21Loyolit

      Being a part of this class has completely changed my approach to reading literature. I have learned to appreciate different works from different writers through our insightful discussions. It has taught me not only to settle with one theme or lesson from a piece of writing but to continue to search for alternative meanings. Listening to my classmates openly make connections with the books, poems, and short stories that we read to their personal life experiences has inspired me to do the same. I’ve grown so much in the span of this semester. I’ve learned about concepts and ideas that I believe everyone should know in order to evolve into our most authentic selves. I’ve learned what clinging on to hope can do to better our situations, what self-love actually looks like, and how to navigate life by embracing our identities, and many more. I was also introduced to so many writers that I never knew of like Phil Kaye, Kara Jackson, and Witi Ihimaera. Through this who...

  WHAT I LEARNED THIS SEMESTER?   This semester I have known a lot of new authors that i haven't heard before this class and how their ideas are reflect on the poem. If i'm honest if I had read all this poems before this class I would never think in any of the things that we had talked in class. I mean, I would have read it but then I would have never really understand what really want to say the author or I would have just understood the half of the poem.  This class also have really helped me to see another points of view, sometimes when I've read this poems I only could see my point of view but then when i heard my classmates' opinion, it really helped me to open my mind and see that people can think different than you. Also, when I came here i didn't know english at all, and in this class I've had the opportunity to learn new vocabulary and start speaking without being shy and ithout being concerned to be judged because I knew my classmates would respe...

Gabriel Mourao 11/30/2021     There were many things that I learned through this class that has shaped my experience in Loyola as a whole. What I learned this semester cannot be conveyed in a few words rather it was through the many various topic that we as a class covered that taught me a wide variety of things. Like how I learned about self care and loving your body through the discussion of Whitman, or the importance of modernizing tradition. These topics enlightened my understanding about the world by providing me with more knowledge about different culture I didn't experience.     What I find interesting about all of this is that if I didn't read all the stories and poems that I did I would of never of known about these different ideologies. It also goes to show that what limits our acceptance of different traditions and cultures is our lack of knowledge about their culture. I was really blown away of how a decent understanding about someone else's...

   Liam White Dr. Ellis EN 101 November 30, 2021 Being True             I think that the most interesting thing to me during this class was that everyone was open and excepting of new ideas. I think that this connects very well with the play that we are reading because Shakespeare’s whole message in this play was to be true to yourself. I think that this was something that I was not used to. I am not saying that everyone in college is closed-minded, it just happens that a lot of people that I have met have been very closed-minded. It has actually been kind of concerning because it means that these are the people that are going out into this world, or they are the people that are actually in the world, and they are so closed-minded. It was very interesting to see just how open this class was. It would be great if the openness of this class would be just how open the world was. I think that that is something that everyo...

This semester, I have learned more about the writing that we have read than I did in high school. In high school, we would mainly read, have a quiz, and then talk more about how it relates to culture and our society in Baltimore. I also found that I never had a real-life experience in high school that I needed to know something about what we read, but I did this semester. On November 17, right after our class finished, I went to dinner at Five and Dime, a restaurant about a mile or so away from campus. But this restaurant does trivia nights on Wednesday, and I went with two of my older brothers and my sister-in-law. The final question where we wagered all of our points was about “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. The poem we talked about 2 hours before in class. But knowing the answer to that question allowed my team to get from the middle of the pack to third place. But the most interesting thing I learned in this class was a more profound analysis about Frankenstei...

  I have learned so much this semester. There have been many different genres we have read between all of the books, short stories and poems. Of course I have learned a lot within each reading and discussion, but the thing that I feel I will be able to take away from this class and bring with me for the rest of my life is not necessarily an English lesson, but rather a life lesson.  Just as the main message in our last reading, Shakespear’s Twelfth Night , I have learned in this class to be myself. Dr. Ellis has reminded us of this every class, and she reminds us to keep the classroom a safe and inviting place for everyone to be. I believe we are taught this so everyone feels comfortable being their true selves. It is to everyone’s advantage when we all be who we really are. When students hide who they are they do not give the teacher, the other peers, and even themselves their best work.  I have enjoyed all of the different types of readings we have done in this class. I...

  Jackson, Wordsworth, and Bolen   The poem "Anthem for My Belly After Eating Too Much" by Kara Jackson is a young black woman finally accepting her body for what it is. At the beginning of the poem as she’s looking at herself in the mirror and is struggling to love her belly. In the poem, it says, “my belly, a country i’m trying to love.” The current beauty standards expect women to have flat stomachs at all times when in reality that is not natural. Eventually, by the end of the poem Kara has a completely shifted perception of her body, she now views it as a vessel of the things she loves to do like singing. She vows to embrace and protect her body like it's her home.  The poem “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” by William Wordsworth is about the encounter that the speaker of this poem has with daffodils. He feels instant joy as he witnesses these daffodils dancing in the wind. This piece of writing proves how powerful the connection between humans and nature is. The speake...