Reflections

Students’ Reflections on the Courses

Alice:

First time when I heard about the subject “The Simpsons,” I thought what I was able to write a research paper. Sometime I watched it partly on Fox, but I never had watched a whole episode. So I worried about my paper, because I needed a lot of time to find my subject and I had an experience that I wasn’t able to write the paper because I didn’t find an interesting subject. However when I wrote the paper I really enjoyed to write my paper, because I found my idea that make me want to write the paper.

I definitely can say that I learn the way to get my own ideas and to develop it. Until writing a research paper, I and my classmates took in charge of each episode and made questions and answers for discussions. For that we should watch more then 5 episodes, and kept our eyes on the board for response. During the discussion, I realized what I was interested in and what kind of question I had. And I was also able to know other people’s different opinions. When I thought individually about my paper, I was in my world and I wasn’t able to thinks others. But through online discussion I thought about my classmates’ questions and got the responses about my questions from my classmates. I got a basic and necessary question for a research paper “why do you think about it?”
After I got a subject I started to find articles that related my subject. Online discussions was time to find my interests and know different opinions about my subject in my class, on the other hand researching article was time to know different and same opinion in the world. After first draft I got a feedback from one of my classmates, and it was a very interesting process. It is because one of my classmates didn’t understand my subject and her summery was not what I wanted to write. First time it is a little bit confused, but I found why she wasn’t able to understand and what I should make sure.

Watching a cartoon and analyzing them was very unique experience. I like to watch movies and cartoons, so I had fun in this project and this was my favorite activity. Through this activity, I learnt how to come up to my idea that I was interested in. Next time when write a research paper I will reduce my time to get my subject. The most improvement thing is that I made my order system for writing a research paper and enjoy writing it and reading articles.

Yong Soung:

I watched more than five episodes and I needed to listen to more than four times to analyze and understand the context of the Simpsons. From these activities, my listening skill has been improved because I had to concentrate on the Simpsons to participate in the online discussion and needed to understand not only story but also, a small event and even a word. Without perception of the context, I might not have joined the debate on the Internet. I believe a big part of improvement of listening skill is listening comprehension. In addition, my peers and I had a discussion, and I took in charge of each episode and led online discussions about some issues. By leading and participating in the debate, I learned how to lead discussion in English, and I gained different ideas from my classmates. It was helpful to prepare to write the research paper about the Simpsons since I have already collected information and idea through the online discussion. After this discussion of the Simpsons, I wrote research paper about it.I need to search a lot of references about my issue and read many books before writing it. It was too much to read every book so I had to read rapidly. Through this activity, I learn how to scan and skim a lot of books. Moreover, I struggled with writing research paper because I had never done before. Finally I can organize my research paper as the semester continued. My knowledge has grown tremendously over this past semester and I am hoping it will continue to grow.

Woo: Peer evaluation

My overall writing ability has improved mainly due to the peer reviews and evaluations conducted during this course. I believe that working with people who are at the same level of writing as I am is more beneficial for improving my writing as such a pairing means my partner is more likely to catch mistakes made in my paper, enabling me to create writing that is more effective for the readers. I have learned many different ideas and concepts from listening to different peers’ opinions. I have also tried to incorporate many of the issues discussed in class. I believe that, the more diverse knowledge a person has, the more effective the writing is and the more it relates to the audience. On the other hand, I took advantage of valuable opportunities to revise and critique others’ writing. Both experiences were really helpful in enabling me to complete this course successfully.