Hannah's English Blog

   Prompt Response: Clustering helped generate ideas for the prompt by organizing my thoughts in a proper manner. When writing the Argument Essay, I realized that the thing I struggled with most was finding evidence and organizing my thoughts in a way that made sense. With the clustering, I found that it was easy to put our prompt response in chronological order. It was also easier to find which parts would make good sentences as evidence. I will consider using this technique later for the AP Exam. Summary:  Today in class, we took notes on the Writing Process and discussed different ways to organize Brainstorming. Number 1 was clustering.  Reflection: I can use this method when I'm test-taking in the future. The clustering method will help improve the way I organize my thoughts and will be a method I consider using on the AP Exam.

  Prompt Response: The introduction paragraph was the easiest part of writing the essay, and I found the most challenging part was finding evidence when forming the body paragraphs. I think the thing I struggle the most with is finding good evidence and determining good flow for my paragraph. So it makes sense that I got stuck there. One thing I would do differently on the AP Exam is using a different technique during the brainstorming part of writing the essay, and spending more time in the moment focused on the activity at hand.  Summary:  In class today, we spent the first 30 minutes organizing our ideas for the essay, and spent the rest of our time writing our Argument Essays.  Reflection:  I think writing these Essays will help improve my performance when the time comes in May to take the actual AP Exam. Looking back, there are definitely some test-taking strategies I could've utilized that I think would've improved my performance. So, these will be things ...

  Prompt Response: Outside of the community that lies between me and my friends in everyday classes, the two communities I feel I truly belong most are theater and cheer. When I first tried out for the cheer team at Lakeside, I remember feeling especially afraid that I would feel left out throughout the process. I went in knowing nobody, and even had to hype myself up in the mirror to give myself the confidence to go through with it. I'm so glad I did because I came out of it with new bonds that I still cherish to this day. When looking back, I think part of what created this feeling was the dedication and happiness the environment had from our shared love.  Summary: In class, we read a passage on CommonLit called "Missing Your People," and then answered assessment questions based on the reading.  Reflection: In the passage, Tracy Brower explains the importance of belonging. I think the passage helped further my understanding of the importance of a community and what step...

 Prompt Response: One vocabulary word from today that I think will be most useful to me in the future would be nomenclature. Out of all 15 words, I think that word is the one I've used the most in the past and will continue to use in the future. I've used that word commonly in school, like in Biology where we learned about the classification of animals. I plan to take AP Bio next year, and I think my experience will be nothing short of the homo sapien phenomenon that is learning binomial nomenclature.  Summary: In class, we completed lessons and took down notes on Unit 2 Vocabulary.  Reflection: Today I learned and practiced using fifteen new vocabulary words! This is helpful later on in life. I can implement these sayings in my everyday speech to improve my vernacular, and a stronger vocabulary will help me in all areas of life.

  Prompt Response: I learned that throughout our essays and while using the "so what?" explanation, a deeper understanding paired with a good vocabulary can go a long way. I learned how important it is to use readings as evidence throughout your paper, as most papers that won the sophistication points used their vernacular to effectively defend their argument. They strengthened their arguments, and every essay that got full points happened to have that in common. I learned that complexity is important. Summary: We wrote lots about the "So What?" method, and how to properly write our commentary. Then, we scored different AP Essays based on our rubrics. Reflection: Reading the different rubrics gave me perfect examples for the future. Now, I know what not to do in my writing and what techniques I can utilize for a higher score on the AP exam.

  Prompt Response: One thing I understand about commentary that I didn't fully understand before was the importance of explaining effectively and how to do it without being redundant or making up another claim. The hardest part of commentary for me is writing things efficiently and explaining my presented evidence without making more claims. After reading, I've realized that my evidence needs to be strong and how to explain concisely with the "so what" step-by-step method we reviewed in class. I can use this when writing my next AP Lang Argument Essay by referencing this procedure whenever I may feel stumped. Summary: We viewed multiple pieces of evidence and provided our own commentary. Reflection: This exercise helped strengthen my writing skills. I was able to use the "So What" method broken down into steps, and I can reference this later on in other writings.

  Prompt Response: I would use the rubric as a roadmap to improve my argument writing by using it as a reference when building my outline for an essay and knowing what to focus on in my writing. I will know the tone to address my audience throughout my paragraph and how I should be forming my sentences. I also know the amount of commentary necessary in order to receive full points and credit for my work. I'll put this into consideration when typing my draft, and again when reviewing my paper. Summary: Today we chose a topic we thought to be overrated, and then wrote our own evidence and commentary as to why. Reflection: Writing everything down helped in preparation for the Essays we write in the future. It also helps because honing the skill of fast writing and forming a strong line of reasoning is important for the AP Exam.

  Prompt Response: A time I completed an assignment without fully understanding what the teacher was looking for was my Science project in 4th grade. I think this was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, as I had misread the instructions, spent all night forming my project, and was laughed at for how horribly off the mark I had been, despite all my efforts. This moment stuck with me, and now I definitely double-check rubrics before beginning my assignments. This includes the Argument Essay rubric we received and reviewed in class. I learned that the rubric is lenient in some areas, as long as you know what they're looking for during your writing. Summary: We read over, highlighted, and talked about how to get full points on the AP Exam for our essays. We also discussed the overrated prompt and shared our own opinions. Reflection: The different sections of the rubric and seeing exactly what the AP scores are looking for gave me some ease for later on. Now, I feel better ...

