LGBTQ Course Reflection

I have been enrolled at Clarion University for 2 semesters, and English 256 has been the most educating course in my college career thus far. An intro to genders and sexualities course may seem irrelevant for the degree I am pursuing, but the enlightening experience it has offered is unmeasurable. Accepting every individual without exceptions is an important virtue that every professional should have; this course has offered extensive insight and allowed myself to become more understanding of the LGBTQ community. Prior to this course, I was unaware of the salient literature and culture relating to LGBTQ. Through the process of creating and presenting my project, I realized my strengths and weaknesses, I learned many valuable things, and became

It was difficult to find outside references and research other resources. I have very little background experience in using research to write and have never created an annotated bibliography. This lack of knowledge and experience made these components of the assignment incredibly difficult as I had to use multiple sources and judgements to decide how to format and write my research-based writings. Working as a group may have made this portion of the project easier as I would have had a more experienced partner who could give insight on how to complete these components correctly. I often worry and prefer structure while completing assignments; I found many of these instructions vague and prefer more concrete rubrics and guidelines as writing and literature is very subjective. Speaking in front of people has never been a struggle of mine and I consider myself extremely verbally fluent. My audience was very engaged and willing to participate. I found it interesting that some of the less talkative class members were participating and interpreted this as a compliment as it was evident that nearly everyone was engaged in my presentation. Being a dual education major, I am aware that I have an innate ability to teach and creating an outline and lesson plan was quite simple for myself. Through both my struggles and confidence I found valuable things to take from the whole

After my presentation, I believe that our sexualities have a great impact on how we read literature. Answers to many of the questions during my presentation showed the difference in each class member’s perspective of the novel. All participating classmates argued that sexual orientation and gender was natural and uniquely inborn to each individual. This was evident with the discussion after the anti-same-sex commerical and images. The effects literature has on culture was discussed during the presentation; Erica explained her belief that society sculpts the way authors write about certain matters. The answers and justifications for class member’s unique perspective relating to the class themes and texts were interesting to compare with one