Self Evaluation and Reflection

This semester has been undeniably difficult for me, in more ways than one. I came into this cluster with a lot of expectations, and despite my best efforts to put those expectations out of mind, I kept returning to them. Having taken a 360º before, having familiarity with Anne’s teaching style, having the privilege of age and experience as a senior all contributed to the expectations I had coming into this 360º – and when things were in fact very different from my expectations because of our own class dynamics, I wasn’t sure how to hold these two experiences together.

Selena Martinez

ESEM

Reflection Paper

12/16/14

Self-Evaluation and Reflection

Sophia Weinstein

Professor Cohen

Identity, Access, Innovation

December 18, 2014

Self-Evaluation Reflection

Coming into Bryn Mawr, I was fairly confident in the quality of my writing. I was similarly confident in the soundness of my worldview. I thought I had a pretty good sense of what it meant to advocate for social justice. I felt my arguments about what I thought were some of the biggest issues concerning our society were not only inarguably correct, but also something I needed to talk about no matter the context. This class has taught me a lot about the way I write as well as the way I look at the world.

Self-Evaluation Reflection: Now is the Start

For me, this has been an incredibly difficult and incredibly valuable semester of work. This was by no means a “typical” semester, if such a thing can be said to exist at Bryn Mawr. I feel that I have progressed greatly as not just a scholar, but as a thinking person.

I still remembered Anne’s comment from my very first essay. My opening was too generalized. The usage of verb tenses was confusing. The writing format was wrong. The claims of my two stories were contradictory to one another. I had lack of data to support thesis. And even if I had enough evidence, my thesis would still be too marginalized. When facing those comments, I questioned, rethought, and carried new ideas to the writing conference.

Anne,

As I said to you in our last conference, I feel like it took me a while to get the hang of this class, not because of the reading difficulty or the workload, but because of understanding what was expected of me. 

            Truthfully, coming into this class, I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea what you expected of us, I had no idea you could just call professors by their first names, and I had no idea what we would be talking about.

            Right off the bat I decided I was interested in the discussions; I remember you telling me to hold back and let other people talk, and I feel like that was one of the strange ways this class helped me grow, and to really get a sense of others opinions and let their voices be heard.

Our 360 has, for me, been a space for learning, engaging, discussing, and listening, a space unlike any I have been in before and, in all likelihood, will be in again. I’ve never been so wholly invested in a class—emotionally for sure, and also in the content and work. I’ve never enjoyed writing essays as much as I have here (nor have I ever had so much freedom), and I’ve never looked forward so much to class (or been so sad about not being able to be present).

IDENTITY MATTERS has changed me in so many ways… I count it as the most rewarding, fulfilling academic opportunity I’ve ever had. It’s hard to summarize what this 360 has done for me, but I’ll try my best to articulate some major changes I’ve noticed… 

Before I came to this class, I was a international student who only knows English and critical thinking from the SATs, worrying about my future American college life. In this Esem class, I have learned so much writing techniques and critical thinking that helped me on both this course and other courses. I would not say y English improved dramatically, but I definitely know how to clearly construct an essay with a concrete thesis and discreet arguments. Also from a perspective of the content of the course, I learned so many interesting opinions on environment and humans, and genuinely felt the collision between my culture and American culture.