Blog Post #18: Final Portfolio Reflection

One assignment that I was proud of was my Namesake compare and contrast paper. It was one of the papers for this class that I felt fully prepared for, in my opinion, it was well written also. It was like a milestone for my writing and if I had compared it to something I wrote at the beginning of the year or last year there would be a dramatic difference. My strengths were improving my thesis and relating all my claims back to it. My weaknesses were sometimes straying from the topic and maybe not being as concise as I could have been. I learned how to compare and contrast two things without making a laundry list of obvious facts, and to analyze subtle mice en scene elements.

Another assignment that I was proud of was our groups American drama video. It was not an exciting or interesting play by all means and I think we managed to make it semi-interesting. Also even though the play did not hold an valuable plot points or moments of literary genius, we did the best we could with it and tried to gather as much from this text as possible. The play also contains vulgar language and mature content but our group handled those touchy subjects very well and even tried to distract from that as to not make them the focus of the presentation. Some weaknesses we struggled with were time management, and trying to make our play relate-able and exciting. I learned how to read for important facts and to skim past the trivial details, in other words to read with a discerning eye.

When it comes to the classroom aspect, this trimester I did not find myself raising my hand to often in discussion but I honestly think because I was more comfortable absorbing all the information this class requires one to have previously known. For example, when we were discussing biblical stories, I do not know the bible as well as some so I was content to remove myself and listen especially because I did not have anything valuable to contribute to the conversation.

On the home front, I was very proud of myself this trimester. Everyone has those days when they say "I'm just not going to do this homework, I don't want to". Although I had many of those thoughts, I never actually skipped a homework assignment because after just days of being in the class, I knew that if I fell behind at home, I would fall behind at school. I did not skip one. Single. Assignment. I proved my dedication to myself to do my best in this class and to improve my reading and writing skills in order to properly prepare myself for college.

I want to improve my thesis-writing skills by the time second trimester is over. I also want to  be proficient at taking the multiple choice exams so I can walk into the AP exam completely prepared for it, aiming for the five that I want. I also want improve my presentation skills because I tend to talk too quickly and to miss the important points I want to say.

If I can get those three things out of the second trimester of this course, I will be able to walk out of AP Literature and Composition proud of how far I've come.