This year in English has really helped me to grow in the areas of reading, writing, thinking, and speaking. I will be talking about reading, writing, and speaking. My skills have improved on major scales, and I’ve enjoyed this class more than I thought I would. Many pieces helped me to grow in these areas, but in this essay, I’m going to talk about specific projects that helped me grow in these four areas.
This year, I think I most improved in the area of writing. Whether it was growing more confident, getting better at explaining ideas more, or knowing that I want to write for a living, this year has really helped me grow as a writer and thinker. The piece that really helped me do this was our choice creative writing. For this story, I wrote about a girl who had a chip implanted in her brain and had to go spy on a boy who was her age, disguising herself as his neighbor. It follows their story as they meet and she tries to wrestle with her duties and her feelings about him. I remember sitting in my room at around noon and starting to write, and when I looked out the window, it was dark out and I had 23 pages worth of writing. This project helped me to grow in confidence with my writing and know that sometimes, to explain your ideas, you need more than you think.
I also improved in my reading skills. This was enforced mostly by reading The Sun is Also a Star. This book had multiple perspectives, which helped me see into the characters lives and made me realize how much I like books like that. My comprehension skills have gotten so much better because I wanted to remember every detail that happened. I now try to read every word instead of just skimming all the time.
My speaking skills have also grown throughout this class. With all the speeches we have been doing, it’s inevitable that I would have to learn how to talk in public. I have grown so much in my confidence and not being nervous when I give a speech. One speech that helped me do this was our informative speech. I learned everything I possibly could about a topic, in this case, photography, and I had to give a speech on it. Doing this helped me to understand the basics of speeches and how to properly get an audiences attention.
I’ve learned many things throughout this year, but there are a few specific tips that I want to take into life and future classes. Some of these include adding details in a story, don’t rush the plot/ending, and that word choice is important.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about all the projects that have helped me improve my skills in writing, reading, and speaking. I hope to take these skills that I have learned with me into my life, and I can use them in the future.
Here is the link to my creative writing:
You did a good job of explaining how you grew throughout the year! Nice job!