter periodic states of depression which stifled completion of my project. When several classes were canceled, I was able to work more efficiently. I acknowledge that I take undirected anger and direct it towards myself, and not everyone does this. However, I recommend that in the future, you would discuss issues with specific persons, unless the problem is truly with the entire class.
Overall, this class has been one of the more enjoyable classes I have taken at IUP so far. While not directly related to my major, it has enhanced my set of skills necessary in the future to be an effective communicator. I will model the philosophy of group discussion utilized in this class in my future career. Sadly, people change locations in their careers, as you are doing after this semester. This is quite a disappointment because I believe that IUP is losing a valuable asset when upholding the status quo in its postsecondary educational-industrial complex, corporatist attitude. However, their unforeseen loss is your gain. I wish you the best of luck at your new college and hope that you may spread the joy of learning that was bequeathed upon masses of your past and current students.
Sincerely,
Aaron Corso
Reflective Letter #1
Before enrolling in this class, I had heard mixed reviews about the course, but was eventually persuaded into taking it, despite the daily flood of my IUP email account from you, yourself, warning us about the difficulty and immense workload of the course. Six weeks into the class, I still have mixed feelings about the course, however I will keep a positive outlook as to not drive myself into a self fulfilling prophecy of failure.
I will begin by stating the obvious: this class has been the class with the most work load I have taken at IUP so far. However, it is at par with my Honors English 12 class I took my senior year in high school. I am in a somewhat unique position, because I submitted a writing portfolio and was able to skip the first one or two English classes most students take their first two years. This being my first writing class at IUP and the first English course I have taken in two years, it has recaptured my interest in writing which I lost my senior year of high school with assignments that didn’t mean anything to me. I find I am doing more freewriting, which is currently eclipsing some of the assignments for your class. However, without this freewriting, I do not feel as if I could fulfill my obligation in this class as to put forth a mathematically impossible percentage of effort.
I will next discuss what I like about the class. I find that you have a great dedication to your students; while a few of my professors know names of their students, few professors teaching a liberal studies requirement would put forth this effort. I like how the class encourages autonomous learning, because I am an independent learner and having a background in IT, I agree wholeheartedly with the “teach a man to fish” philosophy. I enjoy the level of technological innovation in this class; no other professors I know have used a paperless environment or an interactive website to this extent. I enjoy the use of groups in class, especially how it is implemented in practice. While some professors may assign groups for projects and the work is split up, this concept of “group” keeps in touch with individualism while encouraging the free transfer of ideas. Finally, I must say despite the overwhelming amount of work in this class, I thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere of the class, because it is by no means a traditional lecture, paper, lecture, paper, repeat ad. nauseum environment. There is no sense of aristocracy so often encountered with courses with seasoned, senile professors. In summary, I have never come to this class because I had to, but because I knew it would be a fun experience.
I will now discuss the elements of the class I do not enjoy. There is of course the issue of workload, however as this course has been taught many times and many students have reflected on this, I do not believe one more chime in the cacophony of complaint is going to lessen the workload for future students. Therefore I shall go no further to this regard. Some of the homework I feel should have already been covered in the English 121 class; specifics on proper formatting should have already been covered previously. Students shouldn’t have an excuse as to why they cannot properly format a paper; this material is being taught at the middle school level now. If I was a professor and had a student turn in work which had major problems in citation, I would recommend he or she be demoted to a lower level class. My other “complaint” is more of a suggestion which could become a complaint to future students: while the website provides a great deal of modern resources at the current moment, keep your mind open and always look for new resources. Ten years down the road of life, don’t discuss the importance of having recent journal articles when you’ve unknowingly provided documents that are from 2000. To scare you, I once had a professor which gave the population of the Earth as 4.8 billion people. This figure was last accurate in 1982. While this may sound ludicrous now, don’t be that professor.
In conclusion, I have mixed feelings about the class, and despite the immense workload, I thoroughly do enjoy this course. I enjoy the class environment, stress on autonomous learning, use of groups, the sense of egalitarianism, and use of technology. Some of the things I do not enjoy are the workload, the sense of repeating information from the prerequisites, and the sense this class could cease to be current if not properly maintained. Also, decent wireless in the classroom would be nice, however I know that is out of your hands. I would be lying if I told you I’m looking forward to the next several weeks, because I am most certainly not looking forward to an increase from insane workload to mathematically impossible workload. However, I hope that through the experience of this class, I learn something about myself, and I wish both of us best of luck in the upcoming semester.
Sincerely,
Aaron Corso
