Valery's English Blog

  Prompt Response: A time I had to write a poem was for my ninth grade literature class. The poem was supposed to be about who one was as a person and one's identity. The writing process was very challenging for me because I've never been much of a writer and I've always struggled with poetry. I think that it is a beautiful and intricate form of expression, but I cannot write it very well. I remember having writer's block and feeling like anything that I wrote was not good enough. I was not proud with my finished product at all because I did not feel like I did a good job with my writing, especially after hearing what my classmates wrote.  Summary: Today in class we read the poem "Constantly Risking Absurdity" and we analyzed it as a class.  Reflection: We learned how to analyze a poem to fuller understand its deeper meaning and be able to understand the theme. It's important to learn how to analyze poems because it's an intricate form of writing that ...

  Prompt Response: Clustering helped me generate ideas and examples as it allowed me to see how I could breakdown topics into subtopics. This was really useful because with clustering, one also gets a visual of all the things that one could write about so it helps one easily have enough to write about. I plan on using it when I plan my AP Lang essays. This is because in my writing, I often encounter writer's block and I end up wasting time planning on what to write about. With clustering, l will simply look at my sheet and I will pick something from there to write about next. Summary: In class we took notes over clustering and we tried using clustering as a class.  Reflection: We learned about clustering which is a part of brainstorming. This is important because it can help one avoid getting writer's block during an essay as it gives one a visual of their ideas and potential things they could write about. 

  Prompt Response: The easiest part of writing the argument essay was coming up with my evidence as I was able to connect it to my experiences and observations. The most challenging part of writing my essay was making my introduction paragraph and my commentary. In my introduction paragraph, I couldn't think of a good hook which was really important to me because I wanted to start off my essay strong. I also felt very repetitive when trying to explain my evidence and I felt like I went off topic a few times. Something that I would do differently next time would be moving on to a different section when I got stuck. During certain points in my writing, I did not know what to write and I feel like that wasted my time which is very important due to our time limit. Summary: In class we got a prompt and wrote an argumentative essay.  Reflection: We practiced planning out and writing an argumentative essay. This is important because it allows us to get a feel for how much time we'll ...

  Prompt Response: A time when I felt like I truly belonged would be in my homeroom class last year. In my homeroom I had all of my close friends and we always had the best time. We all have shared interests and mutual friends so when we had conversations, everyone understood what was going on and what we were talking about. I feel like they matched my energy very well and we are very similar in how we act which I think created feelings of belonging. When I was in homeroom with them, I felt like I was part of a group and like I had a group of people who truly understood me.  Summary: In class we read the text "Missing Your People" and answered assessment questions.  Reflection: We learned in our reading that belonging isn't necessarily about surrounding oneself around a lot of people, but more about finding a group of people that you identify with. This is important because sometimes we think that surrounding ourselves with a lot of people can fix feelings of loneliness a...

  Prompt Response: I think that a word that I learned today that will be most useful to me in the future is carte blanche. Carte blanche is when one can do something freely without any restrictions. A situation where I could use it realistically is when working with the other social media managers in a club. The president of the club gave us carte blanche over the Instagram account so that we could promote the club as we saw fit. This allows us to use our creativity to appeal to people.  Summary: In class, we copied down the lesson two vocabulary into our notebooks and we did exercises.  Reflection: We learned fifteen new vocabulary words. This is important because using sophisticated language can help one gain the sophistication point in the AP Language exam essays.

  Prompt Response: One thing that I understand about commentary now that I didn't fully understand before is how to explain the evidence without making it sound redundant. Before, I felt like I was repetitive and like I did not do a good job at connecting it back to my claim. With the "So What?" method, I can show the importance and relevance of my evidence to my claim while making my writing sound smooth. I plan to apply it when writing my next AP Language argument by answering the three questions that we learned about when writing my commentary. By doing this, I can make sure the reader sees how my evidence is relevant to my claim.  Summary: We applied the "So What?" method to different prompts in order to practice using it.  Reflection: We practiced using the "So What?" method. This is important because Mr. Rease will give us feedback which will allow us to improve our writing. Additionally, many people were struggling with writing commentary but us...

  Prompt Response: After reviewing and scoring other AP Language argument essays, two important takeaways that I got were the importance of connecting the "so what?" back to ones claim and the importance of using complex vocabulary. I observed that the essays that used complex vocabulary throughout the essay often ended up receiving the sophistication point. I learned about the AP rubric by seeing how the rubric tries to give people credit for what they do, even if the overall essay is not very good. I also learned three questions that I should try to answer when writing commentary. These questions are very important because they help the writer connect their evidence back to their claim without sounding redundant.  Summary: We took notes about how to write commentary and we scored different AP Language argument essays as a class.  Reflection: We learned about how to write commentary by answering three questions. This is important because it helps you connect your evidenc...

