In Third Grade I couldn't Write….
When I was in Elementary school, I coud not write. Writing was one of my weakest subjects and it didn't help that I also felt reluctant about it. But, as I look back on this struggle I can't help but realize that it helped me be where I am today in my writing and communication skills.
When I was in third grade, essay based writings were being introduced. As students, we were challenged to create fictional writings with a certain length requirement. My teacher at the time would collect the writings at the end of each week for a grade. I struggled with meeting the length requirements week after week. As a result the teacher scheduled a parent, teacher conference to discuss my below average performances with my parents. They came up with the conclusion that after school I would stay a few extra minutes to work with my teacher one on one to improve my skills.
Eventually, week after week I realized that my skills were beginning to improve. Not only was I beginning to meet the weekly requirements but I was also starting to enjoy writing. Before I knew it I had become one of the best writers in the class. My teacher also realized my improvements and that year I won the ‘Imaginative Writing Award’ for the entire 3rd grade.
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She instilled high standards in me that I otherwise wouldn't have seen in myself. When I didn't show effort in my writings she would encourage me to push myself harder. Years passed and when it was time for me to graduate Primary School and move on to Middle School I went back to her class to thank her for all she had done for me and she began to show me my old writings which she had kept. And I couldn't help but to feel admiration as she told me that even two years after I had left her class and went through fourth and fifth grade, that she still used my writings as an example for her current
Thinking about a topic to write about is not always easy, and sometimes the process of writing can end up being difficult. Jennifer Jacobson discusses strategies to overcome the struggles that young writers can encounter while writing. I was interested in her book No More “I’m Done!” Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades because I feel like as a future teacher this could be a frequent problem among students. From reading this book, I hoped that I would learn useful strategies that I could use to help students overcome their problems with writing. After reading this book, I do believe that Jacobson has provided me with plenty of methods to use. I was surprised at the depth that she goes into in her text. There is a vast amount
In the past three months I feel like I have accomplished a great deal. As the semester comes to an end I find myself reflecting not only how I have survived the first semester but also what I have learned. The most important thing I have learned so far is how to become a better writer. I did not think it could really happen to me. I did not think I could handle all the work. I did not think I could actually become a better writer. Some how after all the hours of writing, and putting effort into the papers that I wrote this semester, I became a better writer. I did this because I concentrated on two very important areas, with the attitude of, if I could just become better in those then I would become a better writer. With help from an awesome teacher and a reliable tutor I have become a better writer by improving my skills in the areas of procrastination and content.
Over the course of this semester, I have progressed as a writer. Picking up new skills and dropping old bad habits has transformed me into a much better writer than when I entered the English 101. Entering this class, the only English classes that I took were mandatory high school classes all four years. In these classes, however, content was focused on reading novels, poems, and literature. There was usually only one major writing assignment each year, which was a research paper on a topic that was given by our teachers. Although there was some writing involved in these classes, most of the class time was spent on improving my reading and comprehension skills. A small part of the class was given to improve my skills as a writer and even a researcher. In English 101, however, most of the class time was spent on writing and more specifically, academic writing. This includes doing proper research, picking a worthy topic to write about, correctly analyzing sources, and developing a well-rounded, complete paper. I have progressed a writer over the semester by effectively integrating and analyzing sources better, and being more specific with my words.
My Growth as a Writer Most of us write in some form every day, so you would expect that most of us would be well practiced and pretty good at writing. I read and write all the time; I have taken several college courses and nearly all of them require writing in some form. However, before taking this class, not only was I not a good writer, I knew I wasn’t a good writer. Now I am not saying that I am ready to write my first novel, but I am certainly more confident in turning in my college papers. The content of this course and the style of teaching was incredibly beneficial to me.
As I reflect it becomes clear to me that I enjoyed writing my junior year in high school. My English teacher Mr. Duckworth was a one of a kind teacher. His classroom was a normal classroom setting with the desk all line up behind one another. All of his students would face the white erase board that was located in the front of the room. He would typically sit at his desk leaning back in his chair giving us instructions on what was to be done in the class. As we sit in the class, all I can hear are my classmates laughing and joking around as he spoke. he would already have an essay topic on the board that was to the right of us that he could easily see from his desk. This was an everyday routine for all of his classes. As we begin to write, I noticed how different classmates of mine would get up to ask for help with their essay. The students who never asked for help usually would end up with a lot of red markings on their essays.
