Learning Letter

ENGl 111 English Composition
Dr. Julie Barak Fall 1998

There are two sets of prompts listed below. The first is for a mid-term assessment of your own work for the class and for some evaluation of the course itself. Basically I'm asking four questions in this first letter. 1) What could you do better? 2) What are you doing quite well? 3) What could I do better? 4) What am I doing quite well? Answer these questions in any form you like. You can go down the list and respond, or you can write me a letter incorporating your responses into other kinds of comments. The second prompt is to help you evaluate your work for the whole semester. You can answer each question here by going down the list, or compose a more unified text in which you address each question in your own order.

Midterm Letter Final Letter



	Midterm Learning letter 1a. Which moments come to mind when you think back over the course? Good moments? Bad moments? Perplexing moments? Quickly sketch in a small handful of such moments. Two or three sentences can easily sketch a moment; often one sentence will do (indeed you can sometimes point with just a phrase to a moment that your reader will obviously remember -- e.g., ``That day you scolded us for posting late"). 1b. What do these moments tell about you as a student, about the teacher, about the course? 2. What are you most proud of about your own effort or accomplishment in the course? What are you not satisfied with, or what do you want to work on improving? 3. What are the most important strengths or skills you brought to this course? 4. What has been the greatest challenge for you? 5. Tell about the effects of the course on your writing. Talk about: changes or lack of change in the quality of what you write changes or lack of change in how you write changes or lack of change in your attitudes and feelings about writing. 6. What have you learned about other than writing -- perhaps about yourself or about people or about learning? 7. What has been the most important thing you've learned? If you wish, you can just circle something you've already written. 8. What do you need to learn next? 9. What was the most and least helpful about: the exercises the responses from peers the responses from the professor the readings how the course is structured 10. What aspects of you has the course brought out? What aspects has it left untapped or unnoticed? 11. If you could start over again, what would you do differently? What have you learned about how to learn better? 12. Do you have any suggestions for how the course could be made more helpful? Top of Page

Final Learning Letter

This letter is a reflection on the learning you've done over the course of the semester. Here are some prompts to help you write this letter. Feel free to add other comments as you think necessary in order to explain and discuss your learning over the course of the semester.

1. What are you most proud of about your own effort or accomplishment in the course? What are you not satisfied with?

2. Describe your writing process at the beginning of the course. Describe your writing process now. How are the changes in your process significant? Tell about the effects of the course on your writing. Talk about:

changes or lack of change in the quality of what you write

changes or lack of change in how you write

changes or lack of change in your attitudes and feelings about writing.

3. To be a good writer, you need to be a good thinker. How have you grown as a thinker over the course of the semester? What have you learned about making connections between your personal life and the world around you? About developing an idea? About responding to criticism? About reading your own work actively and critically? What is the most important thing you learned about writing?

4. What suggestions do you have for improving the course in the areas of content or style of delivery?

5. What have you learned in this course, about writing, about reading, about research, about yourself, that you feel will ``transfer" to other aspects of your life as a student? How useful has this course been to you in terms of your writing life? In terms of your college career?

6. How would you assess the work and the effort you"ve put into the course? What grade would you give yourself for the course? Why?

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