What is this Essay About? For this diagnostic essay, you will be reflecting on y

What is this Essay About? For this diagnostic essay, you will be reflecting on your experience with education up to this point in your life. Of course, education is a different experience for everyone. Some people loved school. Some people hated it. Some people were home-schooled. Some people learned more outside of the classroom than they ever did while they were in it. Some people had one great teacher. Some had many. Some had none. Some excelled academically. Some struggled. Despite all of these differences, it is my basic assumption as a teacher that every student who enters my classroom is capable of learning. The challenge, for me and for each of you, is discovering how you learn best and taking advantage of your strengths as a learner. For this essay, you will be reflecting on both the positive and the negative elements of your educational experience up until now with the goal of determining what works for you as a student and what does not. My hope is that both you and I will take something away from this reflection that we can use together to help you succeed in this class. Prompt: How would you characterize/evaluate your educational experience up until now? Was it, on the balance, a positive or a negative experience? Describe one aspect of it that was positive and one that was negative. Each example should be a well-developed personal narrative using specific details to illustrate what made it positive or negative. Your examples could be specific classes, teachers, events, social experiences, or extracurricular activities. Use these specific examples to reach a general conclusion: what, for you, constitutes a positive educational environment/experience and what constitutes a negative one. Please use what you have learned in previous English/writing classes to guide your organization of this essay. I am intentionally avoiding instructions about how to organize this essay so that I can see what you have already learned. For example: how might you divide this essay into paragraphs? How can you make the main idea of the essay clear to your reader? How can you use detailed examples to illustrate your points? Requirements: Length: 500 words minimum Formatting: Don’t worry about formatting for this essay. If you are familiar with MLA format and would like to use it, however, that is ideal since it is the format we will be learning to use in this class. Grading: Since this is a diagnostic essay, I will not be grading you based on your demonstrated ability to use the conventions of academic English (how I will be grading you for the rest of your major essays). Your grade will be assigned based on your meeting basic requirements, as outlined in the attached rubric.