Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Guess what? You are seniors! Because you are so learned in your ways and I can't teach you anything you don't already know ( I am being facetious- look up this word if you don't know what it means), I want you to think about what you want your last year of high school to look like.

THINK BIG!

What do you hope to get out of this class?What do you want to learn?What do grades mean to you?How do you learn best?What activities have you previously done in other classes that have been meaningful or interesting to you?

26 comments:

  1. In English Lit this year I hope to be more motivated to read on my own and not have a teacher assign me to do so. I want to learn more about classic heroes because in past English classes we would talk about how we are going to learn about them but then we never "got around to them". To me grades are not a very accurate way to measure someone’s intelligence but colleges look at them so I play the game and I make it a priority to get good grades. I learn best when I am just attentive and focused. I am a huge fan of fish bowls I think the help me to understand readings by getting other people’s views of a book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The biggest thing I'm hoping to get out of this class is being able to write a paper that will be acceptable at a college level. I want to sit down by the end of the year and think to myself that this paper will be accepted in college. I just want to learn, whether it is reading Hamlet or a different style of writing. Anything that will expand my borders. Grades kind of have a different meaning now that I'm a senior. I know colleges will look at them but now it is not as important since they will just take your transcripts from your previous years. Grades now are just a letter. It’s what you get out of the class that counts now. The best way I learn is by being involved. If I just sit back and listen I will learn but if I get involved for some reason it sticks with me better. Activities that have interested me or that I have found meaningful are discussions such as fish bowls. Anything that makes you think, I find meaningful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This year I hope to improve writing essays. In the past I have had trouble constructing an essay that flows smoothly and gets the point across. I would like to learn about heroes since the subject of a "hero" hasn't been addressed to me in almost four years. In my opinion, grades are an awful way to measure intelligence. Grades are great for measuring the organization and dedication of a student, but in my opinion they have become very monotonous and don't measure someones intelligence accurately. I am an auditory learner, which means i learn from hearing things spoken and not visualizing them. With this being said I think that the Fish Bowl is a great class activity since I learn a lot from the conversation and I am allowed to see other peoples interpretations of the subject.

