This class was by far one of the hardest I took this semester. Though I love graphic novels and encyclopedia type books, I've always found reading “normal” books difficult. My mind wanders from the page I'm reading and that makes reading any book tedious. Most of the books in this class were no exception to my usual struggle, however, I did push myself pretty hard. I'd read for quite a long time until I was finally able to focus. On the other hand, I think my papers have been very well done. Ironically, I love writing even though I can't stand reading. That's something that I hope I can change eventually. Though I was absent a few times due to sickness, I believe I've worked hard on all of the assignments I've been given. I'm especially proud …show more content…
I’d dread being called on to read for the class in Kindergarten. Even though I still struggle to this day, I must say that I feel as though I’ve improved greatly. It was easy for me to feel like the stupidest one in class, for not enjoying reading, but classes like this one really help me to grow as a reader. The most difficult book I had to read, was probably Between the World and Me, due to the fact that I love historical conflict, and that book seemed to be mostly focused on cultural and internal conflict. Despite that, I managed to read the book all the way through. On the other hand, my favorite book was Journalism. It’s rare that classrooms give graphic novel reading material, and I loved that this class did. Journalism really stuck me as I read it, and I enjoyed the process of reading and discussing …show more content…
I tend to have a lot going on in my mind, but then have a hard time expressing those thoughts into words. I hope that I’ve been able to improve my ability to contribute, since in high school I never spoke at all. I am especially happy with the outside material I was able to bring into class. Most people don’t think of videogames in a serious context, so I was pleased to be able to present the game, This War of Mine, in the beginning of the year. As you may remember, in the game you play as civilians trying to survive during the Bosnian War. Interestingly, we also talked about that war near the end of the
One day everything changed. My new teacher told everyone to line up. I followed at the end of the line to a place right down the hallway where I discovered my lifeline for third grade. The library. I had always loved reading little books and getting read to ,but I had never gotten to check out a book in my own name. I was ecstatic. I found a book that interested me. “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.” I immediately checked it out and took it home I couldn’t wait to read it. Little did I know I would have trouble and it was a lot harder than I thought.
...book was difficult in the fact of all the strange names and places but that teaches me that learning about the world will not be easy either. It is hard for people to drop what they are used to and be open to something totally foreign to them but that is something I need to experience in life.
Beginning in grade school students are taught a basic curriculum for English, some of the basics being: five sentences equaling a paragraph and five paragraphs equaling a essay. The beginning of the English learning stage is a time to get engaged in reading and writing. Honestly, most children when they are younger start loving to read and write but do they stay that way throughout middle school, high school, or even college? No, nine out of ten times kids who started out loving to read and write end up dreading it. But why? Every students has their own personal reason. Some may have never fully understood how to read or write and was to embarrassed to speak up others may have disorders such as dyslexia which makes reading and writing difficult. In my case I had a passion for reading and writing when I was younger. As I grew up I did not like the material that had to be read or the papers that was required to be written; but since I knew the work had to be done accurately in order for me to pass the class I learned to tolerate the subject.
In reflecting on my work thus far, I am consciously aware of my overall improvements to date. I have become more aware of the importance in reading the assigned material thoroughly before class. This is directly linked to my quizzes in which the first mark I earned was poor, but I rebounded with perfect scores on the subsequent three quizzes. In examining my letter of introduction, I feel as if I showed what I am capable of producing under pressure. That paper was due right around the time I had to travel extensively between here and my distant home for two separate emergencies. With that being said, when you left positive comments at the end of my paper I was elated.
Instead of mom reading children’s books to me, I read them to her. And if I stumbled upon something I didn’t know or understand, mom helped me out! Soon enough I started reading to her without stuttering of not knowing how to say a word. I started being able to sound out words easier and my fluency became much better than before. First grade came around and I started reading bigger books such as Junie B. Jones and also the Magic Treehouse books. Books became easier to read as I aged and the books I read were getting bigger and bigger. In 5th and 6th grade I read The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpents Shadow, a trilogy called The Kane Chronicles written by Rick Riordan. I thought these three books were the greatest three books ever written! I even thought they were better than the hunger games! Especially with the series being based around Egyptian gods and theology, and also managed to tie in kids around my age that I could relate to. Those books made me love reading more than I ever have and I would read them again if I had the time to. Once 8th grade came out along I decided to read a “big boy” book: DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I thought I was so cool because I was reading a book that my parents have read. It has been the best book I have yet to read so far because it sparked my interest from the first sentence, to the last, there was intense suspense throughout the whole book and I could nonstop
I feel that the hardest assignment that I received throughout this class were the Lab assignments because there were a lot of long passages, and I wasn’t able to understand everything that it was talking about the passage. There were some hardest than others do to the big vocabulary words. I feel that this was a little challenging for me. As I was giving more lab assignments I kept reading and using one of the skills (talk to the text) that I learn to help me with
There are various ways writers can evaluate their techniques applied in writing. The genre of writing about writing can be approached in various ways – from a process paper to sharing personal experience. The elements that go into this specific genre include answers to the five most important questions who, what, where, and why they write. Anne Lamott, Junot Diaz, Kent Haruf, and Susan Sontag discuss these ideas in their individual investigations. These authors create different experiences for the reader, but these same themes emerge: fears of failing, personal feelings toward writing, and most importantly personal insight on the importance of writing and what works and does not work in their writing procedures.