In the course of this semester of writing, I grew more than I ever had in my ability to write well. I remember on the first day of class several other students were talking about how hard this writing professor is. I was a bit worried and even thought about switching to an easy professor for a guarantee A so I can get a 4.0. Now, I am grateful that I chose to decide to work hard for a 4.0 instead. Even though I may not get it, I am still glad I stayed because for once, I learned and became a better writer. I can see that my knowledge of conventions definitely improved from last semester. I really loved the feedback for my assignments, since it allows me to realize what I need to improve on and what I should keep doing. Unlike the previous semester, the writing professor only told us our grade on the very first assignment after two months. There were no feedback on how I could improve either, so I had no idea if I was having trouble with anything. Prior to this course, I always had trouble writing sentences and organizing them in such a way that flows and delivers my idea well. I also rarely outline or plan out how I will write a paper too, and even when I did, it was very vague. Out of the five learning outcomes, I grew the most in rhetoric knowledge and writing process from the reading responses and 4 assignment.
Oh seventh grade, what a year to remember. That was actually my favorite year of middle school. At home during this time was a mess and my grades also plummeted but I think going to school took some stress off because I was taking some time to "myself" and forgetting for a while about my home situation. Seventh grade, I would say was a year of friends for me. I had and still to this day have a friend from kindergarten that I considered a best friend. Until a new girl came along, lets call her Patricia. Patricia basically took "my spot" I guess in fifth grade while I was off at my new school for the year. Anyway speeding forward to seventh grade I noticed my best friend, lets call her Amanda, not really talking to me anymore and or passing by
In high school, writing changed dramatically. Getting praised for my good writing in middle school; now my writing was getting criticized and from my teacher's point view my writing skills weren't were they suppose to be. Hardly ever being glad to free write, I was given topics that seemed to get difficult each time I was given one. I now had to give my open on certain topics, analyze articles, provide in an argument telling why I do or don't support a certain topic. I often had difficulties writing down what I had in mind. It's like I wouldn't know how to make everything flow together. After having to write so many essays, writing became my way of coping with life problems. Writing about my problems in my free time made me a better writer, also. Throughout high school, I wrote tons of journals and short stories about things going on in my life. I still wouldn't consider myself a great writer but writing a lot in high school did impact my life in a positive way and improved my
She has made many personal sacrifices for my education. After a day of working with elementary schoolers, she tirelessly without complaint took me to the library as many times as I requested. Somehow during 6th grade, after I received an invitation from People to People, she found the money for me to travel to Australia for two weeks. I am more independent because I watched her succeed on her
Also, she used to make the classroom environment very welcoming by always smiling and being such a pleasant teacher. Furthermore, she encouraged me to use the vocabulary I learned in class and take it to another level. She influenced my academic goals by repeating everyday the same words “Do you want to clean windows and earn 10 dollar an hour or do you want to be a professional and earn a 100 dollars per hour?” “Do you want to anybody or someone that will make a difference?”. These very words inspired, influenced and encouraged me to do my very best and make her proud.
She helped me understand some of the things I had problems on, but not all of them. The next test I made a slightly better grade, but not what I needed it to be. I kept going to toutoring but the math just kept getting arduous. My grades kept getting worse and worse. The rest of the school year I knew just enough to pass. I was finally out of eighth grade.
Over this past semester I have grown greatly as a writer. At the beginning of the semester I was not very confident in my writing because I did not think I had the skills to create strong pieces of writing. Not only have I grown as a writer, but I now enjoy writing more. I believe I have grown as a writer in many ways. Some of these include; I am now able to extend my wording to fit a page requirement, I am able to format my writing in MLA format, I have learned new writing strategies, and I am able to write in many styles of writing.
Over the course of the semester, I feel that I have grown as a writer in many ways. When I came into the class, there were skills I had that I already excelled at. During my time in class, I have come to improve on those skills even more. Before I took this class, I didn’t even realise what I was good at. This is the first class where I felt I received feedback on my writing that helped me to actually review my work to see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded.
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.
My earliest memories about writing was 4th grade, it was the first year of me not being in a bilingual classroom environment. Ever since then I remember having difficulty in writing assignments. If I recall correctly, every 2 weeks we were to write an essay and 3 students would go to the front of the classroom and read their stories. At first my classmates would volunteer, however, towards the end of the year the teacher caught on that it