Model Senate Project
In this project, we started out with our teacher assigning each of the students to be certain senators, lobbyists, president, etc. according to the role they asked to be. I was senator John McCain in this project. We were then put into different commitees: immigration, climate change, and college debt. I was in the immigration commitee. After reseaching our senator, we were paired up with another senator of the same party that had similar view points, and drafted a bill. Once our bill was ready, we passed it along and let another group of students vote on what bill was their favorite from each commitee. Once the bill was chosen, we were split into our commitees, and had a small model senate exhibition (just with our commitee) to practice for the real exhibition and to amend the bill chosen for our commitee. After 2 days of working on this bill, we presented to our audience at the Fort Lewis College. Then, each of us gave speeches to try and influence the rest of the class on voting for or against a certain bill. After the votes were in, and if it passed, the president of our model senate gave a speech, and ended up vetoing the bill that passed the senate (immigration).
skylar_interview.m4a | |
File Size: | 3210 kb |
File Type: | m4a |
My Goals For Humanities 12.....
Goal 1: Specific Evidence
One of my goals this year in Humanities is to cite more specific evidence to back up claims I make in my writing assignments. An example of an area where I could’ve quoted specific evidence is in my seminar reflection about cynical people. When I said in the document, “For example, when people laugh at an idea of yours, or tell you that something can’t be possible, or don’t believe that one person can make a difference, it can often demotivate people, like myself, and bring people down emotionally”, I didn’t follow it up with any evidence. This can often be a struggle for me. Notice how I said ‘those’ kind of traits can demotivate people….however, I didn’t use any evidence to back the claim up that I made. In this year of Humanities, I want to improve this skill by thoroughly understanding and annotating every article I read. This way, I can reference the text in a much easier and more efficient manner, leading to a way that I can pull evidence out from the reading quicker, and backup my claims in a reflection or other paper.
Goal 2: Content
Another one of my goals in Humanities is to follow up with a point I have started and to be certain all the content is being written down from my mind onto the paper. Often times in my writing, I don’t fully express what is going through my mind, and have a hard time managing it when writing essays. Sometimes, I start off with a good idea in one paragraph, and start to drift off and go onto another idea in the following paragraph. In other words, I need to do a better job of sticking to one idea and completely finishing the idea in my head before moving on to the next. For example, in my document, "Cynical People Seminar Reflection", I said "he said that a lot of people think America is now “doomed” due to our Democratic and Republican candidates, and most people don’t know much about them because we rely too much on media telling us who is “good” or “bad”, and right now no options seem to be “good” according to the media that surrounds our 1st world country." When I raised this question in the introduction of the reflection, I never came back and followed up on this point in the body of my reflection. My hope over this year in Humanities is to improve upon this skill, and to always follow up; at least conclude my essay with readdressing my point made in the introductory.
Goal 3: Clear and Concise
My final goal for Humanities this year is to be clear and concise with my writing. Often times while writing, I find myself repeating points I've already made, therefore talking in circles a lot of the time. For example, in my seminar reflection about cynical people, I said "If the people around you don’t believe in what you’re going to do or want to do, it can be very challenging to maintain the inspiration for one’s idea, and moreover, not believing in yourself. The key to succeeding in your visions, and ideas you see that can change the world is to put yourself in the right setting, and to continue to believe in yourself." I think in these sentences I could have been more concise by not repeating that you need to believe in yourself to be successful. I have repeated myself numerous amounts of times in my essays, and want to be able to get to the point I am trying to make more concisely. A lot of this comes from refinement, which I believe is the root for becoming a clear and concise writer.
One of my goals this year in Humanities is to cite more specific evidence to back up claims I make in my writing assignments. An example of an area where I could’ve quoted specific evidence is in my seminar reflection about cynical people. When I said in the document, “For example, when people laugh at an idea of yours, or tell you that something can’t be possible, or don’t believe that one person can make a difference, it can often demotivate people, like myself, and bring people down emotionally”, I didn’t follow it up with any evidence. This can often be a struggle for me. Notice how I said ‘those’ kind of traits can demotivate people….however, I didn’t use any evidence to back the claim up that I made. In this year of Humanities, I want to improve this skill by thoroughly understanding and annotating every article I read. This way, I can reference the text in a much easier and more efficient manner, leading to a way that I can pull evidence out from the reading quicker, and backup my claims in a reflection or other paper.
Goal 2: Content
Another one of my goals in Humanities is to follow up with a point I have started and to be certain all the content is being written down from my mind onto the paper. Often times in my writing, I don’t fully express what is going through my mind, and have a hard time managing it when writing essays. Sometimes, I start off with a good idea in one paragraph, and start to drift off and go onto another idea in the following paragraph. In other words, I need to do a better job of sticking to one idea and completely finishing the idea in my head before moving on to the next. For example, in my document, "Cynical People Seminar Reflection", I said "he said that a lot of people think America is now “doomed” due to our Democratic and Republican candidates, and most people don’t know much about them because we rely too much on media telling us who is “good” or “bad”, and right now no options seem to be “good” according to the media that surrounds our 1st world country." When I raised this question in the introduction of the reflection, I never came back and followed up on this point in the body of my reflection. My hope over this year in Humanities is to improve upon this skill, and to always follow up; at least conclude my essay with readdressing my point made in the introductory.
Goal 3: Clear and Concise
My final goal for Humanities this year is to be clear and concise with my writing. Often times while writing, I find myself repeating points I've already made, therefore talking in circles a lot of the time. For example, in my seminar reflection about cynical people, I said "If the people around you don’t believe in what you’re going to do or want to do, it can be very challenging to maintain the inspiration for one’s idea, and moreover, not believing in yourself. The key to succeeding in your visions, and ideas you see that can change the world is to put yourself in the right setting, and to continue to believe in yourself." I think in these sentences I could have been more concise by not repeating that you need to believe in yourself to be successful. I have repeated myself numerous amounts of times in my essays, and want to be able to get to the point I am trying to make more concisely. A lot of this comes from refinement, which I believe is the root for becoming a clear and concise writer.
College Essay Revision Process
The skill I improved the most through my college essay revision process was probably refinement. Even though I said that this was a skill I need to improve upon this year in Humanities, I feel like I took an active role in the revision and refinement process, and making my essay clear and concise. There is not one specific piece of evidence that shows my efforts into making my essay more concise because I would have to copy and paste nearly the whole essay for one to get a feel for how much revision went into creating my final draft. At first my essay was nearly 1,000 words and the essay has to be under 650. I had to cut out a couple hundred words out of my first draft, and this was a very difficult process to do. Through this, I learned how to condense my writing, and eliminate words and phrases that were unnecessary in my essay. I learned how to morph paragraphs together while making my essay still clear and concise. For example, one sentence in my essay shows how I can eliminate words in a sentence with still practically saying the same thing. Instead of saying “There are so many challenges that climbing has to offer, which is why I love it so much,” I said “Climbing offers so many challenges, which is why I love it so much. This is just one small example of how I have improved my refinement skill through my college essay. My hope is to continue refining all of my work in Humanities while still being concise and clear.