Week 8 Growth Mindset

I’m not really sure how my growth mindset has changed thus far this semester. It seems likely that I’ve regressed in a couple ways. This is a much lighter semester for me than the past two, so I’ve been using my time poorly (isn’t it frustrating how that happens?). Accordingly, even though perhaps I’ve had time to, I haven’t been going above and beyond. However, I think there are ways that this class can help with that. For example, through this class I can make the choice (and I hope that I will) to read a bunch of classics that I’ve been interested in for years but haven’t gotten around to. Because this class is so flexible, it provides me with the option to go above and beyond, and learn more that I’m interested in, if I want to.

I think another way this class may be useful is in learning to take feedback (and especially negative feedback) humbly, and with a heart that is willing to listen and change. I generally enjoy positive feedback and want things to be right the first time (as is natural), so it’s good to practice revision, or having different people express different tips on how they think I could improve.

One thing that this class makes easy is to not focus overly much on grades. Generally, I hope that in my major classes or other ones I’m interested in I care a lot more about learning than my grade. It’s easy to do that for this class too, because we’re given so many options about how and what we will learn, so that the grade just isn’t really a stressful thing.

Basically, I want to have a mindset of learning for learning's sake.

(Photo by Thomas Ulrich, found on flickr)

Week 8 Reflections

I have definitely been enjoying this class so far. I think that part of it is that the reading is over things that I want to read. I want to be well informed about culture and folk stories from around the world! That being said, when I was looking ahead to what reading I was going to do in the coming weeks, I was definitely thinking, “I’m going to have to read a bunch extra of these.” Maybe I’ll read some extra British or Celtic stories to try and find more stories involving someone named Jack, for my storybook. That would probably be good.

I think that perhaps I haven’t learned a ton about myself as a writer, but I have been reminded of some things I used to know. For example, I had forgotten how much I enjoy and find it fairly easy to write fiction. What a relief to not be writing essays! I’m quite happy with my storybook choice. What I’m going to do is continue to find Jack stories and rewrite them. I don’t plan on changing or modernizing them or anything like that very much. The exception would be if I choose to use a short source, such as a nursery rhyme, I’ll make it longer and add my own twist, like I did on the first story based on a nursery rhyme.

I think the thing that I admire most in other people’s stories is simple readability. I enjoy it when the story flows smoothly and naturally, so I can be engaged without worrying about trying too hard to understand it. The thing that I would like to improve for my own story’s readability is to grow in knowing when to incorporate dialogue and how much to do so naturally.

(Fountain Pen, from Pixabay)