Project Statement

Project Statement

ePortfolio Content Reflection:

It's finally the end of the semester. I can't believe that we have made it all the way through this semester together, and overall, this class was going fantastic more than I thought. Every time I started a new semester, I always had very different feelings, and this semester gave me stronger feelings than ever since I was entering my first year in college. Besides the excitement and expectations, I was also worried and scared about the difficulties and high workload that a freshman like me has to face in the future. Also, since English was not my first language, I was especially so nervous coming into our English 115 community. I was scared that my English skills would not be good enough to handle all the tasks in this course. I am also a very shy person and have no confidence when communicating with people in English, so I was afraid that I could not learn and integrate with everyone in this class.

Although I was scared and not confident about my English when I came to this class, I am still happy to become a member of this class as it has taught me many things that I cannot learn in other places. As an ELD student throughout my years in high school, I had not had a chance to read the whole book and discuss the lesson that I learned in class with other students. I also haven't had a chance to prepare the skills I need for my college life since I spent my whole senior year studying online due to the COVID. It was a huge omission in my high school life. For that reason, coming to this course and reading the book and discussing with other peers, I really enjoyed and was happy that finally I could learn something new and develop myself better. When I read books and discussed with other peers, I discovered myself and sometimes even saw my thoughts and feelings in each character, each story. For example, when I read Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine, I strongly connected with the author and the stories in the book. One of my favorite lines in the book is "The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow" (Rankine, Section V). Because it was so hard for me to come out of the darkness of racism, this quote from Rankine helped me to think more freely and realize that I can't live forever in the past but must live for the future. This book explicitly changed my perception of the community around me. I believe each book has a significant meaning and value, and reading and discussing will enrich us with more knowledge and know more new things.

Besides, this course not only assisted me in improving my reading and discussing skills, but it also helped improve my writing and formatting skills. Throughout the process of writing my papers, I experienced many obstacles in writing, but I also have learned a lot of lessons that will help me in the future. During the process of writing my papers, I had a hard time getting started and felt overwhelmed by the assignment. For example, in the Progression 1 paper, since I am not a big fan of reading, I had difficulty reading and understanding what the author wanted to convey in the book. Claudia Rankine's use of the second-person "you" and the unclear structure of her book made me confused and want to give up many times. In addition, in the Progression 2 paper, I experienced many roadblocks taking notes, developing my ideas fluently, and reclaiming the right words to express my points. Throughout writing each essay, I started realizing my weaknesses in writing, but I also learned to improve in the future. I believe my writing technique has evolved over the semester, and all the Jamboard, peers revision, and the discussion that we did in the class all have supported my growth. After all, I learned that reading and writing were not as boring and wasting time as I always thought, and I also gained a lot of new knowledge. Undoubtedly, if I didn't make any mistakes or had any roadblocks in reading and writing, I would haven't learned and become a better writer and reader like myself today.

ePortfolio Design Reflection:

Without a doubt, I know it's not only my hard-working personality and the difficulties that I faced that helped make me the person I am today, but this class has also done so much for me. And this can show via my ePortfolio as I was creating throughout this semester to show my growth. The elements in my e-portfolio support my emerging understanding of my identity as a writer, student, and member of various communities.

Honestly, when Professor Koning said that we were going to create the ePortfolio and we would have a final base on it, I was very excited, and I was also pretty nervous at the same time. I was scared that I would not be able to create my ePortfolio since it's new to me, and I honestly have such poor knowledge about technology. As I began creating the ePortfolio, I felt lost and doubted most because Wix was confusing and difficult to use. My ePortfolio was such a mess at that time. However, after a few days of exploring design features on Wix, I found out that using Wix to create my ePortfolio was very interesting, and I knew how to organize the content needed for my ePortfolio. My website consists of tasks that I have selected and collected to show my progress and change over time. I started to create my ePortfolio with the Welcome Page with a little bit of the information about myself and followed by My Goals and Outcomes, Outsides The Classroom, Major Works, Personal Reading and Writing History, Blog, Exercises, and ePortfolio Project Statement. The way I arrange the various required elements of the website represents my true self and values. I chose to organize the different pages of my ePortfolio this way so I could introduce myself to everyone who comes to my website and show them all my works from the beginning of the class until the end. This arrangement provides an overview of my learning to reflect on what I have learned and helps me set a direction for my education in the future through specific goals.

Moreover, I have to say that even though creating my ePortfolio was very tough at the beginning, it also had some advantages as it helped me to learn a lot throughout the process. Creating an ePortfolio is in some way different from writing a paper. We not only can write in ePortfolio, but ePortfolio is also a space where we can upload images to show what we want to express that we can't write. I believe every element in my ePortfolio is super capable and significant. But the strongest and also my favorite is "The Outsides The Classroom" because on that page, I don't have to write a lot, but I can put the pictures that I took instead. I am an introvert and am not very good at communicating. So that page gave me a chance to express myself through the photos of my normal life. It's where I can freely express myself and show everyone who I am.

Unquestionably, ePortfolio is a tool that helps me communicate my thoughts to others using different images and elements. Up until now, I still cannot relate to the similarities between this e-portfolio to writing a traditional essay, but I think the difference is that in my ePortfolio, I can freely say whatever I want instead of pushing myself to write words that are too picturesque and not my style. My ePortfolio is like my personal diary. Throughout my ePortfolio, I had a chance to review all of my significant texts like "Claudia Rankine's Citizen," "What Can, and Should, Art Do?" and "Where We're From/Becoming Me Text," etc. Via the information and texts that I posted on my ePortfolio throughout my learning process, I can monitor and evaluate my learning progress. It showed me my strengths and weaknesses, so I can change and become better in the future.

Overall, creating an ePortfolio was interesting, and it gave me more benefits in education than I thought. I really enjoyed forming this ePortfolio as it gave me a space for creativity and allowed me to express myself as I wished. Coming to this course, I have learned too many things; and I appreciate everybody in this course, especially Professor Koning and Professor Jacob for making me who I am today! This would be my greatest experience forever!

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