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Tucker Ippich
Ms. Lester/ Hamilton
Honors World Lit. Comp.
1 May 2012
End of Semester Summative Reflections
1. I learned quite a bit about the content of my research topic. Prior to this semester, I had
always thought of war as just a thing that is portrayed in Mark Wahlberg movies and
video games; however, in the past 18 weeks, this has changed quite a bit. My most basic
insights came from the book we read, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” More on that
later though. These insights, whether or not me learning that war is not it is all it is
cracked up to be, have made me grow as a person and see the world under a different
light. As far as still having questions, I would love to try again someday to do a project
like this one to further my understanding of the world. Someday I might try learning
more about something like PTSD or amputations, to fully understand the horrors these
people have undergone in their time at war.
2. My most frequently hit snag probablywasunderstanding fully what I was going to do
next. The calendar helped a lot, of course, but I still have a hard time managing my time.
This and all of the strange new things we had to use, like EasyBib, Symbaloo, Wiki
Pages, and the like. However, I suppose I dealt with these problems in a decent enough
way, because I finished my Prezi and I feel like I did a great job on it. Time management
will definitely be a topic of work in my next years of high school, to prepare me for the
real world.

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3. The most difficult part of this research project is not the project itself. I felt that doing the
final project was the easiest part, actually. The hard part to me was the “preproduction”
part of the project. Making the research design proposal, for example, was difficult for
me. Doing all of thepresearch was difficult for me. However, once I had a plan in sight
and an idea in my head for how my final project would look, everything kind of just fell
together. The most rewarding or positive part of my project was when I realized that I
was not behind or anything, and finished my Prezi. It really is just like a weight off of
your shoulders when you finish a project such as this one.
4. The books I read, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and “Flags of Our Fathers” were
both not very important in my choosing of what topic to do. At first, after reading these
books, I wanted to do my project on something like Pre WWII PTSD and such.
However, after trying to research these topics, it seemed like it was going to be too hard
to find decent information on that topic so I decided to use something that seemed more
interesting and also more prevalent, which was TBI. TBI had my attention as a close
number two to the other topic, and when I decided I would not do that one, TBI was my
other choice to pursue. Fishbowl discussions furthered this, as it seemed people liked
talking about TBI more than pre 1960’s PTSD.
5. Reading non-fiction articles had the most important of an impact to me as far as my topic
goes. I loved both of the other books that I read, but they did not have anything to do with
TBI. As far as the fishbowls go, they made me feel very uncomfortable once we had the
entire class in a discussion. I felt like I could not get a word in edgewise, and that that
was why I had a low grade on the fishbowl discussions we did as a whole class.
Everything was too rushed. However, my favorite article had to come from the

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Washington Post, and it was basically following the progress of a man who had come
back from Afghanistan with a Traumatic Brain Injury. It had probably the largest impact
on me as far as all of the literature that I have read since the start of my veteran project.
6. In the past 8 weeks, I feel like I have done great overall. My proposal, my shaping sheet,
my research, and especially my final project. These were all done very well to me it
seems. My final project is the part of this that I am most pleased with.
7. The most challenging thing to me going into this project was all of the deadlines. It
seemed like nothing that we were ever going to do was certain, and that got me a couple
of times. I never really knew what to do next, despite having and using my calendar.
This was probably mostly my fault, but you can never really know. However, everything
worked out okay and I am thankful for that.
8. My research and information literacy skills have probably skyrocketed this year. I have
learned how to wade through the bad articles, I have learned how to use the CRAAP test,
and I have learned how to effectively not use Wikipedia for everything, and I feel like
that is a big step in all of this. I have learned how to use easier tools, such as easybib, as
well. That has affected this project hugely. Usually making a bibliography takes a lot of
time for me, but this time around it took a day to make my full bibliography. So it has
definitely helped a lot.
2.1.1 Continue an inquiry-based research process by applying skills (anakysis, synthesis,
evaluation, organization) to information and knowledge in order to construct new
understandings, draw conclusions, and create new knowledge.
2.3.1 Connect understanding to the real world.
2.3.2 Consider diverse and global perspectives in drawing conclusions.

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9. Me doing a Prezi for this project has made it a whole lot easier than all of the other
choices for this project. A Prezi, to me, was the most promising choice for my project. It
was easy to make, and looks really nice. I think that if I would have done any other
things, they would not have come out as good as my project did. I did not like
VoiceThread, and the multigenre paper just looked much too complicated, and after
talking to people who chose that outlet, I’m glad that I didn’t do it.
10. My Symbaloo dashboard was lacking to say the least. I have said it before, and hopefully
I will not have to say it again. I feel like using other tools besides Symbalooare much
more helpful for me to keep up with my information. I dislike having to make a new
account for some other thing that just holds all of the other things that I use. I guess that
my absence of use for Symbaloo means that I am not a proficient student; however, I do
not believe that using a web app can say much about my leaning abilities.
11. I feel like if next year in American Lit we do a lot of digitally geared projects, I will be
doing a great job and have a head start on all of the other students. However, I have not
written a traditional research paper in over 2 years so I believe that if my teacher has
more of a traditional point of view, I will probably be out of luck. However, I feel most
classes are moving more to a traditional direction, so I feel confident with this year
preparing me for next.