English Class Reflective Essay

Over the past semester I have learned many things in my English class, educationally and through life lessons. Ms. Henry took the tedious, standard, subject of English and turned it into moral and intellectual lessons we can use in our daily lives. I latched onto the secret life of bees, serial, and the debate, out of the topics we went over this semester.
I learned, from the secret life of bees book about the importance of different perspectives. In English, we often use these in writings about an opinion or idea where you have to chose one side, and through different perspectives we have to explain and justify ourselves in essays. The perspective used in the secret life of bees was of a young girl experiencing abuse and witnessing racism going towards her loved ones. She learns not everyone feels the fairness towards all people that she feels, and not everyone is who you think they are. She thought of her mother as a brave woman who had a valuable reason for everything that

happened, but it turned out her mother intentionally left her, because she just couldn’t handle it. Her mother faced depression, and although she wanted to hate her for what she had done, she forgave her mother eventually. I understand why Lily would forgive, because her mother is not alive, and forgiving her is all she can do to gain closure. Before reading this story I never imagined forgiving someone, even my own mother for leaving me, but I learned it is okay to forgive and forget in that kind of matter.
Another example of what I have learned is the significance behind critical thinking in just about anything. The podcast “Serial” taught me that thinking critically is key. In essays, like the upcoming persuasive writing essay we will take in the next year for our state assessment, it requires critical thinking to persuade the reader. It taught me that in English and even in everyday life critical thinking helps with justifying an argument, and questioning yourself. I learned that curiosity and over thinking every now and then isn’t all that bad of a concept. The podcast “Serial” season one by Sarah Koenig was about a regular teenaged boy that was locally seen as the “good kid” in his community, being convicted of murdering his girlfriend 16 years ago. The investigation abundantly goes into depth about every hour, minute, second, of that day and every person involved, from the girl who supposedly had a 20 minute conversation in the library with the defendant, to the person that apparently helped the convicted murderer in the case. The research is taken to far measures that increases critical thinking amongst the millions of listeners across the globe.
Lastly, my English class taught me how to persuade your audience.

Debate deals with a lot of persuasiveness when presenting your case. Debating is a step further from a persuasive writing essay, because it is publicly speaking your topic and explanation. This lesson helped a lot because I learned if I can do a debate, I can do a persuasive essay no doubt. Our debate was, in the case of puss in boots, was trickery justifiable? I went into depth on my opinion along with my group and learned the aspects of convincing an audience with things like remorse, real life examples, and a valuable argument. For the affirmative case, we used examples like trickery being justifiable because of happiness. Puss committed his acts for the sake of happiness towards his master whom, at that point, he would do anything for. For the negative case, we argued the life of the ogre should be just as valuable. I also learned that sometimes there is no right answer, it’s just about how you interpret your

case.
This semester's curriculum taught me very valuable lessons. They are tasks I will never forget because of the significance inhabited within each assignment received. The three that grasped my attention the most, were the secret life of bees, serial, and debate lessons. I found the lessons very interesting and hope to learn and experience just as much in the upcoming year.