    ReplyDelete
  4. In signing up for English Literature, I hoped to gain a better understanding of literature. I have been through American Literature and AP Language, but in AP Language I didn’t get the understanding of the English Lit that I wanted. I want to go deeper with my understanding of Hamlet, and certainly deeper with my understanding of the Canterbury Tales. I would also like to get better at making my writing concise while still effective for college essays. Grades to me are just a way to better myself. To me, they aren’t a measure of what I learned, but a measure of how hard I pushed myself and tried in the class. The harder I work the better grade I get. To me, my grades are a direct result of the amount of effort I put in. I usually learn best through a combination of discussion and working through things on my own. Something has to really “click” in my mind for me to fully understand. I really like class discussion, but in past classes, fish bowls haven’t really worked for me. I think there was too much pressure to create the environment for a great discussion. I hope that can change this year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. As a junior, signing up for English Lit, I want to build onto the skills I have been taught in my previous honors classes. I think one of these skills that I have been slowly becoming better at is writing meaningful annotations, however I still would take recommendations on how to recognize what is important to write down, and what I am just writing down unconsciously to “write annotations”. Another thing that I would like to get some help with or learn better, is which textual evidence is best to include while proving something in an essay. I tend to quote the obvious and when getting essays back, I realize that is not what is wanted by the teachers.
    A general skill that I also would like to learn/enjoy learning is how to include the technology in my work. I loved Honors English 9 freshman year, as I continued on by joining ETAC, however I love hearing about new ways to use the resources we have now to enhance our learning and expression of thoughts in new ways.
    In terms of grades, I think as long as you are doing your personal best, a grade lower than an “A” should not disappoint you. However I am someone who does take the grades seriously because that is what colleges look at when looking into your application. I don’t think they should be measuring you using grades, but that’s how things work, so I just go with it.
    I do learn best through discussion, as it happens to be something that I am stronger at, so I do enjoy fishbowls in class; they help me to process through the different ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  6. In this class I hope to build on my writing, especially when it comes to analysis. I've always been able to write an essay full of big words and ideas, but when it comes to analysis I feel that I fall short sometimes. I often feel that I have to spend longer than others on finding a real meaning in writing and I hope to close that gap. I also want to be able to write essays that will be college acceptable. I don't think that grades are a good gauge of intelligence, but they still do mean something to me because of the emphasis that schools put on a good GPA. I don't think that it is fair to judge an incoming English major based on a poor algebra grade or the other way around. I learn best through discussion. Hearing what others have to say and think really helps me to see different perspectives and helps me with some of my analytical weaknesses. In other classes I have grown a lot through discussions and one-on-one working with my teacher to improve some weak areas of my writing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. In this class, I hope to become more confident with my writing and speaking. For me, speaking is definitely my greatness weakness. I think I write fairly well, however I know it can always be improved. I absolutely hate fishbowls due to the awkward silences when no one wants to talk and the pressure it puts on oneself to speak up. During a fishbowl, I have a plethora of opinions, but feel too nervous speaking in front of a crowd with all eyes on me. If I were able to write out everything, I would do just fine. Despite my loathing of public speaking, I hope to improve immensely (hopefully beginning with something a little less intimidating than a fishbowl and working up to that). My whole school career I have strived for good grades because I feel I have to in order to get into the college of my choice. I don't want to be limited because I "didn't try hard enough". It's unfortunate that college admissions doesn't physically see how hard one works, but merely a number that supposedly gauges that. The best way I learn is seeing and hearing. I also have to write everything down so as to etch it in my brain. Blogging has been a big part of my previous classes and I love being able to type out my thoughts in a less structured and formal manner. It is refreshing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. One thing that I hope to get of this class more than anything is to learn how to write a good college essay. I want to be able to write something that I know college professors will accept. Grades mean a lot to me, I really need to work on my grades and GPA in order to get into AFA. But as a senior they are not as important as past years, I will hopefully be accepted by late September so my grades really wont matter from there out. I learn best by interaction with other people. I really love Socratics and fishbowl type things. Those are the best type things are fishbowls and such. In Mrs. Comp’s American Lit class last year we did an awesome picture project, we acted out images about the 1920’s. It was a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What I want to get out of this class is to be able to write a good college essay that really catches colleges’ attention. I want to learn how to improve in my essay writing and I want to learn more about the classical “hero” compared to the “heroes” we see or think of today. What is considered a “hero”? I don’t think that grades are the best way to show how intelligent you are because people learn in different ways but class only runs one way. I think as long as you put all your effort in something then that is all that should matter. Though I believe all this our society doesn’t, so grades are still important to me because I want to be able to go to a good college and have a good job in my future. A good way that helped me learn better was class discussions and fish bowls because it allowed me to share my thoughts and learn everyone else’s thoughts on the book. It gave me another way to look at something or showed me other ideas I didn’t think of after hearing everyone else’s thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would like to read interesting things that have themes that seem applicable to my life. I do better with more structure as opposed to less. If you don’t do reading quizzes I won’t read. I find it hard to read if the next day in class there won’t be consequences. I am a filmmaker and love movie projects. I do not like fish bowls. I think it is like discussing literature with the compromise demons from Norton Juster’s THE PHANTOM TOLLBOTH. They are three demons. One of them will say one thing a second will say the complete opposite and the third will agree completely with the first two. All day they continue on in this fashion never reaching any conclusions. This is what I think fish bowls are like. I hope to have a great year.