Self Evaluation

PERSONAL LEARNING PLAN 1

PERSONAL LEARNING PLAN 2

SELF EVALUATION OF MY PERSONAL LEARNING PLAN

1.     LITERARY TERMS

I started out writing posts that talk generally about a single literary term (for example, point of view, exposition, diction, and voice).  But I moved toward taking a single piece of literature and analyzing it based on several literary elements.  I like this approach better because it allows me to begin to make arguments about themes and content (see Outcome #3 for examples).  I also started bolding the literary terms in my posts.

2.     GENRES

This particular outcome has never been a challenge for me.  My literary tastes span the full spectrum of genres (although I may not have best known how to classify them until now), and my personal reading list has reflected that.  During the fiction unit, I read and wrote about a Gothic classic (Jane Eyre), historical fiction (The Book Thief), and postmodern literary fiction (A Visit from the Goon Squad).  During the poetry unit, I read and wrote about a villanelle (One Art), a free verse poem (Northern Pike), and a religious prose poem (Heavenly Father, Earthly Father).

3.     ARGUMENTS

At the beginning of the term, I dove right into some formative arguments because to me, it was obvious that that was the fun part (see Timelessness and Childhood).  But as we moved along, I started to realize how juvenile a lot of that probably sounded coming from a complete amateur.  So my focus started to shift towards Outcome #1 and my arguments have since been based on the terms and methods that we’ve gone over.  This especially shows through in my poetry adaptation analysis.

4.     SOCIAL/CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT

I’ve tried to integrate literature and my personal life throughout my blog posts, and especially in my personal literary analysis.  But I usually just ended up switching back and forth between analysis and personal experience without relating the two in a useful way.  I never really got the hang of it until I read other students’ personal literary analyses.  This more recent blog post best reflects my shift in approach.  The most meaningful comments I’ve received have been this one from Kimara where she offers a supportive quote, and this one from Jocelyn where she explains what exactly worked well in my post so that I can improve.  I also liked this comment from Kirsten because she let me know that my post had an effect on her—she wants to read a book that she’d never found appealing before.

5.     TOOLS

I’ve learned a lot about blogger.com and I feel like I’ve come a long way.  I went from indenting each paragraph to manipulating font, color, and outside media in order to better get my message across.  Sometimes, I’ve sent certain posts to friends or family who I knew would be interested, and they've given me useful feedback through Facebook.  Here is my goodreads profile. I also enjoyed exploring other forms of media in my poetry adaptation analysis and in this post.