This semester was like a mise en place. Mise en place is a French phrase that refers to the setup of ingredients before cooking. Each topic covered was like preparing a different part of the prep. For example, to make chicken noodle soup, you would measure out your spices, seasonings, proteins, vegetables, and whatever else you need before you start the actual cooking process. However, to measure to each component, different tools are needed such as scales, spoons, knifes, cutting boards, and more. Therefore, each assignment was like prepping for a different part of the dish. Since many of the projects were different medias, it is just like using different tools to finish of prep of each section. The actual cooking process is like publishing each of these works to my website. Moreover, the style of mise en place is cleaning as you go, which is like the revising process. Once you are finished cooking you have your final product, which is the final portfolio.
For my Assembly sketch, I decided to use the metaphor of growing a flower in order to represent my growth in this class. The five seeds are representative of the five learning outcomes that were established at the beginning of the course. The dirt represents the foundation that I already had before starting this course. The water symbolized the various books and texts that we read over the course of the semester. Plants need to be watered daily in order to grow, so it was important that we were constantly reading in the class. Sunlight has a similar importance to water, and the weekly sketch assignments helped us build up towards writing a comic and improved our writing skills. When we wrote our first and second literary narratives, we were still sprouting out of the dirt – not fully developed as writers yet in the course. By the end of this semester, we bloomed into flowers, representative of our third literacy narrative.
Just like how doing laundry is a multi-stage process, writing is also a process. The dirty clothes represent my initial thoughts and ideas. Those ideas serve as the foundation for constructing my writing, but they are raw and messy. That’s why I’ve begun incorporating a visual outline to help visualize what my first draft will look like. Just like how detergent helps wash clothes, visual information helps me assemble and arrange my ideas into a draft. For example, turning my literacy narrative into a comic allowed me to visualize how I wanted to restructure my narrative in a more effective way. The washing machine represents combining all my ideas of what I’m going to write with a visual outline to facilitate properly organizing my writing. Just like how a washing machine spins and mixes all the clothes together, I envision the first draft to be a mixing and processing of my ideas. Doing laundry isn’t just about washing the clothes, however. It also involves drying the clothes. Once the rough draft has been completed, the next component of the process is editing and revising. A lot can go into this. After rereading and reflecting on what I had previously written, I’ve learned to listen to other people’s thoughts. When constructing a final draft, I try to combine the suggestions given from both peers and professors into my writing, just like how a dryer turns and mixes the clothes. In that way, similar to how the process of drying my laundry ends with nice, clean clothes, the process of editing, revising and reflecting helps produce a polished final draft.
Just like how doing laundry is a multi-stage process, writing is also a process. The dirty clothes represent my initial thoughts and ideas. Those ideas serve as the foundation for constructing my writing, but they are raw and messy. That’s why I’ve begun incorporating a visual outline to help visualize what my first draft will look like. Just like how detergent helps wash clothes, visual information helps me assemble and arrange my ideas into a draft. For example, turning my literacy narrative into a comic allowed me to visualize how I wanted to restructure my narrative in a more effective way. The washing machine represents combining all my ideas of what I’m going to write with a visual outline to facilitate properly organizing my writing. Just like how a washing machine spins and mixes all the clothes together, I envision the first draft to be a mixing and processing of my ideas. Doing laundry isn’t just about washing the clothes, however. It also involves drying the clothes. Once the rough draft has been completed, the next component of the process is editing and revising. A lot can go into this. After rereading and reflecting on what I had previously written, I’ve learned to listen to other people’s thoughts. When constructing a final draft, I try to combine the suggestions given from both peers and professors into my writing, just like how a dryer turns and mixes the clothes. In that way, similar to how the process of drying my laundry ends with nice, clean clothes, the process of editing, revising and reflecting helps produce a polished final draft.
Since Christmas is coming, I get inspiration from the shape of the Christmas Tree. The tree of my academic journey this semester stands tall, with each light and present representing the myriad skills and projects that I have developed and completed. At the pinnacle, the star—the reflection letter—symbolizes the culmination of my learning, shedding light on the path I’ve traversed.
