my performance

As far as general procedures have gone, I'd say its gone decent for me. I almost always had a writing utensil, notebook, and books I needed for class. The only book I was missing was my book for outside reading. I usually didn't bring that. I asked to go to the restroom very few times and I wasn't in any rush to get out of the class, I was usually last anyway.

I have been pretty good about taking notes and listening although I can get rather distracted sometimes. For the group work aspect, I did well I think and got the work done, with some side conversation though. I didn't ask too many questions, because I didn't rally have many questions.

I believe I have gotten better with participating though. I mean, of course I didn't participate much at the beginning of the year, but then again, it hasn't gotten as good as some people are. Even though I participated fairly, some others did indeed do better with that.

Fellow class members

Well, I'd have to say I'm very glad this year is over. We have been through a lot and I bet all of you are glad we are done with freshman year. I can't say that I am looking forward to sophomore year, but I can't do much about that. I believe this year has prepared me for the rest of high school though. English class, especially, has been quite an experience. Even though it has been rather difficult at most times, for me at least, it has definitely helped me and prepared me. It seems difficult and I didn't like it, but I'll admit it has probably been one of my most helpful classes. It has taught me to not procrastinate definitely, although I still have issues with that.

Reading reflection

Over the court of this year, I have learned a couple of things about myself. For one thing, which isn't so good, I seem to be a rather slow reader. Ive always been a slow reader. One thing that seems to be goo though it that if I don't understand something the first time, I read it over again to make sure I understand.

In the future, I hope I am able to read more quickly and have better understanding of what I read. Now that I have learned about various literary elements, I've been able to make connections to these within the works that I read. I find it nice to know how to spot these elements of literature, and I think that this knowledge will help my overall comprehension while reading.

I made a separate post regarding my reading times this week. I read some more in Desperation and wrote about that some. I thought we needed to make a post like that, buy I was mistaken. I kept the post anyway and it includes my times.

Macbeth

From the way that Macbeth acts on stage, through the way he behaves and the way he speaks, I think that he didn't want to be king as much in the first place. But after the three witches told him he would be king and lady Macbeth persuaded him, he wanted to be king even more. He wanted to wait it out, and become king after Duncan died on his own, but he found out the pleasures of being king. 

Whenever he killed Duncan, that night he was very scared and nervous. He was jumpy and every little thing startled him. He started acting paranoid, but the next morning he had calmed down and was overacting and made it more noticeable that and obvious that he was guilty of murder. 

Desperation

This past week in my Desperation reading, it was rather uneventful. The man that was taken by the cop, well he had taken him in because he was relieving himself on the side of the road. The cop apparently though of this as unacceptable. I don't see why he even cared though, after all, they are seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
The cop takes him to the same place as the original family, and like the last people that were taken in, he was told to wait in the room while the cop went and did something. Since the last cop told the family to do the same, i wonder what they are doing when they leave. Maybe they are keeping track of who they take in or something.

Desperation: 1 hour, 45mins.
Macbeth: 45 mins.

Common mistakes

Common errors list

Usage of un-necessary commas: I really don’t like that scarf, although, it looks rather nice, on you.

Not knowing when to use a semi-colon or comma: I’m quite glad that it was so tough; I believe it has prepared me for next year and has set helpful guidelines for me that I wont forget.

Run-on sentences: When I saw the thing hovering in the air, it looked rather frightening, I soon realized it was an alien spacecraft, I was afraid that I may get abducted or what not.

Issues with quoting: Then Reginald said “, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do at all”.

Switching between tenses: Talking about something that already happened “That was a horrid thing really, but it isn’t that bad I suppose. Maybe it will be.”

Repetition of words: It is rather nice that you got that good grade, but my grade was rather bad. I hope I get a rather good grade on the next assignment.

Yearly Reflection

Austin Howard

Dr. deGravelles

Block 2

4/30/12

Yearly English Reflection

This year in English I think that I have come a long way in the way I write and have a better understanding of the overall writing process. Even though I do still need improvements in some areas of writing, I feel that I have improved greatly from the first semester. In some areas I don’t believe I need much help at all while other areas of writing, I need to do better.

After looking at all of the comments and editions that were made on my papers, I realized a couple of things that I seemed to have trouble on throughout the year that were consecutive through out my papers. One of the largest issues that I had on seemingly all of my papers was simply actually focusing on what is supposed to be written. I seemed to go off on tangents or start talking about something else and go into detail about it when I was supposed to be focused on something else, or sometimes just missing the entire topic all together. I seemed to get a bit better with that every essay I wrote but I have always seemed to struggle with this issue and I still struggle with it. I hope to improve with this issue in the next year or so, or maybe even erase the mistake all together.

I also struggled quite a lot with the MLA format and citing in my papers. I don’t think that I fully understood how to put my paper into the correct format, or properly cite certain quotations and give credit to the author. I would get confused about the authors name, and where to properly place the first or last name, or just last when applicable. Now that I have written many papers this year though, many that I have had to cite names, I believe I have gotten better with the process and can now cite authors properly.

One of my greatest strengths, while writing, is my use of word choice. I believe I have improved much on this. After scanning over my papers thoroughly, my choice of words never seemed to be an issue. When writing, I always try to avoid repeating the same words too often, and to use a wider variety of words in my work. I’ve found that this use to be an issue at a younger age, and somewhat at the beginning of this year. Once I grew older and my vocabulary expanded, I strove to use more advanced words. At first, it was a challenge to do so, although as I used more developed words in my writing, I also used them in everyday talk. Using these words regularly seemed to help me to understand the words and even encourage me to use them more in writing.

After contemplating over the responses I received on my papers, I now understand what I did that was incorrect. I have definitely learned from these mistakes and I’m sure that this will help me not to make the same errors in the future. While writing, I now find it easier to find mistakes that I would have previously over looked.

For the years to come, I imagine that my writing will get better, and I hope it does. My plan to improve my writing is maybe to write some over the summer. About random stuff, just to make sure I don’t get rusty. I think this will help me for next year because at the beginning of school years, I usually have trouble getting back into writing.

This years English class seemed rather brutal at some times, but now that I look back on it, I’m sure it will pay off and it definitely has helped me, quite a lot. I’m quite glad that it was so tough; I believe it has prepared me for next year and has set helpful guidelines for me that I wont forget.