The media Unit for me was the worst. We watched The Matrix, The Truman Show and We read "Allegory of the Cave". The matrix and the Allegory of the Cave were the hardest to understand, till' this day i still wouldn't be able to give you a symbolic meaning of them. The Truman Show was a bit easier to grasp.
When it got the the point where we had to compare The Matrix and The allegory Of The Cave I found it really difficult.
The exercises that we have to do in class such as writing responses using claims, reasons and evidence in good docs in groups and also in the forums were helpful sort of. I definitely got extra practice by doing the exercises. The easiest part was summarizing. what i found to be difficult was giving actual examples.To me it seems like most of the time i cannot relate to the story in anyway. Most of the time i just find myself making up a "personal experience". and when i do come up with something that can relate to the passage i start to re-think it and think it doesn't relate at all. Practice makes perfect. (and I'm on my way there)
We were also givin' two practice CAT tests. The first one i did ok i think although i didn't pass. The second one we did i was more confident about handing it in. Perhaps because the passage was about smoking. I felt it was easier for me to start writing. I also think that i organized my essay alot better the second time around.
I also find myself annotating more. I read the passage and realize that i am underlining important words & information, looking up words that i'm not one hundred percent sure of. and i also realize that my essays look alot better they are more organized and make alot more sense.
Honestly i am very happy this unit is over. I look forward to the next unit and hopefully it wont be as difficult but knowing the teacher ;] it might be worse. I also enjoyed the fact that we didn't work in groups as much. (Thank god) & i feel like i have learned more working by myself. All around this unit was hard. On top of getting more practice writing and putting together essays we had to find the symbolic meaning of different movies. I am still not good at this.
It's great that you are annotating--this will be a very important skill later for all your courses. And you are comfortable with summarizing. So you have two skills down and two to go.
ReplyDeleteAs I said to Agata, I totally understand how hard it is to relate to passages and then find examples to support the connection. And you got it right: practice does make perfect.
Thanks for the insightful reflection.