Self-Reflection English Class

 

                                                   My Journey through English 1B

                                          

              Writing is a process that takes lots of time, commitment, and understanding to really help us develop our ideas and put them on paper. Through this English class I have learned about a lot of valuable topics which have helped increased my knowledge about the history of California and were informative on me becoming a more aware member of our society. The different literary devices structured around the theme of California helped me to really push the boundaries of my thinking to question and analyze so I can become a better writer. The most important things, I learned in this class was questioning while reading and using different forms of free writing to become a better critical thinker and writer.   

            I have learned that reading is something that we do in every aspect of our lives. It ranges from reading a book or article, to reading a movie or play, and even billboard signs that that have a whole story behind them. It is very important to question the reading because it helps to better understand the meaning of the different reading devices. By having a written dialogue through annotation with the readings we can create ideas that help us to create a more in-depth analysis and focus on our main points. Critical thinking is one of the most important parts of reading because you set aside your preconceived notions and ideas on a topic by looking at it through a more broader lens that doesn’t constrict our understanding in one area but helps to combine different ideas to come to common understanding.

            The writing process of creating outlines of  “before, during and after” helped to organize my ideas so I was able to write in a more effective manner. I learned that writing requires a lot of free writing, reviewing and constant re-construction so that the final product can easily flow and have good cohesion. The in-class grading of essays helped to understand how an essay is viewed and graded which is something that will be useful in all of my other classes. It taught me to review my final essay in a way that focuses separately on the essay as a whole, the paragraph level and finally the sentence level. It was a very difficult process because having to critically break down the essay into parts and finding the theme of each paragraph while making sure it related to the main thesis was something I had never done before in my reviews. It helped me to combine my sentences so the structure of the paragraph looked better, as well as creating a stronger thesis that helped my writing improve as a whole.

            Throughout this class, I have learned through the different reading and writing that it is very important to stay focused and on task when writing. I tend to have a really difficult time starting my essays because there are so many ideas and possibilities floating around in my head that I get distracted on how to separate the important from the unimportant. The topics in this class, that had such similar themes relating to California taught me that even though a topic might be related the ideas and responses vary in a number of ways so it helps to expand our thinking on a subject teaching me that there are a number of different types of essays that can be written because the articles or readings are different and so the theme will change.

            Overall, I feel I accomplished a lot in this course and am a lot more confident in me reading and writing skills. I have learned to really understand what it means to read and write by questioning and breaking apart articles to get a more in-depth meaning using the different skills I learned in this class. I really enjoyed taking this class because it not only helped me as a writer but also taught me so many new things about California making me appreciate this state and all the great things it has to offer.