Learning Record A2

“Education begins in humility—in our recognizing that we always have much still to learn, and that each person is our potential teacher.”—Lawrence W. Speck

I chose this course because I honestly feel like it will humiliate me. I went through high school writing the essays I was told to write over the books I was told to read. I followed the “AP Style” guides to get a good grade, and, after one unit, I would move on to the next. I never bridged much of a connection between different pieces of literature, and I certainly never linked my learning to the place in which I was learning. While I feel I have a strong English background, I firmly believe my reading and writing skills will be uniquely developed by the interdisciplinary nature of this course, as well as the course goal of forging a connection between place and self.

As a writer, I don’t tend to be impulsive or creative. My essays usually follow a set format that I learned in debate: state a claim, give evidence, draw an impact, and, finally, tie it all back to the thesis to make a final conclusion that appeals to your audience. I can already tell that this course is going to challenge me to develop as a different kind of writer. After reading different people’s journals on the discussion board, I realize the incredibly distinct ways to write, ranging from Noel’s entry, “The New Reading and Writing”, that united all of her classes to Ben’s narrative entry, “Lefty and I Take a Little Trip”. After rarely being exposed to creative writing in high school, I am beginning to be more comfortable with it, and to understand that I won’t be an outsider if I write creatively. I am trying to gain comfort sharing my writing with other people through recognizing that other people will also appreciate the creative writing style. In these ways, I’m striving to become a more daring and creative writer.

As a reader, I’m excited to read differently than I did in high school. I developed a poor habit of reading a book, analyzing it, writing a paper about it and then forgetting it. I was never challenged to forge a connection between literary works. Although I always wanted to do so, it just the style of my classes. I became accustomed to quickly forgetting novels, poems and plays. Months later, I would try to remember them to make a reading suggestion to a friend, and, much to my disappointment, I couldn’t. I think this class will teach me to remember by challenging me to constantly build bridges between literary works. I also think that the constant journaling will allow me to experience the literature and thus further engrain the knowledge in my mind through these experiences. Overall, I’m excited to learn to read in a way that will change my style forever.

Essentially, I’m excited about this course because it’s goals are the same goals I have had for myself for years. Now I will have help in achieving them. I will learn to be a different, not necessarily better, reader and writer.