Holland's English Blog

Prompt Response:  One thing I did well on on my essay was my evidence and based on the feedback, I compared two aspects of my evidence and then related it back to my thesis and successfully related personal experience into my second evidence body paragraph. One thing I need to improve on was generalizing some of my statements more to ensure they are still true and not overstated. In the future I will make sure all my claims are more precise as to strengthen my reasoning further.  Summary: Today in class we read our feedback for our essays and then started and Adobe Express assignment where we wrote our own poems and then decorated the online poster with themes that related to our poem. I wrote my poem about growing up and enjoying in the moment experiences and I really like my poem. Reflection:  It was helpful receiving feedback and encouraging to know that my thesis and evidence paragraphs are well-developed. It was also helpful to understand that I still need to work on...

Prompt Response:  One conversation that changed me was when my mom told me that Santa was not real. This was a very life altering topic because Santa was such a big part of my life and belief system as a kid so to know he did not exist was a curveball. Summary: Today in class we did the worksheet on the poem "Constantly Risking Absurdity" by analyzing different lines from the poem and explaining what their meaning was as well as how they connected to the overarching metaphor of the poem.  Reflection:  I liked this poem but I also appreciated annotating it together because it made today's responses a lot more efficient since I had already written down what the lines meant and from there I just had to connect it to the larger metaphor and transfer my notes into complete sentences.   

  Prompt Response:  One time I had to write a poem in AP Gov about what America meant to me and I started with listing both sides of America and then composed it into lines that went together. I was pretty proud of it since I do not write poems a lot and I believe they are challenging but I thought I gave my best effort to it. Summary: Today in class we analyzed a poem "Constantly Risking Absurdity" and established it as an overarching metaphor comparing a poet to an acrobat. We underlined specific phrases and words and annotated their meaning in a broader sense in terms of a poets perspective. Reflection:  I thought today's lesson was very humorous but also informative because we got to watch clips of acrobats and music videos to understand the poem and I thought the references and explanations provided kept me engaged and also furthered my understanding of the poem.

Prompt Response:  Clustering helped me generate ideas because it organized the topic and subtopics into a graph and allowed my brain to formulate related evidences and details for each  sub-topic that I could use to formulate into body paragraphs. The most useful part was being able to visualize all my reasons and the components for my body paragraphs and this will help me on my AP Lang essays because it will make it easier to come up and structure my evidence and commentaries.  Summary: Today in class we took notes on brainstorming techniques for essays and focused on the clustering technique. We went over a topic together on the best way to get a job and came up with reasons and details for each bubble. Reflection:  I think clustering will be a helpful tool for assignments that are over long periods over time and not just one session such as in class because it is a little tie consuming at first but I think it will be a good way to organize my ideas and formulate w...

  Prompt Response:  The easiest part of the argumentative essay was the introduction and making my claim because I knew the two reasons I wanted to use and I feel like my contextualization before my thesis statement was well crafted. One thing I would change was my commentary on the second evidence body paragraph because that was the part I got the most stuck on. Summary: Today in class we wrote a full argumentative essay about the value of selfies. This was the first time we did it completely independent and it gave a good sense of where we were and what we had to work on. We got time and a half since it was the first essay.  Reflection:  I think I had a good thesis statement and evidence but I think some of my commentary could have been stronger because at time it felt like I was being very repetitive with my sentences and I think my conclusion could have been stronger.  

  Prompt Response:  One time I felt like I truly belonged was in the Chick-fil-a breakfast line in the mornings because I'm surrounded by people just as hungry as me and I've never felt self-conscious about what I order when at the front of that line. Additionally, everyone in the line is pretty happy to be there and the vibe is positive.  Summary: Today in class we did a Commonlit about the importance of have a sense of belonging in the community and society. The article used different references from studies sand credible sources to explain her claim. Afterwards we answered multiple choice questions and one written question at the end.  Reflection:  The article was really interesting because it dove into the analysis on human behavior and why we have the inherent need to belong. Responding to the questions helped formulate the information in my head and it gave me a reference for how to write evidence and provide commentary for my writing. 

  Prompt Response:  I think the word from today's vocab lesson that will be most useful in the future is idyllic. Idyllic means very peaceful or perfect which I think can be a good word to use in my AP Lang essays when comparing two things or in my SAT vocab section because it's a word I've heard before but never fully understood in context.  Summary: Today in class we wrote down vocab words and for our assignment we wrote our own sentences using each words. Afterwards, we did two practice sections from the book using the words in context.  Reflection: I think the vocab assignments are very helpful because it broadens our vocabulary to more professional words to use in our essays and by writing our own sentences I think helped lock in the definitions because we were creating our own writing based on how we interpreted the meaning of each word.

  Prompt Response:  One thing I understand better about my commentary now is that the "So What?" should explain why my evidence supports my claim instead of just summarizing or rewording the evidence. When writing my next argument, I will use this method to explain the importance of my evidence and connect it back to my claim.  Summary: Today in class we did a packet with four different claim and evidence and we had to write out a commentary with three different components. We had to explain what the evidence showed, why it was important, and how it connected back to the claim. Reflection: It was helpful to practice commentary and know what parts and things I needed to include in it. I'm still not sure how to start each portion of the commentary and how to avoid just rewording the claim or evidence or getting too repetitive.

