Hong 1

Maya Hong
Professor Adler
STACC English 1A
May 5, 2015
Reflection Essay
Time pass quickly that the last semester of STACC class is over. In this new
sememster, I've absorbed even more learning experiences. Each student still needed to
write a diary three times a week, but this time I felt like I want to do this everyday.
However, I still remember my first reaction toward this assignment during the first
semester, I thought it is just one of the work that I have to do in order to pass this
course. Now, freewriting not only did practiced my critical thinking skills. Sometime
after our class discussed about some reading that we read in the class, I will jot down
some ideas from my classmates or me into the diary and by doing this it really helped
me when I was writing the essay.
In addition, I remember when I was in high school no one had ever instructed
me to read what interested me rather than reading what would be presented in the end
of semester exam. My key goal of reading a text was to analyze and guess what the
exams would test. I would then memorize that portion of the text that seemed
examinable. At the end, I learned nothing. This STACC English class had taught me
what's reading. The concept and idea of reading a text for interest has changed the
way I read as a learner and as a reader. The books I have read in this class are the only
books I have read to their entirety. This has made me understand that identifying a

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purpose and a reason for reading is incredibly significant for students if they want to
gather more knowledge and information from text.
Peer Review is another important learning experience in this class. Each
student printed out three copies of their essay draft and shared with other students. By
doing this again in our second semester, I realized that the more I responded to my
classmates essays, the more they respond to my essays. This has improved the way I
perceive learning and reading. It has also enhanced the way I analyze different texts.
The more we did peer reviews, the more writing skills and knowledge I gain from
their essays. From the essay reviews, I realized that even when different student wrote
about similar texts, they had different views and responses to the same topic. This
made the discussions more interesting and deeper. The quiet students also got a
chance to present their views. The reviews have been take- and- give discussions of
notions and ideas with different classmates sharing ideas forth and back. Indeed, I
have come to appreciate the fact that writing and reading cannot be separated from
interacting, speaking, and listening. Nevertheless, participation in the essay review
improved my ability to understand texts, verbalize my thoughts, and become
responsible for my learning.
The essay that I think I did good this semester was Essay #2, this is because
the paper required us to write an essay in response to Jimmy Santiago Bacas A Place
to Stand, Henry David Thoreaus Civil Disobedience and Martin Luther Kings
Letter from Birmingham Jail, which are texts from the reading of this semester. The
essay needed students to connect Bacas novel to at least one of the texts. The writing

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required students to make arguments about how the aforementioned books were
examples of Piphers change writing. The writing also required the students to
critically respond to the rhetoric of the authors. I had identified the writing strategy of
each author and connected well with the Piphers change writing Also, when I
identifying each author's writing strategy, I got to see their different characteristics
and how they write in different ways to get their reader's attention. As a result, I found
the essay interesting. Indeed, I did well on the essay.
On the other hand, the essay that I struggled with most was essay 3; Discourse
community Ethnography, which was a research paper. The paper required students to
research on professional or academic discourse community whereby the students were
required to be part of it. The paper was a bit challenging because I had not done much
on discourse community ethnography. I had also not done much on research papers
either. Additionally, reaching out on the professional community was a challenge to
me. I took a lot of time while trying to understand the requirements of the paper. More
so, getting all the information required was a challenge to me. At last, however, I got
assistance from my classmates and was able to handle the research paper with ease.
Finally, understanding my particular learning style and how to best meet the
needs of that learning style is essential to performing better in my educational goals.
The experiences that I learned in this class have unlocked my learning style and
discovered the best methods for helping me to learn through that style. If I would to
do the class all over again, I would analysis better on every articles that we have read
in class, because it really helps me appreciate the depth of the story and the message

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that the author is intending to convey. Just reading the story means, hey, that's a nice
storyline. Reading deeper into the meaning of the allusions, setting, even specific
word selections can create a whole new level of experience. Sometimes when I fail to
connect with a certain book, I later realize it is because I didn't understand what it was
really trying to say.
In conclusion, STACC English class taught me a lot of stuffs. The specific areas
with respect to reading, writing and learning where I personally need to work on are
Piphers "change writing". She influences me a lot about writing. My goal is,
therefore, to understand every concept and perspective contained in Piphers "writing
to change the world".