Final Reflection Paper
By Jessica Krick

The first week I learned that children's books aren't as a genre an indication of readership. I enrolled in this class because it is required. According to my guidance counselor, it is to 'diversify my learning'. Now that I have finished the course, I couldn't agree more! I started this class thinking that children's books are simple and sort of primal. When in fact, there are a lot of literary elements involved; and the illustrations tell the story as much as the text. It has taught me to look deeper into everything, that nothing is simple. I plan on using this newly acquired skill in the future. Also during this week, I got to analyze and enjoy "The Giving Tree". It is such an exemplar picturebook, that I just had to buy it (along with "Wild Thing") to read again and again with my nephew. I typically favor the moral lessons provided in these books. With that said, I honestly didn't like the book "Millions of Cats", I guess it just rubbed me the wrong way, plus I'm a dog person! Being an artist myself, my favorite part of this class was the multitude of illustrations involved in my class work. Home work became fun. You always seem to provide extra handouts just to further our knowledge, like the 'handout of illustration styles' and I read quite a bit of the Grim folktales. Folklore revisits popular childhood folktales or how I have always known it as 'fairytales'. I found it interesting that they have survived centuries by word of mouth and that common stories like cinderella has hundreds of versions from cultures all around the world. I typically love Fantasy books the most like: "Harry Potter", "Twilight" series, and "The Hunger Games" series. Anderson's "Feed", is a totally original, and real life applicable because we are so dependent on technology. Technology literally does everything for us, it makes us stupid to have so much information at the palm of our hands. I spent a lot of time researching and watching videos about Rosa Parks. I typically like assignments like this that I get immersed into, that I just want to know more and more. I didn't even realize that she was the reason for the civil rights walk. I previously thought the 'walk' was a one day event following Martin Luther King. What perseverance these people showed, sticking to it for a whole year. I am not proud of the way America began, but I feel year by year, equality for all, gets a little better. I'm interested in learning about the Supreme Court decision about proposition 8 that is being evaluated now. The Supreme Court is now looking to see if same-sex couples being discriminated against is constitutional. How exciting! You mentioned in one of your journals that poetry is a subject that is polarized. I am one of those people that LOVE poetry. I have been writing songs since I talk. I really liked "Tropical Secrets", so much so, that I used a similar book for my genre analysis called "The Surrender Tree". The Genre Analysis practically got me on a civil rights movement tangent, and Im aware that I went overboard with it being 13 pages. It was a difficult assignment but I am most thankful that I got to re-read a book that I really loved in elementary school. "The Hatchet" for some reason is the only book I read that I vividly remember. It might be because we were required to read it aloud to the teacher, but I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting these fond memories and it is a handy general 'survival' book. It has been a pleasure to be in this class, even online, which I don't typically prefer. I think you have done a fine job providing video lessons, journals, class discussions and you are available on Skype. I feel like you are a teacher that really cares about the opinions and thoughts of your students. I don't think I have had a model where you didn't ask for input on how you can improve.