Weekly Reflections
Week 1 - Cole
This week in Literature I created my individual website, and helped create the website for my group. On both websites I wrote a biography about myself. I also started on a poetry project that involves close reading, and analyzing a poem. The pros of this week were that I learned how to create a website and am learning how to analyze poetry. The only con this week was the fact that the website creation was difficult to grasp at first, but I was able to figure out how to use the wix site eventually. Student Learning Outcomes 1, and 3 were achieved this week as the poetry assignment involved close reading and analysis, and though there was no presentation the parts of the poetry project that the group is working on involved preparing for a presentation.
Week 2 - Lindsay
This was a really short week in Brit Lit because we didn’t have class Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we also didn’t have class Friday because it was a “snow” day. When we did meet on Wednesday, we worked on the Poetry Quiz assignment. My group took the divide and conquer approach, and each tackled one other group’s poetry analysis. This worked really well, and then we combined all our responses on a Google Doc so we could post them on our website. This week we addressed SLOs #1 (literary techniques and skills) and #3 (present logical arguments in analysis of print media). We read poetry analyses written by other groups, and then had to summarize and explain their poems without actually reading their poems.
Week 3 - Ryan
This week we were assigned our first major project. We were required to write four letters on the poem that our group chose. This went very well and we all completed our letters and organized them. The poem we chose was The Charge of the Light Brigade. One thing I could have done better was to get help on my letter and get more content on it. We were able to choose a big idea question for our group and start working on that. Again this week was a pretty easy week. We had plenty of class time to work on our letters and other assignments making it easier to organize and complete.
Week 4- Hunter
On Monday, our group began putting together entries using the questions from the Letter Project to make a document that would analyze our poem, Charge of the Light Brigade. In addition to working on answering these questions, on Wednesday our group also began learning how to properly cite our sources from the Letter Project. Friday we put everything together and then went to our individual pages and our group page to make sure that everything on the page(s) was neat, organized, and set up clearly where all our information could be accessed. The postives of this week included our communication skills. There were several days this week where one or more of our group was missing. Despite not being in class, our group managed to responsibly communicate the assignments that had been missed as well as inform each person what was expected of them. It is also positive that even when someone has to miss class, they make sure to inform the professor ahead of time, as well as the group, and get the assignments they will miss. Everyone in our group is pulling their own weight which is fantastic.
I believe we adressed SLO #4 this week. Since we previously analyzed other groups' poems that spanned many different genres, when we went back to ours, I feel as if even if we were not actively drawing connections, that we were able to draw connects between our poem and the poems from the other groups. Be it cultures, genres, historical moments, or simply writing styles, I believe our group grew in our understaning of our own poem after reading the others. The negatives of this week were that people were missing the majority of the week. While some instances cannot be avoided, we need to do a better job of making it to class in order to avoid any confusion and falling behind in our group projects.
Week 5- Jane Elizabeth
This week seemed to be a short week for our British Literature class. Monday was more of an evaluation day for our class as a whole. We took a few surveys to determine which dysfunction our group had. Our group needs to work on trust and accountability. This past week was also the conclusion of Unit One: poetry project. Our group chose to do a creative project to demonstrate our poem, which we presented on Wednesday. Every group presented on Wednesday, which was insightful to see other project options that could have been chosen. The SLO we worked with mostly this week was number three- “present logical, well-reasoned arguments in written and oral form in analysis of print and digital media.”
Week 6- Cole
This week in British Literature we worked on the prose presentation, and analyzed other group’s presentations. On Monday we decided which piece of prose we would work on, and then began creating a presentation for that piece. On Friday we took analyzed other group’s presentations. The pros of this week were that the project helped improve my analysis skills. The only con for this week was that we did not have very long to read the chosen piece of prose so our choices were limited to short stories and pieces we had already read. The SLO’s completed this week were SLO’s 1 and 3 as we analyzed prose, and created a presentation for that prose.
Week 7 - Lindsay
This week we started working on our letters for the prose/fiction unit individually. Our group chose to analyze "Rikki Tikki Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling, a short story from his book The Jungle Book. Since it was individual work, everyone chose a different letter to address and compiled our answers into a Google Doc. While some people worked on that, others updated our websites to make sure everything was correct. I think we all addressed SLO 1 this week (literary techniques and skills), and depending on the letter some of us also addressed SLO 2 (identify developments that shape the literature) and 4 (draw connections among literary works).
Week 8 - Ryan
This week we worked individually on our midterm projects. We completed four letters on a poetry or fiction text that our group had not previously worked on. We were given the option to finish our letters early and not have to come to class the rest of the week. We also were given time to clean up our individual and group website. For my midterm project I chose to work on “The Nightingale and the Rose” and wrote my four letters by Friday. This week I focused on SLO’s #1,2, and 4 because they were focused on in my letters.
Week 9- Hunter
This was the week before spring break and class did not meet as it ordinarily does. However Monday, our group met with Steph to discuss our Midterm Projects and Individual Work. I felt better after the meeting because there had been some confusion as to how to best edit and improve our first project as well as our Peer Reflection Essays. On top of that, we discussed LitTix work and how to earn points to help our grades which was helpful. I think I will continue to have meetings to go over work and make sure everything is correct.
Week 10- Jane Elizabeth
At the beginning of week ten, our British Literature class did not meet due to Steph being at a conference. Even though we did not meet physically in class, we were to continue to work on our individual projects and group project to complete the Fiction Unit of the semester. At the conclusion of the week, we were supposed to have all of the projects finished, but since we were coming off of Spring Break, Steph extended the deadline to March 28th. We worked with all of the SLO’s this past week due to the fact we were cleaning up our projects.
Week 11 - Cole
This week in British Literature I continued to work on my Individual and team project. I typed out critical essays for both projects, as well as added citiations to both projects, and I labeled the SLO's in both projects. I also compared the works that both projects focused on to works from different time periods and cultures. Since the projects require that all SLO's be completed I completed all SLO's this week. I compared "In the Abyss" to an American nonfiction book, and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" to "In the Abyss."
Week 12 - Lindsay
This week we finalized our drama letters & projects and began working on assignments due at the end of the semester. I personally edited my Peer Review essay and re-submitted it for grading. The team also continued to analyze “The Dark Knight Rises,” the 3rd transcript of the Batman trilogy, for our drama project. The team decided to make a Wordle to visually show the texts of the letters we had written. This required using SLO #1 for analyzing the text and SLO #3 to formulate our thoughts into compelling letters.
Week 13- Jane Elizabeth
This past week we continued to polish our group sites and individual sites. We completed the Drama Project and decided to finish our Add-Ons for out sites. We are close to being done with the semester, so from here on out we will continue to work on our websites. We have covered all of the SLO’s this week.