English was one of the first general education classes that I took at the Art Institute of Indianapolis. We had to do journal entries every week, about a topic of the teachers choice, and use certain vocabulary words in each entry. This was one of my least favorite assignments I had to do for the class, because I felt like my creativity was limited to the topics of her choice. I feel I would have been more interested if I were able to write about something I actually wanted to.
One great thing about this class was we were always given chances to correct our papers that we turned in, this was nice for me because I could see my mistakes and revise them and learn from them. My favorite project in the class was writing about a store in the area that pertained to my major. We had time to go to the store while we were in class, having in class time to work on the assignment was also a plus. The closest clothing store to the pyramids that I could think of then was the Goodwill outlet store, on 86th and Georgetown. The criteria of the paper was basically to use all our sense and describe the store, so that if someone had never been there they would know what it would be like. My paper turned out well, I talked about how the store smelled like old musky clothes, and how the clothes were stacked in bins that the customer had to rummage through.
Overall English class was a positive experience for me, there were minor things that I would change, but I feel that the knowledge I gained outweighed the negative things about the class.
It's also been my experience that student choice in topics produces the best work. Why do you suppose instructors give prompts like you experienced?
ReplyDeleteI remember English and lacked enjoyment for this class. The journal entries were hard to do when you had to include vocabulary words that were new to you. Whenever I would write the entries seemed forced and unnatural, which is not fun to read.
ReplyDeleteHow does that experience differ from the Writer's Notebook we use in class? Do you find the latter more enjoyable or is it still too structured for you?
ReplyDelete