English Course Personal Reflection

The most important concept I have learned in this course is writing a literary essay. Specifically, further familiarizing myself with the standard essay outline, learning how to integrate quotations to support my points, citing the sources and following essay rules such as point of view, transition words, italicizing and avoiding contractions. After completing the Fahrenheit 451 literary essay, I have familiarized myself with the outline and implementing quotations when writing the essay, reviewed the essay rules when peer editing, and reflected on the returned feedback. I also received a mark of 78% on the essay which assured me that I met expectations to an average degree.

This concept is highly important because knowing how to write a literary essay is a necessary concept to understand for future years in high school/university. In future years where another literary essay writing task comes up, this concept allows for better preparation and more focus on the essay topic rather than on focusing on the outline. This concept shows the importance of citing other people's work and how plagiarism is bad. Writing a literary essay also exercises formal writing over informal writing which is what students are more used to.

The greater value to learning how to write a literary essay has for me beyond English class is the preparation and concepts you are equipped with for future essay writing tasks in other courses such as history, civics, careers and science. This can potentially result in higher marks in return which shows full understanding and proficiency in the concept.

Goals for Grade 11

My first goal is to be punctual with all my school work and hand in every assignment on time.

To implement this goals in order to be successful in the future, I will organize my time for homework by making a time schedule, spend a maximum of 7 hours of homework after school with breaks in between and make a weekly schedule on homework for organizing when to complete which.

My second goal is to improve all aspects of my presentation skills including vocal projection, pace, eye contact, expression and improvisation skills.

To implement this goal in order to be successful in the future, I will practice speaking through regular conversations to improve my oral communication skills and confidence, practice eye contact and expression when speaking and practice the script to review important concepts prior to a presentation for more familiarity of what I am talking about.

My third goal is to be more concise in my writing. To be as specific, direct and to-the-point when writing, including only the key points necessary and avoiding excess information/words.

To implement this goal in order to be successful in the future, I will brainstorm and organize key points of whatever I am writing, read over text and refer back to the key points to remove any unnecessary text/information and continue to write informative sentences to practice getting direct with my points when writing.

To hold myself accountable when working to achieve my goals, I can find motivation in my marks when achieving education goals. Marks act as a great source of motivation for me and always reminding myself that working on these goals will benefit me in my learning skills, habits and potentially my marks will drive me to continue working towards achieving them. Depending on my family, friends and teachers for help is another method to hold myself accountable when completing goals. This dependence can provide me with professional guidance/advice from teachers, motivation from my friends and reminders to continue working on achieving my goals from my family at home.

The most important skill I acquired and/or developed in this course is my English reading skill. Specifically, in scanning/skimming text, being able to make connections, effective discussion questions, recognizing literary devices and figurative language while reading.

This skill is important because being able to scan/skim over text can help in any class where you are given texts to read. Scanning helps you understand every point and detail in a text while skimming is useful for quickly looking it over to find only the key points. As for being able to make connections and create effective discussion questions from a selection, this skill encourages outside-the-box thinking, creativity and the ability to find the main relevance/meaning in writing.

This skill helped me to be successful in this course specifically in projects including the creative writing short story, Fahrenheit 451 discussion groups and the literacy test. Recognizing literary devices and figurative language while reading gave me more exposure to and acted as an example/guide for writing my short story. The ability to scan/skim over text has better prepared me for the literacy test. Finally, being able to make connections and effective discussion questions especially when reading Fahrenheit 451 has allowed me to excel in my roles with better ideas, connections, points and questions for the discussion circles

My personal areas for improvement are in my organization (learning skill) and my oral communication skills (English skill).

My organization skill requires improvement because following specific steps in order in assignments (essay- brainstorm, outline, rough copy, peer edit, good copy), not losing English worksheets we get in class and organizing my writing will all benefit my learning and help me excel in English class.

My oral communication skill requires improvement because projecting my voice, speaking clearly and confidently will allow listeners to understand better and not lose focus when I am presenting/speaking.