Skill— Public Performance, Writing, Research Portfolio Category— Social Awareness During the Gilded Age Interdisciplinary, I was to write a narrative with two other people. The narrative was only to contain three characters, and was supposed to represent realism- what we had been learning in English class. I have therefore decided to place this in the category of Social Awareness, because our narrative represented how many people Assignment/Activity Title— Analytic Essay Gilded Age Interdisciplinary Year— Freshmen lived in the Gilded Age. The assignment’s goal was essentially to make the students be aware, and learn more about the Gilded Age. As a result, I believe I have become more aware of how lucky and easy my life is compared to the lives of people from the Gilded Age, especially the lives of immigrants and factory workers. I may have more educational work, but the immigrants, and many other people from the Gilded Age, had much more difficult lives. Part of that educational work is making @ portfolio, and itis important that I include this essay in my portfolio because it is not only a sample of my freshmen year work, but also because itis a reflection of my experience, Throughout the five days of Interdisciplinary, [ learned more about the Gilded Age in depth. Before, I only knew it was called the Gilded Age because of the corruption, and the horrible lives of anyone who wasn't wealthy. My research taught me the same thing, only it explained more of the corruption, and more of the poorness. The narrative was based off of the research we were to complete the first day. On the fifth day, we were to present our narrative in the form of a play. The research was to be included, things such as how many people died in the factories, or how many were injured. The way in which others reacted to the product was not a bad reaction. The audience appeared to have enjoyed the product, although that is based off of my own opinions. When the character of Giovanni died, the audience gasped, and seemed as though they had been swept up into the plot of the play. To complete this project, I collaborated with two other students, and after our research, we began to write our narrative. As we wrote, we would discuss what should happen, why it should happen, and how it would happen. Every now and then, we would split up the work and write what we thought should happen, and then come back together and make edits to the scenes. While we worked, and afterwards, I learned that sometimes it can be better to work with a group, so that you can share ideas, combine ideas, and ask more opinion questions to others instead of questioning yourself- instead, you be nice, however, if one person slips up, the entire ‘can ask others in your group their opinions. Working in a group mi project may very well collapse, or if nothing is accomplished, only one person may end up doing the work of multiple people. If I were able to repeat this experience, I would keep better track of time, and even do more in depth research to give the narrative an even more realistic feel. The narrative is connected to course material because the concept is based on what we have learned in class, and it illustrates the connections I've made between myself and the course through its being. I wrote the narrative based off of what I have learned, and it is therefore connected to both me and the course. The actual writing of the narrative revealed to Ime that if | really believe in the cause, and I'm not afraid of being overly enthusiastic, I could make a very convineing I, and writing the narrative in general, relates to speech, provided I have enough material to back me up, Having this skil and now I understand I could my future because I may eventually need to write another story, ot have to write a speech, accurate story about the past. This also shows me that my strength is make a convincing speech, and a well written, believing in my arguments, and being able to write a story that follows a certain type of plot. Another strength | have being able to get work done despite challenges. My weaknesses, on the other hand, consist of letting certain obstacles occur, as well as not always managing my time as efficiently as possible, The challenges consisted of my partners getting distracted easily, resulting in me doing the majority of the work every now and then. I now realize I ought to take contrel if that happens, and call people out on it, despite the possible outcome of this. “My perspective on the world has not changed too much fiom before this project, but Ido now realize that even if life is horrible for people, it can, and most likely wll change: Before, my understanding of the world was that people ell imply tell themselves that they're better of than others, and will take what they can get, even ifthey could get more, Now, at there are many ke le fought for change makes me reali th ing about what life was like, and how some people foug] ige makes me realize thi Ser eanna ay to make a change, but very often only few are recognized for it in their Hifetime Ingen of this ‘ho will try 1 PoP most proud ofthe speeches I wrote for Giovanni when he addresses work conditions, and ake ershe vat i the play, where itends on something dramatic, yet truthful, and also quite sad. | tatinys Date Teacher Signature