2nd Quarter Reflection Blog

In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts?
      I think that my biggest improvements in English Language Arts is to read the text and analyze which quote is the best to support my topic sentence. In Language Arts, our teacher gives us an assignment called Article of the Week. The instructions are to first make annotations to help better your understanding of the article, take the pop quiz, and gather all your evidence to create a central idea of the article. There needs to be at least two to three pieces of evidence, the evidence we get from the article are quotes. The quotes have to relate back to the central idea, it was a struggle to find the quotes to tie back to the central idea. From all the text, there are many quotes that need to be mentioned and are there for extra information. It is important for me to follow the TIQA format, this format helps me throughout my reading. This is the area I think I made my biggest improvement because it becomes easier for me to look through the text and locate it. I have also become more manageable with my time. Studying for my vocabulary quizzes, reading for my 10 book challenge, and completing IXL goals that are due on Sunday.


What is something you have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of?
       Something I have accomplished since the New Year that I am proud of is becoming more organized. I would use one folder for all of my classes and I would lose all the important things I needed for Language Arts class, the notes , articles, they were lost. I had to make an effort to organize all of my things because if not, I would lead myself into consequences. Id possibly go to working lunch and be behind on what we were learning in class. Now that I am organized, I've become more successful and doing my homework diligently and strongly determined. I have pushed myself to strive and cite evidence to get to a four. Fours are hard to receive but in order to get one, you have to get past your limit .

What has been the most challenging part of 2nd Quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?
     The most challenging part of 2nd quarter for me was working on the investigative journalism unit. It was challenging because you had to make sure it was 3rd person point of view and all the research was extreme. I got a lot of information and paraphrasing the information intomy own words,was difficult. I overthink too much on the way it is supposed to be written. My TIQA format was a little off. I don't think that unit was my best however it was not my worst. The best I can do to overcome this is to read the text and analyze it and annotate it. For better understanding, and to overcome this, I have to work hard .

Book Talk

      The book I am currently reading is With Their Eyes by Annie Thomas. The genre of this book is nonfiction. With Their Eyes is about the tragic event that took place on September 11, 2001. The twin towers were attacked. Students from Stuyvesant High School experience this by being only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. The students share their stories and how it has changed their lives since that day that has brought fear into many people’s lives. Teachers fighting to be brave for their students, evacuating the building as fast as possible, covering their face and mouth from the falling debris, all in all, this day was not going to be forgotten. The theme of With Their Eyes, is looking back at your history, whether it be terrible or fantastic, those are the moments in your life that will help shape you into the person you will be in the future.

        With Their Eyes is a really good book that I like because throughout all the struggles , the students have,  they were able to cope with the grief, sadness, anger, and share their stories with amazing details. Their lives are completely different now than before. One part I remember from this book was the story that Juan Carlos Lopez shared. Juan Carlos Lopez is  a school safety agent. When the towers were collapsing , it was his job to protect children from the falling debris. One thing I learned from him is that he has a son. Unfortunately, he states," We're going through some, ah, some post-divorce situations... I wish I could talk to him about what's going on so I could get his sense. It made me go start in tears again.... I'm picking up the puzzle pieces of mylife and putting it back together."  These quotes are explaining to me that from that day, Juan Carlos Lopez had his life changed around and focused on the real things happening in his life, like his family for example ,that is extremely important for him to regain the relationship with his son. Reading this also makes me wonder what things in my life are a puzzle?