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Ashley Garcia

O’Meara

AP Lit Pd 3

16 May 2022

Senior Reflection

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times each item used reflects my four years

through high school. Freshman year was a new experience. I had no clue what was happening in

English class at times, I was introduced to new criteria that were not taught in middle school.

English freshman year was a good and bad experience. Analyzing any books we read such as To

Kill a Mockingbird, was a new experience. I never really knew how to take notes when reading

books, I would jot down small notes here and there. Freshman year taught me I need to be

critical in my note taking because it will help me understand more. It was a bit of a struggle. My

note taking for TKAM was rough. My note taking was not the only rough thing that was rough

so was my Fast Food Nation PA, it took me about 3 or 4 rewrite meetings to pass it. My

mythological presentation for Odysseus and The Trojan Horse reflected another struggle I had

freshman year, I specifically remember this presentation. I had my basic information but once

again I did not go in depth and detail about my information, and I remember Mr. O’Meara asked

me multiple questions that I could not answer. I walked back to my seat very embarrassed but

that was my problem, I did not go in depth about information my freshman year. Sophomore

year it got better. My note taking got a bit better. I took notes on key elements that were taught to

us, our freshman year. Lord of the Flies was one of the books I really enjoyed reading over the

summer, and I would consider it one of my favorite books. Through Sophomore year we worked

on our IWA that would later be submitted to Collegeboard and scored. From peer edit comments
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and teacher comments my information was presented and in depth, but the thing was my

sentence fluency and grammar was terrible. Looking back at my IWA drafts before my final

IWA, it felt like I was looking at a bowl of alphabet soup. Sentences jumbled up and very long

runs on sentences. I still struggle with my sentence fluency till this day but not as awful as my

sophomore year. Junior year came around and we read Catcher in the Rye and not gonna lie that

book was mid, but even though I did not enjoy reading it. Junior year was one of the hardest

years work wise, but it was a good year too. Due to many films and novels given to us it helped

with my note taking and analysis. My notes helped me a lot with my writing. For example, I took

notes on the film Edward Scissorhands. I rewatched the movie twice and took notes. I also

rewatched it because it is a good movie. My drafts were not as bad as my sophomore year. I had

my information and a very good warrant to the scenes I would analyze due to my notes. This

allowed me to focus on my sentence fluency more and made my paper sound smooth as butter.

Of course there were errors but this was major progress from Freshman and Sophomore year.

Presenting any presentations Junior year was awkward. Hearing the sounds of people muting

their mic or their loud breathing when they would speak. Trying to work with group mates was

difficult too such as communicating with them or trying to work as a team but this helped me

with my organization. It helped me with my organization because it made me nervous that my

group mates would be done with their work and I would not. This made me organize my

assignments and have my work done a day early. This helped me organize myself even more,

especially with playing a sport that took time away. I would space out my work into segments

before heading to practice and after when I would get home from practice. Going into senior year

I would segment the summer assignments we needed to do. We needed to write a personal

statement and the four human tools. I worked diligently on the assignment and writing the
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personal statement, showed me the type of person I have become. I put it in my senior portfolio

for writing because in a way it is a reminder. It shows all my three years and how I have

developed and looking back at it and comparing it to my last days of my senior year. It shows if I

have developed in a good or bad way as a person, and in my opinion I have developed as a good

person. Not only that, but also as a student. Writing a paper about Hamlet was difficult and I did

struggle but I did not write a basic paper that freshman year me would try to do. I displayed my

information and yes, I did struggle a bit in being in- depth about the evidence I put. Though I

took the advice and suggestions that were given to me, from both my peers and teacher.

Including I went back to look at the notes I took when people would present their big idea

presentations along with their analysis. This helped me with the process of writing my paper and

Hamlet shall now be in grain in my head, due to the many presentations and courses about it.

Along with poetry and the numerous poetry presentations and analysis with it, but it helped me

grow my analysis on poetry. Such as using tools to analyze the poem and picking out key parts,

which was something I struggled with in creative writing my freshman year. Poetry was not my

strong suit at all, it was very confusing to me, but now it is not super super confusing as it was

back then. Learning from all the different ways to analyze a poem helped me better understand it.