Throughout this semester, I think I’ve grown a lot as a student in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and thinking. There were many units that helped me grow in these areas, some of the main ones being our informative speeches and choice reading and writing.
When we did informative speeches, I chose the topic of photography, mostly because I wanted to learn more about it myself. When doing this speech, I was taught how to successfully talk in front of people and get them to listen to me. I think that the information I derived from this speech is going to help me in years to come. Some of the main things I learned: don’t talk too fast, connect your speech to the visual aid, show more emotion, make sure to be loud, and gesture along with your words.
The choice reading and writing unit really helped me with my reading and writing (obviously), but also with my thinking skills. When I read The Sun is Also a Star, I learned how to read a book and understand what was going on so that I could relate to the characters and the plot, and I also learned how to think like the characters and even to think in ways I had never thought possible before. When I read this book, my reading and thinking skills went up a level purely because of the writing style and what I had to do to stay involved with the book.
During the choice reading and writing unit, I also learned many things about writing. One of the main things is not to rush the ending, even if your story does end up being a little longer than what you expected. If you want the story to end up like you were imagining, you have to take the time to develop the plot and the characters how they should be developed. You also can’t rush the ending. The end is one of the most important parts of the story, as it is when everything is resolved (most of the time). You could write an amazing story, but if the ending isn’t good, all that could go down the drain, so you can’t rush the ending. Just like you have to take time to develop the characters and plot, you have to take time to develop the ending and make it the way you want.