Tag: reflection

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Final Reflection

From the research complied from Unit 2, i had ultimately decided to continue focusing on the LGBTQ community. Fascinated by the amount of information I had been exposed to, I knew that likewise my fellow counterparts would have not known much about the information I had acquired. What surprised me the most was the statistics, the numbers that only amplified the change that needed to be made within our society. Although movements for more inclusion of the LGBTQ community have picked up attention and support, learning statistically how far we are from equality for all sexualities was eyeopening. Most certainly, I wanted to share these statistics with as many people as possible in a way that would capture the audience as much as it did for myself. I really focused on my rhetoric when pursuing this project/unit, really creating a piece that would strike a wide audience of people and not just target one demographic. I tried to implement some of the teachings from “They Say I Say” as I pulled for strong information that would impact someone whether or not they were part of the LGBTQ community.

From this work I learned a vast amount about the discrimination towards the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, I took away from this project the strength and value of writing structure. The suggestions made on the rough draft of my infographic allowed me to challenge myself to compile a project that had more power. My sentences were very wordy and too much for an audience to read and want to learn more about. I was then challenged to fixate on what fragments made the biggest impact and supported the overall premise of what I was trying to promote within the infographic. Before, I was prioritizing the amount of information on the infographic, and that later changed to prioritize the strength of the information I had. There is no debating that a statistic is a statistic, but for one to be strong it needs to sucker-punch the audience with a hit at the current reality to have them reconsider their stance and understanding of a topic. When addressing the audience I wanted this infographic to hit home in a way that was not blaming something or another, but instead was focused on a conversation about education. Sharing statistics that counter the common belief that the LGBTQ movement is on a way to equality, which is true it is just the road ahead is long and not as short as perceived by those who are not identifiers of the community.

I really took away from this assignment how to manage and prioritize what is going to push my point across. Instead of honing into what an educator or professor may want to see, I had to reconsider my audience and who I was writing for. This audience was not someone who overlooked the progression of the project or had any idea about the assignment, it would be people stumbling upon this on social media and feel inclined to share with others the staggering information on it. Looking forward into the future I definitely want to continue practicing the projection of my purpose to the audience and focusing on the goal of the project, and less on the progression and grade. Improving this mindset will only make my writing stronger as I pretend to write to my intended audience instead of writing for the approval of a professor.

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Final Reflection

From my unit 2 research, I found a lot of overlapping themes particularly on the lacking level of awareness language diversity has amongst other diversity competencies. Leading into unit 3 I wanted to focus on why this subject isn’t as openly discussed and how I could convince more of the public to listen to what was being said. I wrestled with what I wanted to use in my project in the end because of the vast research there was written on the topic. Eventually what it came down to was reflecting on the sources I’ve looked at from when I first began up until the end. For me that included revisiting the work I did from our unit 1 assignment, note-taking exercises, and some of the last discussion posts we shared as a class. From there the sources I focused on were those that initially caught my line of interest and kept the horizon open (without getting to specific or technical). The exercises we did throughout unit 2 really helped me organize my thoughts on the page which became very useful when it came to applying this to my own writing style. I found it easier to get words on the page because of the direct connections I made prior. The course also enlightened me on genres and specifically different writing styles.  Some of the skills I learned we’re being able to critically analyze the sources and either pick out the content I wanted to use for my research or rhetorically understand the author’s purpose, target audience, and writing strategies.

For one, the work I did enlightened my knowledge of diversity and inclusion. Prior to taking this class I hadn’t fully appreciated the degree and significance conversations on this subject had. I learned ways I could directly take what I learned and apply it in everyday realities. Furthermore learning about language helped reflect on my own experiences inspiring to want and engage in more meaningful conversations with others. It also helped explain the thought process that goes behind communication and dig a bit deeper into how the brain works. What this course helped me do is practice my writing skills and find ways in which I could get more comfortable in doing so. The templates we learned from TSIS and familiar/ friendly style of writing in our blog posts eased the anxiety I would often get before writing. Also because I was writing a lot more than usual, I found myself get into the swing of things (flow) instead of dreading and waiting last minute to submit writing assignments as I did in the past. It felt easier to engage and enter other conversations which I found myself do a lot through the comments and feedbacks we would give to our peers and later help reflect on my own work. It made me excited to see other people’s posts and compare/ see where their lines of interest fell similar or different. Likewise, it reassured me I was on the right path and understanding of what was being said and why we were saying things in return. Regarding audience, the rhetorical argumentative analysis we did throughout the course exposed me to a lot of different writing strategies for targeting interest groups. It served me as inspiration for my later research having seen many examples and analyze their success. Similarily understanding my audience helped shape what I was eventually going to include in my final project. I did this by imagining myself with no knowledge of the subject prior and trying to capture their attention through the text style, visual media, and overall structure of my project.

