AP English Class Reflection

The five-minute warning bell goes off. I rush to my first class of my junior year, eager to see my classmates, who I was going to spend the rest of the 9 months with. I find myself stumbling into a classroom plastered with decorations of Denzel Washington with a Dr. Seuss book in his hand, a t and college flags galore. My AP English 11 class suddenly seemed so appealing to me. As a beautiful, curly haired short lady stood in front of me and said “Welcome to AP English 11,” I knew that I had found a treasure so much greater than just a pretty classroom. Little did I know, that short lady was going to inspire me throughout my challenge filled second-to-last year of high school.

The grade that I think that I should receive for the first semester of AP Seminar is an A. I believe that I should get an A for multiple reasons, such as I complete all my work, I have always given my full effort throughout the class, and I work well in group scenarios. Throughout the first semester, I consistently finish my assignments. While we were doing the practice PT1 I had finished the individual research report and the drafts that went along with it on time. Additionally, I found and read research to help myself prepare for the socratic seminar. During the course of the class I have constantly completed my tasks to the best of my ability. The second day of school we were to prepare a short presentation about a picture. In the beginning

When I began working in this class I was fearful that it would be a waste of my time. In high school, I took two AP English classes: administration at my school cancelled the first one in the middle of the year and I did not excell in the second. However, because of my educational background I am used to being challeneged and I did not see this course doing that for me. I never characterized myself as a great writer but I was already very familiar with the skills being reviewed so I did not believe that this course would add much value to my writing skills.

Starting this class, I’ll be honest, I was afraid when I heard about AP Seminar. I didn’t really know how I got into the class because I know my writing isn’t as great as most kids in my class. AP Seminar involves a lot of hard work, and I felt as if my writing wasn’t good enough. Out of my 5 essays from last year, I only got one A. That one A didn’t make me feel smart though, and I didn’t understand why. Writing this now is difficult for me because I don’t know how to explain things in my own words. I heard a lot about how hard this class is and about the speeches. I can’t stand talking about speeches because that is my greatest fear. I still haven’t figured out my main writing strength, but what I do know is I am taking small steps into

Throughout the English 111 class, my writing ability has grown to meet all of the course outcomes. In this class I was required to analyze fictional texts and make complex claims that matter in an academic contexts and revise them in order to make grammatical sense. For the 1.0 sequence I focused on Night, by Elie Wiesel and Sarah’s Key, written by Tatiana de Rosnay. Short papers 1.1 and 1.2, focused on each book respectively while major paper 1.3 allowed me to back my claim with both of the texts allowing for a larger exchange of ideas. Within the 2.0 sequence I focused mainly on the Poisonwood Bible, penned by Barbra Kingsolver. The short paper I have chosen to focus on for this sequence was 2.2; in which I had to write a letter to a character

This year, AP English 3 has been my favorite class because of the wide variety of topics that we covered and the essay writing skills that we learned. By providing a large educational basis to students' writing, this class expands the learner's ability to communicate in a profesional, educational manner, a skill with which they will use for the rest of their life. As well as scoring eights (on a nine-point scale) on several English papers, the skills that I have grown and nurtured throughout the semester have helped me score fives or sixes on my AP US History essays (on a six-point scale). Through learning how to go in-depth and synthesize a topic, AP English 3 has taught me how to consistently score high grades on AP essays, as well as communicate

Before I enrolled in English 101 my ability to write specific types of papers (argumentative, rhetoric, narrative, etc) were mediocre at best. However, from reading The Norton Field Guide to Writing and They Say, I Say I gained a deeper understanding on how to better argue a point or write a narrative with a clear theme. Moreover, from my time of being in English 101 I have improved tremendously in the given areas: Rhetoric, Technology, Research, and Collaboration.

After reading through the class syllabus a few times, I get the impression that AP English will be a significant departure from my previous english classes, especially in workload and our power to determine our essay and discussion. Prior to this class, I have taken honors English 9, 10, and 11, with Derry, Armstrong, and Brewer, respectively. Though the specific focus of each class varied, all three, English 9 and 10 particularly, followed a similar pattern of reading, guided analysis and discussion, essay writing, and assessment. Almost all of this was very structured, such that I felt that our essays were pretty formulaic. Additionally, much of the class discussion seemed superficial in places, often discussion time was cut very short,

In English 101, I mastered getting to the point of getting to my essays with less disappointment with force; I learned the significant use of scratch paper. For example, I wasn’t always use to writing my essays on scratch paper; however, keeping in mind that the scratch paper was a nondurable tool as I finished my paper, because I knew they would be thrown away. Also, the professor required us to submit our scratch paper along with our essays. With this procedure, I was forced to rewrite my essays. He felt that the scratch paper would be a help to us as we continually to learn how to effectively write our essays.

I am excited to begin learning in your English 10 Honors class this year. I know this class will give me experience as a writer while challenging me at the same time. Over the summer, I was able to complete a Geography class, bringing my total of college units earned up to six. Personally, the best part of summer vacation was getting to spend time with my family, something irreplaceable by any other event.

Throughout Honors English II, I not only became a more advanced reader, I also became a more experienced writer. All throughout the semester, I learned to analyze works of literature and look for themes in the novels I read, which also helped me to become a more thoughtful writer. I also greatly improved my vocabulary throughout the semester, which helped me achieve more advanced writing and reading skills. Overall, by using new writing techniques and new vocabulary, I was able to build on my previous reading and writing skills, and I hope to see a continuation of advancement in my reading and writing abilities in the years to come.

What I learned from this semester in English 101-102 class was to have an open mind and be creative. My papers had to have mean something to me and had to move like the rivers of Babylon. My papers had to keep the reader entertain and have resources that backed up my information. We had to use instruction that made our papers easier to understand. English 101-102 help me become a better academic writer because I learn how to make inquiries, seeking and valuing complexity, seeing writing as a conversation, and understanding writing as a process.

I gazed off in dazed horror as a seemingly endless mountain of work began to loom over me. The stress continued to mount as Ms. Caver, the AP U.S History teacher, piled her students high with impossible tasks. To say the least, AP Block (AP U.S History and Pre-AP English) was the hardest class I had ever taken. It was difficult and time consuming; however, by taking this class I was able to master several key skills. I learned to cope with the pressure of deadlines, the stress of mountains of work, and the frustration of group members.

My goals this semester for the course it to work harder than I did last semester to get a better grade to pass the course. Also, I would like to improve my writing skills and become a better writer my instructor can help me achieve my goals by doing the best he can to explain the assignments and class readings to make it easier to understand.

I am looking forward to the assignments that we have because a few of your previous students told me the topics were interesting. That wasn't including the amount that they had to write, but if it is an interesting topic then writing shouldn't be a problem. I want to become a better writer and I am kind of excited about the activities or assignments that you will have us do. If it is anything similar to what we did towards the end of your class last year, so be it.The amount of time that this class requires outside of class is what I worry about most, due to the fact that you are the teacher and this is an AP class. Some of us take a lot of AP classes, so more than likely a full eight hours of sleep won't be in the picture. I'd prefer not