  Prompt Response:  Although I was not in  class today, I looked up past AP Exam essays and analyzed what they did different to mine. One thing I noticed was that the higher scoring essays had better and more detailed evidence and their commentary directly supported their topic. This taught me that I need to guarantee my commentary connects back to my claim and evidence to create a well thought out and advanced response.  Summary: Absent from class Reflection:  Absent form class

Prompt Response:  I usually look at the rubric while I am doing my assignment because it helps me understand what my teacher is looking for and serves as a checklist to make sure I don't miss any necessary components. I can use it as a roadmap by checking that I have a clear thesis, strong evidence, and good commentary. Using the rubric while writing will help ensure I include everything I need to earn full credit.  Summary: Today in class we calculated how many questions and points we had to score to achieve each passing level of the AP Exam. We also discussed how in the future we will learn different strategies to get these points. We then looked at a past argumentative essay prompt from College Board on things that are overrated and made a list of things we thought we overrated. We then chose one from the list and created 3 reasons why we thought this.  Reflection:  Calculating possible scores with their aligning factors was reassuring because it showed me how I d...

Prompt Response:  Knowing the ins and outs of a rubric would help me better understand exactly what the assignment is looking for and focus on instead of just guessing and getting off track. After reviewing the AP Lang rubric, I understand that I need a clear and defensible thesis, strong supporting evidence, explain my reasoning, and show complexity. I would use the checklist in the future while writing and revising my essays so I can make sure I score as many points as possible.  Summary: Today in class we looked at the papers other groups wrote in response to our paragraph. Afterwards we wrote down the three parts of formatting an introduction paragraph and finished off by going through the AP Lang Argumentative Essay rubric and talking about each point.  Reflection:  Analyzing the rubric was helpful because it helped me understand what the AP scorers are looking for and what to avoid doing to not get points off. This provided some clarity of how I should go on to...

  Prompt Response:  I found it interesting and really informing reading other people's perspectives on different topics and how they approach writing an argument for their position. I think it was a formative experience to be able to acknowledge someone else's writing is good and well-written without having to agree with their statement.  Summary: Today in class we went around and read each tables paragraphs and each table had a specific part of the paragraph they were focusing on. My table's focus was the claim and we answered different questions about what the purpose and position was of that group as well as if their evidence connected well to the claim and didn't deter heavily.   Reflection:  Today's lesson helped me get a viewpoint on how other's in the class write essay with I can help synthesize into my own writings. It was also good to read argument's that I didn't necessarily agree with but can also acknowledge were well-written because the purp...

  Prompt Response:  One time I heard someone use informal language in a situation that should have been formal was in my AP Government class when a student was trying to ask our teacher for an extension. They said something to the degree of "Hey, could you give me extra time because I haven't finished" and even though it was semi-respectful, the wording was too casual for a teacher. Instead, I think they should have said "Hello, I was wondering if it would be possible to have an extension on this assignment, I would really appreciate the extra time". This situation taught me that the way I speak should be in consideration with who I am talking to and the environment.  Summary: Today in class we took notes on Formal vs. Informal wording. We learned the different scenarios each language is appropriate for and the differences between them such as "can't" versus. "cannot". We ended class by revising our paragraphs and submitting them for feed...

  Prompt Response:  One idea from a group member was our first reasoning that relationships can become a major  distraction since you're constantly communicating with your partner instead of paying attention. Her input was helpful because she has been through a relationship and experienced a breakup so her first person perspective provided a new sense to our approach that my other partner and I did not have. Summary: Today because the wifi was out, we worked on new vocab words and wrote down their definition in our notebooks. We then went on to writing out fill in the blanks with sentences that consisted of the words and we had to determine which one was best applicable. We also read a passage about a guy's opinion on governments and answered questions related to the reading.  Reflection:  Today's class was pretty low-key and I knew more words in this set than I did in the last such as arable, discerning, and metamorphosis which was nice. I thought that the read...

  Prompt Response:  One thing I've always been curious about is why your foot feels tingly when it "falls asleep" and what causes that. I assume it has something to do with nerves and things related to your anatomy but it's something I've never remembered to look up ad every time my foot falls asleep I wonder about why it's doing that. Summary: Today in class we worked on perfecting our paragraphs and typing it up on writeable. We also took notes on what not to say in your paragraph such as using second person and to leave "I" out of it unless it is a quote. We then began typing our final paragraphs into writeable. Reflection:  I liked that we did our paragraphs in a group and were able to synthesize our ideas and I feel like it gave me a better understanding on how my arguments should be constructed especially the explanation portion with the three sentences. One thing I would like to continue working on is conclusion paragraphs. 

  Prompt Response:  For me, the most challenging part of building an argument is explaining my evidence and forming a conclusion. I find myself simply restating the claim in the conclusion and in my explanations I feel like I'm getting of track or not being specific enough to connect it back to the claim/prompt.  Summary: Today in class we took notes on how to create a line of reasoning in our argumentative paragraphs. We learned the steps that a line of reasoning goes through and that the chain must link because if it doesn't the argument weakens. After we took notes we looked at cut outs and had to assemble a paragraph in the chain order.  Reflection:  I liked today's practice with the cutouts because it helped me visualize the format of a paragraph and where everything goes as well as how it's constructed. I also appreciated seeing the blueprint of a different prompt and how they wrote it so I know what mine is supposed to look like. Finally I liked that we w...

  Prompt Response:  When I was little, I had a very large fear of balloons, specifically when they would pop. This was because I had surgery when I was an infant that made my ears very sensitive and so the loud pop of balloons breaking affected me a lot more than the average person. Additionally, one time me and my mom were picking up balloons for my friends birthday party and I accidentally let go off them and they floated off into the sky. So in summary my experience with balloons had not been very pleasant, but I was able to overcome it by a sort of exposure therapy where I made myself become more comfortable around loud noises and preparing myself if a balloon did pop. I also got more surgery on my ear which helped them not be as sensitive so I was as affected by a balloon popping from what I used to be Summary: Today in class, we looked over our feedback from our Writeable assignment and reviewed the feedback we received. My feedback was about sentence structure and furth...