Rylan’s English Blog

Prompt Response: Last year in AP Seminar,  I made a claim that social media harms teenagers' mental health. The night before my presentation, I presented my claim to my parents and sister so I could better prepare myself for class the next day. During my presentation, my younger sister asked how do you know this is true? I clicked to the next slide and provided her with much research and statistics that further made my claim more credible. I explained the relationship betweeen mental health and the overuse of social media, as well as how comparison online relates to the deterioration of teens' mental health. Explaining evidence is just as important as providing it because straight evidience doesnt always prove a point by itself. I had to clearly explain how my evidence supports my claim and contributes to my overall argument as well.  Summary: Today in class, we read a story on writeable.com called Ambush, and were provided with a prompt about our thoughts on whether there'...

Prompt Response: The learning method that I enjoy the most is class discussions and worksheet work. I learn best when we talk and learn as a class. Class discussions help me to stay focused and involved in the lesson. Then, when we practice it on a worksheet, that's how I get it engraved in my brain. I love practicing what we just learned about, so I can make sure I understand it, and if I don't, I can ask questions. I not only enjoy this method, but it also helps me learn best.  Summary: Today in class, we annotated and looked at another AP Exam Argumentative Essay prompt. Not only did we look at it, but we also made claims based on our position on the prompt and provided evidence to support it.  Reflection: I really enjoyed what we did in class today. I found the prompt to be a bit difficult, but once we annotated it, I understood it better. I liked what we did because I'm starting to understand how to make really great, relevant claims and find evidence. This makes me fe...

Prompt Response: Something that I will never understand is boys. The past two years, I have dated a boy and through that, I have learned so many different things about the way that boys think and act. No boy is the same, but I have realized that the way boys and girls think is so alike, yet also so different. My ex and I just recently broke up, and I will never fully understand his thought process or his actions, no matter how much I think about everything.  Summary: Today in class, we looked at a previous AP Exam argumentative essay response prompt and created claims that would answer the prompt.  Reflection: I really enjoyed what we worked on in class today. It was definitely challenging and nothing like I've ever done before, but it provided me with a new way to think about questions and prompts. I learned how to make claims about value and community, which I really enjoyed. 

Prompt Response: One thing that makes me different from other people is my ability to laugh at my own jokes. Whenever I say or think something is funny I can never explain it to people without laughing before I get my whole sentence out. I for sure laugh at the things that I say more than other people. It's definitely  embarrassing but Ive learned to accept it because I can't stop myself from laughing. It is one of my unique perks that I have learned to embrace.  Summary: Today in class we took a quiz in AP Classroom.  Reflection: We took the first quiz of the year today. It was difficult but from what we have learned in class about rhetorical situations and choices I had a pretty good understanding of what the questions were asking. I struggled with picking an answer though because two choices were almost always similar. 

Prompt Response: I have lived in Atlanta for my whole life. Living here is so awesome because there is so much history, diversity and different cultures here that helps shape me as a human. Being an Atlanta Citizen has influenced the way that I see my community because walking through Martin Luther Kings house in 8th grade really made me realize that not everyone feels seen and loved. That has influenced the way that I see my community because I want to share love and respect to everyone no matter their race, culture, gender ect. If I was speaking to someone unfamiliar with my community I would tell them that this is a special place with very special people and to know is to love. Our community feels so connected and loved which makes it so unique.  Summary: Today in class, we looked at a speech recited by Mayor Bottoms in response to the violent protests around the City of Atlanta. We also filled out a sheet on rhetorical situations and choices.   Reflection: I really en...

Prompt Response: The most creative thing I have ever made was a house that had switches and electrical wires running through it. In 8th grade, I built a two story house out of cardboard. It had five rooms all decorated and colored. In each room there was a light-bulb in the ceiling along with a switch on each wall. There were wires in the ceilings and floors to connect the electrical currents. The switches actually turned the light-bulbs on and off. This stands out as my best work because I not only built a cute house I was able to run electrical currents through it to turn the light-bulbs on and off.  Summary: Today in class we talked about Spacecat and we looked at Donald Trump's speech and explained it using Spacecat.  Reflection: I really enjoyed what we did in class today. Learning Spacecat was extremely beneficial in helping me learn more about the purpose, appeals and tones of Donald Trumps Speech. I found this lesson interesting and great. 