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In this class, I want to become more comfortable with my writing. I don't think I'm at that college level of writing yet and hopefully this class will put me there. I want to learn how to learn from the things I read and accomplish, and apply those lessons to my life, but my college essay is my main focus.
    Grades have meant a lot to me not only in these past three years but in Junior High as well. They acted as a measure of my success and something that gave me confidence. But this year they seem pointless. I'm in the classes I'm in because I want to get something meaningful out of them, not because I thought I could get a good grade. But they are an important step for getting into college, so I try my best to keep them good. I learn best through being involved and through repetition. When, and if, I'm zoning out, the material explained during that minute or two or five escapes my head come test time, but when I'm involved and paying attention, that stuff sticks. Some activities done in other classes that I have loved are the fishbowls and acting out plays, again, more involvement.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I hope that after taking this class, I will have adapted skills in writing, reading, and time management that will help me to perform my best in college. I have always struggled with turning papers in on time and waiting until the last day to do an assignment. I know that college will be a struggle for me if i do not adapt time management skills, especially under lots of stress. This class is going to be a challenge for me, but im hoping I will have found a way to stay on track so that im better prepared for college. Grades mean a lot to me. I perform better when i have a higher grade. Sometimes i care more about getting the good grade instead of learning the material. I learn best one on one or through discussion. I like to talk things out and hear other peoples ideas because it challenges me and gets me thinking. I am a big fan of fishbowls because I like to hear other peoples opinions, as well as express my own.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I am hoping to get better prepared for college and the English classes in college because I have never really been good at English, and I need all the help I can get. I am looking forward to learning about the literature from England and being able to read some of the books from there. Grades mean a lot to me because I am trying to raise my GPA in order to get into the college I'd like to attend. Grades also help me see what I have accomplished in the class and what I need to do to fix what I messed up on. I learn best when I can do things hands on and I can play with things to figure them out. I also like to observe different things to see how they work and move. In my Chem. class last year, I realized that I really enjoy chemistry and it helped me to find a major that I'd like to study in college.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I hope to learn how to bring a voice to my writing through this class. I feel like when I write I am just writing to get it done and I am not really thinking about how it should sound. I also want to learn how to just get the point across when I write instead of beating around the bush with everything to make it seem longer. To me, grades are only a generalization on how a student does in school. I don't believe that grades reflect how a student learns. I believe that grades show how much work and effort a student puts into their work over the course of a semester. Everyone can get an 'A' if they try, but some don't try and the grade reflects on that. For me to really understand something I need step by step instructions. I need a little push to get started and I need to completely understand what I have to do before I do it. Last year in American Lit we wrote a big paper about a place that was special to us. We wrote three or four drafts that weren't counted for grades but our teacher criticized our writing, gave it back then we rewrote it and gave it to her again to look over then we finished the final product and turned it in for a grade. I really liked that because slowly but surely the paper came together and everything was corrected and in it's place instead of turning something in right off the bat with many mistakes.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What I hope to get out of this class is to become well prepared for college in a few years. I'm only a junior this year but I figure that it's never too early to become ready for college. I'm looking forward to learning how to write a perfect college essay. I've never attempted to write a college essay before and I'm excited to see how I do on them. Hopefully I don't do too terrible. Grades have always been very important to me throughout my career as a student. I don't believe that grades depict what we have learned, but how hard we tried. I have always noticed the harder I work, the better grade I receive. I learn the best when I'm in a comfortable enviorment and when it's quiet. Also, working in groups doesn't always help me learn better. In my other enlgish classes we have done fishbowl discussions. In my opinion, I didn't enjoy these discussions because it felt like there was a lot of pressure on me to lead a good discussion. Also, I've always been quiet during discussions, so it's very hard for me to speak up when discussing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. From this class, I hope to gain the skills needed to write an excellent piece of writing whether it is a story, essay, etc. I also hope to read really good stories as I am not the biggest fan of school picked books. To me, a grade represents how I am doing in the class. They do not show my knowledge of the subject. I am a visual learner and I learn by example. From past classes, activities that have to do with some form of art get my attention. I also like reading a book and then watching the movie. I am a rather silent person so discussion that you have to jump into to get credit is not one of my favorite things to do.
    -Sean

