The Hunni Blog ELA 10

Community Communication Trust Respect Courtesy Integrity Scholarship Self-Discipline

Reflection

January27

This year, I have really challenged myself. I have had to do a lot of work to balance school and extra curricular activities, I chose to take all 10-1 courses while curling four days a week and dancing two days. This semester I feel as if I went into it underestimating the workload that it would bring, as my two core subjects were social studies and English, my two best subjects. I went into it thinking that I probably would not have to do much extra work, but it turns out I was wrong. Near the end of the semester, I really had a wake up call when I realized that my marks were barely above 80, which is when I started working harder. I wish I had worked hard all semester, because I know that my marks do not reflect what I can actually do.

My goal for next semester is to make sure I take my school work more seriously. This is going to be difficult, because I have playdowns, and possibly provincials coming up for curling, which is going to mean more effort and time being put there. Also, it is going to be difficult because next semester I have math and science, my two worst subjects. I am extremely nervous about the chance that I will not be able to balance everything, because I would not want to have to give up curling or dance. I know that school is important and I know that I need to take it more seriously if I want to continue to do all of my extra curricular activities and get good grades. I believe I can get my grades back on track, it will not be easy, but it is possible.

In general, this year, I have taken on so much and challenged myself more than ever before. This, by far is and will be the busiest year ever, I have taken on two curling teams, four dance classes, and all 10-1 courses. I know that the year is not even close to over yet, but I am excited to take on everything that comes my way. I cannot wait until the year is over so I can look back at all of the accomplishments I have achieved. I am only half way through the year, and I have already accomplished so much, it is going to be so great to see what is yet to come.

by posted under Claire, Uncategorized | tagged under , , ,  |  No Comments »    

The Process of Growing During this Amazing Semester!

January25

Throughout this semester I have improved a lot as a learner by applying my reading and writing skills that continue to grow. This year’s English 10-1 in Mrs. Hunnisett’s class was a phenomenal year with many obstacles and opportunities that assisted in refining my skills.

There were some changes that were evident such as an immense improvement in my poetry analysis/comprehension and also my general writing skills. In my perspective, keeping a journal that we wrote in the beginning of the class was something that largely assisted in my growth, sparking certain ideas or concepts that I did use afterward in the semester. Writing blogs was another thing that at first seemed unnecessary, however I slowly came to 607baeabf469bb70e831540be8c1f72erealize how they were indeed inspiring me and helping me to improve my writing.

In this class the separation of “Say, mean, and matter” in the three part diagram has helped me view certain concepts differently and polish my paragraphs when writing essays. Some strengths during this semester were definitely reading and the ability to apply the concepts taught in class. However, there were also some challenges such as the poetry unit; however those challenges were eventually faced and met with efforts to improve.

Reading is something that was not only required to boost my growth during this semester, but it is also something that I have enjoyed doing for many years. During the past few months my reading skills have exceptionally improved and I have started to read books that are more challenging and out of my comfort zone in order to further improve my skills. Books such as The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and many others have increased my passion for reading and continue to ignite my  desire to read more books. In my opinion, all genres of books are great as long as the novel contains suspense and description which engages the reader to dissolve in the story, unable to put the book down. A few years in the past my reading skills were not as strong as they are today; however, I need to continue to read daily with the aim of one or more books per month, as advised by Mrs. Hunnisett, to continue to develop my reading skills in the future as well.

AimagesCAPN3O6Ylthough there was a sudden improvement in my reading skills since the past years, this contributed in helping my writing ability enhance and better develop. As mentioned before, the three stages of say, mean and matter were certainly helpful; also the practice we received in class to write many pieces provided me with confidence. Since short stories had always fascinated me rather than essays, I was more confident in writing short stories, however after this semester I have gained self-confidence and improved my skills in writing essays which was one of my key growths during this year. I believe I can provide more clear evidence related to the topic and organize my essay accordingly better than I could before.

In the future, I plan to read more books and set goals to challange myself, but at the same time enjoy it. In order to further develop my writing skills it is important to revise all the different concepts taught and also practice because the more the practice one gets the more they can improve. Overall, this semster in L.A with Mrs.Hunnisett taught me how writing and reading are so valuable and enjoyable that one completely transitions to a seperate melodious world of imagination when they learn to create a passion for reading and writing.

The Beginning of My Journey to Success

January25

With Language Arts coming to a close it is time to reflect on how I have enhanced my skills this year. This semester provided me with a clear path of what I need to work on by next year. I was also fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to work with a dedicated and amazing teacher. During this semester I had taken note of my strengths and weaknesses in this course and I based my goals from this information. I was able to distinguish my growth as a student while seeing improvements in my writing , reading, and learning ability.

