Objective: Creative Writing
“The Truth About Disney Movies”
Meets Objective
I think that once I have an idea, I can be good at creative writing, with word choice and making the story or paper flow. The problem I have with creative writing is coming up with something I want to write about. Sometimes I ask friends for ideas, I modify ideas from internet sources and make it my own, or just write whatever comes to mind. It may take me a couple tries but once I find something I want to talk about I can really make it a good piece.
I think The Truth About Disney Movies shows how I can make a tone in a story sarcastic and humorous, and have good word choice to make a simple sentence funnier. It’s not necessarily a story, but it flows well and makes the piece look like a rant almost, which can show creativity also.
Objective: Academic Writing
“Are the Unborn Disposable?”
Meets Objective
Research writing and formal writing have always been a struggle for me to do, because it’s not something that I can get motivated to write or spend time on. But this year as we did our Disposable People Essay, I grew in writing these kinds of essays. I ended up with a strong paper that showed evidence supporting the argument of stopping abortion. I think I ran into a problem when I sounded too biased in my paper when they should sound like a neutral voice.
Throughout the year I have learned very well how to make a good academic paper. With our research paper, I have learned how to organize my thoughts and use research that suits my point. I picked a topic I was interested in and found great articles that supported my topic. I think that I learned a lot with this project, especially when it comes to researching the topic.
Objective: Big Picture & Small Picture Revisions
“The Little Girl’s Book”
Meets Objective
When I look back over my revisions and drafts of all of my pieces, I’ve realized that I don’t change a lot to the ideas on the paper from my first draft. I do a lot of word choice changes, but not a lot of changes in the ideas and concept of the paper. I think that maybe in the future I should work on thinking more to see if I can do anything better with the paper then leaving it at a first draft. I think that my skills with changing phrases to make them have better word choice are pretty strong.
In my piece, The Little Girl’s Book, I think that I show great changes in the first and last draft with word choice and taking out unneeded content. I think it shows the Books feelings well and has a good narrative, that would draw a reader in and make them want to continue reading. Also, this is an example of a piece that I changed the events in, because it started without the backstory of the mom, and then later the daughter coming in and getting the same book. I think with my revisions and help from peers, I made a strong piece.
Objective: Grammar & Conventions
“Unloved”
Shows Improvement
I think that I have improved greatly with my grammar over the year. Last year my grammar was teetering on the edge, and now it has a firm base. Obviously, I could still use improvement on the grammar, but when I look back through the papers I write I can easily spot areas of trouble with grammar and conventions. I think that my conventions are strong too, I know where all my commas go, and the difference between a colon and a semi-colon. I think that I have improved a lot over the course of this year.
My adversity paper, Unloved, shows great strides in my grammar and convention skills. I have very few errors in grammar and spelling and such, although there could be improvements made. I think that this paper is strong in how I talk and think, but I’m a sophisticated tone because of the way I use grammar and conventions.
Objective: Close Reading & Analysis
“Eleanor and Park”
Meets Objective
When I started this year, I was horrible at keeping up with taking down quotes from the books we read as a class. But as the year went on, I got a lot of practice with this from the many texts we cited and wrote about. I found a way to dig deeper and find the meaning in the text and chose quotes that brought out the meaning further, and then explain how the quote did so. I also found good ways to keep my thoughts organized so that I could write a strong paper, and integrate my quotes well into it to support my thesis.
When we read Eleanor and Park, I really enjoyed the book, and sometimes got so sucked into the book I had to go back and reread to find the quotes that I wanted to write down the first time. I loved looking through this book and figuring out which quotes would help identify the characters adversity and how the author described the characters and made them come to life. I think that I did a decent job of showing the adversity through the quotes, and could do so easily because I connected with the book and loved it so much, that it was easy to read between the lines to what the author was really pointing to.
Objective: Holistic Reading & Application
“Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl Blogs”
Meets Objective
When it comes to finding the big picture in a book, I think that I am pretty good at this, because I am an avid reader. I think that reading books on my own time has really helped me grow in this area. When we did this sort of thing in class it didn’t take me long to figure out what the author was trying to get at, and how I could apply the lessons to my life or others lives. I think that it’s harder for some people who don’t get as much reading as I do, but because I read a lot more I am pretty good at this objective.
When we had a choice reading assignment, we were asked to pick out a couple key elements of the novel and blog about them. This involved looking at the book as a whole and figuring out how the author was showing their story and how they chose to write their book. I think that I met the objective in this area because I could describe how the author was making his book connect to the audience and his style and way of writing, and what the author was trying to point out subtlety in his book.
Objective: Considering Authors Craft & Style
“Case Files”
Meets Objective
When I think about the authors craft and style, I think of the words they use, how they describe their characters, and what they have the characters do. When the author wants to show emotion they don’t just tell you, “She was sad,” they show you with the actions the character makes that they are sad. I think I’ve grown in this subject of learning how to identify the authors style because of all the different genres of books we read this year. Many were in different time periods, so you could also see the style there.
When we made the case files from the book And Then There Were None, you could really tell the authors style. It was more creepy, and the author had a knack of spilling little hints that you barely noticed until the end when you look back over the book as a whole. You could see the hand of the author making every little detail perfect so that the book and story worked out in his favor. I think I met the expectation here because I could see the little things that the author did that were unique to himself and portrayed his style.
Objective: Speaking/Presenting
“Entertainment Speech”
Shows Improvement
This was probably my worst objective of the year, because I have never been good at public speaking. But I also think that I improved a lot over the year, where at the beginning I barely looked up from my paper, to the end where I could look up and sound confident, but was still fidgety. I think that I have grown in this area because of the practice I had throughout the year.
In my last presentation, The Truth About Disney Movies, I think I did the best presentation of the whole year. I was still fidgety, but I sounded more confident and picked a topic that would intreats me more when I spoke about it. I think I improved a lot through the year with my presentations every time I spoke in front of the class. I would like to keep improving because I believe this is an important skill to have if I want to be successful in the future.
English Portfolio 