I chose to do a timeline for my pre-writing activity. Looking through both my positive and negative learning experiences, I have noticed a pattern. My motivation to learn new things tends to lie in the excitement of being able to do something I haven’t done before. My motivation to persist in growing at these things tends to lie in the feeling of self-accomplishment. For example, when I first learned how to read, I was so proud of myself that I…
I tried using Audacity for my recording, but since I do not have a microphone, it was difficult to get a good quality recording on my laptop. When I tried recording there was a lot of static and background noises to the point where it was difficult to hear what I was saying. Instead, I tried using the Voice Memos app on my phone, since I could hold my phone’s microphone closer than my laptop’s. I got a better recording…
My method of annotating consisted of writing a brief summary of each paragraph after I read it. I would read a paragraph, then ask myself, “what did I just read about?” Without looking at the paragraph again, I would write a quick summary of the information in my own words. This method is effective for me because it keeps me actively reading throughout the entire chapter. I know I must write a summary after each paragraph, so I make sure…
I have definitely been a strategic learner throughout most of my academic experience. In high school and middle school, plus even before then, I remember being obsessed with getting good grades. I wanted to get the best test scores and grades so that I could show them off and prove I was smart. I relied on them for personal validation. In elementary school I wanted the best scores on tests and projects so I could show off to my classmates….
“The Editor” is a podcast that follows the story of a friendship between Robin Woods, a prisoner who taught himself how to read, and Mark Stevens, an editor for Merriam Webster Encyclopedias. Woods grew up in a poor neighborhood and was told from a young age that he was incapable of learning like the rest of the kids. His poor education led to him dropping out of high school and partaking in criminal activities such as breaking and entering. When…
For my assignment, I experimented with doing my textbook reading in two different locations around the campus. The first place I went to was near the dock behind Featherman Hall. There is a trail to the right of the dock where you can relax on the edge of a rocky ledge overlooking the water. I have visited this location several times early in the morning just to watch the water, but I have now decided to try doing some reading…
The majority of the authors that I looked at seemed to have written their works from the comfort of their own homes. Another common trend is that their workspaces are cluttered with books and other pieces of writing. My workspace seems to be most similar to Dorothy Parker’s. I like to sit at the desk in my dorm that is in front of the open window, so I can feel the breeze and see the ocean out in front of…
When annotating, I did not know exactly what to do. I had annotated only a few times before, so I researched some annotating strategies. One of the things I did was I underlined main ideas in each paragraph. I tried to limit the amount of words I underlined to only those that would summarize what the paragraph was about. I also boxed words and terms that the author repeatedly used. I did this because I think that if an author…
In my personal experience, I feel that I tend to have a fixed mindset with anything related to academics. Throughout school, I remember always feeling threatened by the success of my higher-achieving peers. I always found myself thinking, “I wish I could be as smart as they are.” However I never even thought of the possibility of being able to put effort into growing my own intelligence. To me, it was something they were born with, and since I was…
In my first draft, I was given two surface-level changes to make. However, I only followed one of them because I did not agree with the other one. The surface-level change I followed was to add a word to my sentence to better help the flow. I did not receive any global changes, however, I think there were some that could have been changed. I did not include a thesis statement, nor did I include the typical introduction, body paragraphs,…
