The Introduction to Liberal Arts class has taught me valuable skills that will be continuously refined throughout my years at Monmouth College. The skills and strategies that were introduced in this class and were refined was close analysis, annotations, and reflections on a work. Being assigned multiple close reading and analysis assignments throughout the class refined my writing skills. Simply writing more in the class helped me improve my skill on how to delve into a reading assignment and being able to discuss it in writing and conversation. Annotating assignments for specific reasons such as vocab, themes, and specific questions expanded my thought process when analyzing the reading. After annotating a reading, I was able to refer to the text to back up my discussion points in class when the class was conversing over specific points in the text. Reflecting on the readings that were assigned, connected to many of the main themes of the class. These …show more content…
This community values the spirit of inquiry to have academic excellence. The purpose of the course is to successfully teach students how to engage in questions referring to human values and their purposes. Understanding how to engage in intellectual challenges and become life-long learners was extremely important to the faculty and how they incorporated it into the class. Learning the relationships and the dynamic definitions of self, stranger, and community that were constantly bring incorporated into class was to give students a sense of purpose. Lastly, the faculty expressed the need to be understand reading and be able to actively contribute to conversations that are happening. These goals of Introduction to Liberal Arts were very important to the faculty and expressed them through the class this
Most of us write in some form every day, so you would expect that most of us would be well practiced and pretty good at writing. I read and write all the time; I have been taken several college courses and nearly all of them require write of some form. However, before taking this class not only was I not a good writer, I knew I wasn’t a good writer. Now I am not saying that I am ready to write my first novel, but I certainly more confident in turning in my college papers. The content of this course and the style of teaching was incredibly beneficial to me. Throughout this course we had multiple assignments that were aimed to improve us as writers. I am sure that everyone took something different from this course, and I am sure that each student took more from some areas than others; however for me there were three major things that I saw that I benefited from most. Our weekly craft lessons, grammar plan, but most of all, observational learning.
I am currently an English 160 student who is hoping to move on to the next course, which is English 161. I understand the requirements for English 161. It require students to explore a topic in some depth and conduct independent research related to that topic. Conducting research allows students to learn what it is like to participate in academic culture, posing questions about important issues and developing an argument in response to what others have said. It expected students to learn the most valuable skill in college, which is critical thinking. Students have to be able to read challenging readings. Although I still have problems with English, I think I’m qualified to move on.
In COL 101 I have learned many new things about college. Since this is my first semester at college I did not really know where everything was. This class really helped me to learn new things about myself, including what resources are available to me, what my plan for the future is, and the many changes I have endured during this course.
The view of what college is and what the experience of college offers, differ dramatically between an individual and the society he or she lives. College has traditionally been viewed as the place young adults go to find themselves, find their career, and start their adult lives. Some have argued that education has veered too far away from tradition, while others argue that the whole idea of Liberal Education needs to keep evolving to meet the demands of the modern world. Those in favor of change argue for more diversity within the curriculum, such as more non-western world education and feminist thought. However, the traditional educational ideal has not completely vanished. At the majority of colleges in America the Liberal Arts, or General Education, is the core requirement that every student must take regardless of major. A liberal education studies the idea of what it means to be a good human being. The Liberal Arts are important to everyone because it tries to grasp each individual’s uniqueness and find their place in society. These classes aim to challenge students to become better people, better citizens, and overall create a better society. Liberal Arts try to grasp the knowledge and skills humans have used to rationally understand human existence for thousands of years. By creating culturally diverse campuses and studying topics like philosophy; students learn to question life, question society, and find answers to what it means to be a good person. All of these innovations together along with better informed and intelligent students help form societies focused on equality and the future of human civilization.
As the semester finally approaches the finish line, I revisit my past work to compare and contrast how this class has developed me into a successful writer at the college level. Throughout the year my writing style has developed and become broader as I have learned how to incorporate more of my personal views as well as reliable, unbiased information. This portfolio is a representation of how many things I have learned along the way while being an English 102 student.
For me, being a college writer means writing well-organized essays that readers enjoy reading. Being a well rounded writer was also important. Each unit in this class challenged me to write in a well-organized, concise way. During each unit, we conducted some sort of revision activity where I was exposed to other students’ writing. As I read their work, I picked up on their use of transition words and separation of paragraphs to make the essay flow. Naturally, I began implementing more transition words in my own work and learned the appropriate ways to split paragraphs. The structure of the class was key to the organization of my ideas which was crucial to the development of my essay. During the third unit of this class, we were asked to identify an issue on campus, conduct research on the issue, and finally propose a solution to correct the issue. At first, it was difficult to get my ideas down and figure out what it was I would research. What I learned in class allowed me to first identify the issue I would research, write a rough draft, and hear what others had written before the final paper was due. This helped me to identify the main points, brainstorm and figure out what additional research I would need to find to support my argument. Being able to organize my thoughts from the beginning made writing the paper a much easier process. This course has helped me to grow as a writer and make
The liberal arts are becoming increasingly rare in schools and universities. However, Saint Catherine University makes it a priority to teach its students the core benefits to the liberal arts college. It requires students to take the course “The Reflective Woman” along with “Global Search for Justice” as an introduction and conclusion to a liberal arts education. Throughout this semester I became more knowledgeable on what the liberal arts truly are, honed my reflective judgment, developed my writing skills, and I now have a deeper and defined sense of self.
