This was my first year in an honors English class, and it helped me not only develop the five major components of the English lanuage, but it also helped in life skills that I could use later on in life. When the this course began, I became overwhelmed with all the work that was assigned, and all the reading that was to be done, but as the year progressed I was able to handle large projects that came with little time to complete them. From this class I have learned to space out my projects over the time period that I was given to complete it. The year also proved to be a turning point in my Englsih development. With the successful completion of this class, I have aquired confidence in my writing skills, that will in turn cause me to take harder English classes in the future. The litterature and the writing that we have focused on this year allowed me to grow as a reader, writer, viewer, listener, and lastly a speaker.
The one area that I believe I have grown in the most this year is as a writer. The one piece of writing that I feel caused the most growth was my literary analysis on The Age of Innocence . The Literary Analysis of The Age of Innocence I ended up writing this paper over three times because I was summarizing the book rather than analyzing the literary aspects of it. The problem was I was using quote sources that portrayed the literal parts of the book. Once I was able to find the sources that gave the literary meaning of the book, combined with my knowledge of the author, I changed the summary to a literary analysis. This caused growth in my writing because I was able to go beyond the literal meaning, and express the hidden meaning within. The research paper also allowed me to weave my own thoughts into a paper, with other sources and opinions.
During the course of the year I have read more books in English than I ever had in the past. The reading unit that reflects my growth as a reader was the book My Name is Asher Lev . My Name is Asher Lev Journals In order for me to put my My Name is Asher Lev journals on my site I had to retype them all, giving me the oppertunity to read over what I had wrote throughout the book. Throughout the journals I used evidence from the book to make predictions towards the ending of it. I was very surprised that most of the predictions I had made came out to be true. That is an example of my growth because I was able to find clues in the book, such as when Asher's father's desire to keep Asher's emotions trapped inside him eventually caused him to purge his feelings into a painting that eventually broke him away from his family. This year I was able to see that closed in world Areyah Lev was trying to keep Asher in, was eventually going to cause an even bigger problem. The daily journal entries allowed me to collect my thoughts together, and eventually see the connections the author was trying to make. The journals were helpful in letting my interpret what I had just read. For More Journal Entries
This year I feel that we should have done more work in the speaking and listening catorgories. I was disspionted that we did not have very many class discussions in which we could express our thoughts to the class, or learn other students interpretations of the books. The translation of Oedipus the King into modern language was a good learning expirence because it forced us to talk in front of the class as well as act of the play, the way we thought it should be. My Section of Oedipus the King The translation allowed me present the thoughts I had on the book. By watching the other students interpretation of the story, I was able to see the many views on it, and also get a deeper understanding for it. The acting and interpretations allowed me to see what my other classmates were thinking, and allowed me to express my own thoughts on the play as well.
The viewing we did in class this year allowed me to see how the book was interpreted into a movie form. In the viewing of The Crucible I was able to see how a play that was made for a stage was made into a movie. Also during the viewing of that movie, I was able to create my own drama using one of The Crucible's themes, which was histeria. The Drama on Hysteria This year during viewing I tried to focus on how the character's emotions were representive of the situtation around them. In watching Julius Caesar I was able to better understand what was happening in the play through the actors emotions because I have a hard time understanding much of what Shakespeare is trying to say. By watching the movie I could understand Julius Caesar, and therefore give a better interpretation of it.
This year has been a big learning expirence for me as a student, and also as an individual. Altgought I have inproved a lot there are still things that have to work on. I would like to develop my own style of writing, and become a more efficant reader. I plan to take American litterature, so I hoping that I will start off where I left off this year, so that I can continueously improve upon my reading and writing skills. The digital portfolio has helped me so much this year in the way that I have learned how to use my own computer, but also how to publish my work so that I have it forever. This year has been fun, and during the summer I plan to read a lot, so that I can keep up my statis of being a well read individual.