Rylan’s English Blog

Prompt Response: One thing that I did well on was interpreting the prompt and coming up with a good thesis statement for my essay. One area that I need to improve on is providing specific pieces of evidences. Next time I will come up with more thoughtful evidences that support my claims. Connecting to that I feel like if I had better planned out my paragraph I would have thought about my evidences in more detail. Next time I will for sure plan out my paragraph in more detail.  Summary: Today in class we wrote our own original poems on a poster.  Reflection: I really liked creating my original poem today. Ever since our lesson on how to write a poem, it helped me to understand how poems are written better. This made writing a poem fun for the first time today. 

Prompt Response: During 8th grade I had to write a poem about my experience throughout middle school. The process was very long and tedious so that we were sure we had a great poem. I was not proud of the finish product. This was because I didn't really understand at the time what I was doing and how to write a poem. Now understanding how to write poems I wish I could go back and rewrite it because I think it would definitely be better. Summary: Today in class we looked at a poem and annotated it to dissect the meaning of words and phrases.  Refection: I liked what we did in class today a lot. Over the years I have had a difficult time understanding poems and the point they are trying to make. Going through and annotating it/ taking notes helped me to understand the poem better. I have a better understanding of how poems are written and how to read them. 

Prompt Response: Clustering helped me to generate and come up with ideas for the prompt because it honestly just made me think about the overarching topic in much more detail. The clustering process was 100% useful for me because it helped me to brainstorm ideas in more detail and much more proficiently. I would use this strategy on the Ap Lang essay because I struggled with brainstorming ideas last time and from creating a cluster map today I thought about more examples in more detail.  Summary: Today in class we talked about and took notes on clustering as a brainstorming strategy for our essays in Ap Language.  Reflection: I really liked the notes we took and the cluster map we drew in class today. It really helped me to understand how to come out with better examples and ideas to write about when brainstorming. When writing the essay on Wednesday, I struggled with brainstorming ideas so I really think that this strategy will be put to great use. 

 Prompt Response: I found the AP Lang full argument essay both easy and difficult. The part of the essay that was easiest was dissecting the prompt because I understood what it was asking students to write about well. The hardest part of the essay was coming up with pieces of evidence to back up my claims. I found it challenging because I couldn't brain storm ideas for some reason that morning. The one thing I would do differently going forward is planning my essay better. I planned out my body paragraphs but not well. Going forward I will be sure to spend a little bit more time planning out exactly what I want to say.  Summary: On Wednesday we wrote a full Ap Language argument essay about if we think selfies for documenting one's life are valid or not.  Reflection: I appreciated the time that my teacher gave us for writing our first Ap Lang essay. It was not the easiest thing but I learned a lot about my timing and grasped a better understanding of how Ap Lang essays wor...

Prompt Response: A time where I felt like a truly belonged was when I was at summer camp 2 years ago. What created this feeling was the fact that I felt very safe to be myself. I felt like I could laugh, be loud and say what I wanted without the feeling of being judged. It was the best feeling in the world because I found my best friends that week. I would do absolutely anything to go back to feeling okay with being my unique self.  Summary: Today in class we read a paragraph about the importance of belonging and answered questions based of the paragraph.  Reflection: I enjoyed the reading that we did in class today. I wrote my Ap Seminar IWA off the sense of belonging and everything that was said was very true and extremely well spoken about. I feel like this topic isn't spoken about enough so I really enjoyed reading about this. 

Prompt Response: I think the word that I would be most useful in my future would be the word archaic. This word means something that is very old. A situation that I would realistically use it is in my history classes or in my history major in college. When describing things from the past in papers, homework, or even just talking, I think it's a very useful word to get an idea of how old something is. I really want to do something with history when I am older and I feel like this vocabulary word would be extremely essential.  Summary: Today in class we learned new vocabulary words and practiced them by doing exercises.  Reflection: I really like when we have vocab Mondays. I struggle with vocab so learning new vocab really helps me to expand my thinking and professionalism when writing things especially papers. I love learning new words or even just relearning words that I forgot the meaning of. All in all I really enjoy learning new vocabulary. 

Prompt Response: One thing that I didn't understand before the worksheet today was fully what I needed to provide in the commentary. I thought it didn't have like a definite structure to it. After completing the worksheet today I learned that I need to explain what it shows, why it matters and how it supports the claim. I will apply it to my next AP Lang argument because I know exactly what to say and how to use it to better support my evidence's as well as claim's.  Summary: Today in class we complete a practice commentary worksheet.  Reflection: I really enjoyed what we did during class today. I feel like I have a great understanding of making claims and providing evidence but I struggled on the commentary. Practicing that aspect of the argumentative essay today made me feel more confident in writing commentary. I have a better understand ing of writing commentary. 

Prompt Response: Two important takeaways that I learned that I can apply to my own writing is that the evidence needs to connect the claims and the commentary should explain how and why. I learned many things from the Ap Lang Rubric. First, the thesis is the easiest point to earn. I learned that it doesn't necessarily need to be in the introduction but its best fit there. When looking at the past Ap Lang essays during class, the perfect scored one had there thesis in the introduction. They also had many evidences in which addressed all claims as well as had much commentary which explained all evidences. Seeing that example I grasped a better understanding of how to conduct my body paragraphs. Lastly, that specific example obtained the sophistication point but providing a counterargument. That helped understand that there is many different ways to obtain that point but that it is quite difficult.  Summary: Today in class we reviewed past argumentative essays and used are rubrics to ...

