Actively reading The Writer's way is a bit more than simply reading a book; it's almost like having a one sided conversation with the book. We did this by highlighting and writing in the margins of the book, asking questions that would probably be answered later on in the chapter that we happened to be reading. After that I always decided to write down all of my notes and reactions onto a separate Google document just so I wouldn't have to go through the book later to find highlighted quotes and reactions I had. Once all of the note taking was finally finished I had to write an essay response about my general impression and reactions to the chapters we had to read.
Information literacy is the most important part of this entire process. I had to respond to the information in the writer's way, I had to organise those responses on a document, and I had to use those responses to write an essay. Each and every one of those steps requires me to be able to understand whatever type of information that's in front of me and how I can use that information.
I'm very proud that the quality of my writing increased drastically by the time the assignment was over. The whole process of responding to The Writer's Way and using those responses in an essay really worked and because it forced me to understand and remember just about everything that the book was teaching. Writing used to be a massive weak point for me, but not anymore.
Although my writing quality did improve a lot, my informational literacy skills improved most of all. Instead of highlighting everything in sight so I can deal with it later, I started simply highlighting things that are important, or summarise what the text is saying to save time and energy later. I also used to be all too eager to find meaning in whatever I have to respond to or summarise the material before I even read it, but now I can relax before taking notes knowing that I'll have something to write about by the time I'm done.
The most difficult part about completing this task was the time investment, doing all of this reading, responding, and note taking takes a lot of time from other classes and assignments. At first I felt like this particular assignment was taking up half of my school time. Granted, it got better as I got used to the new work load of a college class along with the other changes this school year had to offer, but it still feels like a bit of a hurdle.
If I could start over and do something differently I would rewrite my reading discussion essays before turning it in. I feel like the final product of my reading discussion essays would be much better if I took the time to rewrite my essays at least once before turning it in.
Reading The Writer's Way easily relates to anything with reading, note taking, or writing. So pretty much everything in an English Language Arts class, from summaries to research papers.
Because I can relate this project to such a broad range of other types of projects, papers, and assignments it's pretty much a certainty that I will see many, many more of these sorts of assignments in senior year and all through out college. The next time I see assignments like this in an English class, or any class for that matter I'll be all the more prepared.
Here's an example of one of my reading discussions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c6AT5a8NRa_3IGKRaXiBpOHtnkb7omaUb8tkcsEaZM/edit?usp=sharing
Notes for that discussion: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n_vIPMwC2XiarCM2hvLQYNGqH28whBrBEG1yVtLpwzg/edit?usp=sharing
Information literacy is the most important part of this entire process. I had to respond to the information in the writer's way, I had to organise those responses on a document, and I had to use those responses to write an essay. Each and every one of those steps requires me to be able to understand whatever type of information that's in front of me and how I can use that information.
I'm very proud that the quality of my writing increased drastically by the time the assignment was over. The whole process of responding to The Writer's Way and using those responses in an essay really worked and because it forced me to understand and remember just about everything that the book was teaching. Writing used to be a massive weak point for me, but not anymore.
Although my writing quality did improve a lot, my informational literacy skills improved most of all. Instead of highlighting everything in sight so I can deal with it later, I started simply highlighting things that are important, or summarise what the text is saying to save time and energy later. I also used to be all too eager to find meaning in whatever I have to respond to or summarise the material before I even read it, but now I can relax before taking notes knowing that I'll have something to write about by the time I'm done.
The most difficult part about completing this task was the time investment, doing all of this reading, responding, and note taking takes a lot of time from other classes and assignments. At first I felt like this particular assignment was taking up half of my school time. Granted, it got better as I got used to the new work load of a college class along with the other changes this school year had to offer, but it still feels like a bit of a hurdle.
If I could start over and do something differently I would rewrite my reading discussion essays before turning it in. I feel like the final product of my reading discussion essays would be much better if I took the time to rewrite my essays at least once before turning it in.
Reading The Writer's Way easily relates to anything with reading, note taking, or writing. So pretty much everything in an English Language Arts class, from summaries to research papers.
Because I can relate this project to such a broad range of other types of projects, papers, and assignments it's pretty much a certainty that I will see many, many more of these sorts of assignments in senior year and all through out college. The next time I see assignments like this in an English class, or any class for that matter I'll be all the more prepared.
Here's an example of one of my reading discussions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13c6AT5a8NRa_3IGKRaXiBpOHtnkb7omaUb8tkcsEaZM/edit?usp=sharing
Notes for that discussion: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n_vIPMwC2XiarCM2hvLQYNGqH28whBrBEG1yVtLpwzg/edit?usp=sharing