Week 8 Progress

So far this semester, I am not very content with where I am in the class. While I have enjoyed it, I have had trouble staying on top of it and managing my time well enough to work the assignments into my schedule. I have missed lots of readings and that has affected me. I have done some extra credit, but not a lot of it and I need to take more advantage of it. My portfolio, however, is coming along great and I couldn't be happier.

As we get into the second half of the semester, I am wanting to stay ahead of schedule to ensure that I get all of the assignments done and turned in on time. I also want to utilize the extra credit that we have available to us so that I can increase my grade and be where I want to be. I am really excited to keep working on my portfolio and get to the final product.

Motivational quote to finish this semester strong;

Source: Flickr

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

      The feedback that I have been getting from my classmates has been awesome. The comments have been extremely helpful and have bettered my writing. On the stories that I have re-written, the feedback has been constructive criticism and a lot of it has been suggestions on how to make the story better. In the story that I wrote about the lion and the villager, I took some of the suggestions from my classmates and included them in the story when I did my revisions. The comments on my introduction post were much more light-hearted and fun. It was mostly about things that my classmates had in common with me or found to be pretty cool about my life. 

      I believe that I have been giving great feedback to my classmates and the strategies that we have practiced have really helped. My favorite one that I use most often is the 3 W's. It stands for "WOW," where you mention something in their story that really wowed you. The second one is "Wonder," which is where I mention something that I am confused about or something that I am more interested in or questioning. The last one stands for "What If," and that is where you suggest a change that they could make or something that they could add-in. 

      Reading people's introduction posts really makes me feel like I know them. They mention so many facts about them, and anything you have in common with someone could be something that we can connect over. Most people with dogs will comment on other people's dog pictures and talk about their puppies as well. That is a connection in itself. 

      To be more successful in the future, the only change that I would make would be to spend a little bit more time on my writing and taking into account the feedback that my classmates leave on my page. I always read through them, but I do not always incorporate the changes and most of them can actually be pretty useful. 

Feedback cats meme created on Cheezburger.

      The reason that I chose this meme is that I personally believe this. Criticism is not always bad. Constructive criticism is one of my favorite things because you can learn so much from it. It is important to have an open mind when it comes to criticism and using it to learn rather than taking it the wrong way and getting upset. 

Week 8 Reading and Writing

          Writing has always been something that I struggle with. When I first read the syllabus for this class I was terrified because it is all about writing and that is one of my biggest struggles in school. I am really proud of how far I have come. My first set of notes that I took in this class were super detailed and I took notes over every story. After that, I realized that it is easiest to just pick my favorite story to retell and write detailed notes about that one story. For my me second and third set of notes. I basically just wrote a summary of the story I read, and when I retold it all I did was change the names of the characters. For the most part, I kept the same storyline with some minor changes. However, on my last set of notes, I took notes about the plot, the conflicts, and wrote down ideas I had as I read. I found this a lot more helpful because I had written down all of the main events. I decide to venture out with this story and instead of just changing the character's names, I decided to keep the names and change the setting of the story. My project is going well so far. The detailed feedback that we get every time we do a revision is extremely helpful and helps me understand my mistakes to make me a better writer. I am really enjoying this class because I am working on one of my biggest faults in college, but my grade isn't suffering from it. Instead, I am learning and becoming a better writer and I am not scared to change things up because I know that it will be a learning experience.

          My favorite story that I have read so far has been Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal. I thought this story was funny and clever, especially when the Jackal tricked the tiger into getting back in his cage. I enjoyed retelling it because rather than having the tiger trick the Brahman, in my story the lion and the villager became good friends all because the villager gave him a chance and saw the good in him despite what others thought. The image that I used for this story was also my favorite image so far.

Lion being fed in a cage;

Source: Pixabay

         This picture goes perfectly with my story because of how the lion looks so innocent and sad. You can draw the conclusion that he wants to be free and is tired of being locked up. Also, there is food hanging on his cage, so this could be the lion talking to the villager as the villager is trying to feed him. 

          In my future stories, I want to venture out of my comfort zone and get more creative. So far I have remained very close to the actual story, but moving forward I want to make more changes when I retell them.