Benina Maldonado

4/29/15
Eng 220
Reflective Letter
Ms. Alapin

As I embarked on a journey to finish my final semester of college I was a bit nervous,

scared and happy all at once. I did not know what to expect coming into this course, just that I
was taking an expository writing class. As I looked at our syllabus I remember only seeing three
projects, a portfolio, journals and labs, and discussions. I thought oh boy, do I have my work cut
out for me. As the week started out I logged on to Learn and started my course work right away.
I thought to myself this was going to be a fast paced course with a lot of things to do each week.
I found a balance between being a full time teacher and a full time student. So week two rolled
around and we right away hit project 1. I was egger to see what we would be doing so I looked
at the prompt. I though oh my gosh what am I going to do with this information. As time went
on and three projects later, I feel I have learned a lot from this course and our instructor Ms.
Alapin is an amazing teacher. Her scaffolds on jing, weebly, and course work were well
organized and easy to follow. Then, with a few weeks left, as the semester came to an end I was
hit with some life changing news. I had been getting really tired and could not focus on the
things I needed to focus on, then I would be jittery and felt like I was going to jump out of my
skin. I went to the doctor and I was diagnosed as a diabetic. I was so ready to give up on my all
my classes and life, because I was getting sick and could not control my sugar levels and ended
up in the hospital a few times. But, with encouragement and support from family and friends I
am working very hard to overcome the struggles of this life changing adventure. I have worked
diligently to fulfill the course outcomes and took my time with every assignment that we had. I
also found it helpful to log into learn our course every day to make sure I was doing the work
that needed to get done. These skills and knowledge that I have acquired through English 220
will help me as a future educator to ensure that, my students have the scaffolds they need to be
successful in my class but also to modify my instruction if needed. They changes that I made to
my work were the suggestions from my peers, our IA Sarah and a few colleagues of mine that
read my papers. All their suggestions were very helpful in producing well written projects. I
made those changes because it made me be a better writer, accountable for the mistakes I made
in my paper and finally, turning in a paper that meets the standards that our Professor Ms. Alapin
expected from us. So lets get down to our projects. Here is an insight to my thoughts on the
projects.
Project 1- Platos The Republic and the Allegory of the Cave
I read over the prompt for project one and was blown away, confused and a little dumb founded.
I had no idea what I just read or much less understood the language that was presented in our
reading of Platos The Republic. So, I took the next step and watched the video on the
Allegory of the Cave and had a better grasp. As I was sitting at my house trying to figure out