Just as understanding target audiences helped shaped my research, it equally guided what I wanted to deliver and say in my final assignment.  I was able to pick up different strategies for how to incorporate mixed media sources and use them to not only strengthen my argument but retain the reader’s attention and give them the freedom to look closer or further into subtopics. Finally, the greatest value I gained was becoming more confident in my abilities as a writer and public speaker because of the strategies I learned to communicate my thoughts across more effectively.

 

 

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Final Reflection

For my unit 2 project I researched a blend between the discrimination faced in the workplace and the underrepresentation of minorities in gifted programs. Although I wanted to dive deeply into both subjects I found that it would be easier to focus on the topic of minority gifted students. Not only was I able to fully research the project but I was able to explore the ideas and methods that could be used to solve some of the issues. When I was completing my presentation I applied skills from the course that incorporated clearly laying out information and ideas and broadening them to the readers as a whole. By precisely formatting my research I was able to truly convey to the readers my ideas and lay it out in a way that would compel them towards my ideas.

Not only was I able to lay out a presentation and research on a topic that I’m really passionate about but I was able to truly entice the readers towards my argument. Through this course I learned to adequately convey a message and share it with an audience looking for guidance. Through the use of articles, diagrams, and multiple slides I was able to show the readers how truly important the topic of racial bias is within the school place. Although the problem has been identified, there have been no true strides established in making schools more inclusive spaces in poor areas. Through the use of my research, minorities will have the resources and opportunities needed to create futures for themselves despite their opportunities.

Through giving and receiving feedback with my peers I was able to question and access my own work and reflect on the mistakes I made. I was also able to use the responses to improve my work and make the presentation more formatted to reaching critiques and an audience. Just by sharing my work with my peers I was able to interpret the reviews and specify my work more towards a specific audience. With the use of these ideas and writing tools I was able to perfect my writing and not only make it useful to myself and the individual reading it but to the audience of readers that will be interested in the topic in the future.

This assignment was valuable because the topic plays a monumental role towards the real injustices of the world. Children are continuously mis-valued in terms of education and although inequalities were constantly identified within the education programs it was important for me to learn them first hand. Students are constantly being misjudged because of their race and face bias in their education programs. Although I knew minority students were constantly unrepresented in gifted programs it was scary to see the true scale of students being kept from new opportunities. I learned how to take new information and the important things I learned and spread them on a large scale. It is important to know that in order to make change we must reflect on the issues within each problem and work towards making a positive change. I hope that with this assignment and with the work I’ve done I will be able to make vast improvements upon my writing and truly make a difference.

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Final Reflection Unit 3 – Dominique Van Gilst

When I began my unit 3 final project, I knew that I wanted to somehow talk about inclusion in education. I immediately knew that my project would work best as a powerpoint because I would be the “teacher” presenting to my audience. At first, I thought that it would be good to do my presentation thinking my audience was students. However, I ended up making my audience be the parents of students who are going to be learning in an inclusive education classroom because I thought about all of the back to school night presentation teachers gave to my parents, and how they always came home excited for me about the upcoming school year. Once I decided on my audience, I also thought that it would be good to add a slide about the ways in which parents can talk to their children about inclusive education. Again, I was thinking about how my parents would come home from back to school night and talk to be about each class. I then found sources I thought would work well for my audience to explain inclusion to them, and finished my project. Throughout the time that I was working on this presentation, I thought a lot about what I learned about the audience of a text in this class. I wanted it to be very evident that my audience was the parents of children going into an inclusive setting, so I prioritized that. Once my draft was completed, and some of my classmates commented, I was able to really take their thoughts into consideration and use them for my final draft. The comments I received helped a lot because before I read them I wasn’t sure what to do to improve my project; I was sort of stuck on what I had. 

Creating this project has helped me to do google slides in general. I think that doing this presentation virtually actually allowed me to put less words on each slide, and use my voice to explain more about the topic, which is something I have always struggled with since I am so shy. I also think that completing this project will help my future career because I want to be an elementary school teacher, and I will have to give back to school night presentations, and possibly even something like the one that I created for this class. Finally, I was very excited to share what I have learned about inclusion to our WRT 205 class because I think that inclusion is a topic that is important for everyone to understand. This project allowed me to learn more about the field I will be working in while also sharing my findings with the class. 

This project was very valuable to me, especially because I was able to learn so much about a topic I love to learn about. Not only was this project extremely relevant to my future career, but it also was helpful for me to do this project to learn about presenting thoroughly, and using research to guide that. Overall, I am really happy that this was one of the assignments for this course because I was able to pick my own topic, audience, and layout which allowed me to be more creative.