Friday, December 2, 2011

MCOM 320: A Learning Experience

The semester is coming to a close and so is this assignment. Although, I have many travels left to document, so I suppose I will be checking in from time to time. 
In the beginning Professor Thomas created the paper and the presentation.
And the class was without grammar and void; and confusion was upon the face of the students. And the torment of commas and hyphens moved upon the face of the students.
And Professor Thomas said,  Let there be groups: and there were groups.
And Professor Thomas saw the groups, that they were good: and Professor Thomas divided the groups from the confusion.
Parody aside, what I liked the most and found most effective about MCOM 320 was being assigned to groups. This became extremely helpful when it came to reviewing, and in some cases relearning, grammar. Although the assignments seemed tedious at times, they allowed me to practice writing short, concise paragraphs, which is something I struggle with. The overall organization of the class and the assignments were easy to follow and easily understood.

The only constructive criticism I have to offer, is to go over the grammar section of the course in a more helpful manner. We would read the book, take the practice tests, and come to class to correct them between groups, but not much attention was put into explaining grammar concepts unless we had specific questions. I think it would have been helpful to give a brief overview of most common mistakes or most helpful hints before we split up into groups. A lot of times I felt like no one really knew WHY the answer was correct, we just looked at the book and accepted the answer as correct. I understand, however, that the difficulty in teaching grammar lies in the different strengths/understanding of students; therefore, I believe that the assignments and the instructions of which, were perfectly decent and helpful for me.