The Difference One Class Makes

It is amazing how much of a difference one class can make. When perfecting our well-written paragraph, you can see how each group developed a partnership. For example, it easier to talk to each individual; last time, we were just throwing out ideas out on the table. This time, it was more finalizing our ideas and making sure we had text evidence to support our claim. This class period dealt more with editing. Each member of our group was rereading our paragraph searching for grammatical mistakes or looking for places where we can elaborate more. For example, Matt asked if we should place a comma somewhere in the sentence and the group came to a vote, that it made sense to do so. On top of that, Anderson was asking if we should delete a certain part of first sentence because it was wordy and made more sense to make the opening sentence more concise. Lastly, Sandra stated that we should find more textual evidence for our last quote to describe what Chipman was discussing. That lead me, Theresa, and Amber to find more textual evidence to back up our claim. Another difference between the two class periods that I am sure made Dr. McCoy proud was that we were thinking so much more. What I mean by this is that we were having more of an intellectual discussion on what to put into our finished product. One point we made is that we have to assume that the reader knows nothing on the topic. This lead us to have a very strong paragraph.

I believe Kevin made the best point at the end of class. He said that being in a room with everyone working on the same thing is very motivational because you hear everyone talking. If I was a teacher, I would do the same thing because I think it is very powerful to see students pushing each other because when you hear other groups discussing about their paragraph. For example, today was when everyone registered for their next semester classes. For a little bit that was what everyone was talking about naturally, but once one the whole group started talking about their paragraph, it got the whole room focused on the project again.

This leads to me to my last point: Dr.McCoy’s goal is that she wants to become irrelevant by the end of the semester. If Dr.McCoy told me the first day of classes that this was her end goal. I would have thought she was crazy, because in this class we are supposed to learn how to become an overall better writer. That would make me think how are we supposed to do that by ourselves; however, as the semester comes to an end, I can see how that is a realistic goal for Dr.McCoy, because each student pushes each other to become a better writer. Also, in this class, I feel as if we become better writers over time. Since we are about 10 weeks in now, I can see how we improved to the point where we do not need Dr.McCoy in the room to learn or to even stay on task.

Overall, I consider myself lucky enough to be in a class full of bright students in this INTD section that push me to be a better student. This makes me realize that SUNY Geneseo is more than a college, it is a community of friends.

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