Introduction

An area where I demonstrated growth in reading is that I was able to understand what I was reading better. It became easier to do the independent reading entry slips since I had such a clear comprehension of what had gone on in the book I read. I also demonstrated this development in my CAPT practice tests. This is a sample from the first CAPT test: "My first reaction to the story is that I don't like Sheila. The narrator never should have asked her out. They just don't go together." Clearly, I do not use any evidence to support my opinion and I do not elaborate at all. This is from a more recent Response to Literature test: "My first reaction to the story is that the narrator deserves most of the unhappiness he is feeling. He treated Sucker so badly for so long, without even realizing it, or thinking how it must hurt Sucker, that he should be treated badly, too." This sample is much more thorough than the other one, and shows deep thought and reflection. It is more in depth and developed because I had a clearer understanding of what I was reading.

A weakness I had last year was reading "Romeo and Juliet". The type of language that was used made it hard for me to understand what was going on, but I feel that I greatly improved in the end. I believe that reading "Romeo and Juliet" helped me broaden my horizons because it expanded my vocabulary and made a different use of the English language easier to comprehend. It is still difficult for me to understand Shakespeare, but I am much better off now than I was before.

A second weakness in reading for me is when I read novels. Sometimes I do not have a large enough vocabulary to understand all the words. I have to use a dictionary quite often when I read sophisticated books. Also, I take everything too literally when reading. I do not always catch onto themes or symbols until someone points them out to me. For example, in Lord of the Flies , I did not even think about the conch as being a symbolic object. It was not until someone told me that I realized the significance it had to the book.

I feel that one area in which I have grown quite a bit in is reading poetry. I am able to better picture what the poet is saying now than I could before the poetry unit. This helps me relate to the poet's ideas, leading to a better understanding and a better anaylsis of poetry altogether. I try to think of what the poet was feeling, trying to express, and what the different objects in the poem could possibly symbolize.

I have a few goals I hope to accomplish this year. I want to improve my vocabulary so I can read more sophisticated literature. This will also help me to be able to write more sophisticated papers. Another goal is that I hope to be able to comprehend ideas in novels better since that is such a major weakness of mine. I will keep reading and dig deeper for meaning in books to accomplish this goal.

In writing, a weakness I have is originality in creative pieces. I am not a creative or inventive person, so it is difficult for me to write this way. My "Most Dangerous Game" ending was not too exciting and did not make the reader feel as if they were actually there watching everything happen. I did not use enough strong action verbs or interesting adjectives to make the piece engaging. Also, the poems I wrote were boring. They just did not capture attention. The meanings of the poems were too obvious in most cases. For example, with the poem, "My Feet", probably anyone would be able to easily interpret it to mean that I like my feet because I love to run. I did not really use many poetic techniques, at least not as many as I should have, to make the reader intrigued about what I was thinking when I wrote it.

I have definitely improved my writing using small techniques. My vocabulary in all my essays has become more sophisticated. I put to use the words from the vocabulary lists in class. I have taken what I learned from Daily Oral Grammar and applied it to my papers, which has improved my writing also.

Another strength of mine from last year is that my writing flows better, is more focused, and more in-depth. These examples show how much my analytical writing has grown: "The narration of this story is in the third person. The story benefits from this because it is easier to see into all the character's minds, not just one character's....It's not written through one character's perspective of the world." This recent example is more thorough: "At this point, the narrator is becoming more cynical about how glorious and wonderful war is. His attitude when he says, "They shipped...these seasick battalions (use of metaphor) to a patriotic and picturesque spot" seems to be that the soldiers were being shipped away like discards." This is more fluent, has more evidence to support the idea, and explores more than the other passage about what things mean literally.

Another area in which I have grown is the pre-writing of a paper. I always write some form of an outline before writing an essay. I write down my ideas, and anything good I want to say that comes to mind. I did not plan as much with my essays at the beginning of the year as I do now. I believe it has improved my writing a lot by causing it to be clearer, more thorough, and more organized.

A goal I have for this year it to keep improving my writing. I will do this by continuing to broaden by vocabulary, make my grammar skills better, and trying to be as thorough as I can with analysis. I want to also become a better creative writer. The next time I have to write a creative piece, I will look at my creative writing from this year and take into account the things I have to improve upon.

Listening is a big strength of mine. I listen to others attentively during class discussions and think about what they have to say, then compare it my own opinion. I always, throughout this entire year, took very thorough and detailed notes. I wrote down my questions and thoughts and kept up with the topic being discussed. In the end, this strength of listening greatly paid off.

A big weakness I have in speaking is participation in class. I did not like participating during discussions, because I do not like to talk in front of large groups of people. Although I was always on task, I would rarely offer my opinion on the subject being talked about. In a smaller group, I would have. Public speaking is a fear that I must overcome, and I feel that I am not so afraid of it after my I-search presentation. I think that the presentation made me feel more comfortable talking in front of a large group of people.

In speaking, another area I need to improve upon is how I speak too fast when in front of many people. For the I-search presentation, I talked too rapidly. This is something I also do when I participate in class. People cannot understand what I am saying as well as they could if I had not been speaking so fast. I could improve my expression of my opinions by stopping this habit.

A goal for this year that I have is to start participating more. At the same time, though, I want to maintain the quality of my notes and listen to others as well. I hope that I will become more comfortable with public speaking, therefore I will not talk as fast in front of groups. If this can be achieved, then it would greatly help me in many other aspects of my life.