During Eliza's first year at college her reading
skill levels are centered around preparing and memorizing information to take a
test instead of understanding and extracting information. As she grew into her
sophomore year of college she began to understand the point of view of the
author and her work improved. She learning different techniques such as skimming
and selective reading. At the end of her senior year she was able to draw
conclusion and had a better understanding of the text. Her critical thinking
skills improved and she was able to form a connection to the texts she was
reading.
According to Haas, these changes happened because
most incoming freshman look at text as autonomous. As time progressed and she
took different courses of she was able to develop a different skill set that
improved her thinking outside of the box.
My previous writing instructions encouraged blog and
journal writing as an outlet to express thoughts and clear of minds in hopes
allowing us the opportunity to go back read what we felt at a certain point in
our lives. Unfortunately in most public school systems, English classes focus on
standardized testing and not creative thinking. Which causes students, like
myself to focus on passing a test instead of truly understanding what we have
read. In any career, comprehensive reading skills and understanding are more
essential that cramming for a test and forgetting the material.
My chosen major is a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a
concentration in dance. Understanding and comprehending what you have read plays
a large part in the theater world of dance but most students studying dance plan
on either teaching it or performing professionally. The critcial thinking
skills will help me develop as a dance teacher but only provide a limited amount
of help if I am professionally dancing. As a dancer we are know to use are body
more than mind but with the short career span of a dancer, it's almost a
necessity to have a backup career or be able to perform some other type of job
training in order to be successful.
