One of the assignments that I am most proud of from this trimester is my Summer Reading Compare/Contrast paper. I devoted a lot of time into writing this essay and truly dug deep into both the complexities and analysis of my book, The Namesake. Of all the essays we have done this trimester, I feel that this particular essay was my best as far as analysis of the text, analysis of Mise En Scene, and the writing of the piece in general. I felt like I really understood the themes and ideas presented in my story which helped give me the confidence as a writer to execute a well written paper. As far as weaknesses with this assignment, I feel like I could have done a better job at directly addressing the complexities within the text. While I did recognize them at some level, I believe that one of my major critiques was to better evaluate those complexities and provide more evidence for my overall argument. Through this assignment, I learned a lot not only about the novel as a whole, but also about myself as a writer. I realized what I was capable of accomplishing which served as a basis for the rest of my work throughout the trimester.
Another assignment that I am extremely proud of is the Drama Presentation. Not only did our group receive a high grade, but I was able to develop myself as a leader and hone in my skills in order to direct the group and, in turn, create a successful project. This project was also, in my opinion, the most enjoyable project we worked on this trimester. It was fun to work with different people and see how each of us was able to contribute to the project as a whole. As I said, I served as the leader, dividing the tasks among the members of the group and making sure that everyone stayed on task to ensure that everything was completed. I was also in charge of designing the storyboards which allowed me to bring out the creative, art side of my personality. One thing I saw as a weakness, however, was that I wasn't involved in the analysis of the play as much as I would have liked to be. I feel like I devoted so much of my time to leading the group that I missed opportunities to widen my scope of learning in regards to analyzing text. This project also taught me a lot about myself. I got to work on my leadership skills and develop friendships with people that I would not have otherwise become friends with. I also learned a lot about Mise En Scene in that we had to consider all aspects while creating our film.
As far as my participation in class, I think that I would describe it as adequate. I tend to be somewhat shy in the classroom, especially in classes where I feel intimidated. This was definitely one of those classes. I felt as though everyone around me was smarter than me or knew more than me which, I think, frightened me from voicing my own opinions. There were also a lot of times where I feel like I maybe did not understand things as quickly as others, especially during the first few assignments. It made me feel as though I didn't belong in a class of that stature which, in turn, lead to my lack of confidence in myself and my opinions.
Considering that, however, I think I did a good job of adapting throughout the trimester. As I said, it was mainly during the first few assignments where I felt lost and confused. As the trimester progressed and we discussed the various types of poetry and literature, I felt myself coming out of my shell a bit more. I might not have expressed this through class discussions necessarily, but when working with small groups I was able to voice my ideas and not be afraid of being "made fun of" or "shut down" if my answer was not correct. I think that working with small groups was something that really helped me to gain confidence in myself which benefited me not only in this class, but in other classes as well.
Discovering this confidence also helped me in terms of individual assignments. Up until this trimester, asking for others help and opinions on my writing was something that I was extremely scared of. Typically, I would write a paper and rely solely on my own criticisms which was not exactly the most effective way of editing a paper. After working with multiple small groups and sharing our ideas, however, I became much more confident in asking for other people's help. In fact, for my final Hamlet essay I asked numerous people for their opinions and through their opinions, I was able to improve my essay tremendously.
Another key to my success was keeping up with my time-stamped, measurable goals over the trimester. When we first created our goals, mine were to improve my multiple choice test score by six points, to increase my vocabulary, and to learn how to stay focused while reading hard texts. For the most part, I was able to meet these goals.
In the beginning of the trimester when we took our first AP multiple choice test I scored a 30 out of 47 possible points. In other words, I did pretty poorly. I believe that score comes out to be around a 64 percent. After broadening my knowledge of literature, though, I was able to bring my score up significantly. Without test corrections, I got a 67 percent which, though not much higher, is three percentage points more than my original score. With test corrections, I was able to bring my score up even higher to an 82 percent. This is a huge accomplishment for me and I am extremely proud of myself and all that I was able to achieve.
Another goal of mine was to increase my vocabulary. During the first test, I struggled to recognize many of the words that were in not only the text but the questions as well. Not understanding both the text and the questions made taking the test extremely difficult. After reading numerous texts throughout the trimester, though, my vocabulary increased significantly which showed during our final exam test. There were only a few words that I did not recognize and even then I was able to make assumptions on their meanings based on the words around them. While I probably did not learn one new word a day as I had hoped to do, I did learn multiple new words over the course of the past few months which has helped me to improve my test score and diction as a whole.
The last goal I had was to read more difficult texts in hopes of being able to stay focused while reading. A big problem I experienced when taking the first multiple choice test was constantly drifting away from the task at hand. While reading I would start day dreaming, thinking of my plans for later that day, because the text was too hard for me to understand which caused me to, in a way, simply give up. After reading all the literature we read this trimester, though, such as Mrs. Tiresias, Hamlet, and Porphyria's Lover, reading the texts in the AP multiple choice test was a breeze. I now feel much more confident tackling complicated works of literature, especially poetry.
This trimester has been a huge learning experience for me and although there were times where I wanted to give up, I am glad that I stuck it out till the end. Thank you for all you have taught me, Ms. Wilson. Even though I am not continuing onto part B, I still have learned so much not only about literature but about myself. Being able to have a class with someone as passionate about their job as you has been an honor and I am so grateful for the many, many things you have taught me.
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