Week 4 Writer’s Journal

Week 4 of College

1. 1. What I did
      • Took notes for my psychology and business classes
      • Sent an email to my teacher and peer mentor
      • Wrote on the discussion board for multiple classes
   2. What went well
      • The discussion board questions were not as time-consuming as I expected, so I had some extra free time this week.
   3. What was hard
      • The chapter I had to read for psychology was very long, so it took me a while to finish it and take notes.
   4. To-Do List
      • Finish the polished draft for the literacy narrative
      • Write the reflection paper for my FYS class
      • Do assignment 2 for my business recitation class
   5. Where I left off
      • Reading a few chapters in my business class’ textbook and taking notes
      • Finishing up the polished draft for the literacy narrative
   6. Feelings
      • At the beginning of the week, I felt very overwhelmed because I was behind on reading the textbook and taking notes for some of my classes. Even though it isn’t necessary, I prefer to take notes in my notebook rather than on a word document. I am very thorough with my note-taking and want to have all the information physically in front of me. So, it stressed me out that I could not take notes fast enough to put myself back on schedule. However, I got very lucky. Wednesday and Thursday were days off and both of my classes on Friday got cancelled. All of a sudden, I am back on schedule. It was such a relief knowing that I didn’t have to spend all of my time just doing work and actually have time to relax now. I wasn’t able to hangout with my friends for the past month and now I can make plans with them!

From this document, I noticed that it always talks about “college readiness” and all of this is for college instructors and students. However, in the introduction it clarifies that the document is also for people outside of education, such as parents, policymakers, employees, and the general public. So I wonder, how do the habits of mind and experiences differ for each profession? Do some people need less habits and experiences than others? I also noticed that the habits of mind “is fostered when writers are encouraged to” section shares a lot of the same words including recognize, act, reflect, etc. Likewise, the experiences that “teachers can help writers develop” section shares a lot of the same words including write, examine, analyze, etc. Although the habits share similarities with each other and the experiences share similarities with each other, I agree that all of these habits and experiences are essential. Curiosity, openness, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, and metacognition are similar but still very different from each other. Some are more important than others, but each still play a role in the approach to writing. They tackle a difficulty that can come with trying to write something. Rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, writing processes, knowledge of conventions, and ability to compose in multiple environments also overlap with each other but are still just as different. Some experiences are more important or necessary than others, but all of them play a crucial role in strengthening and contributing to the habits of mind approaches to writing.