Outside Reading

I spent my whole 150 minutes on articles for my Biology project throughout the whole week.

Dear Classmates

Dear classmates of English 1,

This year has gone by so fast, and we have learned so much. I think that we can all agree that as a class, we have had a few challenges. We have tried our best to overcome some weakness we've had like side conversations, staying on track, asking appropriate things at appropriate times, and not getting too wild. I think my best advice would be to stay on track and be engaged in the discussion or work that we were assigned. I think that using individual work and group work class time to my advantage is something that I wish I would have worked harder at.

Some more tips would be to absolutely work super hard on pre-writing before you write a paper. For my research paper, I worked really hard on my note cards and it worked so well to my advantage when I was writing my paper because I had everything organized and ready to go. Also, it's very good to edit your paper really well and make sure to do all the write formatting because you wouldn't want to get points off for something like that. Definitely annotate all your books because if you don't, you'll be caught up in annotating everything before it's due. Make sure to stay on task and on top of things and try to turn everything in on time.

Participation Evaluation

Over this year, I would give my participation a B. I usually always come to class prepared, even though one time I did forget to bring my outside reading book. I usually don't pack up before it's time to go unless aloud. I may have gone to the bathroom a little too much, maybe 3 times a week in English which it shouldn't be that much. I use appropriate email communication. I almost always participate in class discussions.
Some of my weakness are that sometimes I talked to the person sitting next to me during class. I usually don't talk that much, but sometimes I get off track. My individual group work is pretty good. I usually get things done during those times. Whenever we do peer work, I always try to give people really good suggestions. I think that my participation has grown because I have learned a lot and I'm able to use my knowledge and input more and more throughout the year.

The End of School

     This school year has gone by faster than any other school year. It's been my best year so far, and I can't believe it's coming to an end already. I'm proud of my work this year, but I know that towards the end I became really bad about doing my homework. I wish I could go back and not procrastinate as much as I did. I know I could have studied more, but I start slacking and I can't stop looking forward to summer.
      As for exams, I plan to very prepared. I want to study a lot more than I did last time. I'm going to use my guest room as a study room and I'm gonna lock out my cellphone and laptop. This time, I will study in hour long periods. I will do 5 hour long sessions on weekends and 3 or 4 on school nights. Another thing that will keep my on track and determined is that I can't eat anything until I'm done studying. I start studying next weekend, and I hope I stick to my plan, and that my studying pays off!

Outside Reading

        So this week I've been reading Gossip Girl. I finally finished the book on Saturday. Over all, I think that it was a good book and it definitley kept me reading. The only thing is that the book was a little too predictable. It was like any other chick flick. It was super dramatic, but I definitely wanted to know what happened next. For my next book, I want read something that's a lot different than Gossip Girl.
I think that I might read "Impossible" by Nancy Werlin, "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher, or "Unwind" by Neil Shusterman. I'm especially interested in "Unwind" because I love futuristic books. The whole concept of it sounds very interesting, like nothing I've heard of before. Just the summary of the book is captivating to me, so hopefully I will like it. I'm looking forward to reading "Unwind."

Common Errors List

COMMON ERRORS LIST

1.      Missing commas
Ex. “I typed and typed as a little 3^rd grader and my ideas and creativity began to splatter on the pages.”

2.      Semi Colons needs to be followed by an independent clause.
Ex. “She had always loved my artwork; especially when I had worked so hard on it.”

3.      Unnecessary semi colons
Ex. “Having been so excited about my story; this was heartbreaking to me.”

4.      Indent dialouges

5.      Colons instead of semicolons
Ex. “This frightened Louie, so he ran away from his home, maybe even his city.”

6.      Work on transitions

7.      Connecting the other paragraphs to the opening one

8.      Analyze quotes

9.      Stay in one tense

10.  Formatting 

Essay- Writing Over the Year

          Ninth grade has given me a great opportunity to become a stronger writer, and I have tried my best to take that opportunity. With every writing assignment I’ve been given, I try my hardest to use the processes, tips, traits of good writing, and rubrics to deliver a quality of writing that is the best of my ability. Throughout the year, I definitely believe that my writing skills have improved greatly. The most useful thing I have learned this year is how to analyze literature and rhetorical situations in depth. Reviewing my pieces of writing through the year, I have noticed that the use of  good traits of writing are much bolder in my most recent work.

            My first piece of writing was my literacy narrative entitled “The Lost Story.” I remember thinking that I got lucky when I heard what my assignment was because I had such a great story to tell. This piece of writing is actually my 2^nd favorite paper out of my collection. Although, I know that if I could go back now and edit the paper, I would definitely improve it. A lot of the issues in this paper have to do with conventions such as missing commas, which I still struggle with, but I have gained a better understanding of these errors throughout the year.  The lowest score I got on the paper was sentence fluency, which has been a problem of mine throughout all of my school years. Looking at my last paper, I think I did much better with my sentence fluency.

            The next paper I wrote was my Profile called “Katie Michael.” The biggest strength in this paper was definitely my introduction paragraph. I described Katie riding her horse in descriptive detail. I learned how to do this in depth by reading many interpretive characterizations in class. I was able to use descriptive details to convey characteristics about Katie. The main problem I had in this essay was connecting the other paragraphs in the paper to the first one. If I could edit it now, I would relate the determined person she is to the determination I characterized in the first paragraph when she was jumping on her horse.  Also, my transitions were quite shaky. The transitions in my global issues paper were pretty strong, so I have improved with them. I now know that smooth transitions must be done by somehow using the topic of the current paragraph and briefly relating it to the upcoming paragraph.

            My literary analysis called “Tales of a Sidhi-kur Analysis” was the most difficult paper for me to write this year. I think the biggest reason that it was so difficult was because of the story I chose. It was very hard for me to come up with a thesis for this story because it has many stories within it. I realize now that I needed to figure out the author’s purpose for creating many stories within, how they connected, and how they affect reader’s interpretations of the story. I didn’t fully conceptualize the type of paper I was supposed to write using this story, and it ended up pretty messy. I also didn’t analyze my quotes in enough depth, which I did much better in my global issues paper.

            My global issues paper is the best paper that I wrote this year.  I scored an A in everything except the citation format. Overall, this paper shows how I’ve strengthened as a writer. I had trouble with my thesis and connecting my ideas to the thesis in my literary analysis, but I really got the idea of how to do that in my global analysis paper. I actually did well in my sentence fluency even though it’s been one of my weaknesses in the past. From my literacy narrative to my global issues paper, I’ve improved in all the good traits of writing. I’ve definitely applied things I learned in class to my writing.

            One of the most valuable things I have learned during my writing experience this year is that the process to a final paper is extremely important. Outlining, writing many drafts, thoroughly editing, peer editing, and reviewing the rubric is necessary for a final product that is the best of my abilities. Another important thing I have learned this year is to support my thesis and to provide a foundation for the purpose I’m trying to convey in the paper. Over and over again, we have learned how to give supporting details throughout a paper that demonstrate qualities that make a strong argument. Supporting details also help show readers why a certain quote is important, why an author might have written something a certain way, and how descriptions of a person can exhibit certain characteristics. Reviewing all of my papers from this year has made me realize how much I have improved as a writer, and that I’ve been able display those improvements and what I’ve learned.