Just below the star, the “Pecha Kucha” bauble sparkles with the essence of concise oral storytelling. It taught me the art of brevity and the skill of focusing on the most salient points of my narrative. The “Final Portfolio” that branches out alongside is the robust assembly of my works, showcasing my progress and the breadth of my capabilities. Encircling the tree, the “10 Sunday Sketches” are like the lights, brightening my understanding of various topics with quick bursts of creativity. Each sketch was an opportunity to explore ideas rapidly and without the pressure of perfection, allowing for a free flow of thoughts. Lower on the tree, the “Literacy Narrative” series presents a trio of gifts, each unwrapped through the semester. The first narrative was the foundation, a platform where I explored my relationship with reading and writing. The second, in the form of a comic, added a visual dimension to my storytelling, challenging me to convey meaning clearly beyond words. The third narrative was the synthesis of my learning, where I could apply the feedback from the previous two and refine my storytelling craft. Another gift under the tree, comprised of “Tracing, Stitches & Spinning,” represents the fundamental skills—research, drafting, and revising—that are the roots of all academic writing. This assignment taught me to explore more details in the comic: the frame, the image, the facial expression and so on.
In crafting this Christmas tree diagram, I’ve learned that my growth as a writer and reader is not just a linear progression but a seasonal cycle of learning and reflection. Each component, each project, and each skill is an integral part of the whole, contributing to the stability and beauty of the entire structure. As I step back and view this tree in all its decorated glory, I see not just a series of assignments completed but a structure of learning—a testament to the knowledge I’ve gathered and the intellectual ornaments I’ve accrued along the way.
Photo Credits: Nana511. (2023, December 4). Gladiator. Via Flickr.
I chose to use an image from Gladiator because of how iconic of a hero Maximus is, known for his strength and honor. As a sort of Biblical reference, I hope that many of the things I have learned this semester will be added to my “armor” as I continue through the battles of college and life.
The Sword of “Hyperempathy” and The Shoes of Resilience are both tributes to the heroes that we read about this semester. Though I have no superpower like Lauren, I feel that I have gained a deeper understanding of how suffering can look this semester through so many characters in the comics. I have learned about how the stages of grief can look very different for every person like Teddy and Sandra and how important it is to be there for the people who are suffering in silence. Often, the best thing we can do is be a shoulder to lean on as we try to empathize with those suffering around us. In terms of resilience, it’s hard to think of a better personification of this word than David Small who had a beyond traumatic childhood, survived cancer, then moved out on his own while still a young teenager. Stories like his show that victory over trauma can look as simple as surviving and thriving on your own while still in the process of healing.
The Breastplate of Validity is one that I feel that I have developed through learning to interpret comics this semester. I have always had a bit of a rampant mind that gets off track, but I have learned this semester that the place where any certain story takes me is valid and important. One of the special parts of comics is their ability to be interpreted differently by different readers who know trauma in many ways. So, it is important to be a good self-listener while reading comics and stay open to what truly comes to mind.
Lastly, The Shield of Emotional Maturity represents a large focus of mine since we began Sabrina. As a young man, I have never one who’s liked to share emotions, particularly when they could be seen as embarrassing or not masculine. I saw parts of myself in Teddy’s emotional isolation and was able to better understand how it can be destructive to not let others in. Going forward, I will be better tooled to express my emotions healthily and let others support me when appropriate.
The banana stands for taking a closer look at the text and images, similar to how you have to peel a banana before you eat it. It demonstrates examining what details the author adds in each panel, and what this does for character and story development. The assignment that taught me most of this material was the Tracing Pages assignment which we analyzed specific pages of Spinning and Stitches.
