When I talked to my mom about college classes the number one thing that I would bring up is that I really like English classes. When she would ask me why I would say something like, “well, in most classes I would usually only know the people that sit next to me, but in my English classes I know every person’s name. I really like the group comradery in it. It feels a lot like I’m back in high school”. This has become probably one of the main reasons that I continue to take English classes and why I made it my second major, almost like it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to some of my other classes where we all stare at a PowerPoint and try to jot down the notes as fast as possible before the professors changes the slides.
I think that my idea of English class has been justified during this course while working on our collective course statement these past few classes. During class we have been working in different little groups and coming together to decide what we want to write on a matter. From that we took four different group statements and re-arranged them into one. I believe that for this to have worked well there needs to be a sense of trust. You need trust that the scribe is going to put your words, thoughts, and ideas into the small group collective. Then you need to trust every other group that re-arranges the small groups that they are going to at least use your ideas into the final group statement for that question and section.
While this could be a very strenuous task for a group of college students because it is something that you personally will be getting a grade on and you want to be in control of your own grade as you possibly can, I believe that the way this class was set up has allowed for the best outcome possible. By sitting in a big circle in class, clustering up into groups, and counting off my numbers, I have been able to meet the majority of the class. I know some of their majors, I know how they think, I understand some of their backgrounds. All of these little details have gone into this sense of comfort and security that needs to be in place in order for successful group collaboration to take place and I feel like we all as a class have accomplished this. While I am unsure of my grade on this assignment, I believe that my class and I have been able to do the best work that we can and produce something that we are all proud of and proud to say that this is a true group collaborative effort.