So Far...

Reading has never been an interest of mine, but I feel like I have grown to like it more. Since beginning English 11, I have read 6 books. The 2 books I read in class challenged me to go beyond what I usually read, and I am glad I did. Reading this quarter, also helped me find out what type of books I am interested in. I love to read mysteries and also even true life books. I like reality, not fantasy. The reading journal we were required to do helped me pick apart the book. Instead of just reading it and thinking that I know what it meant, I went back and looked at the specific details and thought beyond the text. In my opinion, to read a text deeply is to not just read the book and stop at the information that it gives you. You have to go deeper and think outside the book.
I have without a doubt become a stronger writer. The “Show not Tell” stories and exercises really helped me a lot. I love to write now. I like to actually make a scene, with crisp details and muscle verbs, play in the readers mind. Next quarter I think I need to work most on my sentence structure. Although I try to use different types of sentences, I can still improve.
A new skill I learned this year was blogging. Until this year, I hadn’t even really known too much about it. I love it now. I like that I can explain how I interpreted a book or post a poem I have written and other people can read it and let me know how they feel also. It is kind of like my nerdy facebook.
The lit-circles have helped me grow as a collaborator. I have never really been pushed to work with a group. I am not a shy person by any means, but having an educational discussion is harder then chatting about what my plans are for Friday night. My group was very talkative, so I believe that we all came much more capable of having an intelligent conversation. Although we started off straying from the topic, by the end, we had it down.
Next quarter I hope to learn as much as I did this quarter. I really enjoyed this class and I know it will get better as we go. I hope we get to write a lot more and learn different styles and techniques. I am very interested in becoming a better writer.