Structuring a Successful Composition Course

Revisualizing Composition, by Jeff Grabill along with his fellow co-authors is a paper about a study carried across seven different universities across the United States Of America. Each university ranks differently in terms of various statistics such as enrollment, size and setting, therefore participants have different styles and approached towards writing. Following the standard survey method, a series of questions based on 30 different types of writing, were ranked in terms of popularity and value.

In Freshman Composition I learned what metacognition means, and how it applies to academic writing. Next I learned about textual evidence and backing up your opinions with research. *I expect this class to help develop my writing skills, as well as find my voice in writing, all together I expect this class to be challenging but rewarding. Therefore I have set a few goals for myself, my first goal is to step out of my comfort zone and research topics I have never heard of before. My second goal is to not second-guess myself on my writing topics and/or choices. Furthermore I expect great things to come from this

In this course we learned about many different types of oppression, from the time America was first “discovered” and the discoverers began oppressing the Indians, to slavery, to the oppression of the mentally handicapped, all the way to more “modern” times in schools were students are being oppressed.

When it comes to evaluating myself and if I am prepared for my first college writing course I believe that I am prepared to take my first college writing course. Before joining my ESC 021 class with Professor Kraft I felt that I was prepared and that I would be able to complete assignments without difficulty, but I was so used to the one on one sessions where I would go over the little mistakes or find ways to produce an exceptional essay that I forgot that I was own my own now. Through the short time in ESC 021 I learned my weaknesses and strengths as a writer. I now have the ability to receive feedback and effectively use my feedback to better my assignments.

College Composition has helped me grow tremendously as a writer. While I am still not where I want to be as a writer, Comp 1 has given me the push in the right direction that high school never did. When I was in high school I had about a month total of grammar over those 4 years so writing was not a big part of my life at that point. Due to that, I knew coming into Comp 1 that I would struggle to produce something worth reading at first. Through countless revisions and reflections on each paper I have learned so much about the process of writing in such a short time.

The main idea is to explore whether the students in the research sample show indication of internalized oppression and if so, attempt to explore the possible relationships or implications that it has on their academic performance. Moreover, if students do not show an indication of internalized oppression they will instead be showing an indication of the sociological imagination. Students will be asked questions that intend to reveal this information. For example, the question, “What do you think has contributed (positively, negatively, or both) to your current academic performance?” Answers that will indicate internalized oppression will include an emphasis on their individual effort. For example, if the student wasn’t doing well academically, and contributed this to solely themselves for not doing homework or studying enough, and conversely, if the student was doing well academically and contributed their success to their hard work and studying, both cases would show no implication for other larger structures. Both of these responses would be coded as internalized oppression. A response that shows the sociological imagination could be a student who was doing well academically and explained that what contributed to their performance included: a tutoring program, extracurricular activities, and being placed in gifted classes. This student did not attribute individual action to their academic performance. A problem does arise of course when a student may mention both individual effort and other inklings of larger structures. However, with other similar questions, the most prevalent answer will be considered. The reliability of the student’s answers are also a possible issue. Some students may not feel comfortable relaying their current academic performance or personal issues such as balancing a job and school. Overall, I think the many testaments from other

In Heritage High School, there exists a substantial gap between minority and white students engaging in arduous subjects, as only fifteen-percent of minorities enroll in Advanced Placement courses compared to the staggering seventy-percent of white students participating in ambitious classes. This disparity among students has accelerated the semblance of a marginalized society consisting of minority pupils, who remain futile in pursuit of academics. I seek to tarnish the illusion of inadequateness, as remaining fulfilled causes a person to not accel. To challenge myself is utterly necessary in upholding an inclusive society, which demonstrates that minorities are seeking to improve themselves. To be an exemplar in the standards of a dignified student of color. This perpetual drive of success develops the foundation of an inclusive society. The efficacy of a student's tenacity will propel the urge of prosperity within themselves. Society is solely a spectrum of colors, a pack of crayons, to not pick an choose a colors you are comfortable with, but to include the diverse, plentiful array of colors, to illustrate a painting of opportunity. An illustration of a vivid colors brimming with a rigor is the utter depiction of an inclusive

everyday acts of violence and racism that members of oppressed races experience regularly. From the systematic literature review, Landson-Billings explains that adopting the critical race theory helps teachers realize that students from historically segregated ethnicities such as Hispanics and African-Americans generally expect to be treated differently compared to White students and have developed their attitudes based on these expectations. Landson-Billings argues that this false expectations maybe the root cause of lack of motivation on students to learn and underachievement in test scores and proficiency tests.

Students of oppressed groups can and often do face oppression inside of the school. They are more likely to receive severer school punishments for minor offenses than other students. As a result, students of oppressed groups miss more school days thus have higher dropout rates overall. While they are in school, students who are

“What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s” written by Carl Singleton argues that our education system needs to enforce more failing grades to students who have not fully learned the required material. He believes that handing out failing grades in copious amounts to students will overall fix the issue of illiterate students among high schools and colleges along with draw attention to this issue and engage parents into their child's education. This argument could be fairly but is poorly executed and lacks valid evidence and supporting claims. Singleton fails to provide accurate benefits of this grading system he feels should be implemented. Carl Singleton overall expresses his concern of the grading systems deterioration and that the education system is not enforcing enough failing grades to students who have not fully mastered required material.

There is an alarming rate of people who judge based on who they are and where they come from. The purpose of the class is to show us why education needs to be provided. We have learned that women, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities, are provided with limited opportunities in public education and in the job market. This concern has been brought up because it also directly points towards children who live in poverty. They say it affected who they will become and how they will act in school. This brings up the labeling theory when behaviors are deemed deviant only when society labels them as deviant. These could be individuals that could be politicians, teachers, or even police officers. By providing references from the past to present on how such an overwhelming problem still exists with discrimination and labeling. What I would prove that regardless of what sex, religion, race, and background of the individual is, no one should be held back from achieving that American Dream and good education that will help them succeed in life.

Throughout my time spent in Mrs. Townsend’s Composition I class, I learned how to be productive more than I ever have before. I knew that signing up for this class would be a challenge for me; however, I decided to stick with the decision to stay enrolled. While trying to balance time with friends, work, and homework, I found out that the ability to stay on top of things is extremely important.

It would be very easy to forget about everything I learned from this class and move on without a second thought about dialogue and social justice. However, I think that setting goals of attending protests, interrupting prejudice comments, and introducing LARA to my family will force me to get out of my comfort zone and be an ally. Doing this will hopefully not only positively impact the oppressed groups but also me because oppression hurts privileged groups as well through mental health, isolation from people who are different, and shame. (Goodman, 2000)

It was a unique learning and sharing experience that our professor used to demonstrate the different social strata, different social classes and white privilege. I found this class an oasis for learning. Each student’s experience was valued and important and a strong sense of community identity was developed.

During this course, I have definitely become more aware of my social imagination. I can now look beyond my own everyday life and see how relationship between individual troubles and the large social forces that are the driving forces behind them. In the end of this course, I believe that lack of education, racism, and unemployment are all related. In the matter of education and racism, it are not just experienced by one person and possibly that person’s family but by all of those in the community. If a low preforming urban school closes down, it is not just one person who is not educated. It is all of the people who misses a quality education. Now because they are uneducated, each of these individual people, and their families if they have