This year has been a heck of a ride in learning and increasing my writing, reading, and speaking skills in the language of English. I have learned so much in a short period of time thanks to my teachers, Mrs. Jank and Ms. Wiederrich. Throughout this reflective essay I will talk about the different ways that I need work, the ways I’m making progress, and what I have fully succeeded in. There are multiple things in each of these categories that I could pick, but I will be picking the clearest area of the category to help you understand how I stand as an 10th grader English student.

There are many areas that I need work in my English career, which I believe only takes time and practice to become an expert in the different areas I struggle in.  My biggest struggle as an English student I believe is sentence fluency in normal tone essays. We wrote two different essays in third person and in both of those I struggled in sentence fluency. My other struggle is making sure that I explained enough and gave enough evidence on the paper to help the reader the point I was trying to get across. Here is the first draft of my disposable essay and as you read you will see some points that don’t make sense and need some help (http://tice.jenkins.llwarriors.org/2018/05/09/1207/). As I went to my next draft of this I attempted to increase my skill, but I feel like I still have lots of work. It’s something I sincerely need work with (http://tice.jenkins.llwarriors.org/2018/05/09/disposable-rough-draft-2/). Reading through these two rough drafts you will find a lot of chopped up words that don’t exactly flow well. My final piece of this project wasn’t the best and still could have used a lot of work. This is one of the many things that I need help and need to develop my skill on.

The progress through my work in the 2017-2018 school year is unbelievable in my eyes. Mrs. Jank really had the sophomore class work on creating tone and mood in our pieces. I wasn’t exactly sure why that truly mattered, but as she continued to give us pieces to read and analyze it. I realized that mood and tone is the biggest part about a story to keep the reader focused in on your story. In one of my favorite stories I’ve written, “A New Beginning,” I worked on putting that extra description in. I have realized that it makes my pieces a better read, but also enjoyable to write. I get to find the craziest descriptions that can at times be silly, but needed for the reader to build this picture in their mind as they read. Here is the final draft of the story I was talking about and as you read the final piece you will find description of the simplest things at times (http://tice.jenkins.llwarriors.org/2017/12/19/a-new-beginning/). I hope to continue my skill in this area of English by developing my vocabulary to make the piece of writing interesting.

The thing that I’ve succeeded the most throughout this year is through my speaking in presentations. At the beginning of the year Mrs. Jank talked to us about how we would be giving a lot of speeches. I would terrified by this statement and didn’t know how I would be able to pass English 2. Through a lot of practice and making outlines I feel like I have succeeded big time. My best speech was my last speech of the year in the Adversity Novel Presentation (http://tice.jenkins.llwarriors.org/category/speaking-presenting/). In this link you will see the main outline of how I set up my ideas to explain the book and how Christopher has had his adversity throughout his life. I’m really good at setting up outlines in a way that help me give my best presentation possible. On my speeches I have never gotten below a -A. This shows you that I am not joking in how I succeed in this area.

In conclusion, this year has been a blast in learning through my reading, writing, and speaking. I really enjoyed this year and have developed my skills from Freshmen year to Sophomore year. I can’t wait to continue my development in these areas as my high school career continues. I would just like to thank all of my teachers from the past that have helped me through my struggles of English. Until next year English.