English Reflection Essay

When I first got accepted into Stuyvesant High School, I heard countless of rumors stating: “Oh the workload is terrible”, “The competition is so fierce” or “Out of schoolwork, extracurriculars, or sleep: you can only pick two.” I found it hard to let it faze me, since I graduated from one of the most prestigious middle schools. However, the rumors transformed into reality when I stepped into Mr. Nieves’ Freshman Composition Class. The workload at the beginning of the year was brutal, coupled with assignments from other core classes that seem unaware of the workload of other teachers. Reading assignments were a regular, and there were journal entries and occasional quizzes to keep us in line. What made it bearable was the friends I made in that class; everyone had their own opinion about the topic we were talking about, and listening to other perspectives really broadened my horizon and enriched my learning experience in Stuy. Another thing that this class has taught me is the importance of time management, a skill that I will carry on for the rest of my high school career and life. When I choose to sign up for Mr. Nieves’ AP American Literature class in my Junior Year, I was hoping to relive the discussion-based lesson plans and meet more outstanding peers. I was not disappointed, to say the least, reflecting through all the experiences at the end of the course. The lesson plans he laid out for us were an interesting mix between small lectures and class output, and what I

Throughout the English 101 course, I believe I have thoroughly improved in my writing, peer editing, and analyzing readings, along with annotating my thoughts, misunderstandings, and difficulties. I believe I have especially improved on my thesis statements, providing the basis for my essays. My thesis statements have went from being plain and uninteresting to being more detailed, clear, and concise. This enabled me to produced better written essays that are rich in detail, rhetorical statements, evidence, and experiences. I feel as if I came into this course not exactly sure how to write a college paper. I was always more focused on the length of my essays rather than the structure, vocabulary, and ideas my papers were exhibiting. My writing now flows better and presents my ideas in a clear, organized fashion.

Writing throughout time has been one of the most essential ways of learning. To be good in many professions you must be able to articulate yourself in some form of writing. In class I had tools brought to my attention that would help me become a more effective writer. A few of those tools where the ten core concepts, conducting an interview and learning to write a research paper. All of which that I learned in class this semester has helped me become a more articulated writer.

In this memo, I have chosen three topics to submit for my research project this semester in English 210.

Reflecting on my english career on all of my english classes as a whole one of the areas of habits of mind that I have not only felt that I am drastically improved, but also believe that is one of my strengths as not only an english student, but a student in general is my strong ability with analyzing situations and responding with high level critical thinking. I have prided myself and also been told by almost every english teacher that I have had that my ability to articulate what I am thinking in a presentation and be able to analyze text, images and people is on a very high level. I am comfortable when speaking in front of people and I believe that some of my best work in High School have been presentations. As I discussed this year with my teacher where I fall short is the ability to translate what I am thinking and how exactly I say it and translate that into writing. This has something that I have struggles with not only this year but most of my life writing essays. I don;t believe that I write poorly, but can very easily recognize that my writing is not at the

My decision on a major field of study at Western Michigan University was a process that took much thought and reflection. With my high school teachers’ strong leadership, they inspired me to possibly pursue anything as a career. The long process of finding out what I want to do with my life started in the summer when I was trying to figure out what career would best suit me for the future. Im that kind of person where I need entertainment in my life, so I narrowed it down to some jobs I can't do, such as being a business major and sitting in a office my whole life, and accounting, because I despise math. During my thinking process, I utilized what subjects I enjoyed in high school that I’d like to learn more about in college. I came to a

When I was signing up for my classes for my senior year, I decided to take English Composition 1 for my final English credit for the sole reason that it takes only half a year to complete. I had been warned by veterans of the course that the class would be difficult. This did not bother me too much, as taking AP Physics my junior year taught me that I work harder in an environment with rigorous work. During the course, I was delighted when I discovered that the class has heavily improved my essay writing skills throughout the year. Each consecutive essay had improved my writing for the better.