The most important hurdle to overcome in the course was mainly myself and my old writing habits. Adjusting to the course is a goal that one needs to overcome post-haste, the more time it takes one to adjust, the worse your grade will be. A critical aspect of adjusting is the ability to change the writing requirements based on what class one is in. By figuring out the appropriate text to use in each class, it would help one adjust to the course faster. In my history class, writing is mainly facts piled on other facts with no set of techniques, while writing class involves a lot more critical thinking. I extremely enjoyed this course because I found that I can express my own personal views while maintaining the foundation of my papers.
My reading experience in junior-high and first three years of high school were not so much different. I had never been enthusiastic to read about predetermined topics assigned by my teacher and they continued to assign predetermined reading topics that made me feel frustrated and at times uncomfortable. But there was positivity that came out of these repulsive and devastating books, such as Lord of The Flies by William Golding or The Night by Elie Wiesel. Lord of the Flies caused me to confirm that humans must have rules and a government to help
Over the course of this semester I learned a lot about myself as a writer. This English 101 class has really allowed me to expand my essay structure and ways of thinking. This was my first college writing course and it has given me much more freedom when writing because in high school I felt limited and like what we were writing was not very important. In high school I would write essays to just to fulfill the required word or page count and to a degree I still feel like this but maybe that is why I am an engineering major but in this course I actually was able to express my ideas and for the first time really test the limits of my writing capabilities. I really enjoyed being able to incorporate my voice more in my essays and I believe that I developed my own personal style a bit from this. At the beginning of the semester my writing was quite choppy and there was plenty of room for improvement in the overall flow of my essays. Now, I use several different tactics such as outlining to create better connections between paragraphs. I believe I was able to move beyond many of the high school ways of writing and make general improvements to my essays.
To be completely honest with you, I don’t normally enjoy books. Reading has never really been something I would look forward to until I found this book, Out of my mind by Sharon M Draper. I remember when we were first told that for our assessment this term we would have to read a book, I was already dreading it, I went to the library with one of my friends and just chose whichever book I saw first, I went home sat down and began to read, I actually couldn't stop reading until mum came into my room and forced me to put the book down. I loved this book and looked forward to reading it every day, I looked forward to seeing the world through someone else's eyes and heart.
I have always known that writing was not my strong point. Entering writing 101 in September I was very much afraid. I knew that the expectations would be very high for this course; thus it would be more difficult than any other writing class I had previously taken. At first writing was a nightmare for me, but thanks to the assistance from professor Smart and my tutors, I have improved drastically in my writing skills and, as a result I am now a better writer. During the course of four months, I have learned so much. There were a few bumps in the way throughout the semester, but I managed to overcome them. It is hard to believe that my journey in writing 101 is coming to an end. Through my hard work and dedication, this class has helped me to build confidence in my writing that will help me throughout my college life.
Reading always became tiresome to me. We had a reading block in class everyday. The reading block was to make us read fifteen minutes straight a day. Ms. Peshca, my seventh grade teacher, ensured that the class would read. I never read the books until we started reading The Hunger Games.
Reading and books became a real struggle for me from elementary all the way to high school because I found it hard to comprehend the books that I was made to read. These books were not interesting to me and I found myself starring at pages for hours at a time and would not know or understand what I read.
I have learned many things throughout the course of the term, including such things as: how to write an essay and how to improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library, the internet, and the “Common Sense” textbook, how to cite research, examples, and quotations properly within the contents of my research paper as well as document it accurately according to MLA standards. Through the exploration of the “Subjects and Strategies” textbook, I have learned nine different methods used when writing an effective essay and how the different writing styles affect the overall theme and tone of the essay when used properly. This past semester, I have encountered many difficulties when trying to write these essays, but through the use of the textbooks, the aide of the instructor, and once I was able to classify the different types of essays and styles, I found them possible to overcome.