Yasmeena Chambers

50319770

Soc211 Final Essay

My overall experience in my special topics group was good. There was a struggle of

engaging in certain topics because some felt embarrassed to do so and others did not review the

material. The group discussions have potential but some aspects of the experience could have

been improved so it would've been more enjoyable for everyone. Some positive aspects about

our discussions were that we all got along pretty well and we did our part in taking turns for

writing and hosting. I also loved that we were able to go off on tangents about our topic and

relate it back to our own personal experiences. We were very respectful to each other's opinions

and for the most part everyone showed up to the meetings and contributed to the discussions.

Some negative aspects about our group discussions were that some group members didn’t really

talk to each other. Sometimes it felt like another group member and I just carried the

conversation. I would've liked it if we all had tried to start a conversation instead of relying on

one person. I do realize that it is difficult for people to engage in discussion over zoom meetings

because of language barriers or the lack of access to good internet connection. A member in my

group barely said anything and I would've liked for him or her to have at least type in the chat

and engage with us. Another negative aspect was sometimes there were awkward silences and I

believe those could have been avoided if we had gotten to discuss the topic generally as a class

because it would’ve given students a chance to see the positive/negative sides of each discussion.

The special topic discussion i enjoyed the most was the BlackLivesMatter discussion because it

is a very present and interesting topic that is still to this day trending over every news site and

social media site. I believe that we all had strong opinions on the topic. There were multiple
people of color including myself who expressed their own individual opinions on how this

movement and this topic affected them. It was also nice to learn more about how BLM has

helped the movement because a majority of us were unaware of how much they actually

contributed to the black community. A special topic discussion I enjoyed the least was

Cissgendered organizations because this topic was a little confusing for the group as a whole. We

all participated and gave our opinions but we did agree that the document we read was confusing

to follow. I personally found this topic interesting but difficult to follow especially because this

is the topic we talked about the least.

I prepared for each discussion by reviewing the documents for the special topics and then

highlighting certain definitions that I thought would be interesting to bring up in the discussion. I

also had my screen share ready if I was the host that day to bring up the document so it was

easier for us to find information. The poor performers in my group were still somewhat engaged

and did their part in hosting and writing. There were times we tried to get certain people to talk

but for the most part they just stayed quiet and did not participate as much as the majority of us

did. Some factors that worked well for me were experiencing and learning from other students

perspectives on certain topics. It also helped to discuss and study the material with others

because eventually it helped me excel on the quizzes. It helped that we were all able to respect

each other’s opinions which led to us trusting one another to discuss that opinion and give

different viewpoints on it. Some factors that did not work well were if we were on a

controversial topic and an opinion that was different from everyone else, the discussion tended to

die down instead of it being brought to light and being able to shed light on why we felt this way

about a certain topic. My group members shared ideas during face to face interaction very well in

the beginning of the semester. As the semester went on the majority of us had our cameras off
which is another factor of why our conversations ended early. I believe that seeing each other's

facial expressions are somewhat reassuring and it motivates us to engage more in certain areas of

a topic that we are passionate about. My group members connected with each other for most of

the discussions. We were all able to relate to one another on a personal level about the topics that

affect us all in this modern age. Everyone for the most part, read the material so it was easy to

connect our ideas together. Overall we got along very well which made me less anxious to say

my opinion out loud.