  Prompt Response: I usually briefly look at the rubric, but I don't use it much while doing assignments. Regardless, I do believe that using the rubric while completing assignments is the better approach. Using the rubric as a roadmap could improve my argument writing as it could help me make sure that completing certain parts of the rubric. If I consistently do this, it'll become easier to do in my writing which will make it overall. Also, learning the different parts of the rubric can help me write quicker as I'll be working towards a specific goal.  Summary: Today we chose something that we thought was overrated, made claims, and provided pieces of evidence for each claim.  Reflection: We practiced planning out an essay. This is important because the more we practice planning them out, the faster we will get at doing it. This is crucial for the AP exam as we need as much time as possible to write our essays. 

  Prompt Response: A time that I completed an assignment without fully understanding what the teacher was looking for was during a choice board assignment last year in AP World History. She gave us very vague instructions on what to do and what she expected. This led to confusion when doing the assignment as I didn't know if what I had done was enough and if it covered the points she was looking for. Knowing the "ins and outs" of a rubric can change the way that you approach an assignment as it can save you time by making sure you cover the things that will maximize the amount of points you get. If I had received a rubric that I could've broken down on my assignment, I could have focused on the necessary points to ensure that I got a good grade, without adding extra details that were unnecessary.  Summary: Today we took notes about how to write the introductory paragraph of an argumentative essay and we broke down the rubric to see how to get the highest amount of poi...

  Prompt Response: It was interesting seeing how other people in the class think and express their ideas. This is because it was interesting seeing what position they'd choose based on their prompt. I also found it interesting seeing how their experiences and observations influenced their perspectives. However, I noticed that a lot of people would get carried away and started talking about things that were irrelevant when explaining their evidence. Regardless, I found various approaches that groups took to build their argument paragraphs that I could implement into my writing.  Summary: In class, we looked at the feedback we got from other groups and revised out argument paragraphs.  Reflection: We read the feedback that other groups gave us and built upon it. This is important as it can help one see things they may be struggling with and may have to work on in the future, helping them improve their writing. 

​ Prompt Response: A time when someone I know used informal language in a situation where formal language would have been more appropriate is when my cousin put in a job application. He used a lot of slang in his application which I believe led him to not getting the job. Using formal language would have made him seem as more professional which is something crucial as a potential boss is going to see it and get an impression from it. His informal language might have gotten him eliminated quickly as a prospect. Instead, he could have used less slang and more formal language to improve his application. This situation shows how the use of informal language may shutdown opportunities.  Summary: In class, we took notes over formal and informal language and we analyzed other group’s argument paragraphs. Reflection: We learned about how to use formal and informal language and the situations where each is appropriate. It’s important to know when to use each one as using formal language in ...

  Prompt Response: One approach from a group member that improved our paragraph is how we approached evidence. A lot of the group kept stating either claims or very broad scenarios that weren't going to get us anywhere. One of our group members emphasized the importance of using a specific example and tried to see if someone had an experience that connected to our claim. It helped me because I'm oftentimes too broad with my evidence and I think seeing her approach helped me see something I should be doing. When looking for evidence, I should stop and think about my experiences, observations, and reading and pick out a specific example instead of thinking about general ideas.  Summary: In class, we finish our argument paragraphs in our groups from Friday.  Reflection: We learned to work together in order to create our paragraph. This is important as it allows you to see how other people would approach a problem and can help you create new, helpful habits. Also, the constru...

  Prompt Response: Something that I've always been curious about is how people grow apart. I understand how life simply gets in the way sometimes, but it's interesting how the bond slowly fades away. One day, one can be very close to someone and the next, it's like they're strangers. I wonder what it's like for each person and if the people communicated about their feelings, if the relationship could be saved. I'm very curious about the different things that make the bonds slowly fade and if it depends on the previous state of the relationship.  Summary: In class, we created argumentative paragraphs in groups based on an unpopular opinion that we were given.  Reflection: It's important to practice writing argumentative paragraphs as perfecting it will allow us to build a strong foundation to write an argumentative essay. It's also important to work in groups while doing it because it allows us to bounce ideas and helps us learn from each other. 

  Prompt Response: The part of building an argument that is the most challenging for me is the evidence. This is because I never word my evidence very well. Additionally, a lot of the time I find myself explaining hypothetical situations rather than using specific observations, experiences, or readings. I think that once I start making my evidence more specific, I'll be able to do better on my argument paragraphs. Also, sometimes I start using second person in my evidence although I usually catch it and replace it with something else.  Summary: In class we took notes about the do's and don'ts of argument paragraphs after looking at our Writeable grades. Reflection: Learning the do's and don'ts of argument paragraphs is important because it ensures that you're using the correct structures, pronouns, evidence, and more. This is important to know because it helps make arguments stronger and clearer. 

  Prompt Response: A fear that I have overcome is my fear of cockroaches. When I was little, I used to scream and run away from them whenever I'd see them. My mom would always tell me how they were probably more scared of me than I was of them. Overtime, I started realizing that they weren't going to hurt me even if they looked a little gross. Now, I'm the one who kills the cockroaches in my house after being afraid for so long.