8 June, 2007
Englsih Final Exam
This year in English we have learned quite a great deal of information, from poetry to the World War 2. It has been a long, strenuous year in English, with more projects than there was homework. We did a tremendous amount of group work and studies on global issues. From what we have learned this year I have grown much more inside than in physical height. We learned of general skills and strategies of the writing process, most of which I did not like at all. A lot of this year covered reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret, and appreciate a variety of literary texts and this was very hard and demanding. In this paper, I will show you in what ways I have grown and what I have learned most this year.
To start it off, on top of the six traits and our ESLR reflections, a new general skill of the writing process was introduced to us, Bloom’s Taxonomy. In blooms taxonomy we were to go more in depth in our writing. We were to explain and evaluate rather than tell. This was fairly easy for me although, I did not like having to do this. It was troublesome thinking of what to write for each section of Bloom’s Taxonomy and thinking of how to organize your paper with so much to include. This showed in the group project we did of Anne Frank. On our paper we did splendidly on the synthesis part, the actual project, but not so well on the rest. This was not because I didn’t know how to do it well, it was that it was hard and strenuous and required a lot of time, which I was not willing to give. Unfortunately the bulk of that project was graded on Bloom’s Taxonomy and I do not think the grade accurately showed how much time and effort we put into the project. Six traits went as always this year. It was more of a thing we did when Mr. Raisdana was absent, rather than something important to our curriculum, just so we had something to do while we was away and unable to teach us what he really wanted us to know. ESLR reflections were done every quarter. They are very structured and repetitive and I really don’t see the point in doing them. Nevertheless, they had to be done. We learned but one new general writing skill this year, and built upon the two we already know quite well.
Next, and probably the biggest part, of at least my year in English class, learning to understand a variety of literary texts. The first book we read this year, “Lord of the Flies” was jam-packed with symbolism, certainly not one of my few strengths. In this book every character, object, and setting symbolized one thing or another. I tell you, if I had read that book on my own, I would not have had the slightest clue about any of the imagery and representation of any of the objects. Though as they were told to me in class I could clearly see how this story actually had a bigger meaning than just to entertain people when they were bored. Our poetry unit was yet another topic I knew not much about. Seeing something as something entirely new to me. Our photography unit helped a lot and was a good way to introduce poetry to us. Writing poems I have never done, so you can see that writing one each class was very difficult for me. I have written stories but never poems. At the end, most of my best poems were stories, fictional events that occurred in my head and from nothing I saw, smelt, heard, or touched. The Tempest was still in this area but quite a relief from this previous work. This book had not much symbolism, nor did it have many similes or metaphors. This book was written in old English and still hard to understand. Though there were definitions on the left hand pages, even the definitions seemed to be written in olden day language, at least using words scarcely spoken or written today.
Lastly, a topic of much difference from last year, my personal growth. As a result of all the work I did this year it would be hard not to have improved in at least one area. I’m proud to say I grew in many areas, more than I could include in this paragraph. Probably the area of most improvement, my confidence. Through all the group work and acting in drama we did I was forced to improve in this particular area. In the poetry unit the most terrifying ordeal for me was reading one of my poems at the poetry night. Standing in front of an audience is terrifying enough, but reading my personal thoughts and feelings scared me a great deal. I would probably not have come, had Mr. Raisdana told us that it was compulsory for everyone to read. With the work we did in the scavenger hunt, Anne Frank, and Teen life project I improved tremendously. I realized that the key to group work was communication. No doubt during this time my phone bill was through the roof. The teen life project was a result of lack of communication and that could be clearly seen in the product. Lastly, thanks to the poetry and photography unit I have been able to see things beyond what they really are. This helped a lot in the poetry unit as it did require a lot of similes and metaphors.
To sum it up we learned a lot this year and built upon what we had previously learned. I have grown in many areas thanks to this class and have come out to be a much more thorough and confident person.
