Reflection Post

The course objective I think I made the most progress towards is probably “approaching texts critically, designing creative research projects, and professional presentation.” While I think I made great strides in others as well, I feel this is one I am most qualified to discuss. At the beginning of the semester I never would’ve expected to learn that comedy is actually used to point out people’s flaws or that it has the potential to be intricate enough to have the Four Causes. I have always prided myself on being able to make my way through pretty meaty texts but this is the first time I was asked to answer complex critical thinking questions related to literature. I think this course will even prove helpful to my engineering curriculum too. While comedy itself isn’t extremely relevant, the critical thinking and group collaboration is very important. I also made progress in my ability to come up with a solid project. As for professional presentation, I think I was already fairly competent in that area.

The thing I enjoyed the most in this class was the collaborative nature of the classroom setting. I have been in many classes where we sat like bumps on a log and the teacher just talked at us for an hour. I don’t learn as well in those settings. I especially liked the “panel of experts” thing we adopted towards the end.  That was an excellent way to encourage us to really engage. I would always try to remember everything that was said in my panel because I didn’t want to let my group down when we came back together. Overall, I guess I would classify myself as a fairly successful student in this class. I wasn’t the most studious when it comes to keeping up with homework but I think I did well as far as class discussions go.