First of all, paragraph structure has helped me improve my writing skills. To begin with, learning how to create a topic sentence. Writing a topic sentence was probably one of the most difficult parts because I have to be really specific on what I was going to be writing about. Once I practiced it I started to understand better on how I am supposed to be writing a good topic sentence. Secondly, choosing which details to put in your paragraph. Details was one of the more easier parts because I can write down as much ideas as I want and then choose the ones that sound good to

An element that I learned which was important to an essay was the thesis statement. Over the course of the semester, I wrote various types of essays which the thesis is the main important sentence of the essay. I learned that there was more into the thesis. It grabs the reader’s attention to grasp the idea of what the essay is about and its tone. The process of constructing a solid thesis to complement the essay was a challenge to me. For example, in writing project two, for the rhetorical analysis, I could not create a thesis to grab the reader’s attention about the comparison two articles. This writing was a comparison between the two articles with the strategies that the author uses to connect with

Ms. Sullivan is a third grade teacher at an elementary school where English language learners (ELLs) make up approximately 85 percent of the student population. The majority of the third graders she teaches are of Asian, African American, and Hispanic ethnicities and seem to be within the intermediate stages of English language proficiency. In the video lesson, Ms. Sullivan presents a whole group math lesson measuring temperature using a thermometer. In this lesson, Ms. Sullivan utilizes a wide variety of sheltered instructional strategies to improve her ELLs’ language development.

Knowing now-a-days, how people compare themselves to others. I feel that it is time that we stop. Although it is much harder than it seems. Comparing one another is something we do, there will always be someone stronger, smarter, more attractive, and wealthier. The key is not to let it affect us. An individual will always have something that no one else will. It will differ from each individual. We need to just look at our own life and see what we can do to make it better. If becoming a helper will fill a hole in your life, as it does mine, then do it. If becoming a parent does then do it. We need to stop looking at other people’s lives and focus on our own. We are on this earth for one reason, to live. So we need to stop dwelling on what we don’t have, and go out there and get it, and live, go out and live life. Life is too short to keep complaining about what other people have. Everyone just needs to live life to its fullest.

In my English classes, a popular assignment is analyzing the literature in an essay after reading a novel. You may think that because I had this assignment multiple times already, that I would be good at it by now. I should definitely be able to write it without any hesitation or problem. However, that is not the case, unfortunately. When analyzing literature, I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot of techniques and ways to pick up that would help make my writing more efficient. My brain is definitely still developing new strategies that could come in handy when writing. Although sometimes I believe that I am alright at analyzing literature, I do often times have writer’s block and can not seem to come up with an analyzation. Thankfully, due to my most recent English teacher, I had a lot of help and improved myself greatly. I feel confident in the quotes that I pick, confident in the commentary I am writing, and confident in the way I phrase it. I have developed my own techniques as to analyzing literature in order to write an essay along the way.

my senior year of high school, I was the FFA president at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School. As president, I tried to make sure everything was done on time, but by the end of the year I was a little worn out. Irritated with having to do everything myself I tried to delegate but still ended up doing mostly everything. My officer team had clocked out for the year and I was upset. Sitting in an officer meeting one day before school, I asked my advisor if there was any chance we could talk to some of the officers about participating more, which was mostly about the officers that never came. Instantly he snapped at me in front of everyone else, including my little sister. In summary he told me I was a bad president and that I blame others for my mistakes. I was so shocked that I didn't even respond. I sat silently crying right next to him avoiding all eye contact. This was when it all started.

When I first thought about where I would serve back in the spring, my initial idea was at a soup kitchen. I had worked at one during the Sophomore Retreat Experience, and while I found the three hours we were there exhausting, they were also really fulfilling. However, at the time I was also learning more about myself through the enneagram and was really coming to terms with my particular manifestation of social anxiety. I knew that in a impersonal environment like the one I had experienced at the soup kitchen sophomore year I would not motivate myself to independently form interpersonal relationships. If I went to serve without connecting with people, I would have felt, "that i had no real intention of meeting, even learning about, [the] needs," of those I was serving. I needed an environment that was deliberately structured to create those relationships, like GiGi’s Playhouse. At GiGi’s I feel challenged to live in solidarity with these kids and their parents, and to move past the anxiety that holds me back from connecting with new people.

1. Tell us about a skill or concept related to your anticipated area of study, that you found challenging and rewarding to learn. ( 350 words for 1 + 2 together)