3rd Quarter Reflection

     The time here at Heritage has gone by so fast, it's surprising to think that we are already at the end of 8th grade 3rd quarter. When I take a time to reflect from the beginning now to the end of the quarter, I feel like I have grown as a writer and as a reader. If we take for example what was my favorite books this quarter I would say Alabama Moon. The reason I enjoyed Alabama Moon so much is because it shows people how to survive on their own and take responsibility for themselves. This book filled with so much action, emotions, and it also shows how we must feel grateful for the life we have. It also overlaps when it comes to themes by including friendship, determination, and a To Kill a Mockingbird theme coming of age. The biggest improvement I've made so far in my english language arts class is that it seems I have been improving in my writing. In the beginning of the quarter I struggled a lot when it came to writing objective summaries, stating my thesis statement, and providing textual evidence in my writing. I was doing great in my AoW's, but the thing that always brought down my grade was the objective summary. In these couple of weeks I have improved by writing less details and less evidence in the actual summary. When it comes to writing essays I've noticed that I haven't been verbose in my writing and that I have less grammar errors. The only major thing I have to prove on is taking myself out of thematic and argumentative essays.


   When looking back at blog posts from last year and my narrative writing I noticed that I was extremely bad when it came to narratives. The thing that I have accomplished since the beginning of this new year is that my narrative writing has improved so much, especially during the third section of PARCC ELA test. The major thing I'm proud of that I have accomplished is that I finally got an A on an essay, this has never been done before. I'm currently in my 24th book in the 40 book challenge, I fee like that my reading is going faster than last year. I clearly remember that last year in May I was barely in my 32nd book, so I have also improved in my 40 book challenge. The most challenging part of the 3rd quarter was the amount of writing we have done over the past couple of months. I do enjoy writing, but when it comes to argumentative essays for me it is a bit difficult. I find easier writing thematic, biography, or informative essays. It seems that argumentative writing I put myself by using words such as I or me. That was the difficult part of the third quarter.


    The last couple of questions took some time to think, but when looking back at my blogs from the beginning of August they were not too good. I noticed that I was extremely verbose when describing the specific prompt of my book and details such as the plot or setting. The mini-lessons we have had in class did make a difference in my blog writing. The lessons of textual evidence and embedding quotes truly helped explain my book in a more advanced tone. The narrative story we wrote for "the Cask of Amontillado" showed that all the lessons we had about imagery, dialogue, and characters helped my story become fantastic. I mentioned before that the strategies that helped were the mini-lessons and the comments of my peers. The AoW gallery walks we've had over the past couple of weeks has helped me learn more about the world around me. I've learned more about the terrorist group ISIS, ebola can be cured, lost WWII battleship, and the big one of course was immigration in other foreign countries. The research skills I gained in this class have not only helped me in here, but also in other classes such as social studies. My research skills have improved because I now gather numerous sources to support my claim, not just one. I also know the benefits of MLA citation and how it can be sophisticated that just copying and pasting web links. That is how I have improved during this quarter.