Bonus 13: Class Review - Rob D

Ms. Casady has a very effective strategy for teaching discourse analysis by allowing the students to participate in ways that are interesting. The assignments were engaging and may be transferred to other forms of discourse. Occasionally we struggle learning what’s required to learn because the interest in the subject is boring. Ms. Casady introduced discourse analysis by evaluating the fear in entertainment scripts and movies. I never really observed entertainment is such magnitude and the correlation with the mindset behind the creation. Before attending this class, I never thought of or take interest in creating a public journal such as blogging. In fact, I figured no one would take interest in my thoughts. Although the response was a requirement for the course, I appreciate having very intelligent students respond and critique something I have to say. In all, this was very enjoyable, and I wouldn’t change anything about it.

                The assignments were difficult or me in the beginning since I could never relate entertainment to discourse analysis. I always gave entertainment very little thought beyond the credits. So, when I received my first assignment to publicly blog about my thoughts about the discourse of, for instance, a movie, I suffered from anxiety. This was the result of never practicing doing so and confusion about putting my thoughts together. Additionally, I had no clue of how to put my thoughts within a word count constraint. This course taught me that word count is secondary to the thought process. I discovered that delivering a complete thought will fulfill the requirements of the assignments. Just because my word count requirement was met, my thought wasn`t fully met. Blogging with these constraints and the subjection to public feedback is motivation engage with the consideration others. Which in contrast, Is extremely more effective learning than just a student/instructor journal.

                Attending this class with such intelligent students inspired me to perform on a higher level. I was motivated to produce interesting blogs rather than just assignment completion in mind. Even when I felt that I couldn`t produce a blog that would not be sufficient for the students, Ms. Casady gave her opinion and undivided attention. She expressed a great amount of attention and feedback to all students. She even provided immediate feed during the discussion leader presentations. I was blown away form the presentations of the students gave and could hardly believe how detailed some had gotten. Being required to provide input during the discussions was motivation to present in a creative manner which this was similar to the blogs. The significance real time engagements and live feedback. The students were tremendously involved.  

                In all this class was informative and created a new vessel for discourse analysis. These new skills will be very useful in real-world situations, especially in the professional environment. Furthermore, these skills made entertainment more interesting. The blogging assignments is an incredible way for practicing discourse analysis because it put me in the public domain which was motivation to put forth a greater effort. Ms. Casady provided an abundance of attention in order to deliver the material in the way it was meant to be delivered. Now, I feel like I must evaluate everything! Thanks a lot Ms. Casady!