Reflection on English 111

Jameisha Harris

111-63 Fall 09

Refection Essay

December 8, 2009

My heart beat erratically inside of my chest as my feet dragged across the floor. I was about 2 feet away from room 117 and dread seemed to grasp each and every step I took. I walked into the classroom and found a seat in the first row. I took in my surroundings. I stared at the chalkboard that sucked up a great portion of the wall infront of me. I then watched as faces of people I had never seen in life walked into the classroom and found seats themselves. I felt a wave of amazment wash over me as I realized that the classroom was not composed of just teen-agers, but adults. It kind of befuddled me. My mother had told me it would probably be that way, and since it was a night class I would probably see more adults then my contemporaries. Actually, it was a good balance of both. Still, I did not feel any more comfortable about it.

Then, in comes the teacher. This guy was not anything I expected him to be, thank God. Since it was not only my first day of English 111, but also my first day of college, I had this weird mind set that all college professors were obesse, balding, white males. Well, I was obviously wrong. Since middle school, all my English teachers were female. When I looked at Mr. Gasparo, I learned that only two of my assumptions were correct; he was a white male. He did not really seem like a teacher to me. He could have easily been mistaken as a student taking the course. I actually did mistake him for a student, that is, until I noticed him placing handouts on the table.

When he began to speak, I realized that his tone was not at all menacing. As the class began to converse along with him, I learned that he was fairly young-not middle-aged, as I had previously conceived. He spoke just like the rest of us. At times, he went on random tangents-and even commented on them himself, but I found it calming. He was blunt yet comical; serious yet sarcastic. That was when I started to feel a little more comfortable. Soon, we headed to the computer lab and he taught us how to use BlackBoard. By the end of the night, I was convinced that college was great and I could hardly wait until my next class meeting.

I had not expected it, but I kept this mentality the entire 16 weeks of class. Each week we built on things that we had learned the previous week and foreshadowed what we would be doing the following week. For instance, one week Mr. Gasparo wrote ‘pathos, logos, and ethos’ on the board. I was a little familiar with those three words because in my previous year of school, when I was in the 12th grade, I had to read “A Modest Proposal” and I had to identify those three things within the literary work. We did not have enough time to thoroughly discuss ‘pathos, logos, and ethos’ that day in class but the next week, we did. I was appreciative for the refresher.

‘Pathos, logos, and ethos’ seemed to be the theme of the class, I noticed. Shortly after we had learned about them, we had to write an essay about why we are the people we are today. In said essay, we had to give two examples of the three rhetorical tools (‘pathos, logos, ethos’). In the final essay, the argumentative one, there were requirements to use the rhetorical tools and also in the presentation of our argument essay in front of the class.

I had believed that in the presentation of the argument, I was just going to read it to my classmates. Instead, I, along with the remainder of the class, was told that no one would be reading their papers. What we would end up doing is presenting our argument to our class in the form of a PowerPoint. We were given the choice of either trying to persuade our classmates to agree with our standpoint on our argument of choice or to present our research process. I chose the latter. I found it easier that way.

In the past 16 weeks, I have learned many things. I have learned not to judge a teacher by my assumptions. I have learned that high school was not a complete waste of my time, but actually beneficial at times. By using rhetorical tools, I have learned new ways to argue with people, and I learned that college is not a complete bore. It is my hope that all who read this will understand why taking Paul Gasparo’s English 111 course is a good idea. I guarantee that all who take this course will learn something and have fun doing so.