As the world becomes more specialized it raises the question, should undergraduate institutions change their curriculum requirements to better equip students? The goal of a liberal arts education is to enlighten individuals and prepare them for the complex and diverse world by requiring the study of literature, philosophy, mathematics, and sciences. As professional careers evolve into more specialized fields the argument that a liberal education is no longer needed rises. Some educators feel that future professionals would be better primed for the future by focusing specifically on subjects that deal with their intended field. However, a liberal arts education provides benefits that go beyond the classroom. The experience of studying a wide range of material makes an individual well rounded, creates opportunities, and allows for personal evaluation. Broadening one’s knowledge in vast areas develops communication, problem-solving skills, and social responsibility regardless of intended careers.
There is a debate about if liberal arts are still applicable in today’s society. Well, Sanford Ungar, in his work “The New Liberal Arts,” unveils eight misperceptions of modern day liberal arts in our post-secondary educational institutions. Society has labeled liberal education as too expensive, unnecessary, and out of date. Liberal arts are the baseline for education and the author exploits the untold truths of the benefits of obtaining a liberal arts degree. Ungar reveals to us that liberal arts still hold a worthy place in society ranging from communication skills, better writing, and having a degree that covers a wide range of topics that could be applied to a plethora of jobs in the work force. He tests
Looking back over the course of the semester, I feel that I learned many new and interesting uses for technology within the classroom – both for classrooms that have a lot of technology and for classrooms that are limited with technology. For the majority of the class, we utilized William Kists’ book The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2010), which provided multiple modes of instruction that both utilized and/or created technology. One of the first things that I remember, and consequently that stuck with me through the course’s entirety, is that individuals must treat everything as a text. Even a garden is a text. The statement made me change the way that I traditionally viewed Language Arts both as a student and as a teacher, as I very narrowly saw literature and works of the like as texts only; however, by considering nearly anything as a text, one can analyze, study, and even expand his/her knowledge. Kist (2010) states that society is “experiencing a vast transformation of the way we “read” and “write,” and a broadening of the way we conceptualize “literacy” (p. 2). In order to begin to experience and learn with the modern classroom and technologically advanced students, individuals must begin to see new things as literature and analyze those things in a similar manner.
We should strive for perfection in all walks of life, but if we are to be successful on life`s journey we must hold these truths to be self-evident: that error(s) are a must in growth and perfection is impossible. Throughout this fall semester in Writing 101, I have grown as a more confident writer. I have learned to overcome the fear and hindrance of inadequately transcribing my true thoughts to paper- selfishly working to please the reader and not my idea(s). Sharing my perspective, without fixed add-ins, is what makes me unique as a writer. I feel this can lead to constructive debates and can act as a learning tool for uninformed readers, but if the writing tampers the room for debate and learning is lessened. As a writer, I pride myself on the ability to pay close attention to detail; however, it was not easy for me to become a more confident writer. Although I praise the work of my first essay, Common Readings, because it
Over the period of time that I was in this course, I thought it would be a very simple and easy to finish class. But as time went on, I found myself to be demanded more of what I think, what I feel, what must be relied on my ability to understand the concepts and conventions of not only the essays, but of what goes on in the writers mind when writing.
To tell a story is to expand tragedies, to spread the comedies, and to share the love and wisdom throughout humanity. Poets, musicians, authors, philosophers and even aristocrats have stories to tell. As a college student and aspiring author, I will share my story at the boundary of this realm. I will proceed to claim myself to be an adequate student and dispute the reason for this by comparing a mediocre student in contrast to me, a much more sophisticated student.
Overall my experience of being in Lingleville ISD was a great experience that allowed me to learn a lot not only about the students in the classroom, but also helped me learn a lot about myself. Going in to this classroom I expected to only learn things about classroom management and maybe a few strategies. After spending a few days in this room I learned many other things. I did learn about classroom management but I also learned about content, strategies, organization, lesson planning, and inclusion adaptations. I learned that an inclusion special education student can really thrive being in a mainstream classroom, not only academically but also socially. It was a wonderful learning opportunity to get to be a part of that. My mentor teacher
Much like Benjamin Franklin believed, I feel that a person should take advantage of the time the person has in life with activities a person wants to do or needs to do. A person should not spend much time on activities the person does not want to do. Life is way too short to concern oneself with work or other activities one wants nothing to do with all the time. When possible, I try to forget about my responsibility and just let go of the ‘things’ that do not matter to me. I think a person should try to occupy oneself with something productive, worthwhile, or necessary at all times. Even though a person’s life is left up to a person to live, I cannot imagine thinking that I owe my time to society through working a job that I simply despise. I am a compassionate person, but I do not owe anyone anything regarding my time.