Personal Experience Gained From Team Working English Language Essay

Personal reflection is vital to learning, teaching, personal identity and one’s research. I have learnt and explored my experience on this group project which includes a number of elements such as analysing articles and writing annotated bibliography of different articles. I also had access to learning tools like online resources, textbook material and library resources which helped me improve my writing skills as well as my ability to understand materials effectively. Sharing and discussing different ideas and amount of knowledge amongst the group also gave me a brief insight on how to deal with problems and come up with an applicable solution. I also experienced how to confront difficulties in a team work and how to resolve any sort of argument or problem and come up with something which is agreeable by everyone. While working on assignment such as this, I exercised a great opportunity of developing and enhancing my writing skills effectively and efficiently with the help of other people’s ideas which was an advantage to me.

In conclusion, I’ve learnt a lot of things about myself while working with my group members in undertaking this project and also found that I am capable of achieving almost anything if I put my soul and heart into it.

Has the project given you any new insights about group work?

Offcourse it has. This project has given me many benefits from using group work as part of teaching and learning activities in this project. Working in teams can make work a lot more easier leading to an involving and satisfying experience for students. By engaging myself into a group, I increased my involvement in the project, put in more effort, gained greater satisfaction and became more oriented in completing the group’s task. Also, working in groups can be challenging at times and it demands a set of skills. With this project, gained fair knowledge about the way task-oriented groups work and what complexity it involves. At first, it was hard for me to understand the whole process of team work and the amount of communication skills it involved but by undertaking this project in groups, I have certainly developed a stronger sense of obligation amongst the members and increased pressure towards the completion of the task.

In conclusion, this project has given me a new insight about group work with an opportunity of learning group skills. These skills promoted my self-independence and less dependence on teachers.

What was the thing you liked BEST about working in a group?

The best thing which I’ve always liked about working in a group is talking and getting to know people at first. Working in a group is a great way to practice skills you’re not sure of. Some of the most important things I like when working in a group is staying organized, finishing off tasks before the deadline, enjoy working with others and rising up concerned issues if there’s any. Working in groups also makes a project interesting and big as compared to doing it individually. With group work, I’ve been learning more in less amount of time and also enabling myself to check on everybody’s progress to see if anybody needs help.

Last, but not the least, I like the fact that the amount of work in a group is divided fairly and evenly for each members so that the work is done in a timely manner and efficiently as opposed to doing it individually.

What was the thing you liked LEAST about working in a group?

The thing which I liked the least about working in a group is the way at times a group member would talk over other members or when a member is being a non active participant. I strongly believe that a group requires everyone’s participation and sincerity on a same level. Another thing I like least about working in groups is that it can become harder at times to meet up as many members are busy when others are free or vice versa. It’s not like doing an assignment individually where you can work at your own pace without having to consult anyone else.

Finally, the last thing I like least about working in a group is that a lot of members rely on others to do their work instead of them doing it themselves. This is not fair on other members as they have their own work to do and complete it before its deadline.

What would you do differently in a group project next time?

I would like to

FOCUS ON THE ASSIGNMENT ITSELF

What were the challenges of completing the assignment?

One of the major challenges of completing the assignment was finding the right type of articles in terms of clear context and topic. Many research methods and resources were used to locate the appropriate articles and it was something which wasn’t easy at all. The second major challenge was to create a proper annotated bibliography of each article which was equally as difficult as finding an article. However, the given useful websites and online resources helped me overcome this problem and made me understand the key important points involved in the process of writing annotated bibliography. Through the use of this knowledge, I was able to summarise the articles in correct format and also reference it in a proper manner.

Finally, another factor that challenged me in completing the assignment was time. As I was writing out the bibliography carefully and spending more time in researching and reading the articles thoroughly, I realized that I was running short of time before the due date so I had to sharpen up my speed.

What were the benefits of completing the assignment?

One main benefit of completing the assignment was that it was a short summary/analysis of appropriate articles and the amount of work involved was easily distributed amongst the group members. This assignment was completed much quickly and in effective time manner as it didn’t engage any sort of complexity in understanding the context and topic. Another benefit of this assignment was that it was a group one thus, giving me an experience of working closely in groups with each other and discussing the important aspects of the articles and the amount of work allocated to each members. Working in groups made this assignment easy to finish and meeting up its deadline just in time.

Finally, the last benefit was that after completing this assignment, I nicely understood the concept of writing annotated bibliography in a proper manner without having any difficulties. This is a great achievement and it also helped other group members as well.

Reflect on the various stages of the assignment.

Stage one was about writing critical review of a chosen article. While doing this assignment, I went through prewriting, composing, revising and publishing stages of successful critical writing in terms of its context and topic. I began to realize how the process of reviewing an article is divided between positive and negative elements. A few of my writing processes reflected on Sequencing, organizing, arranging and identifying beginning, middle and end key points with topic sentences and supporting ideas. I also revised my review by adding extra information and deleting or changing unnecessary text and also corrected grammar and spelling punctuation. In the final step of this assignment, I presented the best effort by generally presenting my review and ensuring that it meets the marking criteria. The four steps which I followed lead me to decent writing skills which I developed.

Stage two was about working in group and writing annotated bibliography of articles. While doing this assignment, I felt like I had a second chance of improving and getting better at writing skills and content.

More over, it also made me communicate widely and broadly with my group members discussing and organising the amount of task we had to conduct as a team. This also tested my inner knowledge and made it easier for all of us to start on the assignment and call for help if difficulty arises. With the help of resources, I wrote the whole bibliography of articles effectively considering that my sentences and paragraphs cover main ideas and supporting sentences corrected in grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. The thing that I learned the most from this assignment was that time is an important factor and one must always manage it wisely.

Stage three is about reflecting back on group assignment with more focus on group experience and assignment. It is more like a survey on all the experience gained throughout the various stages. These personal reflections have changed and improved my writing skills in a variety of ways. I think more broadly and wider now in terms of context and structure. In writing a review and working in group, I found that I had to push myself a little harder to succeed. In the end, I was pleased with my work. I can Comment on ideas, in terms of how they are meaningful to me and also link my observation skills to my own ideas, experience and develop a future practice.

How could this assessment task be improved?

This assessment task needs little bit of improvement which can be done in a number of ways. Firstly, all the appropriate inter-related assignment information and templates should be up on the website on time and all parts of it should be complete and available e.g. stage three of the assignment had a template uploaded later on along with marking guide which I think it shouldn’t be like that. All the assignment details and its related parts should be uploaded at once together. Failure to do this can lead to confusion and at times, can be a problem for those students who want to get the assignment over and done with.

Secondly, the amount of workload required from an assignment should be decreased as according to the weight of the assessment. For .e.g. this assignment weights approximately 6.5% of the total 20% and also requires a lot of writing and experience to answer it thus, the content and the amount of work should be reduced as it’s not that much worth.