Personal Reflection Essay

English 30-1 is a challenging course; there are many assignments, and projects to complete, to help improve writing skills, understanding of poetry, and help evolve your mind with literature. There are many texts you have to study including Hamlet, Truth and Bright Water, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and A Dolls house. Each of the texts I studied in this course taught me different things. Each assignment I had to do taught me something new, and each one made me think harder into what to write or present for it. Each assignment made us think extensively into the text we were studying and also having to understand how it ties in with the human condition. When applying the human condition to each text we studied showed a different paradox of the human condition, and each project we did improved weakness and built on my strengths to expand my success in English 30.

For each text we studied we had to do many assignments but for each one, the projects differed. For example Hamlet, we did retrieval charts and a critical/analytical essay. Truth and Bright Water was a text we did the most extensive amount of work on, we had to complete chapter charts, novel question, poetry assignments, a critical/analytical essay and a visual project. For Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, we had to complete a research project containing all the cinematic, literary and dramatic elements we thought tied into the main theme of the film and we also had to complete an in-class timed essay in preparation for our diploma exam. For A Doll's House we did not have to complete any assignments we just read through the play with Mrs. Achtymichuk for having another piece of literature to be prepared for the diploma exam with. 

            Though this course has taught me many things I came into it and still remain with a few weaknesses. This included poetry, understanding of Shakespeare, expanding on ideas into greater depth, using a clear and specific thesis statement and using specific examples from texts. Throughout this course I have learned to understand poetry more thoroughly, by reading through it more than once and grouping it out into sections, reading who wrote it, and any other description it has. These helped me get a better understanding of what the poet is saying and what they want everyone to know. I have learned to understand Shakespeare more though still not very well, but I have a better understanding of it, and meanings of it. My ideas, have been slowly been being expanded on though not as strongly as my ideas are. I’ve been working on giving specific examples, though I have started to throw one or two examples in my writing, though there should be more. Which when adding examples from the text you were studying gives others reading the work more of a grasp to hold onto with them having a part of the text on your paper. I am still working to improve on all of these skills, and to understand all the aspects of writing and reading different kinds of texts.

            Some of my strengths include strong ideas, group assignments and coming up with creative ideas. I use strong controlling ideas in my papers; they have great ideas and can usually, easily be related too, though they do need to be expanded on and have more clarification in them. If I can pick a prose choice form to write with, my number one choice is always an essay, there just an easy choice for me and easy to write and this course has helped me to expand my writing skills on them. I work strongly in a group that may be because of the conversation that goes on within a group and just from everyone speaking out their opinion and position on something it could give you a greater grasp on what you’re doing with another person’s perspectives.

            This course was a great experience, to take in my last year of high school, teaching me many things that our important in writing skills for life. English has taught me how to write letters, read poetry, analyze Shakespeare, analyze pictures, and work more creatively. I feel as if each assignment we had to do helped us to improve on not just English but also skills we will use in our future to become successful. Each assignment we did used something different than the one before to expand our outlook of learning.