The strawberry stands for attempting to write an essay with putting my thesis statement as the end of the essay, because I was taught to build my essay off my thesis statement, by putting it in my into my introductory paragraph in high school, similar to how a strawberry is the only fruit with seeds on the outside. This was a very important topic because it helps me take a more holistic approach to my writing and stay in the box of my thesis.
The pineapple stands for the visual note taking that we learned, because I believe that the pineapple is the most interesting looking fruit.I actually use the visual note taking technique in a few of my classes, because it help me understand topics that I am struggling with and topics that play a fundamental role in the class.
The blueberry stands for the literacy narrative that we did, analyzing our story for how we read and write. I chose the blueberry represents this because it has been my favorite fruit since my childhood. I thought this was an interesting assignment because it taught me why I read and write the way I do, and what role reading and writing has played on my life so far.
Apples represent how much I overlooked comics in general and the stories and messages they represent. Similar to how I thought apples where very overrated when I was in elementary school, but now I really like them. I always thought that comic where a elementary for of communication or one that was used for superhero stories, but these genre can provide really power messages, create very engaging stories, and provide a lot of deeper meanings.
Lastly, an orange represents the Halfa Kucha project what we did. The orange was one f the last fruits I learned to eat because when it wasn’t until late in high school when I finally learned to peel an orange by myself. The Halfa Kucha was a completely new experience because I never made a presentation in which each slide only lasted 20 seconds. In addition, it was good learning experience to present to the class audience, and it was interesting to see how my peers decided to go about their presentations.
For this final Sunday Sketch assignment, I really wanted to come up with a diagram that would showcase all I have accomplished in ENGRD 101 this semester. I decided to make my image that of a stuffed teddy bear, expanding a little bit on my Triptych from Sketch 5.
The process I use to create and complete a piece of work has drastically changed since the beginning of the semester. Similar to the “skeleton” of the bear (the flat, floppy husk of a bear you get at Build-A-Bear), my work at first was a LOT of words with no real substance to them. Throughout the semester, I added stuffing to my bear, providing context about the comics I analyzed and summaries relevant to my literacy narrative. This made my work fuller (like the stuffing inside the bear), and gave it a clearer structure.
Moving on to the more specific parts of the bear–these elements exemplify the specific elements of my learning and writing techniques that have allowed me to flourish as a writer this semester. As seen in the above annotations, the eyes and ears of the bear represent the seeing and hearing aspects of learning. Listening to advice from Professor Morgen was very helpful when writing my reflections and projects, especially the analysis of Stitches and Spinning. The eyes are also important to note specific places that need revisions. For example, while looking over my literacy narrative, Professor Morgen pointed out a few specific places that could be improved. I listened to his advice (going back to the ears), and ultimately ended up with a much stronger piece of work that I was excited to share with others.
Another one of the elements that was key in creating my final work(s) was my attention to detail, represented by the paws and fur of the bear. This was especially the case for my Literacy Narrative Comic. I wanted it to be understandable to the reader, so I made sure to make my drawings as detailed as possible (note that I am not an artistically inclined person!). However, the paws do not take up much space on the bear; it is just at the feet. This relates to my experience that too many details can be a bad thing, just as was the case with my first draft of my literacy narrative. Professor Morgen noted how I was talking about too many ideas and it was better to focus on a single one, which ultimately ended up working out in my favor (back to the ears once again!).
Lastly, I want to draw attention to the facial expression of the bear. The bear’s eyes are wide open and it is smiling; both of these characteristics are representative of my learning style as a student. I always do my best to come to class excited and ready to learn, along with any clarifying questions I may have. Asking questions has been one of, if not the most, useful tools as a student. Knowing what my mentors and peers expect of me challenges and pushes me to make the best final product I can make; going back to my diagram, this ‘final product’ is the bear as a whole.
This assignment definitely forced me to think critically about myself as a student and be able to represent it and explain it through a medium other than words (relating to the “Visual Thinking” Learning Outcome). It makes me incredibly happy and proud to see how far I’ve grown as a writer since the beginning of the semester, and I can’t wait to see further growth in the near future!
