Caroline Piatt

Mr. Pinkerton

ENG 1510

April 15, 2019

Extended Reflection on Common Core

The project I chose to conduct research on was the Common Core State Standards. I was

first introduced to this topic back when I was in grade school. Common core is the unification of

math and language arts standards across the United States. The standards were created in effort

to better prepare students for college and their careers. I learned that this standard has come with

many controversies in the education community from teachers, parents and students. My parents

had always talked about how they had disagreed with this learning standard because they did not

believe that my siblings and I learned best this way. Hearing their disinterest in the standard

sparked an interest inside of me to want to research more about the topic and after learning more

about the topic I had wanted to share it with others. After learning more about the standard, I do

not think students learn the best with this standard.

I was first exposed to this topic because of my parents and how they expressed their

negative opinions about this new way of learning. This allowed me to choose to do this research

and present it to my audience. In order to effectively deliver my argument, I needed to analyze

my audience and decide on the best multimodal element to ensure they understand my message.

Looking at the classroom setting I found that my audience was my English teacher and my class.

It is a group of students about my age so I chose to present in PowerPoint format because that is

one way I understand presented information, so I thought it would be effective to my class as

well. PowerPoints are good to display different information on different slides to ensure that

nothing gets to cluttered together.

After analyzing my audience and deciding how I wanted to present my information, I

needed to solidify my purpose. My purpose of writing is to convince my audience that common

core is not the best way to prepare students, like us, for college. After gathering research, it is

shown that students are almost less prepared, and I think this is useful information to present to

others, so they see just why this standard should not exist. I took this information and looked at it

though the rhetorical triangle. When composing this project, I made sure to pay attention to

rhetorical appeals like ethos, logos and pathos. The ethos for my project has to deal with my

credibility. The way I established my credibility was through my sources. I made sure to gather

research from the news as well as scholarly articles to ensure the information’s was reliable to

share with others. In gathering my information, I, as the speaker, have ensured that my audience

can trust the information I am presenting. I included my sources at the end of my PowerPoint so

that my audience can see where my research came from and trust that the information I am

presenting is reliable. The logos for my project has to deal with the message I am presenting. I

use logos to establish my logic and present my message to my audience. I chose to put my

information into a PowerPoint to make sure my message is described in a logical format and my

audience can be convinced on my opinion. The pathos to my project has to deal with the

audience. Pathos has to do with the emotional appeal that my audience feels. I think that the

audience will feel informed and changed by my topic because my information is trying to

convince my audience that common core is not the most effective way for students to learn.

Overall, I think looking at the rhetorical triangle has allowed me to successfully analyze my

audience, so I effectively deliver my message.

 Through the writing process I learned about ethos, logos, and pathos and how to use these

three pieces to effectively produce my argument. I learned how to be reliable, credible and

persuasive through this writing process. I have learned how to set up my PowerPoint so that it is

understandable to my audience. Through the PowerPoint I explain my stance in and back it up

with facts in order to persuade my audience to take my side of this controversy. Next time, I

would set up a rhetorical triangle on a piece of paper so that I can visually see it and hold a copy

of it rather than have it on my screen.

I conducted my argument in a sequential order. I begin with explaining common core and

how it was supposed to effect students positively. Common core is supposed to better prepare

students for college and this was not the case. After this, I talk about how it has negatively

affected students and my opinion on the standard. I also included a video for someone arguing

for common core to show a counter argument and show that some people do agree with it. My

call to action comes at the end. I use my call to action to show that common core is really not the

best thing for preparing students for college.

The medium I chose to present with was PowerPoint. I was initially drawn to this

medium because I think it is an effective way to present information. I tried the weebly website,

however, for my topic, I found that PowerPoint worked more effectively in transitioning from

topic to topic. I also was drawn to PowerPoint because I am familiar with it and know how to

effectively deliver a message using PowerPoint. I thought it was kind of difficult to include

different designs into PowerPoint to make my presentation more appealing.

Looking back at the peer review process, I found that it was helpful in preparing for the

project. Through the peer review process, I was able to see different multimodal projects and

gather different ideas by seeing other pieces of information. The peer review process also
allowed me to see the information I needed to add to my project in order to make sure my

audience understood my message.