Reflection Paper

Hello, my name is Dane Lundberg and I came into this class hardly knowing anything to expect. I knew that there was going to be a lot of reading and writing, but I had no idea that there would be so much group interaction. This kind of setting has allowed me to open up more and has greatly improved my communication skills. “I have learned so much this quarter through all of the readings, blog postings, group work etc... I have a much deeper appreciation for my identity, community and traditions that I definitely took for granted before this class.” I see myself setting my standards and goals much higher now that I have the confidence and skills needed to go about them. I have realized through working with so many different kinds of people/personalities this quarter that we are all connected by a constant search of belonging and what it means to be ourselves. This class has secured my belief that people don’t need to agree on something to get a positive result from the conversation. Instead of creating hatred and distrust towards someone, we can build healthy and constructive relationships that will better everyone.

I chose four pieces that represent my skills and abilities as a writer and thinker as well as my improvement from the beginning of the quarter. For my “critical thinking skills” piece, I chose assignment “Movie Talk #1” and my analysis paper for the movie “Akeelah and the Bee”. I feel that this piece shows my understanding of the assignment and the essence of the film with the use of specific examples. “The scene continues in the house with Akeelah talking to a picture of her deceased father about what she had just accomplished. The sound of yelling in the background emphasizes the commotion that was happening during what was supposed to be a joyous moment for Akeelah.” this work demonstrates how I used specific examples to create a good analysis of this film. This assignment made me realize how important it is to have a solid understanding of what you will be analyzing, as it helps tremendously with capturing a good analysis. Watching the film multiple times and taking many notes are indeed necessary for a high-quality job.

For my “revision” piece, I chose one of our first writings, DB #2 “What‘s in a name“, to rewrite. It is not a particularly long piece so I will have to add more information and insight as well as writing it more smoothly. This piece is a good representation of my “earlier” work which I know I can do some improvement on. I noticed that I hardly added any of the reading, and did not even include one quote from it, “Firoozeh Dumas’s story really shines a bright light on this. I thought that the excerpt we read was great. It shows that in our society first impressions are everything and if a person has trouble with something as simple as your name he or she is much less likely be interested in you. I can really relate to her story as she adds humor to a very serious element of all of our everyday lives.” I will definitely add more quotes from the reading, Firoozah Dumas’s article, as I know it will add a lot more substance to the piece.

For our assignment, “What is a community”, I chose to write about MySpace. My paper clearly shows that I am completely aware of my “audience” as I know that most of the people who would be reading it would be familiar with the Internet and MySpace. I thought I clearly showed how MySpace is a community through my own experiences and a good brief description of how it works. I explain why people use this and what makes it so increasingly popular in our society, “Direct or broad messages can be posted for people with similar interests to enjoy at their leisure. Meeting new people or reconnecting with old friends is all apart of this dynamic community.”

I chose our “Movie Talk # 2 assignment” of my analysis of the movie Lone Star to represent my work this quarter (“Kicking up Dust“). I am really proud of this because of the way I set it up and than describe in great detail a pivotal scene in the movie. I feel that the description of the scene and the other examples I use from the film do a good job in analyzing the film, “With Sam immediately walking away in disgust shows that Sam is not about to go along with this thinking as he knew something “fishy” was going on. This strongly foreshadows conflicts between Sam and the traditional leaders that would be unavoidable in the upcoming scenes.” I think that I bring it all together nicely by using these examples and relating them to Sam (Deeds) and his breaking away from the local traditions