Exhibit: Dual Enrollment
Benchmark: Teamwork/Communication
Skills: TC105-Express one’s point of view in a teamwork setting
    TC106-Give and accept feedback in a positive way

    During my junior year I took a course at Jackson College through the dual enrollment program. It was called English 131 which was a writing class. It is designed to enhance your writing skills through different types of writing such as memoir, narrative, research, profiles, portraits, and more. 

    English 131 was both challenging and fun. The reason for this was because I had to write many long papers but I also made new friends and got to enjoy the experience of a college campus and classroom. We wrote many papers but at the end of the semester you had to choose your best five and put them all in a folder as a portfolio for a group of professors to grade. The professors would then grade my portfolio and if I passed then I passed the class if I didn’t then I failed and also had to pay for the class that my high school would have previously paid for me. 

    During the course of the semester we wrote rough drafts and then turned them in and then got them back again for peer revision. In the classroom at Jackson College we were all arranged in groups of four which at the beginning of the semester we all chose. We all started off a little bit shy because nobody knew anybody. We were a diverse group consisting of one full time student at JC, one middle-aged man, and then my friend Jennifer was also in the class. We were required to name our group and we chose to name it, “Cobra Kai” and we all ended up getting along really well. Every time we wrote a paper we would have to switch with two people in our group. In turn they would have to answer questions and give feedback about the paper on a worksheet that the teacher gave for each peer revision. This peer revision gave me different viewpoints for my paper and really helped me to open them up and advance them. It also gave me tips on my writing structure, and grammar. Not only did the peer editing help my papers through the other writers in my group but when I was grading their paper’s it helped me identify what I could add, build on, or even change in my own writing. 

    This writing class was very helpful to my writing skills and helped me learn how to better analyze other papers as well as my own. During my career in music therapy I am going to have to use analysis skills all the time. I will have to be able to see small changes in my patients in order to understand what works best for them. I will have to make reports on therapy sessions and what happened. The writing skills I learned are applicable to not only my future years of education but also to the career that I will have I will have to be able to express my opinions and viewpoints to patient’s guardians and explain what I have observed and done to help my patients. My analytical skills will have to be very strong to detect and change however minute they may be. I passed the portfolio in English 131 with a 4.0 and I am confident in my ability to enhance my skills that I have learned while also learning new skills in order to be successful in my future career.