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Is Understanding Learner a skill of mine?

Brianna Rodriguez

Honors English 11

Ms. Archer

Doulos Discovery School

Feb 08, 2024

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Growing up, my teachers have always told me how great of a student I am and how

quickly I’m able to learn about different topics. I was able to live up to these praises every year

until covid hit. 8th grade was my downfall and all my grades plummeted; it felt like I wasn't

good enough and that if these people were to see me then, they'd be disappointed. When I went

into 9th grade, I kept trying to live up to these past praises and slowly but surely after rough

patches, I was able to become an Understanding Learner again. An Understanding Learner is

someone who can effectively learn and adjust from and to other opinions as well as share their

own. They also adapt to any given situation after synthesizing a variety of information and are

able to seek answers to their difficult questions. These qualities and traits are what make

someone an Understanding Learner and in this essay I will prove I fit into such a description.

Tenet: Offer personal opinions as well as listen completely to the input of others and adjust

appropriately.

Tenet: Synthesize a variety of information and adapt to a given situation.

A perfect example for these tenets would be group projects, where we all share our

opinions, listen to each other, come to a conclusion and adapt our project to the rubric. In English

last semester, I decided to make my final project a group project with Andrey and Bradley. We

went through various ideas, and we came to the joint decision of making our final project a set of

letters from different people talking about Kunta Kinte from ROOTS. I gave my opinion on what

should be in each letter and the format, Bradley and Andrey argued back that their format was

better and we kept doing this back and forth for some time; I went home that day and thought

about it and the next day I came to school and listened to their input completely. Understanding

where they were coming from, I brainstormed ideas, shared it with them and then we came up

with an idea that combined all of our concepts and was something we could do in the time frame
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given and we spent some time adapting our rubric to what it should include, and our project to

meet every requirement. Immediately, we got to work on our idea. Throughout the project we

had to keep reminding Bradley to finish his work but we were able to finish it in the given time

frame. This not only shows that I was able to listen to the opinions of my work partners but also

how I was able to share my own with them.

Tenet: Effectively use library and computer resources.

Previously in this class, we had to do reading logs every week until the end of the

semester. I searched for days for a book that interests me in the school library and in the past 3

years, I found around 5 books in there that truly caught my attention and I could read. After

noticing the library books were not interesting to me, I went to an online library which has a

wider variety of novels, which is where I found most of the books that interested me and that I

used for my reading logs. The most recent example of using computer resources is right now, I’m

using different resources, google docs to write this defense on, language tool to help with my

spelling, email to ask teachers for help and a few more resources on my computer to make this

essay great and do the rest of my DOULOS project. This tenet is one I believe I'm especially

good at as we’re constantly having to use different resources, like canva, khan academy, etc., on

our computers for multiple classes and various projects.

Tenet: Seek out appropriate responses for difficult questions.

Recently, our class took a trip to Spirit Mountain, where aside from picking coffee, we

got amazing devotionals from our chaperones that left me wondering about certain things. As I

listened to Mr. Tony speak about a map to follow to get to eternal life, and how they as

Christians are the only true religion and way to God, I wondered what would happen to those

who weren't Christian and believed they were following the right path, set of rules and
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worshiping the true God. After he was done with his devotional, Alex and I approached Mr.

Tony with our questions to which he sat and answered with great wisdom. Naturally, I’m a

curious person, but I’m also shy so I don’t usually ask in front of a group of people but rather,

separately. The fact a friend was by me, gave me the security I needed to seek the answers in a

way that was doable for me. In the case that I don't have a friend to accompany me to ask, I will

prepare myself for a few minutes before going up to the person and asking the question.

In conclusion, I effectively use the resources around me, adapt to situations and listen to

others as well as share my opinions with them. The different situations and struggles that have

happened to me, the group project, the reading logs, and finding a way to ask my questions, have

helped me grow in this skill. In the future, I’ll use the skills I’ve learned to keep moving forward

and use them in college as well as in my career. For all these reasons, I believe that

Understanding Learner is a strength of mine.