The Journey in AP Language

             I can say that I have grown as a reader, writer, and thinker in AP Language this year.  I have improve more on my English this year.  In September, I did not know how to write the kinds of essays that we wrote in AP Language.  In the summer, I did the rhetorical assignment based on the three articles so I knew a little bit what kind of assignments that I was going to see when school started.  We read a lot in AP classes; whether it was reading books, packets or textbooks.  This kind of readings required for a student to actually read the assignment carefully and not just read it quickly.  We had to read the assignments carefully so that we could understand them and be able to write essays or answer the questions in a long response.  Reading the prompts made me think about what I was going to answer.  The prompts required us to read them carefully and understand them and if there were words that we did not understand, we had to use context clues.  We also learned to plan our essays in both AP Language class and in AP US History class.

            The skills that I learned in AP Language class can be used in many ways, for example, the skills can be used for next year classes, for college essays, and for other things later in life.  I can also use the skills that I learned whenever I am reading anything that I do not understand.  I have learned more outside of reading, writing, and thinking skills.  I learned ways of proving an argument and ways of using persuasion through strong arguments.  I really liked the Socratic Seminar because we had to prove our claims and debate with strong arguments but at the same time, we had listening to what others had to say.  The Socratic Seminar was great because people had different opinions on certain things and it was nice when people had a chance to explain their point of view.  The Socratic Seminar was great because we learned what kinds of questions make conversation continue because many people had something to say.

            In September, I had the same issue in my essays and it was that I did not explain fully develop the evidence.  Overtime, I improved on my essays and made the next essays better.  Getting the note from Ms. Fogarty that showed what my essay needed to improve on helped because I knew what to work on for the next essays.  I liked Ms. Fogarty’s instructions and the instructions were very clear and she explained well the assignments that we were going to do.  Everything we did in class worked for me.  When I had questions about the assignments that we were going to do, I asked the questions a head of time.  I feel that I am prepared for more college courses as a result of this course.  The work that we did helped me with manage my time and that is important for college.  AP Language questions were challenging and had to be done in a certain amount time.  We also learned many vocabulary words that can be used in college.  

            My advice for anyone who is struggling with this class is to do things a head of time.  This does not mean finishing all the assignments that are due in one week in one day, but to do a little bit each night even if you have other assignments for different classes.  You should not save an assignment that you had a week or two to work on for the night before that it is due; you may have a lot of work for other classes that will be due the same day.  Doing work the night before is not good because you are rushing but if you do a little bit each day, your work will be done carefully and you will get more work done.  My advice for anyone who will be taking this class is to do the work a head of time and ask the teacher any questions that you may have before the work is due.

            I would like to say thank you, Ms. Fogarty, for teaching us this year.