31 Ekim 2007 Çarşamba
first draft of first essay
Firstly sorry for writing late. I think it's because of the holiday and the all assignments I should do fo this week. This week was quite interesting. As you know we had a reading for about 10 pages. We finished that but we had to answer Micro&Macro questions. Those questions seemmed really easy, however they were not. When Mr. O'Regan started to gave the answers our group realised that we did not make a good job. Some questions were actually but some were asking important but hidden clues. Mr. O'Regan explained it all and we were comfortable that we learned the true ones. Because these questions were going to help our first essays. You can not know how much these essays mean to us. Firstly they are %25 of our lesson and to get Mr. O'Regan's attention we have to spend a lot time on it. I finished my essay this week and I'm really excited to see what my peers and Mr.O'regan will say. Hope they will like it. See you!
21 Ekim 2007 Pazar
Fifth week
This week started much more peaceful. Later on we saw the first essay's topic. It was a bit scary. We were dealing with the question to understand while Mr. O'Regan wanted us to pre-read the text. It seems fine but later on I saw it was too scientific for me to handle. Then that lesson we started a group work to learn how to write summaries.
Firstly we tried to remember what we have learned in the past for summarizing. Then "Handbook for Writers" book came to help us. Every group write the facts they found on the board and we tried to see if they are really facts or not. Second lesson was a bit more challenging. Because we were suppose to read the text called " Is the Internet Changing Social Life?It Seems the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same."The text we are going to write the first essay on. While reading it seemed to e that I understood the most important points, but after Mr. O'Regan gave his questionnaire it was well seen that none of us were good at the points that Mr. O'Regan thought important. We talked about the words which have other meanings then we usually use them. He briefly explained that we should look more carefully to catch the points that are important.
One more topic about this week was podcast. I finished my Podcast last week but I'm not sure if it is good enough or not. So this week I'm going to work on that. Because this Friday is the deadline for it. I hope this hard essay and Podcast will conclude in a good way. See you next week...
Firstly we tried to remember what we have learned in the past for summarizing. Then "Handbook for Writers" book came to help us. Every group write the facts they found on the board and we tried to see if they are really facts or not. Second lesson was a bit more challenging. Because we were suppose to read the text called " Is the Internet Changing Social Life?It Seems the More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same."The text we are going to write the first essay on. While reading it seemed to e that I understood the most important points, but after Mr. O'Regan gave his questionnaire it was well seen that none of us were good at the points that Mr. O'Regan thought important. We talked about the words which have other meanings then we usually use them. He briefly explained that we should look more carefully to catch the points that are important.
One more topic about this week was podcast. I finished my Podcast last week but I'm not sure if it is good enough or not. So this week I'm going to work on that. Because this Friday is the deadline for it. I hope this hard essay and Podcast will conclude in a good way. See you next week...
14 Ekim 2007 Pazar
Fourth week
One more week passed. And finally we have finished a month. However it was not as good as I dreamed so. Mr O'Regan gave us 20 pages of reading for this week.It was about cyberspace and it was written by Aaron Ben Ze'ev. I read this article, take notes and spend lot of time more than I've ever expected. Then the fourth week started as I'm going to introduce. This week started quite different because for the first time Mr. O'Regan gave us a quiz. Actually two quizes at the same time. I know it sounds quite odd but we do the same quiz two times.
First of them was closed book attempt and the second one is open book attempt. He gave us 20 minutes and he wanted us to finish 10 questions two times. It was a different experience for me to have the sime quiz twice but still there are lot of things to learn freom this experience. First of all we learned to control the time. It is obvious to spend much more time on open book attempt is a wiser idea. Still the idea of getting marks on both scares you a bit. Whatever at last quizes have finished. I was hoping I will get good grades. Mr O'Regan explained all the questions answers. Everyone corrected one of the class mate's quiz. It was ironic but everyone get a F. At that time my class mate told me that I get an C-. Firstly I was shocked that the first score I get was C-. It was not what I expected, but still I was a bit confident that everyone else getting F means that I did fine. Then Mr. O'Regan explained that we are different. It is not normal even if everyone gets F. We should not feel confident about getting a F if everyone is getting one. And that lesson finished like that. He gave us a homework which I should spend time on, but it is student's mission.
Second lesson of this week was more interesting because Mr. O'regan checked the quizes again and I get a F this time. My score was 71 but now it is 48. I was really shocked and dissappointed. I was a really good student in the high school. Actually finished the last year in the first place, but the first score I get in the university was a F. Noone can imagine how dissappointed I was. Because I really studied for that text but I couldn't show it. I think I'm back to my high school days. My exam fobia is back. I struggled lot to beat this fobia but I'm feeling that it is coming back. Whatever it was a great shock for me but I think I can handle it. Then the lesson go on with group works. There were three groups and all of these groups were searching for the clues according to their topic in the text. (CMC vs Other communications, CMC vs Face to Face, Characteristics of CMC.) I think It was a good exercise except the part that not everyone joins efficiently. Still it was nice to work with a group.
P.S: CMC is computer mediated communication.