Prompt Response: I felt completely lost when I lost my grandfather. Back in 2020, my grandfather died abruptly and it was the first time I had ever experienced grief. I have no idea to handle by best friend being gone forever. This was the first time I felt alone and lost with my feelings. I remember being so sad to the point where I didn't even want to get out of bed in the morning times. After a couple of months I started to be okay with the fact that I knew he was living in no pain up in heaven. That was the first time I had ever experienced feeling completely lost.  Summary: Today in class we did an assignment that deepened our understanding of Claims of Value.  Reflection: I deepened my understanding of Claims of Value which helped me to understand that topic better. I really enjoyed the assignment we did today. 

Prompt Response: When I was younger, I believed that you could walk on clouds. I would lie down on my black trampoline in the backyard of my old house and stare up at the sky. I remember looking up and seeing huge white fluffy clouds in a variety of different shapes. I used to dream of jumping and walking on them. This dream was cut short early when I went to the Appalachian Mountains and my parents said, "Look, Rylan! We're driving through clouds." I remember being heartbroken because they looked so fun to walk on. Summary: Today in class, we learned about the different types of claims and what a claim is. We talked and learned about Claims of Fact, Claims of Value, and Claims of Policy.  Reflection: Learning more in depth about the three different types of claims today, makes me feel more confident about claims. I feel better about writing and decipher different types of claims. 

Prompt Response: One argument that I wish I could have handled differently was when the argument turned into a screaming fight with my parents about how messy my room was. About a month ago, I had just gotten back from camp, and my room was a disaster, but I wanted to go see my friends. My goal was to push cleaning my room back to later that night so that I could see my friends as soon as possible, because it would´ve taken hours to clean up my room. My parents did not like that goal and started to raise their voices. I started to raise my voice and argued that I have not seen my friends in so long and that this is not their room. Looking back, I would have never raised my voice because that got me in more trouble, and I just followed what they said because, at the end of the day, they do make the decisions. From what we learned today in class, I'd go back and use the 3 persuasive steps. I'd first change the mood of the environment. Instead of getting all worked up, I should ha...

Last week rumors were spreading that I cheated on my then boyfriend. Those rumors are so far from the truth so I had to persuade people and make sure they did not believe that terrible lie. I used pathos to explain to my friends how I felt in this situation and how upset I was that people thought I cheated. I also used logos to explain exactly what happened and provided facts and reasons why these rumors did not make any sense. I think that logos was most effective because providing the facts helped show and prove to people that I was telling the truth.  Summary: Today in class we looked and read through a Power-point specifically looking at logos, pathos and ethos. We also looked at examples and political videos and decided whether it was ethos, pathos or logos.  Reflection: I gained a deeper understanding of logos, pathos and ethos by looking at different examples and videos. I used this deeper understanding to think about today 's  blog prompt and respond to it. I real...

Prompt Response: As I grow older and face new experiences I think I will have to stand up most often for my learning disabilities. Throughout school this has been a challenging topic because lots of friends, teachers and administrators don't want to nor try to understand how severely dyslexic I am. Throughout the past two years in high school many of my teachers fail to let me use my 504 plan accordingly and the administrators have messed up AP testing due to not submitting my 504 requirements to college board in time. Due to the struggles I have faced in school and my friends making fun of me for not being able to spell simple words I believe for the rest of my life I will have to stand up for myself to bosses, friends and college professors to explain that I was born with these learning disabilities and I am trying my very best everyday to overcome them.  Summary: Today in class, we learned and looked at PowerPoint about Arguments.  Reflection: I loved learning about th...

 3 goals that I would love to personally achieve this year is becoming a faster reader, not procrastinate, and finish the school year with all A’s. I struggle with dyslexia so becoming a fast reader has always been a struggle for me. I would love to overcome that struggle this year by reading every night so I can be more successful in my academic career. I would also love to stop procrastinating so that I can learn to become more productive and not spend as much time on homework. Lastly, achieve all A’s is hard but if I set that high expectation I will become a better student.