Reflective Essay: Animal Cruelty Ideas

Throughout this school year, every student has been challenged in one way or another in every assignment that they received. In the three artifacts chosen for this reflection, Rikki Tikki Tavi for the informative portion, the argumentative essay Animal Cruelty in Relation to Human Entertainment, and the narrative piece, The Affect of Athena on Athens, one can see the improvement of the project and not only the challenges that I faced, but also my achievements.

In both my Rikki Tikki Tavi project and the Affect of Athena on Athens my writing was enhanced by technology and digital media. Rikki Tikki Tavi was the first project I did that was enhanced by technology, and The Affect of Athena on Athens was the last one for this school year. Just by watching the two and

comparing, one can see the improvement of my use of technology.

In Rikki Tikki Tavi my writing is enhanced by technology by the use of pictures to help the viewer understand. In my narrative piece my writing was enhanced by technology by using many slides of text so that there was not too much writing on one slide and so it was easy to read. It was also enhanced by digital media through the many pictures that were used to help the viewer to understand the writing. I think that in this piece I used technology to my advantage must better than I did in the Rikki Tikki Tavi project. In all three pieces my writing builds strong content knowledge through the use of extensive research before and during writing. For example, in my argument essay, Animal Cruelty in Relation to Human Entertainment I did a lot of research on the negative use of animals for human entertainment to support my

thesis. In this excerpt from Animal Cruelty in Relation to Human Entertainment, one can see my use of content knowledge to provide strong support. “The animals were starving. Also, ‘One of the starving bears tried to run away and was stuffed into an even smaller cage. To prevent the monkeys from trying to flee, zookeepers hung heavy metal chains around their necks,’ (Ni, 1). The starving animals were punished for try escaping the cages that hurt them.” (Jarman, 1)
I felt my strongest when I was supporting my writing with supports my claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. In The Affect of Athena on Athens, I believe that I did a good job of supporting my thesis with strong, relevant evidence, and clear reasons. For example, Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and craft. Because she was the patron goddess of Athens, education was a very important part of a male Athenian’s life and went to a war school. Also, most women learned how to weave and do other domestic art like the one's Athena was the goddess of. “Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and domestic arts. Since, she was the patron goddess of Athens, the Athenians made a point to be well educated and intelligent” (Jarman, 2). Also, because I had clear reasons and relevant evidence I was able to make clear connections to the cultural identity of Athens which was the purpose of the project. Also, in my argument essay, I used three sources that showed the negative effects of using animals for human entertainment perfectly! These sources had clear, and strong reasons that supported my thesis well.
Finally, in all of my artifacts I had trouble writing a good, strong, and intriguing introduction. In my argument artifact, I used questions, followed by a definition to start my introduction, which I now understand is a very bad start to an essay. In Rikki Tikki Tavi, I began my essay with an overview of who Rikki Tikki is. Now looking back I wish I had done something else. However, these two artifacts were both done rather early in the year. The last project before this final reflection was the cultural artifact project, which I chose as my narrative artifact. After a school year of learning how to write a proper reflection I believe that I did a good job on that one. The introduction was, “Religion has for years been the foundation of a culture. It has been what civilizations form their lives around and everything is in a way related to it. The same can be said for the Ancient Greek city of Athens. The goddess Athena influenced the cultural identity of Athens through their education and art” (Jarman, 1). Although, I think it was a good introduction, it took a long time to write. Therefore, I would like to write stronger introductions in shorter periods of time next year. I also would like to do a better job of putting my thoughts into coherent sentences. I would often come up with brilliant ideas that would sound amazing in my head, but would never make sense when I wrote them down. Finally, I had the most trouble staying on task. I would often drift off when writing, and then find myself writing a sentence that was completely off topic. In eighth grade I would like to increase my focus, and stay on task.
In conclusion, throughout the school year, I have grown in my writing in the ways that I support my thesis, set up my essays, create digital media, expanded my vocabulary, and improved on my literacy as well as my comprehension skills. I have found my writing strengths and weaknesses and have goals for my future writing pieces. Although I have come across many difficulties, and had not done things as well as I had wished, there is always room for improvement.