Prompt Response: I always look at the rubric before I start assignment. Then I used it almost like a checklist to help guide me through the assignment. I could use the Ap Lang rubric as a roadmap because I would first do my introduction and conduct a well thought-out thesis, and make sure a make it's well reasoned to earn that point. Then I would use the rubric to make sure I write relevant evidence and commentary that would connect all claims not just some. Lastly, I would try and earn the sophistication point even though that's difficult. All in all, I would use the rubric as a roadmap to help guide me in my writing to make it sound best and to achieve the best score possible.  Summary: Today in class, we looked at a previous AP Lang prompt and had a class discussion on how to dissect what the prompt is asking/looking for and we started to come up with evidences based of experiences.  Reflection: I really liked the prompt that we looked at in class today. I found it to be ve...

Prompt Response: This year in AP Lang I was given a prompt and had to write an argumentative paragraph. I didn't get the best grade and I was disappointed.  I didn't fully understand the rubric and what I was doing. Knowing the "ins and outs" of a rubric can change the way I would approach an assignment because I would have a better understanding of what I need to do. It would also make me more confident because I would know exactly what to do and would make me feel like I could get a better grade. Now that I have taken notes on the rubric and understand it better I definitely think I would do significantly better on the assignment. I learned today, evidence and commentary should support and flow with each other and the claim as well. I didn't really understand that before but now I feel like I would do significantly better because I understand the rubric better.   Summary: Today in class, we learned about the AP Lang Argument Essay rubric and took notes on it.  R...

Prompt Response: I liked seeing how other people express their ideas because it very interesting seeing and understand other peoples opinions. I noticed that when people disagreed with their prompt they were very harsh about it. On the other hand, when a group did agree with their prompt, they weren't really argumentative it was more like a story they were trying to get across. All in all, I liked reading other groups paragraphs because it showed me different perspectives about different topics.  Summary: Today in class we went to other groups and critiqued there paragraphs. My group specifically focused on fixing other groups claims.  Reflection: I enjoyed what we did in class today. I liked reading other groups paragraphs and there takes on the prompt they were given. I liked seeing how there paragraph compares to the paragraph that my group wrote to see what we can improve on for next time. 

Prompt Response: When I was in middle school, I went to a tiny private Christian school. It was chapel day and we had to wear our chapel uniforms. I was in 6th grade and I got dress coded for my skirt being too short. I was then taken to the principal's office and I started bawling and using informal language because I was so sad, scared and frustrated. I said things more sassy and rude which got me into even more trouble. Looking back, If I used more formal wording and a better tone I could've probably gotten my point across better and not ended up with as many consequences. This situation taught me that I not only need to use more formal wording when talking to adults but to be respectful as well.  Summary: Today in class we learned and took notes on formal and informal language and revised our paragraphs to make better.  Reflection:  I really liked the notes we took in class today. It helped me to understand formal and informal language better and I now know when to an...

Prompt Response: One suggestion that a group member made about my paragraph to help improve it was to broaden my claim a little more. I orginally had two ideas in my claim, but they suggested doing one. This helped my evidence and commentary connect better to my claim. Even though they suggested my claim be broader, it definitely helped my paragraph to sound better. Summary: Today in class, we learned new vocab words and practice it by doing different exercises.   Reflection: I really enjoyed what we did today in class. I like learning new vocab words to expand my vocabulary, which will help me to become a better writer and reader. Doing the exercises helps me to understand the words better. 

Prompt Response: I have always been curious where I will end up going to college. My dream school is UNC but there acceptance rate out-of-state is 7%. That is super low so I have lowered my expectations. My goal is to either go to UGA or Auburn. I really want to rush at a big school and go to college football games.  Summary: Today in class we took more notes and fixed up paragraphs that we formulated on Wednesday.  Reflection: I liked the notes we took in class today. It made me understand how to write the paragraph better and in a more professional tone. I loved working with my group to revise it. That has really deepened my understanding of what we are learning in class. 

Prompt Response: The part of building the argument that is the most challenging part for me personally is the commentary. The commentary is challenging for me because I have a hardish time explaining my evidence and connecting it back to my claim. It's difficult for me to make sure I explain everything fully rather than in parts. With more practice though, I will become better at this skill.  Summary: Today in class we learned how to build and create a line of reasoning by connecting a clear claim, evidence, commentary and conclusion.  Reflection: I really liked what we did in class today. I learned some new information which will help me to become a better writer. The activity we did in class helped me to understand how to write a clear line of reasoning better. All in all I really enjoyed what we did in class today.  

Prompt Response: A fear that I have overcome is thunderstorms and tornado's. When I was younger I watched the movie Twister. The next day I went to school and there was a major thunderstorm and we had to sit in the hallways for hours because of a tornado. That day was the beginning of my thunderstorm/tornado fear. That fear lasted for about 5 years until the day I was at the beach and my grandma made me sit outside with her during a tropical storm. This made me realize that yes storms can be dangerous but all storms aren't. That was the day I had overcome my intense fear.  Summary: Today in class we reviewed our responses on writeable and discussed what we need to do to  improve better.  Reflection: I liked today's class. Reading Mr. Rease's response on how I can improve my writing really helped me. It did make me realize that I need to read the prompt and directions more carefully. I didn't do too badly but hopefully I can improve more next time.