Reading and writing started off as my language arts class in elementary and middle school. It was my absolute least favorite subject of the day. The hour long class was spent learning mostly about grammar and spelling. To this day, spelling and grammar are my weaknesses. I did not find learning about the proper way to write interesting. Then having a teacher assign me a book to read, made me not want to read it. In high school, language arts turned into english. This meant reading more books and writing more essays, but less learning about the rules to it. Freshman year was all about Romeo & Juliet and Of Mice and Men. Sophomore year To Kill a Mockingbird, junior year The Great Gatsby, and senior year was Hamlet. Of course multiple essays …show more content…
When it came time to read Of Mice and Men, I would listen to the discussions in class and read only the interesting parts of the book. For this book it was pretty much just the ending. As for writing, I do not remember having an essay that was really difficult or super enjoyable. Sophomore year I loved my teacher so that made the class super easy to enjoy. Again when a book was assigned to read I would listen and read the interesting sections. A lot of writing happened that year though. My teacher however made the layout to essays incredibly easy to understand. “Each sentence is one of the layers in a sandwich,” he would tell us. My grammar and spelling was still not very good, but everything was done online so it corrects me right away. Junior and senior year were fairly the same. Essays came assigned one after another, and almost all of them were turned in late. This wasn’t because the work became too difficult for me or that I hated writing. It was because I could hand in an assignment late and I did not get marked down. I took advantage of this and would take at least an extra week to do my work. I did start reading books my junior year and that continued into my senior year. However I still did not touch the ones that were assigned to me. I figure the books were boring, and why would I read that when there is either a summary of the book or a movie
Transitioning from high school to college can be overwhelming. Before English 1301, I thought that I did not have to worry about being prepared for college. I quickly realized that my little background in writing essays was not going to be enough for college. Writing is not just something that I will use in English classes. In college, I will have to use effective writing skills in all my classes to complete research papers, essay tests and communicate to professors. Throughout my education, writing strategies persisted to be something that did not come easy to me. I dreaded writing because I could never find ways to get my thoughts down on paper. Ironically, a class that petrified me due to the amount of writing that was required ended up helping me in so many ways. English 1301 and my professor prepared me so much for college and real life.
In fact, I began this semester with plans to accomplish skills that would eventually bring me to an understanding of what a great writer is. During the summer I attended an English mini course which proved to be just a quick version of some high school rules on writing, that did not require much thinking or writing tasks, but it did provide an understanding of what was going to be expected in colle...
Throughout my childhood, I had a very strong dislike for writing and reading. I found it boring and unexciting. As I progressed through elementary school, each writing assignment always came back with a mediocre to poor grade and to be honest, I didn’t really care because I disliked writing so much, so it meant nothing to me. Even throughout middle school, I didn’t care. Because all grades in elementary and middle school didn’t count towards anything, so I just didn’t put in the effort. I got bored so easily when completing a writing prompt for the state standardized testing exam called CSAP, later known as TCAP, then progressing to become PARCC. Writing just never appealed to me.
The first day of my junior year I was extremely overwhelmed by this class; all the essays we were required to write in the first week didn't help much either. However, since the beginning of the year I have learned so many useful and important lessons which have guided my learning throughout this first semester and, I'm assuming, will continue to guide me for the rest of my high school experience and beyond. In addition, I have made many goals which pertain to essays I have written, and I believe I have met those goals.
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.
Going through the alphabet day after day, practicing each letter of the alphabet, is probably what made me dislike writing so much. The summer after third grade, my parents, made me work in reading and writing books to help me improve, but I hated doing them so my skills never really improved. Ever since then, my ability to comprehend what I read has been very difficult.
I used to have to take these tests about all the books I would read in school and I would always ace them all. I knew that reading was something I liked because I was always very intrigued by it. Also in middle school I found my true writing voice. I remember taking a creative writing class in six grade and I was always the student who wrote more than what was expected for my writing assignments. I would write stories about things such as my friends and the experiences that I had in school. Sometimes I would even write my own plays and in my plays the characters would be people in family and people from school. I would always try to make the plot super interesting in my plays. One time I wrote a play about my brothers and me traveling to space and finding aliens. Overall, I really fell in love with literacy throughout my middle school years because I was able to read books more at an advance level and I also was able to write more intense stories. Literacy has been a positive influence in my life all throughout my school
For homework, usually we had to write short paragraphs or essays on easy topics, which prepared us for the harder and more challenging literacy tasks in high school. When I got in high school, we started reading books like Hamlet and Crime and Punishment, which are far more complicated to understand than the books I read in the past. Now I am in college, and even though I have written a lot of essays, and I have read a lot of books, I am still improving and learning new things about reading and writing. My teacher is giving me assignments, which will help me become better
This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school.
In this class, I have learned many things. To narrow it down to three is difficult. I have never been the person to enjoy writing or literature, but I have grown to appreciate it during this semester because of the things that I have learned. During this semester I have learned to appreciate asking for help, that it is okay not to know something and fully understanding something is not just about knowing facts.
Freshman year is always talked about as one of the most important years of school because that’s when grades start to actually matter. Grades become set in the stone like pyramid hieroglyphics compared to our old grades that washed away like coarse sand castles on the beach. The grades you receive that first semester will be part of your GPA the rest of your high school education. Not only do the grades start counting, but some students find it difficult adjusting to high school level classes. For me, freshmen English was the year my writing had to make drastic changes. From Kindergarten to Eighth grade my writing could be described as impressively average. My writing had always met expectations, never exceeding them. I would turn in my assignments
As for reading, it teaches us grammar, spelling, vocabulary, complex sentences, simple sentences, plot, tone and everything else that a textbook is supposed to do. Unfortunately, I have never enjoyed reading, and writing has always been just another dreaded assignment. Not because I don't like it, but because I find it extremely difficult. However, this did help me to realize what exactly I want to get out of this class. I want to learn how to enjoy reading and writing.
There are many different types of events that shape who we are as writers and how we view literacy. Reading and writing is viewed as a chore among a number of people because of bad experiences they had when they were first starting to read and write. In my experience reading and writing has always been something to rejoice, not renounce, and that is because I have had positive memories about them.
I never had any interest in writing before entering high school, I never enjoyed writing essays. I believe the reason was I did not find it necessary to write a 5-page essay on 'To Kill a Mockingbird '. In the real world we will write a page or two for job opportunities and some for the job itself, but hardly ever will you need to write an essay on some book or event in time;
When I was younger, I didn’t like reading much at all. I always questioned my teachers what was the purpose of reading; I never got an answer from either teacher until I was in the seventh grade. Starting junior high school was different from elementary. In seventh grade, we were in our reading class for two hours a day. I asked the teachers why didn’t we have the privilege to stay in our other classes for two hours; I never received an answer from my teachers.