English Reflection

1st Quarter Reflection Learning always helps to improve the future and it happens through many ways. This quarter has gone by so fast, yet I have learned so much, especially in my English class. In English this quarter I learned to express myself, understand many advanced texts, and use literary devices along with grammar to help even further express myself. I became very skilled at applying and acquiring new vocabulary to further understand the readings and core texts we have. In class, I learned this from completing the Non-fiction Notebook and testing my vocabulary skills on Words and Their Stories. The Non-fiction Notebook helped me to read more than I ever have, and see and experience many words that I do not usually hear or see in my everyday life. Words and Their Stories also taught me many new words, but all at the same time, I discovered the derivatives and prefix/suffix meanings of all the words on there which will help me understand difficult vocabulary I come across in the future. Both of these activities not only helped me expand my vocabulary, but they also taught me how to gather data through all of my senses. It is definitely not a good thing, but I do not often read. I am very picky about what books I find interesting, so I end up not reading as much as I could be. So instead of gathering data and learning through reading, for the majority of my life, I have been gathering knowledge only through kinetic and oral communication. These two activities helped me further advance my ability to gather data visually and process it. The development of these two skills will help me read and analyze all sorts of texts including books I read for fun, and difficult textbooks such as the one given in AP world history. At the very beginning of this quarter, our class wrote a timed essay about the over-arching theme of our summer readings. This essay taught me how to generate organized and concise writing for specific audiences. Because this essay was timed, I was under a lot of pressure while writing it and had to think quickly and clearly how to make my points come across as clear and precise as possible. The time limit also caused me to not waste any sentences on unnecessary details, and to keep the flow going. An advancement of my ability to think and communicate with clarity and precision came about from this assessment because I had to focus harder than I would on a take-home writing. This important ability will be needed for every single writing I create because no matter what job I end up with, there will always be a need for writing along the way. For example, I will have to create high quality essays on a time limit for my AP world history exam, and the timed writing I already did has helped me to be better prepared for the final in history. This quarter in English, we read a tragedy written by Shakespeare called "The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice." This book, obviously very old because it was written by Shakespeare, had a lot of language and literary devices that were hard to recognize and understand without getting any help. However, going over the reading during class and using Sparknotes really helped me understand it better. I have finished the book and I have learned to analyze and use diction, details, imagery, and figurative language to communicate effectively. Now that I have read the book, my knowledge of this kind of literature is so much wider and I can apply it whenever and wherever it is needed. Through analyzing this reading, I learned to listen and understand with empathy. To be able to understand the literary devices and language of this, I had to be able to take time to think about what the text was about and thoroughly go through it trying my best to empathize with the characters so I really know what's going on. Using literary devices and special language along with listening and understanding with empathy will also help me on future essays and readings just like all the skills mentioned before. All of these skills are very important to helping me understand and create the best quality products possible throughout my lifetime.