First of them was closed book attempt and the second one is open book attempt. He gave us 20 minutes and he wanted us to finish 10 questions two times. It was a different experience for me to have the sime quiz twice but still there are lot of things to learn freom this experience. First of all we learned to control the time. It is obvious to spend much more time on open book attempt is a wiser idea. Still the idea of getting marks on both scares you a bit. Whatever at last quizes have finished. I was hoping I will get good grades. Mr O'Regan explained all the questions answers. Everyone corrected one of the class mate's quiz. It was ironic but everyone get a F. At that time my class mate told me that I get an C-. Firstly I was shocked that the first score I get was C-. It was not what I expected, but still I was a bit confident that everyone else getting F means that I did fine. Then Mr. O'Regan explained that we are different. It is not normal even if everyone gets F. We should not feel confident about getting a F if everyone is getting one. And that lesson finished like that. He gave us a homework which I should spend time on, but it is student's mission.
Second lesson of this week was more interesting because Mr. O'regan checked the quizes again and I get a F this time. My score was 71 but now it is 48. I was really shocked and dissappointed. I was a really good student in the high school. Actually finished the last year in the first place, but the first score I get in the university was a F. Noone can imagine how dissappointed I was. Because I really studied for that text but I couldn't show it. I think I'm back to my high school days. My exam fobia is back. I struggled lot to beat this fobia but I'm feeling that it is coming back. Whatever it was a great shock for me but I think I can handle it. Then the lesson go on with group works. There were three groups and all of these groups were searching for the clues according to their topic in the text. (CMC vs Other communications, CMC vs Face to Face, Characteristics of CMC.) I think It was a good exercise except the part that not everyone joins efficiently. Still it was nice to work with a group.
P.S: CMC is computer mediated communication.
4 Ekim 2007 Perşembe
Third week
For me it is unbelievable but this the third week in Comm101 class and I still survive. However I realized that I have a trouble writing academic essays. For many years in my high school teachers accepted and appreciated the essays I wrote. This is the first time I'm failing while writing an essay. Let me explain to you more detailed. In the second lesson Mr. O'Regan wanted us to write a diagnostic essay about the text he gave us. It was about "Internet Addiction". Text was quite easy so honestly I didn't spend to much time dealing with it. So he gave us 2 questions to answer in 500 words. Till now everything is quite normal isn't it? I wrote this essay quite similar to what I wrote in my high school and in Toefl exam.
Then this week arrived and Mr. O'Regan gave our diagnostic essays back. But something was abnormal. There wasn't anything written in my essay rather than mine. No marks of red pens. So I couldn't wait and asked him. He told me that I'm going to see in two minutes. He started to explain his criteria of looking to academic essay. The things he explained were quite similar but when I looked at my essay I couldn't see the things that Mr O'Regan expected. If I couldn't see it how can he find it? He briefly explained the things we should do to write well academic essays. While he was doing these things he wanted us to gave a point to our essay out of 100. I gave firstly 75. After he explained his expectations he asked us to write a new mark. And I wrote 60. However then he explained that all of us failed this diagnostic essay. With that disappointment, Mr. O'Regan told that it was a diagnostic essay so we are not getting any marks, it was only for understanding where we failed, which was pretty successful for me.
Afterwards Mr. O'Regan give some clues about pre-reading, which I had no idea about. I learned a lot about pre-reading. Understanding who wrote the text, where he wrote it, why he wrote it can help a lot before reading it. Like the "Turkish art is rubbish" quotation, he told us not to be bias before reading the essay. Sometimes numbers of pages or the identity of write may explain lots of things and sometimes it is irrelevant to the topic.
Again it was a useful lesson. At least I have some ideas about writing a well academic essay and pre-reading. I do believe with these tactics, my future readings and Comm102 class will be easier.
Then this week arrived and Mr. O'Regan gave our diagnostic essays back. But something was abnormal. There wasn't anything written in my essay rather than mine. No marks of red pens. So I couldn't wait and asked him. He told me that I'm going to see in two minutes. He started to explain his criteria of looking to academic essay. The things he explained were quite similar but when I looked at my essay I couldn't see the things that Mr O'Regan expected. If I couldn't see it how can he find it? He briefly explained the things we should do to write well academic essays. While he was doing these things he wanted us to gave a point to our essay out of 100. I gave firstly 75. After he explained his expectations he asked us to write a new mark. And I wrote 60. However then he explained that all of us failed this diagnostic essay. With that disappointment, Mr. O'Regan told that it was a diagnostic essay so we are not getting any marks, it was only for understanding where we failed, which was pretty successful for me.
Afterwards Mr. O'Regan give some clues about pre-reading, which I had no idea about. I learned a lot about pre-reading. Understanding who wrote the text, where he wrote it, why he wrote it can help a lot before reading it. Like the "Turkish art is rubbish" quotation, he told us not to be bias before reading the essay. Sometimes numbers of pages or the identity of write may explain lots of things and sometimes it is irrelevant to the topic.
Again it was a useful lesson. At least I have some ideas about writing a well academic essay and pre-reading. I do believe with these tactics, my future readings and Comm102 class will be easier.
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