    ReplyDelete
  18. I would like to be challenged in this class. I've felt like I've done fairly well with english throughout my school experience but I feel like my last few classes have been extremely easy and not pushed me to my full potential. I want to learn new things that I can take with me trough the rest of my life. I hope to someday work in journalism of some sort and want to acquire skills that will help me in that field.
    I would also like this class to be a fun environment where people freely express their opinions and aren't afraid to speak up. I think this adds a lot to the class and makes everyones learning experience more beneficial.

    ReplyDelete
  19. My goal for English Lit is to learn and loose the fluff. For years I have used useless words that have no relationship to the topic, simply to reach the required length. I am no good at writing the bare bone facts, and that is exactly what college essays want you to do. I also look forward to studying the “hero”, because as it was said above, it tends to be swept under the rug in most English classes.
    Because of a miss-start my freshman and sophomore year, I believe that grades are evil incarnate. Information always came easily to me, but grades added to much stress for success. Now though, I have come to terms with the fact that there will always be some form of a grade hiding in the corner, and realize that I need to simply accept the fact.
    I am an introvert, so I despise all form of group work. However, whenever I am required to share with others, it makes “just another fact” meaningful information. I believe that, while I hate them, fishbowls are a must for any successful classroom.

    ReplyDelete
  20. During this semester i hope to become more literate. When i do apply for colleges and when i am in college my papers or reading assignments wont be something to worry about. I would like to learn more about how to apply what i read and learn in this class outside of class. The best way i learn is when its more hands on but im also a good visual learner as well. In other classes when we read the book and watched the film of it after helped a lot, and who doesnt like to watch movies?!

    ReplyDelete
  21. In English Literature I am hoping to learn how to write better because I don't think I'm very good at writing. Grades mean nothing to me, It's a matter of how much effort you put into school, some people very little effort and some a lot of effort. I don't like fishbowls like most everyone else, I think. I'm not sure on how I learn best, I think it's any way a teacher tries to make it fun, which is hard to do.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This year in English Literature I hope to learn how to write a great college essay.I really have know idea what one is suppose to look like so I am hoping to find out the details of one like how long, what to put in, what not, and other things I would need to know. I am also hoping to get a taste of what a college English class would (or will) be like. Grades do not mean very much to me other than the fact that I need them to get to college but other than that I do not think the show what a person has learned but just how good they are at memorizing.I am not saying all people with good grades have not learned a lot im just saying that some who may have not learned the material but just memorized it can get the same grad as some one who has learned it. In other classes I enjoyed fish bowls run by the teacher. I also enjoyed other group discussion activities. I hope this is a good year and I hope this class will be fun.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This year I hope that I will become better at reading and learn how to write a good college essay. I want to learn how to be a better writer. Grades don’t mean very much to me, but they mean a lot to colleges so they are important. I learn the best when I am focused and able to get involved with what I am learning. In the past I thought that group discussions have been meaningful to me and helped me out a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  24. During the summer I have been dreading having to write essays for college applications so when I found out that we would be able to practice them in class I was so relieved. Learning exactly how to write a college essay is what I am most looking forward to this semester. I was also very interested to find out that we will be using a lot of technology which I am excited to do as well. As far as grades for school, they are not as important to me as my parents or colleges think they should be. If I am able to understand and retain information about what I am learning then I think I have done my job. Whether I get every single multiple choice test question right or had a few mistakes, I only feel good about what I have learned if I can actually take some meaning from it. Due to my thoughts about my learning, I learn best when things are discussed and different points of view are shared. Fish bowl type discussions are very helpful because some people think differently than you do and it is good to get a new perspective on the subject. Any kind of activity that has more verbal communication rather than reading also makes it more interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  25. It is my senior year. I want this year to be like nothing anyone has ever told me. I want to gain the confidence in myself that I've never had. I feel like senior year is the end to a beginning (or however that cliche saying works.) In English Lit, this year, I want to learn how to read better. (Only because I have been a terribly slow reader my entire life.) I am looking forward to the fact that you, Ms. Smith, are going to help us with our college essay. I really do appreciate that. I remember one thing that I really loved about American Lit, last year, was the Socratics. I have never really liked fish bowls. I feel like in Socratics, there is a sense of team discussion, rather than a few people talking in the center while everyone else is listening. I know I learn best when my teacher is into the class just as much as I want to be. I am really excited for this year, but I am also really nervous because of all the reading and writing. However, it should be a great year.

    Oh, and I still don't know how I feel about the scribes....

    ReplyDelete
  26. In this class i would really like to expand my thinking and express it in a manner that i have never portrayed. I want to get a better vocabulary so it can help me with the college essay and I could actually sound smart to my parents. I am also really into finding the deeper meaning behind things and i think that the question "what is a hero" will really make me think on that level. As far as grades go i dont believe in them. There is no amount of oppertunity that should pass a C student compared to an A student as far as college and in life. A letter doesnt show the amount of impact that person will make on this world. I hate trying to live up to an expectation that getting good grades brings you success.
    The best way i learn is mostly through art. I am a creative person and the more colors or pictures there are the better off ill be. Other english projects have all been pretty interesting. Not one really stands out. But im not much of a writer so yet again something creative that doesnt limit me to 12font and double spaced papers.

    ReplyDelete