I am very proud to say that I have grown as a reader. I am extremely picky with my books and usually I spend more time finding a book than actually reading one.  This semester I was able to read four books which is a record for me. I really want to boost that number up by next year. I plan to read more books  during the upcoming semester and even during the summer. I want to increase how many books I read during a year since I was personally not satisfied with the amount of books I read in 2014. I thought I should engage in books with the genre of fiction and mystery since I love reading books with this content.I also realized when I am reading I can now analyze the text in the novel I am reading. I can recollect information  from previous passages and apply it further in the novel. I noticed that their was a significant change in my reading this year and I am quite content with this development.

I have also noticed a significant difference in my writing since the beginning of this semester. I have learned to use my resources that I have been provided with such as a thesaurus and dictionary. I also noticed by using these resources my marks have changed completely which is fantastic. By broadening my vocab in my writing I was also able to make my writing sound more like my grade level rather than a kindergarten student. I am able to apply a lot of the literary terms that I have learned this year. I want to start working on my sentence structure to make an extremely powerful piece one day. I know for a fact that sentence structure has a huge impact on making a bold statement and creating a force of tension which I want to create. I also discovered that I fancy Edgar Allen Poe writing because of the content of mystery and strange attributes it has. However I also realized the amount of analyzing that is involved in his writing. I wish to continue reading his dark stories since they are so intriguing. Overall I have improved a lot with my writing and gradually it will hopefully be even better than what  it is currently.

I definitely had some challenges as a learner during the beginning of this semester however I have noticed progress in my learning skills. Usually it takes me quite awhile to understand concepts except for this class. I was quite quick to comprehend the reasoning and purpose of why we are learning something, and it was quite easy connect with the resources I was given.  I am best at learning acronyms and novel studies.  I struggle with writing mechanics and keeping up with my reading habits, except I have recognized a progress in these gaps because of what I had learned during class. If I was a teacher there is not one change I would make to Hunnisett’s way of teaching except reducing the amount of homework we get, of course. Otherwise when we discuss my learning, I have seen such a major difference that I am quite impressed with myself.

This is the first time in many years that I have a teacher who was actually passionate about Language Arts and who inspired me to work my hardest in this course. I have learned so much in these past few months and I owe it all to my teacher. I have never felt so proud of myself while doing a specific course.  I have learned so much in this short time about poems , short stories, and so much more. I have learned about how people can transform a catastrophe into something so beautiful in words. Thank you so much HunniHunni for becoming my role model and my inspiration. You have changed my way of thinking in many ways which you will not understand. I am going to miss this class a lot since it was the only thing I looked forward too during first semester. Thank you once again!

by posted under Asna, Uncategorized | tagged under , , ,  |  No Comments »    

Change of Perspective on English

January25

From the very beginning, I always thought of English as a class that I had to endure for the rest of my school life, and that I’ll never enjoy English. In previous schools, I never found a way to connect to anything I was learning in English. In other subjects, I actually enjoyed what I was learning, I enjoyed learning about science, math and social, however annotating poems, writing essays, and reading novel studies were a complete bore to me. Ever since I’ve entered FFCA my perspective on English has significantly changed, and I’ve developed a new love for English.

As a learner, I always found it difficult to excel in learning skills such as annotating poems, and taking a literary work and taking it apart to come to the general message(theme). My challenges as a learner is that I find it very hard to find the deeper meaning in a literary piece. Often times, I find it difficult to connect to a poem because I don’t recognize the underlying message, and I make it fairly hard for myself. Throughout this semester in English, as a learner, I learned that I’m actually fairly good in English, and I’ve always thought that I was bad at it. An “aha” that I learned from this class is that literary pieces may appear to be very boring, but it’s the underlying message and value that you need to search for when you read something. I related to many of the pieces we worked with this semester, and my understanding broadened, and now it’s easier for me to read literary works because I know how to annotate and come to a general theme(message).

As a reader, my reading identity prior to Mrs. Hunnisett’s class was very minimal, and it’s because I lack motivation to continue reading a book. I can start a bunch of books, but I won’t even get halfway through any of them because I lose interest in continuing them. Going into Mrs. Hunnisett’s class I wouldn’t have thought that my reading identity would change, but Mrs. Hunnisett made me understand the importance of reading to succeed in English. My reading identity is improving as the months go by, and it may not be at the level it needs to be at, however as each semester goes by I want to set goals for how many books I read each semester. In the future as a reader, I want to challenge myself to read books of different genre’s, and more of the difficult reads. I want to be reading books that challenge my reading skills, but also improve my vocabulary, which will help me in my writing skills.

