Becoming An Active Learner By Skip Downing

Students are required to take English all four years of high school to improve and develop skills for higher education. We read different types of literature to learn morals and explore new ideas. With writing assignments of résumés, formal letters, and essays, students establish a foundation for future responsibilities in college or a job field. Vocabulary expansion is woven throughout everyday tasks in the English classroom; word choice is crucial to our professional and educational futures. Accumulated writing and reading skills are used in preparation for standardized testing, such as the SAT and ACT. English class improves the confidence in students with reading, writing, and speaking skills. In four years of English, written literature greatly impacts one’s learning experience.

One of the challenges high school seniors face is to choose whether to further their education or not. Many students choose to go on to college to get degrees or certificates, but many do not. College certainly is not for everyone. College is important though for people who want to obtain jobs that require getting a degree. I am a person who wants to get a career that requires a quality college education. I will experience many challenges and obstacles throughout my college education. I know taking a Composition and Rhetoric class will be one of these challenges. I am taking English 1101 because I have to in order to get my degree, because I want to get ahead, and because I expect to develop better writing and communication skills.

I’m going to tell you how student learn these mindsets. In the 90s parents thought the most important thing that you child should have was self-esteem. But were they messed up is that you cant just hand your kids self-esteem. They took a poll among parents and found that 85% of parents thought that it was necessary to “praise” their children’s abilities to boost confidence. Now were going to talk about growth mindset. These students believe that intelligence is something that can be gained through education and effort. I wish in high school that I would of taken it more serious because now I could have had a growth mindset witch would of helped me out a lot in college. Those students have growth mindsets. They believe that you can gain intelligence through learning. Those with a growth mindset had a very straightforward idea of effort. The idea that the harder you work the greater the outcome is and I think that’s true. When these students had a set back in school they simply just study more or differently next time. That was my biggest set back in high school. Many bright students find grade school fairly easy and get right through it. But later on in life like in college they struggle. They don’t want to put the time into something and feel dumb when they get a bad grade on it. That’s bad because you should never feel dumb about something that you tried your hardest to complete. I hope that this information was helpful

With the anxiety flowing throughout my body, I knew the time was near of facing my English 1301 class. Being told that I needed to improve my writing during my grade school days, I knew that I didn’t feel at ease going into a college level English class. But, with this in mind I had to pull myself together to encounter the challenges that I will face. However, having the privilege of having an amazing professor I believe my writing skills improved, also I was able to find my confidence.

As a University of Tampa freshman, I would have never guessed how much progress I could have made as a writer in class FYW 100, taught by Professor Birnbaum. Coming out of high school from one of the most prestigious, well-known schools in the nation, gave me an ambiguous amount of certainty to receiving an A in her class. Before beginning my journey in college, Jesuit, which was a college preparatory high school, gave mandatory four-year English courses to every student. With that being said, there was no doubt of me coming into freshman year of college with high confidence in my English skills.

Students should care about learning how to write at the college level because it is part of the foundation of learning how to comprehend readings. Learning to understand any type of readings can help in the workplace as well as college. This is because the reader will be able to fully the grasp the idea of what is being told to to them. Therefore, the best way to learn this skill is being able to be a writer that knows how to “influence a student's comprehension”(Alhabri 2). This could also help in the workplace because you know what to do in order to get the job done effectively.

Heather Landers argues in her article “Help Your Students Develop a Growth Mindset” she declares “Talk about adopting a growth mindset in class—tell stories about former students who thought they would never learn the subject but who, with persistence and effort, ended up being successful in the course” (6). Landers point is by clarifying that by giving students examples which could give the students a chance to see what could happen if they took on a growth mindset. Another way students at Mount Miguel can thrive to get a growth mindset is surround themselves with growth mindset people. The people students hang around with reflects who they are. As Tim Elmore put it's in his article “Four Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset in Students” he clarifies “Growing people determine to surround themselves with growth mindset people, who become contagious with others. You will reflect the books you read and the people you position next to you” (4). Elmore is insisting the people students hang around reflects on the choices they make and what mindset they will have. However, students must recognize that they have a choice in choosing a fixed or growth mindset. Terry Waghorn in his article “Are You Trapped In A Fixed Mindset? Fix it!” agrees when he

Students with a “fixed” mindset believe that they are born with a specific set of talent and they are limited by those talents. They will fell that they reached their expected ability, consequently stop trying. If the student has a “growth mindset”, they believe that if a concept is challenging, it will provide them an opportunity to learn a new concept. They also believe that there are no restrictions due to inherited ability.

Throughout my childhood, college education has always been a concept in the minds of my parents and I. As a result, it was my duty to excel in my studies and achieve that idea of having great success. In order to pursue that dream I had to learn how to read and write which had many ups and downs. Therefore, my youth was overtaken by many hours learning how to read and write in the correct “Standard” English.

Whether growth or fixed, mindsets affect many aspects of our everyday life. A student may have a fixed mindset in, say, math and have a growth mindset when it comes to soccer. Mindsets, a concept developed by Carol Dweck, are either growth or fixed. People with a fixed mindset view certain aspects, be it intelligence or talent, as “fixed” and unchanging, while people with a growth mindset see the same aspects as a chance to grow and improve. Until fifth grade I was the former. Fifth grade was the start of many things: a new school, new friends, and a new mindset. Fifth grade pre-algebra was the first class I had ever struggled in. My lack of a growth mindset kept me from asking questions, learning from my failures, and accepting criticism.

The texts by Bob Englehart and Kathleen Nancy are both about college. Englehart says that college is not necessary for everyone, and you are still get a successful job without it, you just need to “Be practical, be smart, be ready.” Nancy does not talk about whether or not college is necessary, but instead talks about what you need to do to be successful in a college English class. She says that your writing will not be perfect at first, and that you need to work on it to get better. I believe that to be a successful student, you need to love learning, be hardworking, and be responsible.

A growth mindset will allow you to develop your talents and abilities through knowledge and mentoring, while maintaining a teachable attitude.

I am a science major and I have always minimized English Language courses because I thought I was already very good at writing. I did not think I would ever really need to use what I would acquire from such a course. When I came to Montgomery College and I was going to take the course English 101, my expectations were that I would have no difficulty scoring good grades in the course and I would learn nothing really helpful from it. This is because in high school, I put very little effort into my English class, but I had impressive scores in writing. I began to understand that I am not as good as I thought I was at writing when I started taking english courses in college. During my previous English course, English 102, I was able to improve certain aspects of my writing which I am glad for. For instance I am confident that my essay structures are well built. But some things in writing remained a challenge for me. I am glad that I am taking an English course that would permit me to work on things I thought I was already good at like awareness in writing essays and proper use of grammar and punctuation

Of the many expectations I have of English 1101, three are very important to me: improving my vocabulary, communication skills, and the ability to enhance my writing skills. During college the most fundamental class will be English. English will help me with all subjects in my curriculum, by building better communication skills, and will help with me with everyday life. In today's world of increased communications, particularly of a digital nature, writing skills are an important aspect of expression on a personal, professional and educational level. People send written communications more frequently and quickly than ever in the form of text messages, emails and social media updates.

When I first started college I did not know what to expect with an English class. I liked writing about topics that interested me, but high school did not allow me to do that. I took American History and we would have to write