End of year reflection

During the first year at university I have learnt many new things, both educational and about myself. I feel that I have had a great experience, I have made many new friends and feel that together we have conquered a mountain – well, maybe just a mountain of coursework. I feel that my ability to learn without just being told what to think has increased a lot and this has helped in areas other than my studies. For example, the recent general election has sparked a great interest in myself as it has in many, but I feel that I am able to make my own judgments about the events more now than I would have been before embarking on this course.
The final assessment period has been extremely stressful but it is quite amazing how satisfied I feel each time I finish a piece of coursework and hand it in. So far I am pleased with the progress I have made whilst at the University Centre. Largely I am pleased with the grades that I have achieved. A large area where I have improved and feel very happy about is my new willingness to participate in class discussions and ask questions when I need to. This is only a very recent development but I have noticed that I have been answering a few questions in class lately whereas previously I would just put my head down and avoid eye contact. This is a great improvement in my confidence and I feel that this will also benefit me outside of university.
I am finishing the first year on a positive note. It has not been easy but then again I never expected that it would be. I am looking forward to the start of next year to begin it all again and hopefully improve on the skills and knowledge that I have acquired this year.

Assessment Period One.

The first round of assessments was generally as I expected them to be: challenging and nerve-wracking. Overall I feel that the exams have been useful as they have given me the opportunity to re-cap on topics therefore hopefully logging them in my head a bit more. I really enjoyed the Readers and Texts assignment, purely because I was daunted by the essay question and felt that we had little direction, I don’t mean this in a bad way, we were given more than enough support from our tutor but there was no getting away from the fact that we had to do lots of research and reading. I found the assignment extremely rewarding (when it was completed) and feel that I have gained skills by deciding which areas of research are useful and which are just interesting.

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Educating Rita Critical Essay Blog

Completing the critical essay on Educating Rita has helped me to develop new skills/knowledge and also expand upon those I have already acquired. As the essay required textual quotes to support my ideas I needed to complete a bibliography and use in text referencing. Although this is something which I have used in many previous essays I still feel a little uneasy about my competence, therefore this essay has provided me with more practice and a growing confidence that I am referencing correctly. I have never really approached an essay like this in connection with a play before so I have been given the opportunity of developing new skills/knowledge in ways of looking at key devices used in the text and applying them to the essay question. In particular looking at the dramatic devices used in the play rather than the literary devices which is an aspect I have looked at in many previous essays.

In general the critical essay was easier than I expected it to be. I chose to answer the question on literary and dramatic devices so I approached the essay by developing an argument and then finding evidence from the text to support that argument. I feel that looking at the text in this way has helped me in other modules particularly the drama side of the storytelling module. This is because in order to complete the assignment I have looked at various dramatic devices that Russell has used and the importance of the stage directions that are found in the play.

Class Test

The idea of a class test was at first very nerve wracking and I wished we could have had an assignment to complete instead. This obviously was not going to happen and so I decided that although I had been finding the lectures challenging there was no point burying my head in the sand, I had to start revising. I completed my revision by painstakingly going through class notes, handouts and textbooks to compile a list of terms and their definitions which I could then go back to. Once I was happy with my revision notes I spent a few minutes here and there reading and re-reading them to myself and then asked my boyfriend to test me. This was quite funny in itself and he said a few things which helped me to remember the definitions I had written. On the morning of the test I felt surprisingly calm I think this is because I had really tried hard to prepare and had decided that I could only do my best. The class test has definitely helped as I had to clarify concepts that I struggled with in order to revise thoroughly and although at first I dreaded the idea in the end I found it a positive experience. Perhaps this will help me to embrace new challenges in the future instead of just panicking at the thought of something new.

What is a critical essay? task

My knowledge of Educating Rita has been enhanced by reading the comments posted onto the discussion board by other group members. By each posting our ideas onto the discussion board we were then able to collaborate one paragraph which demonstrated all of our ideas. The points raised by individual members helped to clarify my idea that Rita thought as long as she had answered the question correctly then she should gain a good mark even though she had put little thought or effort into her analysis. I think that the process of reading other peoples paragraphs will have a positive impact on my essays in the future. This is because I can refer back to the comments and ensure that I have addressed all of the points that make a critical essay. It is also very useful as the exercise has helped me to check whether or not my idea of what makes a critical essay is similar to that of other people.

Reflection - Phonetics and The Phonetic Alphabet

I have chosen to base my reflection on the phonetic alphabet; this is because it is a concept that before I started the course I was unfamiliar with. I had heard of people spelling ‘phonetically’ but did not fully grasp what this meant. I really like the idea of the phonetic alphabet and understanding how this works as I feel that this will be very useful to me in the future. I hope to teach in a Primary School so feel that having the knowledge of different letter combinations producing different sounds will be a fantastic help when teaching young children to read.

Although the idea of different combinations of letters producing different sounds is not a new one the actual phonetic alphabet is to me. I found spelling words using the phonetic alphabet challenging as my pronunciation of words is not always the same as Received Pronunciation and this affected my symbol choice. I think that the phonetic alphabet is a fantastic idea and a very useful aid when studying phonetics. However, I feel that I personally would struggle if, say tomorrow, it was to replace the traditional alphabet. This is simply because it is not what I am used to and words to me just do not ‘feel right’ when written phonetically. I genuinely feel that the concept of phonetics and the phonetic alphabet has challenged my thoughts on learning how to read. It is such a long time ago that I was taught to read that it just seems natural that certain letters produce certain sounds, this idea has reminded me that it is not an inherent ability and that I was taught it even though I cannot remember learning to read.