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 Dear Reader,
 * Couldn't figure out how to put paragraphs indents in so put a link to my original essay.

When I first set out to take this course, I had no idea what to expect. I guess I was just thinking it would be a regular english class with plenty of essays and discussions over books. I have come to find I have learned a lot from this course that I never really expected.

My goals before starting this course were pretty much non-existent because I didn’t know how this class was going to go. Though, as the year began to roll by, I developed some new goals that I wanted to attain. What I really needed (and still need) was to work on my clarity in my essays. I would come up with a thought and then I would get tied up and wouldn’t know how to explain it. I think I am getting better at it because I am using more evidence to back up my thoughts. Explaining my basic ideas is what I need to be working on.

I also have a goal to try to enjoy the books we are reading in class. Last year we spent a lot of time analyzing what the writer is trying to say and what is happening in the text. I want to focus on those details this year, but I also want to be able to enjoy reading the books. I feel like so far I am doing well with this. I make sure to take in what the writer wants me to feel instead of looking for ideas to analyze inside the text while reading. This will help me to really know how it feels to read a certain book and sort of let myself be free to interpret the text as necessary. A lot of the explanations of books can come from their tone and voice so I’m trying to get lost in that idea.

One of the major accomplishments I got already from this course is the ability to read a scholarly article and annotate at the same time. When I looked at our first scholarly article it was a bit overwhelming. I thought, “How could anyone ever have the time of day to write, or read, this work?” Turns out, it was truly beneficial for my learning in the end. The ideas the writers of these articles emphasized are ideas that need to be explained at a higher level and it made me feel smart that I was reading such an article. Sometimes the thoughts of the writers got quite confusing, but when they made sense, they turned out to be rather interesting. I know these articles will also help me in my college years so I feel good that I am able to get through them while in my high school years.

The theory project helped me to understand my reading. When looking at a piece of work, I find myself now seeing it from a certain point of view or I think of somebody else who might think of the text differently than me. I can find the theories we talked about in the pages of books which only helps me understand what the text is saying. This is also a valuable resource for college.

Another part of this class that I never expected, but turned out to be both fun and beneficial for my learning was Poetry Out Loud. In the beginning of the year, I was definitely scared to even talk in front of a crowd. I have grown so much from then, now way more comfortable than before on a stage, not speaking, but performing, a poem. Learning how to say the words of the poem was harder than I expected. One needs to know what the poem means, before knowing which words to emphasize or group together. This made my understanding of my poems so much clearer. Through this experience, I was able to really come out of my comfort zone on stage and show people how I interpreted my poems. I was able to show meaning in these poems to others, which really made me proud that I was doing something that was worth my time and the time of others.

Through my experiences in this class, I really have learned how to be a better writer, thinker, analyzer, reader, and speaker. Not all my goals have been fully reached yet, but I’m hoping I can fix that by the end of the year. Already, I have learned so much and I am happy we have covered so many ideas and concepts I had never expected to come out of this class.