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Zain Salman

White

AP Lit

16 May 2022

Senior Reflection

Throughout my high school career, I have learned about numerous different skills tied to

English in terms of listening, speaking, reading, and writing with clear and visible change in the

way that I create and present my information primarily in Performance Assessments (PA) and

presentations. During Freshman Year of high school, the first major assignment that was given

was the “Fast-Food Nation PA,” and it was an introduction to one of the extensive parts of

University High School. I included the “Fast-Food Nation PA” into my Senior Portfolio because

it sets the stage of where I began my journey as a high school student. Another important reason

to include this paper is that it was the first paper that I failed on my first try as a freshman, but

the opportunity to be able to rewrite my paper introduced me to have an opportunity to have a

growth mindset in writing. In semester 2, I wrote the “To Kill A Mockingbird” Characterization

and Symbolism PA, and I wanted to include this in my portfolio to show my improvement that I

had in freshman year as a writer. Although I did not pass the PA first try, the main reason that I

did not pass first try did contribute to misreading instructions or not paying attention to the

details that were required for specific parts of the essay, such as the specific characterization

steps that needed to be followed. After receiving the edits from the teacher and discussing my

errors with the teacher during tutoring hours, I found it helpful to identify my errors, such as not

following characterization steps incorrectly. While I was improving my writing, I was also
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improving my speaking and presenting skills. I added the “Globe Theatre” presentation because I

remember that most of my presentations were presented by using flash cards and note cards,

which can be helpful, but I simply never tried to fully understand the presentation fully and

usually “winged it.” As I transitioned into sophomore year of high school, the AP Seminar class

worked on a PA that was both a group and individual effort. I decided to include both the

Individual Research Report and the Team Presentation on the Rwandan Genocide because it

tested my research, writing, and presenting skills the most in my four years of high school, and I

still use several skills from AP Seminar in my PA’s and other assignments outside of English or

writing. In junior year, there was a mixture of nonfiction and fictional texts, and I decided to

include my comparison PA’s from each semester to contrast them from each other. For both of

these texts, I was slowly realizing that I was underutilizing a major source that would give me

the best advantage at passing my PA on first try, and the advantage was to discuss the thought

processes behind why the ideas were developed on the paper. I found that I was mainly passing

my PA’s only on the second time because of the useful advice and edits that I was getting

exclusively from the teachers after I failed on the first try. It was simpler to identify what to fix

when someone else pointed it out for me. I called others to edit my paper. Instead of telling them

to comment on it and say what is wrong about it, I engaged them in a discussion to explain my

thought process then let them explain what part of my thought process makes sense and what

part of my thought process needs improvement. Though my writing drastically improved, there

were some limitations that I may have had during junior year. I chose to analyze my

Frankenstein Group Discussion because I found that it was peculiarly bland, and I wanted to note

that my group partners and myself may not have always performed the best, especially because

all students were being quarantined. I found the presentation to be bland because all the slides
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were simply full of words, and they had no interesting feature to them. On the other hand, the

presentation on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead from second senior year contrasts the

presentation on the Frankenstein discussion because the presentations are both about discussions

of a book, but the presentation on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is more immersing because it

has slides that may keep the audience more interested than in the Frankenstein Discussion

Presentation. In addition to keeping the audience’s attention, another method of keeping attention

can be utilizing humor or adding some silly images on the slides here and there. However, at the

same time, I learned that I should probably not overuse too many images because it may distract

the audience from the main point that I am trying to convey in my presentation. Compared to

freshman year of high school, there has been much improvement in terms of how I make my

slides and how the slides are presented. Though I do transfer some old skills that are useful, such

as using flashcards, but I am careful to not overuse them and lose the attention of my audience,

so I limit using flashcards and try to memorize all the key points and show the audience that I

have mastered the topic. Similar to how I can discuss my edits and errors in my warrant in my

PA rewrites, I can also create discussions with other students and teachers in my presentations.

Finally, I decided to include 2 writing assignments, the Senior PA and an AP Literature Writing

Practice Question. The Senior PA is essential to include in the senior portfolio because I wanted

to compare it to my freshman PA that I completed 3-4 years ago. Throughout high school, I

carried a goal to pass a PA on my first attempt, and I was not able to do that until my Senior PA.

I was able to utilize the skills that I learned from my freshman, sophomore, and junior years, and

implement them into passing my senior PA. The main thing that helped me to pass my paper was

seeking for assistance from teachers as much as possible to confirm whether my warrant is

acceptable and makes sense or not. From reading more informational and more straight-forward
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texts like Fast Food Nation, to reading more complex texts such as Hamlet, I have improved at

understanding different texts throughout my high school journey, and I plan to continue to utilize

my skills to interpret texts in other scenarios outside of English. Wrapping up my Senior Year of

high school, I earned an outstanding score of 6 on an AP Literature Practice Exam Question, and

it proved to me that I do not always have to rely on teachers and students all the time, and I have

gained the knowledge and experience from the multiple discussions that I have had with teachers

and students about my papers and implemented them into this final exam.