Final Reflection - Please incorporate these nine questions into your final reflective blog for the school year. Keep in mind these questions should be focused on your time in Mrs. Larson's Accelerated English Language Arts classes.
1- What are the three most important things you learned this year?
2- What is something we did this year that you think you will remember for the rest of your life?
3- What was the nicest thing someone in our class did for you this year?
4- What is something you taught your teacher or classmates this year?
5- In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? What is something you accomplished this year that you are proud of?
6- What was the most challenging part of this year for you?
7- What was the best piece of writing that you did this year? Why do you think it is your best?
8- Of the books you read this year, which was your favorite? Why?
9- What advice would you give students who will be in this class next year
Yikes! So, graduation is in 10 days (or 6 school days). Which is kind of surprising. At first the school year felt like it was dragging but the past two months have gone by really quickly. Since the year is ending that means that a finals reflection on the year is due. So here goes nothing!
This school year I learned many valuable things in this ELA class, but there are some things that have been more valuable to me than others. One of the most important things I learned this year is how to fully experience a book. Each time we read a book for class, we didn't just read, we experienced the book. I learned how to take notes, generate meaningful questions, and valuable connections. I found this very important because it changed the way I read and how a book affects me. The next two things that I learned that I found important was learning how to write grammatically correct and to write in many different types of writing styles. I found these two things very important because it has made me a more versatile and skilled writer, which will no doubt help me in the future.
Our Socratic Seminars for Tuesday's With Morrie is something that I think I'll remember for the rest of life. I think I'll always remember this because it had such a big impact on me. In these Socratic Seminars I got to hear everyone's opinions and views on the novel. I think I'll also remember this because it was only of the only moments where we were all being genuine with each other about our lives and fears. As middle schoolers everyone tends to coat over real emotions and opinions, but at this point everyone was being very real with each other about how we perceive the world, and that really changed my views.
The nicest thing that someone in this class did for me was help me keep up homework and class work. I'm a very paranoid person when it comes to school work and get terrible anxiety if I forget what the work is/due dates. I can say that atleast once a week I would text Justin asking about homework or to clarify what our work was. Every single time I sent Justin a text he would always respond immediately, or answer calls whether they were late at night or at six in the morning. I think that this was very nice of him because he could have just ignored me but he always did his best to help me out.
I think something that the class as whole taught Mrs.Larson were really memorable things. One thing was when we taught her was 'Salty' meant and now she constantly uses on other students (95% of the time it's Sam). Another thing that the class taught Mrs.Larson was that it's really okay and funny to expose kids in class (Omar, Nick and Evie), I think this because up until the last couple of months I feel as if the class and Mrs.Larson didn't have much of a relationship, but once we taught her that things like this were funny to us she seem to give out different vibes.
I think the thing I made the biggest improvement in this year was how I write and my quality of writing. Something I accomplished this year that I'm proud of is my essays and final blog I wrote for TKAM. I feel proud of this because it was something that I had struggled with but I did it very well.
There have been many difficult times during the year but the most challenging part of the school year by far was first getting into Mrs.Larsons class. This was particularly hard for me for many reasons. Since I had transferred to Heritage in very late September I was randomly placed in classes that were too easy for me and not challenging me. After about two weeks into me being here I was randomly informed one morning that my schedule was changed and that I'd have to go to Mrs.Larsons class. This was challenging for many reasons. Everyone else had Mrs.Larson before and I hadn't so I didn't know anything about how she ran her classes or her expectations which was really difficult for me.
I think my best piece of writing this year was my Life Is Beautiful/Night blog. I think this was my best writing this year for many reasons. I feel as if I had written it in a very proper way and that my formatting was very good. I also feel that my comparing and contrasting method worked very well.
Of the books I've read this year I'd have to say that my favorite one was 'Valley Of The Dolls' by Jacqueline Susann, even though I read this independently. This is actually one of my favorite books in general. This was my favorite books because it is one of the only books I've read that I felt that I could relate to characters. I loved the themes that the book involved and just the representation of the darker side of Hollywood, fame, and American culture. I am very much obsessed with American culture and the American obsession with beauty and popularity and I felt that this book represented the vanity of America and our obsession with being famous.
Some advice I would give to students that are entering this class next year is that to just to do what you have to do and manage your time. I would say that you should always start an assignment when it is assigned because due dates are always closer than they appear. I would also say that you just need to do your work. If you do your homework and assignments with quality you will not have a hard time in this class at all. Manage your impulses,time, and submit quality work.
