See You Next Year!

I cannot believe that the school year is coming to a close, for it feels like only yesterday when I first entered your class. Although this is my last reflection essay for AP Language, I am glad knowing that I will see you again in DCC English 101 and 102. Nonetheless, your class sure was a journey for me as a reader, writer, and thinker. To be honest, I was quite surprised of my growth from first quarter to the quarters that followed. I did not expect to improve so much in such a small amount of time, and yes, I do consider a single school year a small moment in time. Thanks to you, I became a better author of my writings and achieved most of my goals I have set for myself. Even though some of those goals were not met, hopefully in the near future, I will complete these objectives within my future classes with you. In order to stay consistent with my writing skills, over the summer, I will write for myself and for my mere enjoyment. Looking back at my previous written compositions for this class, it still baffles me how much I have grown. I remember how horrible a writer I was in the first quarter, despite the fact that the class as a whole needed to adjust to the changes brought about by you. However, like I said before, works after my first quarter gradually got better. It is with this betterment that I will become the writer that I am now.

Now that the school year is coming to an end, I am starting to look back now, realizing how unprepared I really was for this class. I bear in mind the first few days in class and how nervous I was about taking this course. Pondering on how difficult AP Language was going to be, I commit to memory on how frightened I was when you began talking about future essays and what not. To tell you the truth, I was not listening to what you were saying, for I started to have fearful imaginations of the writings that were to come. Three page essays, TIMED in-class essays that were going to be graded from a one to nine scale, and let’s not forget Socratic seminars. I just felt ill-prepared, and in the beginning, I did not believe I had the determination to excel as I wanted to. Our first in-class essay, if I say so myself, really showed me what my strengths and weaknesses were within my writing. The essay was a rhetorical précis, in which we as a class had to write a well-written essay based on a passage from The Horizontal World by Debra Marquart. To be more specific, we had to analyze the strategies Marquart uses to characterize the upper Midwest. Prior to this paper, I was in attempt to remember strategies that could be found within literary texts. When it was the day of the rhetorical précis, my mind just went completely blank. Sitting in the back of the class did not help either, for I would joke around with my classmates at times during these in-class writing sessions. All I can say is that my rhetorical précis was beyond horrible. I think what really killed me was the task of understanding the passage, and identifying the literary techniques that Marquart used within it. Furthermore, I spent too much time on the introduction, in which I modeled it in way that represented previous précis from other works, which were pretty lengthy. By the time I was done with the intro of my essay, time was just about up. I did not even finish my first body paragraph, which is pretty disappointing. Walking out of that class with a face of shock and discontent, I was not sure if I wanted to continue with this course or simply drop out. I realized then that I was weak when it came to writing in a certain amount of time, as well as answering the prompt completely. I was sure of myself that I could wholly analyze examples, but time was forever my enemy, disallowing me to go deeper into my analysis. The only strength that I was aware of was my ability to write a well-written introduction, an ability that not many students have. Nonetheless, since the essay was nowhere near complete, I had received a 3. Accepting the low grade was a hard pill to swallow, but from that day on, I challenged myself to become a better writer. It is with this challenge that, in the days to come, my written compositions would improve.

 As said before, I was not content knowing that on my first AP essay prompt, I had received a 3. Despite the fact that the overall class had gotten the same grade, I wanted to aim for a higher grade, and not be comfortable with my classmates getting similar results. I wanted to be one step ahead of the class, and so, I became more prepared and focused when I had to write in-class essays. With the first quarter leaving a nasty taste in my mouth, I was determined to make sure this second quarter was much sweeter than its predecessor. By making the choice to sit in front of the class, I became more attentive and applied your instructions to my writing. I guess you could say that I began to take your class more seriously, in which the first quarter of AP Language was more of a test-run. As I read on a day to day basis, I soon began to take note of the rhetorical strategies that authors used within their books. Thanks to you, I got extremely interested in books, specifically ones that have something to do with reality or history. Currently, I am reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, but I will tell you how that novel is going another time. Nonetheless, it was in this second quarter that the class was assigned to read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. This non-fiction novel really got me intrigued and soon, I was not reading the book because it was assigned, but rather for my mere enjoyment of the plot. With this enjoyment, I was easily able to pinpoint literary techniques utilized by the late author. Due to this book, I really wanted to read more outside of class, and so when I had some free time on my hands, I would. I remember there being a Socratic seminar about Capote’s book, and it was there that I noticed that I needed to improve on my social skills. Surely if a man adores a novel that he reads there should be no problem with him talking about it within a classroom. I now realize that with English comes communication, and without communication, opinions about matters cannot be established. Nevertheless, during this span of time, many in-class essays have challenged me, but what remains most distinct was the Thomas Paine FRQ. Although this essay reveals my improvement in writing, this does not meant that the essay itself did not pose a threat. In fact, due to it being a FRQ, I actually had to use outside evidence. In addition, I had to formulate opinion on Paine’s belief about America. In the end, I had received a 5, two points higher than a 3, and for once I was able to finish at least one body paragraph. This grade stayed consistent with my previous two essay prompts, which I was not happy about. However, it did show that I was not getting worse nor better, so I guess that was a good sign. Yet, the essay showed that time was clearly not on my side (when was it ever!?!), but also revealed the improvement of sentence structure. I often wonder what facilitated my growth as a writer, but now I know that it was the constant awareness of mistakes and practice that made me who I am.

 Two more quarters left, and I was not going to give up now. “I have been improving, so let’s continue to improve;” this is what I said to myself when ever adversities came up within your class. With the third quarter coming to an end and the fourth one approaching, it was time to go for broke. The last in-class AP essay prompt was based on The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson. As a class, we were given the task to analyze how Wilson conveys the unproductive nature of environmentalists and critics of environmentalism. I do not know why, but a sense of confident rose within me. I was smiling, determined, and I knew I had this essay in the bag. As I wrote this essay, I made sure that I ended this final quarter on a good note.  After finishing the given assignment, I could only think to myself how well I had written the paper and thankful that I had enough time to finish. I came out the class proud and feeling that I could just do about anything. I was just filled with happiness, and I did not even know what I got on the written assignment. But something told me that I had received a good score and I was anxious to know what it was. The next day was a day of suspense. Once in your classroom, you began to hand out the graded papers and I soon got butterflies. When you got to me, my heart nearly stopped, I was really that excited!  With the paper lying on my desk I saw that I had got a score of 7.  The grade really made my day, and I quickly began to look for any mistakes within the paper. I guess I could have been more analytical on my selected quotes, as well as have a better sentence structure. All in all, I was pleased knowing that I ended this school year with improvement in my pocket.

I must thank you Ms. Fogarty for the knowledge you have bestowed upon me as a student. The skills that I have obtained from this course can greatly be put to use, from college applications to college itself. Since AP Language is a college course, you have prepared me for college level writings that I will most likely face once I graduate. Your instructions have helped me become a more mature writer, as well as keen my eye to rhetorical strategies that without you I would never be able to identify. Without a doubt I feel more prepared for more college courses as result of this course, merely because I have overcome so many challenges that I will most likely never have face if I did not take this class. With that fact and fact alone, I am more determined and high in self-esteem to take future college courses. I think what worked for me as a student in your class was the constant reading of passages over weekends, which helped me understand literary texts. All in all, this year has been a blast, and I hope Senior year lives up to the high expectations I have for it. Once again, I thank you Ms. Fogarty for all you have done.