After what has been a tumultuous first few weeks, it seems the dust has finally settled and everyone is getting into the groove of college. Like usual, we began our classes with a daily check-in, which is something that I personally enjoy a lot. While last week’s check-in still indicated a period of transition, this week’s showed that most were settled into their new routines. The responses were overall positive, as most seemed to be fully recovered from the drama of the first few weeks of the semester.
Another common topic in our check-in were concerns regarding upcoming exams and tests. This was relieving to see, as I also was extremely stressed as I had my first midterm on Wednesday. This midterm, as well as the Labor Day Holiday on Monday, provided a change of pace. Because I had no assignments due on Monday and no new information to learn in my chemistry class in preparation for the midterm, I had lots of free time. Although this was nice, it was difficult to adjust my study habits.
English class followed the same pattern as my other classes, as we shifted our focus from smaller Feeder assignments to The Unit 1 Project, our first major project. On Tuesday, which was International Literacy Day, we fittingly celebrated by spending our class period reviewing all parts of grammar. Although I had learned most of this information during my review for the SAT, it was helpful to have a reminder on some of the trickier grammar subjects. The class left questions they had regarding grammar in the lesson plan google doc and Paul, using his own knowledge as well as the powerpoint he constructed, answered the questions. Both this google doc and the powerpoint are excellent resources to look back on if you have any grammar questions in the future. We also spent a portion of class discussing strategies for proofreading your work. Some of these strategies included using grammarly, reading it aloud, having a friend read it, and printing it and reviewing the hard copy.
Thursday’s class focused on diving even deeper into our Unit 1 Project. We have been slowly preparing for this project by completing our Feeder Assignments each week, but this week we constructed our rough draft in preparation for Thursday’s class. Then, like we have done in the past, we spent our class time peer-reviewing our drafts and providing helpful information and feedback. I enjoy this class structure a lot, as it allows a natural flow that makes completing assignments a lot easier. We spent the remainder of our class time reviewing sentence structure, or syntax. We learned about the different types of sentences, such as simple sentences and compound sentences, and how to use these different types of sentences together to give your writing more life.
Overall, this week of English 105 has been enjoyable. The comical grammar presentation of Tuesday’s class and the lack of graded assignments has provided lighthearted and low stress week, especially when compared to my other classes. Although this week has been lighthearted, we have still accomplished a lot, and the informative grammar session, syntax session, and workshop have all laid an excellent foundation for our upcoming Unit 1 Project.
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