Reflection on English 111: I did not like the class.....

Kristofer Pearson
Reflection on English 111
ENG 111 63
1 December 2009
English 111 I did not like the second time around.
This is the second time I have taken English 111. The first time I took the class was at Pennsylvania Culinary Institute. This time around I did not like the class at all. I feel that the assignments were ridiculous. I can honestly say the only thing I learned new is that MLA has changed since 2006. The first time I had this class I earned an A. Now I will be lucky if I pass the class. Yes I know I have missed some classes however that should not have been a problem.
Why is it necessary to keep changing course outline? The only reason I can think of is just make the students life even harder than it needs to be. If a student knows an assignment is due at a certain time he can then adjust his life around getting the assignment done and turned in on time. Of course when the due dates are changed or the assignment is only announced in class then he is at a disadvantage. When an assignment is turned in late because a student missed a class due to circumstances beyond his control it is not fair to not give the student credit for the work when it was already finished. The assignment was not turned in on time, because the course outline was not followed by the Prof.
Okay that is fine it is his/her class they can punish the students if they want to. This is English 111. Why is it necessary to make the student not only write essays but then have them blog too. Some of us are grownups we don’t want to write stupid blogs. Blogs are only good for gleaning other people’s opinions. Blogs are not even written following the rules of the English language. To be honest with you I am not actually that annoyed about the blogging thing. I just didn’t have time to do it. Blogging for me is not even enjoyable.
My real problem was with the way the class was conducted. I felt there was little actual instruction going on in class. Most of what little bit of any new knowledge I learned was from my own research outside of class. Yes Sicko is a good work of fiction. Yes we could see that Bruce Springsteen is a perfectionist who revised and edited the hell out Born to Run. However I needed to learn more about the mechanics of the editing process when it comes to writing essays. Being told to go the writing lab was not really helping.
I always felt like I was sitting in a much disorganized class room setting. The students had to peer review other students work. Well that would be all fine and good except we didn’t know what we were doing because the instructions were not clear. On top of all that I felt we were not taught how to do a proper peer review. The professor should have taken 5 minutes out of his busy day and showed step by step what to do. If he did he sure wasn’t clear about it.
I very much did not like the assignments. I never felt prepared for them. I did not feel like the instructions were concise enough. Even though we were given assignment prompts they were still sometimes pretty confusing. I had to go online and do my own research to make more since of the “notes” we had for learning rhetoric. This assignment is a prime example of what I am saying. How do you get graded on an opinion of somebody and their teaching methods by that self same person?
I can say honestly that maybe I was not ready for this class. I had expectations based on my previous experience that maybe made me judge this a little unfairly. I am used to information being presented a certain way. I was probably spoiled by having everything packaged neatly in a way for the student to have as little trouble as possible. Well that is all well and good, but I also know that we grow as people through adversity. A little pain never hurts anyone. I could have been a better student. I wish I had picked a better time for the class. In the end it is just as much my fault for not liking the class as it is the professor’s fault. I know it can be hard doing what he is doing.
The only thing I can say to future students is go to class even in an iron lung get to class. Ask questions and be obnoxious about it. Make sure that you fully understand what Mr.Gasparo is saying. Do all assignment weeks in advance, this way it will be easier for you to get assignments in on time, especially when there are what seem like last minute changes. Above all don’t be intimidated by Paul. I am sure he is actually a nice guy he just has a hard job to do. Oh and liking Bruce Springsteen will help too (as will comic books). I wish I could repeat this same semester over again. I would feel loads better than this time around. Right now I just feel drained to the point that I cannot even wrap this essay up and reiterate my thesis statement.