great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Many of you offered some good tips, for everyone to improve his or her performance, and you pointed to some viable areas to work on. Also, from your responses, I learned that I, too, can help with things I need to work on, so this was productive, I think, for all of us!

Helpful suggestions for you: Working out your blog assignments first on google docs (to organize your ideas); thinking of our analytical work in ways that can help you with your other courses (and later with your employment); use your group to actually exchange ideas and revise your own ideas; if you are having trouble with the texts (and especially if English is your second language) then try reading more slowly or even reading the more difficult parts twice; using college preparation as a way of working out how to balance your school work and your personal life; think of free-writing as a way to just get ideas on paper, this is an important part of any analytical process;

Things you can work on: speaking up in class (and one can “practice” a response in a blog, to help prepare you to respond in class) and trying to get yourself to speak up more will actually help to improve your confidence level when speaking in front of others. When you speak up, don’t worry about being “right” but about expressing what you truly feel. Take a chance with an original idea; working to understand the difference between summary and analysis; working on narrowing your focus in your larger writing assignments (this will allow a more in-depth analysis, and will, I think, also feel more rewarding to you as a writer and thinker); working to go more deeply into the text: working to ask yourself questions as you read, then making a note of those questions and bring them to class;

Things I need to work on: Helping everyone to understand that your group is your core group to work with each other and help each other; giving you more time for free-writing: perhaps writing, then reflecting, then a bit more writing? We can talk about this. Something I’d like to try with you is called a “silent dialogue.”