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LITR 4231 Early American Literature |
Final Exam Essays 2014 Sample answers
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Elizabeth Sorensen
My Learning Experience
When I registered for this course, I was not particularly excited about it even
though Colonial America is one of my favorite pieces of American history;
however, I love to learn. As a result, I was able to remain open minded to
experiencing and learning something new. As a future educator, I use every
course I take as a learning experience not only for course content but also as a
reference to how I could potentially lead my future classes. I have seen a wide
variety of teaching styles throughout my education at UHCL from across all
subject areas due to the nature of my certification (4-8 Generalist). I have
found this course to be one of the most beneficial to my future concerning
content matter, teaching style, and, most importantly, why all this matters.
When I began my midterm I found myself out of my element. I am used to
assignments that do not have much room for creativity and because of this it
took me quite a few days to think about what I wanted to write. As I was
thinking, I had a moment where everything made sense. It all became clear that I
could adapt the content and apply it to my future as a teacher. Once I
discovered this, writing the midterm was incredibly easy. It was a relief to
finally have a professor who did not want his/her students to write what he/she
wanted to read but rather urging students to write about what MATTERS to them.
This was an example I need to aide me in not only my own learning but also to
aide me in motivating my future students. I believe this is truly where real
learning occurs. Furthermore, this course bridged a gap between two very
different fields. Putting course content in students’ hands like this course did
allows students to have control over their own education. Moreover, this enables
students to value and appreciate the knowledge teachers share with them. To my
surprise, I received a grade I was very happy with on my midterm. I knew what I
was writing might have been a long shot, but I was proud of my final product.
The research posts were most similar to other assignments I have had with the
exception of the topic we wished to research. Again, this is another example of
giving students more freedom and allowing them to write about what matters to
them. My inspiration for my research post topics was the captivity narratives,
so I wrote about Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah Parker. Cynthia Ann
Parker interested me because of her assimilation and desire to remain with the
Natives while her son intrigued me because he represented a bridge between two
ethnicities. I learned a lot about relations between whites and Native Americans
just from researching about Quanah Parker. Communication and peace between the
two was not impossible, but whites held all the power. This becomes more evident
in the second half of the semester, specifically in
The Cherokee Memorials. The Cherokees
recognize their inferior treatment in the opening,
“By
the will of our Father in heaven, the governor of the whole world, the red man
of America has become small, and the white man great and renowned.
The document goes on to state,
When the ancestors of the people of
these United States first came to the shores of America, they found the red man
strong—though he was ignorant and savage, yet he received them kindly, and gave
them dry land to rest their weary feet.” No longer could Americans depict
Native Americans as “savage” because they have evolved and become educated in a
variety of ways including politics. To me, Americans become the “savages”
through the removal and relocation of Native American Tribes; the prime example
of this being the Trail of Tears. This is a perspective I had not seen before in
any of my previous history classes which allowed me to gain new insight and feel
differently about our history. This is something I wish to pass on to my future
students. I want them to know as much as possible about the things that happened
that make America what it is today so that they themselves can decide what
matters to them.
The organization of the course is also something worth noting. I thoroughly
appreciated how we studied early American literature in a chronological order.
My history classes had a tendency to stay on one geographical area for a few
hundred years then go back in time to another geographical area for a few
hundred years. I always found this confusing so I know if I teach my future
classes in this manner they will too. We went from 1492 all the way to the 1800s
studying quite a few different aspects of history. In a sense, this course
bridged quite a few gaps I had in my previous learning.
In the future I would like to further my knowledge about this time period in
history through its literature. I was surprised to have come to this conclusion
but I have been exposed to history from a new perspective and I find that quite
exciting. I am incredibly grateful and thankful to have had the opportunity to
take this course and learn so much more than I thought I would.
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