Emma Keith

While I think the comment assignments are a great concept and are useful with some students, I've also found that sometimes comments can just be empty words or not particularly, depending on the commenter. As far as others' comments on my work — most are very kind and encouraging, but not overly constructive. I find that many comments (both on my work and in the comments I've read on other students' work) remark on how creative or interesting the story is, and fill the required words with compliments. While this seems nice, it doesn't help me or other students improve our work.  When I leave comments, I try to avoid that rut. I compliment at the beginning, but then always pull out at least two aspects of the story or project I think could be improved, and actually give advice on how to improve them. I want to be helpful and honest in my comments and I do hope I'm accomplishing that goal and that my comments are actually useful to others. One aspect of co...

Over the past seven weeks, there are several aspects of this class I've really enjoyed and found helpful. I love that this class allows me to learn at my own pace while thoughtfully restructuring and retelling the material I absorb. As far as the reading assignments go, the reading notes are very helpful when I do my retellings each week. They definitely help me engage and pay attention more when I do the actual readings.  I think the most unique reading I've done was the stories from the Congo unit . Every story was dark and slightly disturbing, but fascinating, and I loved how they all incorporated local animals and traditions. One story I really enjoyed retelling was the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe , which I put a twist ending on. I was definitely challenged by my retelling of the beginning of the Arabian Nights tales , since those stories evolve into multiple layers, but I tried to simplify the retelling and do it creatively.  I've always had difficulty wit...