I can't believe there are only about 5 days left of our time here at Heritage. It seems like it was only yesterday when Sebastian ripped his pants and Sam and Jeremiah were having a “poetry” battle. There are definitely many things that I have leave this year. Non-educational or not, I have really grown from what I've learned.
Throughout the year I have learned many things in this class. One of the things I learned was how to use the TIQA format properly and how to put your own style into it. I mainly learned this while writing the argumentative essay. In that essay we only used the TIQA format. We would use it in unique ways and sometimes had to put two contradicting TIQAs in one paragraph. Doing this taught me that the TIQA format can be used in different ways and adjusted to create your own writing style. Another thing I learned was how to properly use commas. The latest lessons in grammar have really taught me to put thought into where I am putting a comma. Before the lessons I thought that you always put a comma before a FANBOY. I now know that you only use a comma when listing things, when naming dates and addresses, when combining two independent clauses, and when a dependant clause comes before an independent clause. This has helped me improve my writing skills. One other thing that I have learned in this class is how to write different pieces of writing. I have learned how to write a narrative essay, an argumentative essay, and now a speech. This has taught me the different structures of writing and how they can differ and compare to each other.
From this year, I think I will most remember the Socratic Seminars. Socratic Seminars was the time when we would talk about how the piece of literature we were reading influenced us personally. It was a time when we would ask questions and wonder the things that we possibly might've never wondered before. It was during this time that we could make connections from the lessons in the literature to the real world. I think I will remember this because, although it was educating, it was when we got to find emotional connections between the book and ourselves. These connections weren't just small ones such as having a common favorite color. These connections were about the way we live our lives, what we value, and questioning whether or not we take life for granted.
The nicest thing someone in the class has done for me was to help me with any kind of confusion that I had. This year doing the butterfly project, I struggled for quite some time when trying to figure out the meaning of my poem. My friends in this class helped me by encouraging me to do research on the blurbs of non-fiction within the poem. I ended up doing that and it resulted in me having a full understanding of my poem. I also had some confusion in the poetry portion of the class. My friends would also help me by explaining to me what can be taken out of the poem and put back in to give it meaning. I am very grateful for having people help me when I needed it.
During this year I think that I have taught some of my classmates something. The main thing I would say I have taught them is how to remember the spelling and definitions of the vocabulary. I use this strategy a lot because it makes learning the vocabulary a lot easier. The way I would do this is by looking for root words within the words that mean almost the same thing as the actual word. If I couldn't find any root words I would find another word that rhymes with the vocabulary word that can relate to the definition. This is definitely a strategy I will continue to use in high school.
I think I have definitely made an improvement in my writing. The TIQA format is the basic foundation upon this improvement. This helped me a large amount specifically in my argumentative essay. I am most proud of accomplishing the fact that I can now hear the words “write an essay” and not freak out. Writing is not an easy thing to do. There are constant revisions that need to be done and diction that needs to be fixed. However, with this class I now know what needs to be put into each paragraph, the structure of it, and what it needs to end up looking at.
The most challenging part of this year for me was, once again, time management. I got into a really bad habit of starting big projects and assignments last minute. By doing this I created more stress for myself. I would come home from soccer practices and stay up really late doing homework that I could've started before. This procrastination was tied into the time management problem. About 1/2 of the way into the school year was when I decided to get it together. I created a schedule that would plan out the assignments I needed to do and the extracurricular activities I had. That really helped a lot and shrinked the amount of stress I put on myself.
The piece of writing that I am most proud of is the argumentative essay. It was on a topic I felt strongly about. This, I think, is what made me want to do good on the essay. I wanted other people to see my argumentative and hopefully agree with me. I think I made a very good argument that was supported with a good amount of evidence. I took a lot of time in writing that easy. I also worked really hard on making sure it all tied in nicely together. Next year I will definitely refer back to this essay when having to write an argumentative essay.
My favorite book from this year was, without a doubt, Tuesdays With Morrie. It made me think about the things in life that I had never thought of before. Those things included the thought of the possibility of me dying days from now. Therefore wondering if I would've been satisfied with my life. This taught me to not take my life for granted. Another one of these thoughts was questioning if I have purpose and meaning in my life. It provoked me to think more about my future and about the person I want to be. This book was filled with life lessons that I will remember in the future.
There is a lot of advice to give to future students of this class. First, always listen to what Mrs. Larson says. The directions and expectations she has are for a reason, and there are consequences for not following them. Second, make a schedule and stick to it. I cannot emphasize enough to how important time management is, especially in this class. You do not want to be doing an AOW, a blog, and studying for a vocabulary quiz all on the same day. Trust me, you will get stressed doing that. Third of all, have fun in class. Especially for all of the upcoming eighth graders. This is the year that you want to make memories and have fun.