what to do to understand the reading better, I found a version written in simpler terms. I read it
and figured out what ideas Plato was trying to get across. I found the connection this allegory
had to education as Ms. Alapin had scaffold in her teachings. I compared it to our education
system and how our students are stuck in our classroom with images of math, reading, writing,
and other academics dancing across the walls lit by a flame. As their education journey moves
forward and they graduate they are released from the cave to explore a world unknown to them
as they become productive citizens in a multicultural society. They learn new things and are so
excited to tell their under classmen, but when they return to the cave their former prisoners do
not recognize them and do not want to have anything to do with them, much less hear what they
have to say, so they continued to make drastic life changes to enjoy the world around them. Also
as I was doing my media piece I wanted it to be all about the classroom and found pictures and
came up with a PowerPoint that explained my thoughts. For my revisions I had to write in third
person which was difficult for me. I was so used to just writing that I did not take into
consideration my audience, and whom I was writing for. I also forgot to post it to my weebly
and just added it to Learn. So now my project is added to my weebly and written in third person.
Project 2- Big Ideas in education by Bill Clinton
For project 2 which was an Argumentative Genre on Bill Clintons Big Ideas on education. We
had three prompts to choose from. They were 1) putting all girls in school, 2) No Child Left
Behind or 2) copying the 20 best schools in the country. I examined all the options in these
scenarios and went with No Child Left Behind. This topic was dear to my heart because our
children are not meeting AYP, struggling in school and are having a difficult time meeting the
goals set forth by their school. As I started doing my research for this project, I went to the
government website to see if I could find some statistics or data on this matter. What I found was
that schools who did not make AYP went into corrective action. They had seven years to make
AYP and on the seventh year if they did not they were forced to go into implemented
reconstruction. In his speech Bill Clinton stated do we give all three units 5 tests, cut army
funding or figure out where they can shoot and get them the help they need. This was an
example he used in reference to Colon Powells army. He compared them to education in the
areas they needed help instead of sending them into corrective action. The media project was
fairly easy as our weebly page offers a blog. So I took advantage of that and made my written
part into a blog. For my revisions on this project I forgot to add my reflection piece to my weebly
page. So now my reflection to this project is there for your viewing.
Project 3- Manifest
This project was my favorite. We had the freedom to write our manifest on what our vision in
education is, what we want for our future generations and the rest of our college years. I started
out wondering what I would want for my future generation students and contemplated what I
wanted for myself as I finish with college. What I found out is this; I want expectations set for
students in the beginning of the year, quality over quantity, time management and structure. I
believe with these implemented in my classroom, will help make my students be successful and
strive for the best they can be. I want to be able to differentiate and modify my instruction so
that ALL students learn in my classroom. As for college, I am finishing up my last semester for
my bachelors degree in Elementary Education. I want to further my education and obtain a
masters degree in Early Childhood education. My goal is to teach Pre-k, get an endorsement in
TESOL and work towards making a brighter future for generations to come.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Analyze Rhetorical Situations: Students will analyze the subject, purpose, audience,
and constraints that influence and determine what kind of document (genre) they will
write.
As I read these outcomes I was analyzing the different situations in which I would write,
whom I would write for and what I would out into my paper and projects. I wanted to
catch the attention of my intended audience right away. So I made sure my thesis
statement was strong and to the point.
2. Find and Evaluate Information: Students will develop research strategies for their
rhetorical situation, and then gather information from primary and secondary sources;
they will evaluate the sources for quality, validity, and appropriateness for the rhetorical
situation.
The research for these projects was very time consuming because I wanted the best
resources to help me with my projects. I needed the information to help me piece
together a puzzle I had started working on within our projects. As those pieces started to
fit together I was making progress. I also had to make sure the information I was
gathering was correct, appropriate and up to date on their information.

3. Compose Documents: Students will develop strategies for generating content,

organizing it into a logical structure, and otherwise shaping it to address the needs of
their audience within particular disciplines.

As I composed my documents I started out with my thesis and what I wanted out of my
paper. I also took into consideration whom I was writing for, what genre, and what I
wanted to get across to my readers. I found it easy to write because of the scaffolds and
writing labs Ms. Alapin had set up for us. I had three topics I wanted to discuss and
turned those topics into paragraphs. As I addressed the needs in my paper I couldnt
help but get other help. I was thankful for our peer reviews and our IA reviews. Sarah
our IA was a great resource and helped me out a lot with all my projects so that they
were up to the standards expected in this course.

4. Present Documents: Students will edit and revise their writing to provide clear meaning
and coherent structure; they will use effective document and paragraph structure,
documentation and genre conventions, and document design to create a rhetorically
complete presentation.

To present these documents to the perspective audience, I revised my paper accordingly

to what was suggested in my reviews. This is what made my paper a better outcome than
what I had originally wrote. I used MLA style which I was not used too. Ms. Alapin
gave us a great website to look at

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.
This website was extremely helpful in building citations for our resources and work sited
page. Also our guided labs for our multimedia projects was a God send. Ms. Alapin used
Jing to help us build our weeblys, multimedia projects and gave us many options to
choose from. We did not have a set theme when it came to our media projects which was
a great way to make our visons come to reality through our media projects.

5. Reflection: In reflecting on major writing assignments, students will be able to explain

course outcomes and how they have achieved them.
When I was done with my projects I would reflect on how I got to that point. I used the
Student Learning Outcomes to guide my thoughts. I also used my paper as a reference to
help with my reflections. I took my time and put some thought into these outcomes in
which I wanted to get across to my readers.