I came to FFCA in grade 7, and before that I had never written an essay or had done any sort of writing assignments. In grade 7, I did some personal pieces, but again, nothing big like an essay or short story. Grade 8 comes around and I’m expected to know how to write a critical essay, and I have absolutely no clue how the format of an essay looks like, and the order the information goes in. Grade 8 frustrated me a great amount because most of the kids in my class had written essays in previous grades, and I felt so lost.

Grade 9 comes and I developd a whole new appreciation for writing and English. My grade 9 teacher took the time to sit down, and teach me how to write a proper essay, and how to have proper sentence structure. Going into 10-1, I didn’t know what to expect, but through the semester I improved a lot in writing.

My growth from my writing in grade 8 to writing in grade 10 is a significant change. Throughout the years, I’ve come to the realization that I admire personal writing. I love writing personal, and I love reading personal pieces. You see a whole new side of that person that you didn’t see before, and maybe you can even connect with them because of that experience. Writing personal pieces can be hard because you’re showing vulnerability to an extent, and I guess that’s why I admire personal writing so much because you see that rawness in another person and I appreciate when someone shows vulnerability or rawness.

My year so far is going really well, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. I got some pretty amazing teachers and I learned a lot about what my strengths and weaknesses are. This year, I developed a new love for English and it’s all because Mrs. Hunnisett made me see a new depth to English. I always thought of English as a class that I’d always hate because nothing about it interested me, and I got no joy when looking at poems or reading novels. However, this year in English I started to love looking at poems and finding their message, and just relating to all the literary pieces. I’m not quite sure what changed my whole mood about English, but I believe that it is the way Mrs. Hunnisett has this welcoming vibe and she cares a lot about her students.

The first day when I walked into her classroom, I got the welcoming vibe instantaneously, and I knew this classroom would be a place of happiness, love and care. I grew closer to people who I thought I wouldn’t even have a relationship with, and I’ve created many new friendships because of this class. Many of my greatest accomplishments, and most happiest moments have been in Mrs. Hunnisett’s class, and I wish so much that I could have her for the rest of High School. This past semester has been a great ride, and I’m sad to see it end, however all the memories created in Mrs. Hunnisett’s room will forever be in my heart.

PhotoGrid_1422217099094

 

 

 

2014/2015 English Relfection

January25

Right from the beginning of the semester I felt very intimidated and I questioned myself and my writing abilities immediately. Being surrounded by peers who are as strong of readers and writers as they are made me feel out of place, at the same time, however, I was determined to discover why I had been placed in this environment with such strong capabilities.

The blogging assignments appealed to me instantly. For my first posting, I was hesitant whether or not it was appropriate for everyone to be exposed to and I still regret how gentle I was with a topic that I believe needed to be seen in another perspective. From then on I learned from my mistakes and everything I wanted to address was done so thoroughly until I was content with my final result. By the end of this semester not only did I gain confidence in my writing skills but I gained reassurance knowing that my voice was finally being heard, recognized, appreciated and related to.

My reading habits only started to pick up when I was in middle school but because I was never challenged to read, only encouraged, coming to grade ten where reading was expected was a shock, but one that I welcomed as a challenge. I never knew that the level of books I was reading did not meet the standard that I was expected to be at, so to adapt to a whole new world of literature was difficult. Although I struggled with this change I know that staying with the same type of books would not allow me to grow in my writing abilities.

As a learner so far this year I have gained more self-confidence that success is possible for me and that I can contribute to the learning community because my opinion is valued and realistic. Through this course I have been shown support and how important it is to make each topic personal in order to completely understand both points of view to something. Most importantly I now value myself and my talent as a writer because I have been shown that writing is a powerful skill that can affect someone’s opinion through a simple sentence, provide an escape to those who need it, and literature offers a way to express what cannot be said verbally.

For next year I would like to improve upon the level of difficulty of the books that I am reading in an effort to increase my quality of writing and be even more successful than I have been this year.

So far my year has been amazing, it has been challenging yet still filled with success and achieved goals. I could not ask for better teachers, better peers or a better start to a new year.

book

by posted under Cayleigh | tagged under , , , , , , ,  |  No Comments »    
« Older EntriesNewer Entries »

Class Blogs


BLOGGING RULES

Community Communication Trust Respect Courtesy Integrity Scholarship Self-Discipline
January 2024
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Categories



Skip to toolbar