Assignment/Activity Title Skill Writing/Media

First Quarter Cinematic Analysis of Lincoln Year Freshman Portfolio CategoryMedia and Communications

In the first quarter of the 2013/2014 year, I wrote the quarterly cinematic analysis assignment on the film Lincoln. I have put it in the Media and Communications category because it has helped me to understand how information is put into the form of media (movies) to educate the people of today. In the assignment I researched the historical significance of the film, and this demonstrated the role media plays in uncovering history and presenting it in an un-bias way. I also wrote about the media techniques used in the film, such as metaphors and imagery. Because of this, I am more aware of media techniques and now pay more attention to techniques such as these, used in more everyday films. I thought to include this piece in my portfolio because it was first big assignment I did in CAP that I really enjoyed and worked hard on. To be able to watch such a well done and interesting movie for an assignment and then write about it, inspired me and I highly enjoyed doing it. I then put lots of work into writing and editing the analysis, making me proud of my work. I completed two drafts, proofreading each, as well as doing background research before turning in the final. I added the cinematic analysis to my portfolio because of the work I put into it and the confidence I had in the final product. In the previous school year I studied US history, learning about the civil war. By watching Lincoln and then doing background research on the 13th amendment, I attained plenty more in depth knowledge about President Lincoln and the passing of the 13th amendment in Congress. I also learned about how to write in a more compressed meaningful style. Each part of the assignment was supposed to be written in a page or less, which caused me lots of trouble considering I like to write longer pieces with less meaning in each sentence. I was not very able to write a summary of the entire movie, including the theme, in one page. With this assignment, I learned how to compress my writing and put more meaning into each sentence, so the reader gets a better feel of what I am writing about in a shorter piece. Although I was very proud of my work on this assignment, I would change two things. First I would have come up with a better theme for the summary. The theme I used was a clich and not to my liking. I agreed with Mrs. Jeral when she took points off because of the theme. I thought I couldve come up with something better. I also wouldve liked to work harder at coming up with some of the material in the assignment myself. For the theme, I had to do some research and ask some people what they thought the movie was trying to say. I came up with the theme myself, but I needed help doing so. Overall I think the cinematic analysis of Lincoln has helped me to become more interested i n history. It really revealed how interesting and complex history can be and showed me how media helps it to do that.

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Assignment/Activity TitleThoreau/Crane Essay Year Freshman Skill Writing Portfolio CategoryCritical Reasoning I completed the Thoreau/Crane Compare and Contrast Essay in the first quarter of my first year in CAP. It was the biggest essay at had written and was a major check point for me. I had never worked on an essay longer than four pages. I worked hard on making good final product, doing outlines and drafts, proofreading each one. Overall, I was happy with the essay I turned in. I felt the essay should be included in my portfolio because of the effort I put in and the significance of such an assignment to me. I consider this to me a critical reasoning paper because of all the ideas I wrote and read about in Walden by Henry David Thoreau and Maggie, A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane. In each of the books, the authors discuss and convey their opinions on different problems or topics in life. For the essay, we had to compare and contrast their different ideas. By doing this I was able to see the opinions of intellectual figures on the topics of self-reliance, possessions, and philanthropy. As I did the essay I was able to determine my own opinions and ideas about those topics, therefore thinking critically about the assignment. Before this assignment, I done one other big paper where I focused on the religious question, How do you live a meaningful life? For the paper, I contemplated many of the topics presented in the Thoreau/Crane Essay as I did my research. I interviewed different people and read different articles and books to get the different perspective. In lots of ways, the essay was very much a follow up to the paper because of the in depth research I did the extract the information from the books. If I were to make any changes to the paper, I would change the format/outline of the paper. In the outline, I did seven paragraphs, 1 being introduction, 2 being a summary of each book, 1 being a conclusion and 3 being the body paragraphs. I felt that using this format I gave a good summary of the different books with lots of background information, but I didnt have enough on the actual topics I was comparing and contrasting between the books. I felt I needed more quotations and examples from the story to support my claim. Once reading my essay, I think other people will begin to pay more attention to the different topics I discuss. Although each book was written a long time ago, the topics I cover still apply to modern life. The essay will have introduced them to these topics and given them a good background through the opinions of two intelligent men of that century. They will also enjoy it. I attempted to write it lightly so that it is easy to comprehend and it is certainly an interesting subject. In the future I will continue to contemplate the topics, maybe evening referring to this essay. I will also remember the books I read for the assignment and re-read it for future reference.

