Diego Camarena-Torres

Miss Williams-Arnold

English Language Arts II (Gr 10) Honors

19 June 2021

Reflection Essay

This school year has been interesting to say the least, it has been very different than any

other year. I could have never predicted that my sophomore year of high school would be virtual,

but here we are! Although I had to get used to attending class online and completing my

homework on my computer rather than pencil and paper, I believe this year has taught me a lot

about myself. This year has shown me that although I doubt myself a lot, I am actually a very

hardworking and intelligent person. My classes have challenged me a tremendous amount but I

have overcome those obstacles every single time. This class is one of my most improved classes,

so now I will begin to talk about this ELA class and how I have improved.

After making this digital portfolio, I can proudly say that my writing skills have greatly

improved. At the beginning of this year I dreaded any type of essay, but I now find them a lot

more bearable. The essays that you have made us compose throughout the course of this year

have allowed me to reflect on the mistakes from previous essays in order to avoid making those

same mistakes in future essays. The biggest mistakes I made were not reading my essays from

the perspective of others, and poor sentence structure. These mistakes both ruined the flow of my

essays, and left the reader confused. This course has helped me correct a majority of my

mistakes, whether it be through your teaching in class, or educational videos assigned to assist

us. An essay that I had a lot of trouble making was my book review. I found it extremely difficult
to review a book without spoiling any part of it. However, when you shared the video about how

to write a book review I finished my essay in just a couple of hours. I really liked the way that

you were always in class talking about every assignment, because I feel like a lot of my other

teachers just assign work and expect it to be done flawlessly. These class discussions have helped

view other points of view and apply those views to my work. One of my best essays would have

to be my AP essay. The time limit was not an issue since you have prepared us for those

situations, so I was not nervous while typing the essay. I was more worried about the 300 word

limit, which turned out to me more helpful than harmful. The limit made me have to choose my

words very carefully and ultimately made my essay straight to the point.

My writing has obviously changed a lot since the beginning of the school year, and the

only people to credit are both you and I. The pandemic has made learning extremely hard, and

some classmates I thought were extremely intelligent actually fell behind. I have put in all the

work needed to complete all of my assignments, and I believe my grade reflects that. Some

things I will never forget are compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, and that is

because of the effort you put in to help us engrave these terms in our heads forever. Although this

class was very frustrating at some points, it has helped advance my english a lot more than any

other english class. I can confidently say that I am ready for next year's english class.