Dear Dr. Bannon, I would like to begin by telling you about a wonderfully interesting series called Divergent.

This is a story, similar to The Hunger Games, about a world and society unlike our own. In this world, everybody is a part of a faction. There are five factions: Candor, Erudite, Amity, Abnegation, and Dauntless. Each of these factions believe in different philosophies of life, and how to properly live your days as a human being and contribute to society. When a person turns sixteen, they take an aptitude test, and based on how they react in the simulations, they are placed into these different factions. The following day there is a ceremony when the individual chooses the faction they would like to live in the rest of their lives. If they leave the faction they grew up in for a different faction, they may never see their family again. I see my journey through this course as a journey through this society. Each assignment and each class meeting proved to be beneficial, but in different ways each time. I felt like these different assignments represented different factions. I also believe that each pupil in this class also represents a different faction, and I do not believe that any are better than others. These are just unique, individual ways in which our personalities shine and how the course may have been different for each person based on the outlooks on life. Through this portfolio, I will designate each assignment and each member of this class into a faction, based on my personal knowledge of the novel, along with the extent of my knowledge about my classmates. I will attack issues of literacy that I had (or still have) at the beginning of the semester, and how they have changed or lack thereof at the end. I will introduce each different section of our class, such as blogs or papers, with a different faction. I

will explain why I chose this faction for these particular assignments. I will also show you which individual from our class I have chosen to represent that specific faction. My realm of thinking has changed throughout the course of this class. Not only did I change majors altogether through this semester, but I changed my philosophy on quite a few ideas. The issues that I saw at the beginning of the semester through reading and writing are different than the issues I see now. I have stopped lying to myself and have started taking these opportunities more seriously. Our reading has helped, because they have not only been interesting for me, but have also shown diverse perspectives on issues or ideas other than my own. Through writing, I try and express my gratitude towards these individuals, but also develop my own opinions with evidence. I am not to the point I would like to be with my reading, nor my writing, but I believe I am on the right path to acceptance. Literacy is still proving to be one of the biggest issues with my philosophy. I am still unsure of what I consider literacy, or how I classify someone who is illiterate. I am unsure of how to gage student achievement in these aspects, because asking all students to perform one task to come to the same conclusion is madness. I believe projects such as reading James Paul Gee and our annotated bibliography have tremendously helped develop my working philosophy on these different strategies. I am a work in progress, but I am pleased to say there is definite improvement through this course. My future career is looking bright Dr. Bannon. I am looking towards graduate school, hoping to study composition and rhetoric. I love writing, and as of right now, I am not happy with my composition skills. When I set my mind to a task with writing, sure I can perform, but

can I prove my skill through my words? The literacy skills I gained in this class from the different perspectives of the PDF files we read, or the projects we worked on, help me on my excursion, but I am not anywhere close to happy with my abilities yet. I believe the ideas and discussion behind this class truly helped mold some solid questions I need to ask myself, and also helped emerge some inner demons within myself I must conquer before ultimately being satisfied with my talents. The future looks bright, but also extremely fearsome. I know the road is getting shorter, but all I see is a long, winding haul ahead. I know that I possess the intelligence needed for these goals, but I need the writing and reading skill to help push me there. As they say in Divergent, It isnt about being fearless, its about acting in spite of fear and that selflessness and bravery arent all that different.

Thank you for everything this semester, Jourdan Smoot =]