COMMUNICATION
We have learned to write better, draw better, speak better, and make better graphs. We have also learned to make web pages and PowerPoint presentations and videos. We learned also to read and listen better. Finally we learned to work with a group to really get something done.
Speak better:
Fall Term: community debates, group research / brainstorming
In the community debates we were assigned specific views on a certain topic to defend in an organized debate. Even if we didn't believe in that standpoint, we researched evidence to corroborate that end and present our case with cited quotations from the literature in question.
Winter & Spring Term: Leading Discussions
Throughout the course of the term, different teams of students took command of the class discussion, touching on specific ideas they had found in the course reading and felt relevant to the study of community structures.
Graph better: un graphs, schedule graphs, Boise Census
Write better: comparison essays, revision process
Essays: Reflective and Comparative essays
What is Community? Final Paper
I was able to break away from the monotony of formal writing to explore new paths of communication. The reflective essays allowed me to jot down what I thought, in the way I thought it. Through this I could track my own progress, and ask questions of myself to guide further study. Yet in contrast, the plethora of topics guided my thinking in directions I may not have taken on my own. So in a way it was structured and not structured at the same time. I felt I could really improve my writing and presentation skills through these assignments because I was able to show my own thoughts and feelings.
Our online journals were more a way to think better than to wirte better, even though both skills were honed through this outlet. Each week the class was assigned a question relating in some way to the current class topic. This was the focus of our journal, and allowed us to organize our thoughts on a regular enough basis to prepare for larger projects and papers. The journals were also an asset for information sharing. Since not everyone has the time or chance to express all of their opinions during class time, these interactive journals were an outlet for ideas, and a platform for response to those thoughts and feelings.
Listen better: Guest lectures from
Ann-Marie Fallon, Literary Criticist
Mary Ann Balsham, Anthropologist
Dr. Charles White, Political Scientist
Mr. Hussein, Teacher and Native Egyptian
Karen Carr, Anthropologist, Archeologist