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Assignment/Activity TitleDuBois and Washington Essay Year Freshman Skill Writing Portfolio CategoryCritical Reasoning For the WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington Compare and Contrast Essay, I read different articles anti-segregation ideas these too important individuals had. I compared and contrasted the ideas on how African Americans could achieve racial equality and what the greatest impediment was to gaining equality. I put the essay into the critical reasoning category because I researched the views of other and thought about how they related to my views. I also had to use support and develop a strong thesis statement with lots of supporting evidence. I wanted this to be included in my portfolio, not because it was one of my best pieces of work, but because after doing it, I learned something about myself and work habits. I learned that I really need to proofread and spend time on my assignment, especially in CAP. In this assignment I got points taken off for very basic things, like I didnt have a strong thesis statement with a clear opinion. This was because I did the assignment somewhat last minute, only beginning the weekend before it was due, and I didnt proof read it before I handed it in. When I got the essay back, I realized I had to spend more work on the bigger assignments. I did do lots of background research on the subject though. I thought that I worked a lot on the research and support part, trying to integrate to quotations into the essay in an interesting yet effective way. This is not to say that I didnt learn anything on the subject matter of the essay. I found the documents and articles we read to be very engaging even though I procrastinated. I find history very interesting and I liked to learn about the different movements of American history. To see how the ideas of the two figures parallel to the ideas of politicians and leaders today was engaging for me. This especially applies to the way groups get integrated into the community and as the year went on I saw a repeated pattern of the attempts for integration in different groups who were facing similar problems in the media. I believe that others will enjoy the essay as much as I have. The writing definitely left something to be desired, but the subject matter is still presented in an understandable way that could make for an interesting read. Overall the essay sparked my interest in the African American struggles of that times period. I will likely continue to have interest in the subject. Also, before this year in history, I always thought my social studies classes were boring and useless. This year I have been a lot more inspired in history. I am not finding US history to be much more engaging when in the high school level and in CAP. This assignment has brought my attention to the fact that history assignment can actually be enjoyable and I will go to history with more respect for the subject.

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Assignment/Activity TitleHarlem Renaissance Brochure and Project Skill Writing Portfolio CategorySocial Awareness

Year Freshman

The Harlem Renaissance Brochure was what I thought to be a very interesting project. It is a project in which the students have to create a brochure which included a historical summary of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 30s. We included a biography of a writer of the renaissance; I did a poet named Paul Laurence Dunbar. I thought to out this in the social awareness category because I learned about the experience of African Americans in the United States during the time. African Americans experienced incredible discrimination that is unimaginable today. Even the law was unfair towards blacks, often times accusing them of crimes with little to no evidence against them. I wanted to include the assignment in the social awareness category because I found the social part of the project to be the most interesting. We had to include summaries of the history, social impact, and art impact of the renaissance. I could have put the assignment in the critical thinking category for all the research and information I obtained about the history of the renaissance and the people impacting its development. I learned a lot about the Harlem Renaissance while doing this assignment. Before, I didnt even know what and when the Harlem Renaissance took place. I was able to imagine a timeline of how African Americans were socially accepted from after the Civil War to the end of the Civil Rights Movement, what I learned about the renaissance filling in the gaps. I also learned about many influential African Americans of the time like the writer I researched, Paul Laurence Dunbar, or political figure like WEB DuBois. Lastly, what I thought was intriguing, I learned about the art and literature of the time. African Americans created things to express there want for social acceptance as well as their idea that they were independent, capable people. I thought that the final product of my brochure turned out to look good. I included a lot of information and it looked pretty jammed, but it still looked professional. On my next in-class assignment I would like to take it more seriously. Dr. Simel gave us lots of time to complete the assignment in the computer lab, but I usually slacked off. When I put my mind to it and worked the entire class without getting distracted I got the most work done, finishing almost half the project. But because I hadnt work hard on the previous classes, I was forced to take the assignment and finish it at home. Before this assignment I knew that I liked to work, but after completing the brochure I learned that I liked writing about history more that I liked writing about different books. Doing the research wasnt too exciting, but I found a particular interest in when composing my notes into the individual sections in my brochure. I think I will take particular relish in doing historical writing project in my future CAP career.

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Assignment/Activity Title Sophomore SkillWriting, Media, Research. Ethics.

YearFreshman, PortfolioCritical Reasoning,

Metacognitive ReflectionThe following questions ARE NOT A SCRIPT!! Use the ideas within the questions to reflect on the assignment and its significance to you. Your reflection MUST use Times New Roman font, size 11, single spacing

How does this assignment reflect your growth in the category in which you are placing it? How have you changed as a result of this assignment? Why is it important to include this piece in your portfolio? How and where does this fit in with your prior knowledge? How do you think that others will react to this product? What process did you use to complete the product? What did you learn by doing this assignment? How does the portfolio product illustrate the connection(s) you've made between yourself and the course material? In what ways would you do things differently if you could do it over again? What did you discover about yourself? How does it relate to your future? How does it illustrate your strengths and/or weaknesses? What obstacles and challenges did you have to deal with, and how did this struggle change you? How does the portfolio product show that your perspective on the world has deepened? How does it relate to your understanding of the world around you? Which of your accomplishments makes you feel most proud?

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