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Briana Rivera

Mr. O’Meara

AP Literature

16 May 2022

Portfolio Reflection

Within my time at University High School, the experiences and challenges I faced have

reached far beyond the imagination of the thirteen year old girl who started her UH experience.

The variety of courses shaped me into a stronger speaker, writer, and listener, as well as aided in

the improvement of my skills. The rigorous curriculum exposed me to a culmination of literature,

writing techniques, and valuable information. Combined with opportunities for non academic

achievements, my time at University High has been overtly diverse and well rounded. These

qualities can be exhibited in both resumes as a variety of courses, extra curriculars, and work

experience are representative of my progress throughout my four years of high school.

Throughout all of this, my growth can be greatly examined within the work I have completed

throughout the years. At the start of my freshman year, the challenges I would be facing were

greatly apparent as the course load was beginning to pile on. Finding a balance between school

and other aspects of my life was challenging, and forced me to adapt to my new surroundings,

greatly improving my ability to think critically. This can be viewed through my annotations for

Lord of the Flies, which shows a start to understanding the basis of analysis. The skills from all

the readings my freshman year helped me complete the book and continue to grow into my

sophomore year. A change in curriculum diversified my view on readings and exposed me to a

large variety of literature, therefore enhancing my skills on analyzing literature as seen in my

Catcher in the Rye annotations. With the new skills and tools to succeed, the transition to online
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school diminished my capability of improving my quality of work outside of a classroom. This

toll affected my work and had little improvement compared to my previous growth. Frankenstein

being a more difficult read was highly straining and challenged my skill set to change even more.

This push helped shape me throughout my junior year and likely caused the most development

for my work senior year. In my Wuthering Heights annotations I was able to exhibit the various

skills I have accumulated throughout the years. A strong understanding of the text was a huge

accomplishment for me as it was a big change from my freshman year. This development is seen

in other aspects of education, as growth with reading aided in my success as a writer. Although

writing is still not one of my strongest skills yet, it has greatly improved overtime. In my

freshman PA I struggled with finding a warrant, or any type of sentence fluency, but with help I

was able to make something decent enough to pass. This helped show me that reflecting on my

work and finding input from others helps to greatly improve my writing. This was a resource I

used frequently in AP Seminar regarding my IRR as peer review was a strong factor of the class.

Losing that sense of connection during online school forced me to depend on my skills for my

writing and put more trust in what I think is best. This maturity can be seen in my Edward

Scissorhands essay as it demonstrates my growth as an individual since I passed it on my first

attempt which I had never done before. With a growing confidence of my junior year writing, the

senior paper was still an extremely daunting task. Every aspect was challenging and required a

culmination of every skill I had learned throughout my four years. Although it took more than

one try it perfectly exhibits my growth as a writer in highschool. The small freshman PA that

terrified me was insignificant compared to the work I would later do, but was still essential to my

success later on. Along with the critical skills required for reading and writing, the act of public

speaking greatly influenced my skill set and presentation style. Learning to hold an audience's
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attention and providing clear and concise information was a difficult concept. These struggles

can be seen in both the FNN and IRR presentation. Although acceptable for the time, the slides

are very wordy and the information presented would be vague. In my junior year improvements

were made, as slides look cleaner and have more structure. This carries on into senior year, as

The Color Purple presentation exhibits a concise style with complex ideas explored throughout.

With a wide change in presentation style over the years, my comfort with public speaking has

greatly improved and aided in my success over the years. All in all, every assignment has done

its part in shopping me into the student I am now. Each brought its own lesson and guided me

along a path of discovery with many obstacles and challenges. With setbacks such as stress,

work, family or even a pandemic growth was still possible and crafted the student I am now.