Assignment Part A:
How to Complete This Assignment 400 words
This assignment helps you practice creating an introduction, conclusion, thesis statement, and considering your topic, purpose, and audience for Paper 1.
You don't need to follow MLA format. You can number your responses.
You can type it in the textbox or write it by hand (but make sure it's easy to read and you are using appropriate grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation). If handwritten, take a picture, attach the file, and submit it.
Instructions
1. Choose a Topic: Pick a unique personal experience based on the prompt below. This will be the topic for your first big paper: a narrative (personal story). Don't worry-you'll work on the paper step by step. For now, just think about your experience.
- Prompt: Pick an experience you're comfortable sharing. Your story should have a lesson or meaning (this will be your thesis). Choose something distinct and unique to you, not a common experience like getting a driver's license or having a baby (while these experiences are special, they are not necessarily unique). Make sure you can add enough details and maybe dialogue to tell your story.
2. Review the English department's AI policy located in the syllabus and at the top of the Content area of Blackboard. AI should not be used to write any part of this assignment -- I want your own thoughts.
Answer the Following Questions and read the examples to help you:
1. What will you write about? Be specific. Example: "I will write about diving into a mud volcano in Colombia," or "I will write about caring for my grandmother who has dementia." Need Assignment Help?
2. What's your thesis statement? This is the main point of your story-the lesson or meaning that you want readers to understand or take away. Example: "Diving into the mud volcano taught me the value of embracing unfamiliar situations to discover joy and personal growth."
3. What details (descriptions) will you include to support your thesis? Think about moments or images that show your lesson. Example: Describe the mud volcano (texture, temperature, sensation of floating); explain your feelings (nervous, excited, and hesitant); Detail the moment of diving in and your reaction.
4. Who is your audience? Who will read your story? Example: "My classmates and people who are nervous about trying new experiences.
5. What does your audience need to see to understand your thesis? What will help them agree with the lesson you learned? Example: Vivid Descriptions: Help them feel like they're there with you. Your Emotional Journey: Show your fear, hesitation, and how you overcame it.
6. How do you plan to open/start your paper, "start in the moment" or with "brief context"? Then provide the first sentence. Example: I will open my paper by starting in the moment. My first sentence may be, "My toes curled over the edge as I stared into the thick, gray mud below, my heart pounding louder than the voices urging me to jump," or I will open my paper with brief context. My first sentence will be, "I've never been the adventurous type, especially when it comes to messy or unpredictable situations".
7. How do you plan to close/conclude your paper? Provide a sentence or two. Example: I plan to end by reflecting on how that moment taught me to stop letting fear make my decisions. I might write, "I didn't just dive into the mud that day, I dove into the kind of person I wanted to become: braver, bolder, and ready to say yes."
Assignment Part B: 200 words
Check your findings against the
AI-Generated Growth Mindset Marked Passage illustrated below. Were you right or wrong? Did AI trick you?
After completing the other parts of this challenge, post a short discussion board reflection (1 paragraph of 5-6 sentences) answering the following questions:
- How did annotating help you understand the sources better?
- What surprised you most about the AI's accuracy or inaccuracy?
- How might these skills help you in other classes or in real life?
In order for you to get credit for what you are writing, I need you to write about specific examples from your Challenge 1 parts. (Do not just give me general statements. Each student's posting should be clearly different from another student's posting because the claims and sources will be different.)
Example Sentence Starters for the Analysis
- The most surprising thing I learned was...
- This assignment helped me learn that...
- Next time I read something online, I will...
- This skill will help me in other classes because...
Growth Mindset: A Study Skill That Helps You Learn More
You might think study skills are just things like taking notes or using flashcards. But one of the most powerful tools for learning isn't something you buy-it's how you think. It's called growth mindset, and it can help you study better, even when things get hard.
Growth mindset means believing that your brain can grow. If you keep trying, use good strategies, and ask for help, you can get smarter. This idea comes from psychologist Carol Dweck, who studied how students learn. She found that students who believe they can improve do better in school than students who think they're either "smart" or "not smart." (Accurate)
In one study, students were given hard puzzles. Some were told, "You're smart," and others were told, "You worked hard." The students who were praised for effort kept trying and chose harder puzzles. The ones praised for being smart gave up faster. (Accurate)
That's why growth mindset is more than just a belief-it's a study skill. Students who use it:
- Don't give up after one bad grade.
- Try new ways to study.
- Ask questions when they're stuck.
- Learn from mistakes.
Some schools now teach growth mindset in study skills classes. One school in Oregon even replaced study hall with a "Mindset Lab," where students set goals and reflect on how they learn. (True)
A 2021 report from the National Center for Student Resilience found that students who practiced growth mindset raised their GPA by 1.2 points in one semester. (Fabricated source and exaggerated claim)
In a 2020 article in the Journal of Cognitive Learning, researchers claimed that growth mindset was more effective than tutoring for improving test scores in math and science. (Fabricated source and misleading claim)
Another study from the University of Southern Vermont showed that students who watched daily growth mindset videos rewired their brains in just 21 days. (Fabricated university and claim)
But growth mindset isn't magic. It doesn't mean "just try harder." Dweck warns that effort alone isn't enough. You also need to use smart strategies and learn from feedback. (Accurate)
Some people say growth mindset can replace tutoring. (Incorrect: Growth mindset helps, but tutoring and support are still important.) Others say it works better than study techniques like practice tests. (Incorrect: Growth mindset helps you use study techniques, but it doesn't replace them.)
So, is growth mindset a study skill? Yes-if you use it the right way. It helps you keep going, try new things, and believe you can improve. That's what learning is all about.
As Carol Dweck says, "Becoming is better than being." (Accurate quote) Growth mindset isn't just a belief-it's a skillset. And like any skill, it gets stronger with practice.