English Composition 1 

7/14/18 

Pan Con Pollo 

 

I believe the name of the Honduran sandwich was called "pan con pollo". It had been sitting on the bed next to me for what seemed like an eternity, patiently waiting for me to ingest it while I sat confused, flipping angrily through pages of my textbook. I looked carefully at each word and each letter, but it was as if I was reading a foreign language. I understood the assignment fully, mind you. So, why the frustration?  

 

I suck at reading comprehension. And I mean, I really suck.  

 

It’s not that the content bores me. Sometimes I just simply cannot make sense of the little symbols that make up the words that are supposed to mean something to me; regardless of the content. No matter how carefully I read, sometimes I just can't take even remedial concepts away from what I'm reading. And what am I to do? Call a friend to ask how to read a book?  

 

So, of course I am frustrated. But this is not the first time. I started to feel the all-too-familiar, hot tears pool up on the waterline of my bottom eye lid. I blinked hard to release those tears and let them run down my cheeks. I felt hopeless. 

 

My boyfriend, who had been witnessing my reading struggle, consoled me. 

 

"Why are you crying?" He asked with worry in his voice. 

 

"I can't read this stupid book. I can't comprehend anything!" I shouted out of sadness. He pondered for a moment, trying to come up with ideas.  

 

"You could try annotating?" He said. At the time, I did not know what annotating was, but I was willing to try anything to help. 

 

"What is that and how do I do it?" I asked, somewhat hopeful. 

 

"Basically, it's when you read very carefully, taking note of important details or summarize to help further your understanding" He explained. I sighed and closed my eyes. Although I appreciated the suggestion, this technique would not help me at all. 

 

"How am I supposed to summarize or take note of important information if I can't comprehend it?" I said. The dread and hopeless hit a peak. 

 

"How am I supposed to do well in this class, or any class, if I can’t read a book! I am going to fail all my classes, I am going to fail college. I don't know what I am going to do". I continued to think myself into a hole, ending in the "I am going to die alone" scenario.  

 

He sighed and looked around the room as if to find answers, but only found the sandwich. He asked if I was going to eat it. I picked it up and took a bite and cringed. It had gone extremely soggy and cold. Perfect. Not only am I going to die alone, but now my delicious sandwich was ruined. 

 

"You need to think positive" he finally said. "Maybe you should talk to your teacher and get help. She is an English teacher". I let this sink in. I tried to change my mindset and switch "positive mode" on, and it worked. I felt more hopeful, that maybe I can finally get better at reading comprehension again. I remembered that every problem has a solution, and that I just needed to find mine.  

 

 

The sections we were asked to read and annotate were quite helpful and relevant for each of the essays we did, and I would refer to those sections when writing the essays. I also really enjoyed the social issues/civil discourse theme of this class. Regardless of if someone is into politics or not, everyone has their own opinions about everything. And you did a great job of teaching us how to explore our own opinions, and base them off research and facts. Not only did this class teach us how to explore our own opinions, but also how to present those ideas professionally and academically.  

 

I really like working with peers in class, it helps to have a different pair of eyes on my paper. Some things may make sense in your own head, but not make sense to others. Peer review allows an audience member to read it and make sure everyone will be able to understand the content and catch grammatical mistakes. I think class time was used wisely. There was not too much peer review and not too much lecture, which gave the class a good balance.  

 

The assignments when you asked us to read an article and write a summary/response I did not really understand until the end when we did the small test, then it made a lot more sense. I think you should continue to do that because it prepared us all very much for the test.  

 

I really liked this class overall. I thought the use of class time was great, as well as the assignments that you wanted us to do. There were no assignments that you asked us to do that were busy work and all the assignments were very helpful in this class. I thought your teaching style was great, you explain things very well and make big papers seem simple. I also liked the pacing of the essays, most classes I’ve taken have requested that you do the whole essay and do not ask to bring in first drafts for review. I learned a lot about making drafts, and how they should not necessarily be written on the same day.  

 

I am also impressed with the feedback you gave to me and other students. It made me very happy that you had office hours that we could meet to ask questions about my essays. Your suggestions were very clear and really helped all my papers. You are also very approachable, and I feel as if many students agree that going to you for help is not intimidating like some teachers can be.  

 

I really do believe I took a lot from this class beyond just how to write a paper, but also the importance of having an educated opinion on certain topics, and how to acquire the educated opinions. Overall, I think this class was perfect in my opinion. It had balance when it came to what we did during class time. All of the papers lead into one another, and I liked that we had to stick to the same social issue for the duration of the class so we could develop a deeper understanding of our position. I think you’re a great teacher and I would definitely recommend you to other students.