Final Reflection- 12/12

     When I think of "wobble" as learning, or moments of wobble in this class, I notice that English is the subject in which I come across these moments most often. 

     When given an assignment that offers the freedom to write about any topic, I find myself unsure or hesitant to start writing sometimes. This created moments of wobble for me when thinking of the topic for my literacy narrative and on the occasional writing into the day. When I'm told that there's no right or wrong answer to something, it's sometimes frustrating when I don't know where to begin. I usually like to have guidelines for an assignment so I know when I'm thinking in the right direction. It was a challenge to work with this kind of assignment at first but I got used to it after completing a few of them.

     The only other moments that were uncomfortable, or different than I am used to, were some of the improv activities that we did at the beginning of class. I felt like this was an uncomfortable or strange thing for most people in the class at first. People can be hesitant to do something when they're unsure of what is expected of them, which can also explain the first moments of wobble that I explained.

     

Reflexive Blog- Literacy Narrative 12/5

     Whenever I get an assigned a paper that offers some freedom when it comes to what to write about, I find myself taking far too long on deciding just that. Luckily for me, this literacy narrative assignment really helped me out with this problem. The activity we did on index cards at the beginning stages of this assignment  forced me to get out as many ideas as I could and either stick with one or move on to the next one. I eventually chose to write about a research paper that I wrote during my junior year of high school, and I noticed it was a topic I'd been thinking about since the first index card.

             


     Once I went through and got my entire first draft written out, I started to think about exactly what I had to change. In all of the major papers I have written, I've never really noticed the biggest changes in between drafts. I was just used to going through and correct errors while changing up a few paragraphs trying to make the paper flow more smoothly.



     When we were given the revision strategies, I decided to try some of them out and see if I could come up with any changes to my paper that I liked. The strategy that I found to be the most beneficial to me was definitely going though and criticizing my paper for three minutes, then praising my work for three minutes. Doing this really helped me get a better feeling of what I liked having in the paper and which parts I felt like I should try to rewrite.

     After revising the ideas that I wanted to make changes to, I focused on the organization and flow of my paper. I tried rewriting the first draft that I wrote using a different method of organization. I ending up staying with a sequence of events that was pretty close to my first draft through the whole project. I couldn't get myself to stay with many major changes that I tried. I did find it helpful to map out the parts of my paper in my daybook when I tried to rearrange it.
     This project was beneficial to me in many ways. I learned some new strategies for revision and ways to think in a different direction when feeling stuck with an idea. I also liked the way that this project made me realize what impact the research paper I wrote about actually had on me, and how it affected how I feel about my literacy.                               

Reflexive Blog- Ethnography Project- 12/3

     Our groups were figuring out what we were going to write about for our project while the idea of "underlife" was unfolding. With our original topic of "Words", my group started to try to find a common theme that we could work toward. After our mapping literacy assignment, we decided to write about the theme of public expression.

     This required some revision down the road but the idea of our theme seemed to flow smoothly during the process of putting our project together. I enjoyed working in collaborative groups the way that we did because it gave us an opportunity to constantly give and receive feedback on our ideas as we figured out how to piece our project together.

     I liked the fact that this project wasn't done as a traditional essay. Our group chose to use Prezi for our final product. I would definitely chose to work differently on a computer than turn this project in essay format. This way, we had an opportunity to be more creative and try things differently.

Reflexive Blog 11/18- Where Good Ideas Come From

   For my reflexive blog post this week, I went all the way back to the writing into the day we did on October 4th, which was the "Where Good Ideas Come From" presentation by Steven Johnson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU

   At first, Steven Johnson explains that good ideas can take years to mature, and until then, they are "hunches". As these hunches grow, it's sometimes only when they are combined with another hunch that they complete these good ideas. A "hunch" lurking in someone else's mind is often what turns a person's hunch into a real breakthrough. There are many cases that someone can have half of a good idea.
   The reason I think this video is relevant is because we now have so many ways that we can reach out to connect to someone to find the missing piece of an idea. People can connect with each other easier than ever and that't whats important for the development of good ideas. This allows us to borrow and combine anybody's ideas easily. Looking at the advances happening in only the last fifteen years that allow this easier communication, it makes me wonder how much easier ideas will be able to spread with the technological advances in the next fifteen years.

Reflexive Blog 11/11- The Things They Carried

    I was looking through my daybook for a while trying to find something to write a blog post about when I saw the looping activity we did for The Things They Carried. I had to reread what I wrote in my daybook to remember exactly what the story was about.
    I remember in The Things They Carried, the author spent a lot of time literally describing the items that the soldiers carried with them during the Vietnam War. I saw that I made a note in my daybook about how the author then started talking about how the soldiers "carried the land itself- Vietnam, the place, the soil." I was trying to make sense of that when I remembered the writing into the day we did about the things we carried ourselves, and what they said about us.
    I then went to my entry from Nov 1, and saw that I just talked about how I usually am only carrying my phone, wallet, and keys, occasionally headphones, and whatever I need for school. The main point of the entry was to make sense of what the items you carry say about you, which I had some trouble doing. I felt like items you're carrying shouldn't really say anything about who you are, although I feel like I'm looking at the topic from a different point than the author of The Things They Carried.

Annotated Bibliography Mini Assignment- 11/2

1.

First Amendment Plaque, UNC Charlotte. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal photograph by Dillon Marr. JPEG file.

     This is a picture I took of the plaque on campus next to the bell tower. Written on it is the first amendment. I see many people in the area near the bell tower voicing their opinions on topics like politics, religion, and anything else. I thought this picture really represented the idea of public expression when thinking of what goes on in that area.

 2.

Literacy Map, UNC Charlotte. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal photograph by Dillon Marr. JPEG file.

    This is a picture I took of the map I drew for the Mapping UNCC Mini Assignment. We decided to expand where we were looking to create our map, and took a closer look around campus, mainly around the area of Friday, Denny, the Bell Tower, and Atkins Library. This is the map I drew to display each of the writings that we found in this area.




 3.

Belk Tower Graffiti, UNC Charlotte. 30 Oct. 2012. Personal photograph by Dillon Marr. JPEG file.

    This is a picture of a message that I found painted on the ground, near the Belk Tower and the plaque with the first amendment on it. It shows that positive messages can be spread with graffiti. Seeing this on the ground made me think of how the idea of public expression can show people's honest opinions, knowing that their message can be displayed without revealing who it's from.

Fieldwork Mini Assignment 10/30

For our fieldwork mini assignment, we decided to expand where we were looking to create our map, and took a closer look around campus, mainly around the area of Friday, Denny, the Bell Tower, and Atkins Library. This is the map I drew to display each of the writings that we found in this area:

One of the themes that was emerging in our group was public expression. I was thinking that could mean anything from writing on desks by students, to graffiti on walls, to any message seen around campus. I was walking past the Bell Tower while I was thinking of all the people who come there during the day to voice their opinions. I saw the plaque with the first amendment written on it, and couldn't think of a better example of public expression.

 I found this message painted on the ground in front of the Bell Tower in the same area as the first amendment plaque. It shows that not all graffiti has to be negative.

I saw these shirts on the sidewalk leading up to the library. They all had messages about stopping abuse on them, and it seemed like there were 100 of them.

Public expression, when it comes to messages written in random places, seems to me like it can be the most honest form of writing in a way. People post their messages for everyone to see, knowing that it's unlikely for people to find who wrote the message.