Andi Sayson

Ms. Schwartz
English 10 3A
My tenth grade English class was memorable in multiple ways. Not only was it a nurturing
learning environment that I could always look forward to every week, but I was able to enjoy the whole
experience of reading and writing. As I look back on the great year, I appreciate what I learned and read,
I reflect on what I hoped to write about, and I set higher goals for next year.
This year I was able to improve my literary analysis skills. I learned how textual evidence is
crucial to supporting a thesis. It needs full and detailed elaborations, in order to make the connection to
the thesis. Prior to this, a thesis also needs to be connected to the opening hook through bridging
statements. I learned plenty about grammar through our bell work, as well. It taught me the importance
of sentences having subject-verb agreement and proper punctuation. The bell work also enabled me to
reach my goal of expanding my vocabulary by bolding unfamiliar words.
My favorite novel we studied was Anthem by Ayn Rand. It became one of my favorite books
because it was a clever of the author to display her own experiences and viewpoints of being a part of a
communist state through the fictional dystopian society. Through the society and character dynamics,
she was able to show the significance of individualism and natural human rights. The analyses that were
conducted allowed our class to further explore the theme and relate it back to global events.
I would have liked to work on more creative writing. Not only is it highly entertaining process,
but it expands the minds ability to imagine. This is beneficial for writers, because it helps them develop
a unique writing style. In addition to this, it provides the freedom express yourself with words. I also
would have preferred to do persuasive writing. It is a challenging type of writing because it requires a
certain diction to convince the audience of your argument. The construction of the paper has to be well
thought out and full of strong examples in order to create a valid and understandable point.
My goal for eleventh grade is to improve my grammar, which is my weakest area. I will study the
grammatical rules I have learned to make sure I am constructing my sentences properly. I also plan on
reading more frequently throughout the summer and the school year, so that I will be able to pick up
grammatical concepts. In addition, I must be more careful with tense when I am writing, because I have
a terrible habit of switching from past tense to present tense throughout my essays. As I end this school
year with a great experience in English class, I look forward to learning new things next year and
improving my writing and reading skills.