Prompt Response: A major event that happened during my own lifetime would be COVID-19. COVID-19 changed the way our world worked and functioned, a little similar to the experience and change Americans had to face after 9/11. Around 1.2 million people died from COVID, and not only was that tragic, but it's something that our population struggled to bounce back from. Our communities had to work together, and I think the beautiful portion of it is how united all of us were back then. Similarly, I believe that the results of 9/11 only brought people together and helped unite the people of the US. Summary: Today in class, our individual groups looked at peers' feedback, revised, and then submitted our final versions for our Argument Building Paragraphs. Reflection: Getting the revisions for our paragraphs gave me lots of insight. It helped me see the thought process of my other colleagues, which I could maybe implement in my other writing. The feedback also highlighted some of my ow...

  Prompt Response: A time I used informal language in a situation where formal language may have been more appropriate was when presenting in class for my language class. I have a habit of using jokes, slang, and laughter to make things less awkward, and personally, I've never felt more awkward than when standing in front of a class of people reading an unrehearsed speech. So, I went up, and when I started stumbling and stuttering from the pressure, I lost my composure and resorted to using jokes to make things better. It did not work, and looking back, I'm mortified. If I had a magical wand and could go back in time, I would first rehearse and, secondly, push through with the formal language and tone to maintain professionalism. Summary: Today in class, our groups went from table to table reviewing our peers' Argument Paragraphs and gave them feedback on their commentary. Reflection: Reading the writings of others helped us improve our writing. Seeing the different ways th...

 Prompt Response: One approach from my group members that changed how I thought about the argument was Sarah's perspective. Our prompt was about store-bought cards being a major cop-out, and while our perspective initially seemed unanimous, Sarah politely disagreed. At first, I was taken aback and found it hard to see her point of view on things, but after further discussion, she had some pretty good points about store-bought cards that I hadn't thought about at first. We changed our claims and switched from focusing on handmade cards to a broader outlook for our topic. Her fresh view on our prompt only helped us strengthen our argument and gave our group a more open, nuanced paragraph. In the end, the combination of our differences helped us more than I thought it would. Summary:  Today in class, we got in our groups and continued to discuss our paragraphs for submission. Reflection: Us working in a group helped me to better write an argumentative paragraph. The collaboration...

  Prompt Response: Something that I've always been curious about the true beginning of our world, and what happens when you're no longer on this world. Both have many theories, but no one can say any one thing with 100% certainty. I think part of me would be willing to pay 1 billiongazillion dollars to figure out the true answer but another part of me thinks part of the things that bring us individuality is our faith. So, maybe not. I've always wondered what the truth is though, and what would happen if our society knew what the full truth was. Guess we'll never know. Summary: Today in class we got into groups of four, and began to write our argument body paragraphs based off of our group's prompt. My groups prompt discussed the meaning and significance behind bought cards. Reflection: Today in class I got to practice working in a group, and I'm hopeful that this grade will be better then the grade I got on our other Argument Body Paragraph (Ambush). I also got ...

  Prompt Response: The most challenging part of building an argument for me would be the collecting of evidence. I'm very good at forming claims, but I often have trouble differentiating between making claims and coming up with supporting evidence for my claim. I end up having lots of claims rather then one main claim and tiny pieces to support it. Second most challenging would then be commentary for very similar reasons, I'm just not always sure what counts as commentary vs more supporting evidence, but I'm slowly figuring that out. The practice we do in class especially helps! Summary: Today in class we took notes on Line of Reasoning, and learned the proper way to form an argument. Claim, evidence, commentary, and then a conclusion. Afterwards, reviewing our own quizzes from earlier in the semester. Reflection: Taking notes on Line of Reasoning is always very helpful for me, most times I find that Line of Reasoning is the thing I suffer with most in my writing. Sometimes...

Prompt Response: One word that I find myself using the most right now would be the word "pookie." I use it a lot when addressing my friends, and it's become an endearing term I use for greeting or thanking my friends. While it makes me seem chronically online and sometimes comes off as unprofessional the response the phrase is widely recognized and well-received by my friends. So, I'm okay with it becoming part of my everyday vocabulary, as long as it remains a term I use casually with my friends. Summary: We had our first day of vocab words today, and we took notes on what these vocab words are and mean. Afterwards, we filled out questions and read a passage to put the new words we used to practice. Reflection: Learning these vocab words is important when expanding our vocabulary. Later in the year we will be debating, and writing argumentative essays and being able to use the right words to describe feelings, emotions, and events is important. I learned around 5 new...

Prompt Response:  One fear that I've learned to overcome is my giant fear of cockroaches. The wildest thing about this fear is I can recognize how irrational it is. I'm okay with spiders, snakes, heights, and clowns, but for some reason the speed, the flakiness, the ugliness of cockroaches I can't help but repulse at. There was one fateful summer where one had stumbled its way into my room with my friend over, and I being the host took it upon myself to defend us. At first, we ran out of the room screaming and crying, but I quickly told myself to get it together, and reentered the room to conquer the cockroach. I was so scared, I burst through the door with such a rush that the knob flung through and now lies a giant hole in my wall to remind me of the day I fought a roach. I won, by the way.