W11, #5: If I Can, I Will

Well, here we are.

Down to the final 'month' or so before exams (and summer) arrive.

With that in mind, I'm curious about what you'd like to accomplish between now and the end of Eng II (as you prepare to become an 11th grade/Junior English student).

Challenge:

• Identify (1) way you still want to improve (or learn) in the final 4 weeks of our class.  It can be a writing skill, better understanding anything we've read this 2nd semester (as you think about the semester exam, or whatever comes to mind related to this class).
• Explain why this is still a challenge for you...and how you want to pull this off.
• Bonus:  Tell me -- in your reply -- if you'd like to meet sometime (or several times) to help you work on this.
• 5+ sentences.

Comments

[Student #1]

This year I feel I have improved tremendously. However, when it comes to in class essays it's like I freeze and all of my ideas go away. I want to improve my writing skills in class when I have only 45 minutes to write a full out essay when given a question at the beginning of class. Most of the time when I don't understand it we go over it in class but if we don't I will come in during tutorial and go over it with you.

***

Mr. Long's response: Let's find time to talk soon about various strategies for outlining and staring an in-class essay. Tell me when it is convenient for you.

[Student #2]

I also aggree with the first post in saying that my in-class essays areen't my best work. In order to write an outstanding essay, i take my time and do it right. But getting them done in class isn't the best way for me to just full-out write and have it come out like any other essay would. However, that isn't my main concern at this time. I would really like to make sure that i understad the important information we have covered, so that on the final exam in a few weeks, i am able to attack the questions in different ways to get the answer. I feel like we ahve talked about so much (which is all fair game for the final) that some good review time towards the end of the semester would be helpful.

[Student #3]

The part that I have the most difficulty with is reading comprehension. I read the book, but sometimes there is so much information that I get overwhelmed. That’s the only problem I have. I just need to underline key facts in the book. If I do that, then I’ll be ok.

[Student #4]

I have improved a lot this year in my writing and that is one thing that I feel that has really stood out this year. In comparison to last year, my writing is unbelievable because last year it was horrible. But I also feel that I could Improve even more than I have. So there is still much room for improvement. Lastly I am still looking to advance my vocabulary.

[Student #5]

One thing I would like to work on and have been working on since 8th grade would be my writing and my word choice. Being so close to a junior I know I am going to start a lot of college applications and essays. I personally I think I am a very weak writer, but I have improved. During this year I have learned a lot of tricks with writing essays that I think if I keep working on will help me improve a lot! And of course I know I can always go to Mr. Long and bother him a bit. :)

[Student #6]

Well this year was great, but if I had to improve on one thing, it would probably be in class essays. I think in my head that i'm proving strong points, and that it all makes sense, but in the end it doesn't. I really need to work on my introduction and conclusion though. I think this is still a challenge for me, because I rush on both these parts. The intro and conclusion don't come to me naturally, and I find extremely hard to write.

Yes, I would like to meet sometimes. I can come during tutorial, or after school. I will also follow your advice on taking my conclusion and using it as my introduction.

[Student #7]

In the final weeks of the school year I really want to improve my writing skills. In all the papers I’ve written, I always have trouble with commas. I believe I have this problem because in previous years I never did very much writing. When I did though the assignments weren’t long assignments. Therefore, I never really had to use commas much. I believe I can improve this part of my writing by coming in and meeting with you a few times before the end of the school year.

[Student #8]

This year I have really learned to enjoy english. I have never really liked it before, but for some reason the reading this year I have really taken seriously and read and tried to understand and in this I have improved greatly. However I have improved but I still need work on vocabulary. I can memorize the words in vocabulary quizzes but I still haven't been able to apply the words to my essays. Once I have learned to apply what I know in my writing this will only improve it so much more. So my end of the year goal is to at least use 5 new words in every essay for now on and hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to do more.

[Student #9]

I think that i need to work on these online entries. Throughout the year, i have kept up with my entries, always giving good answers. However, as summer approaches, I have slacked tremendously. I need to set up a time and place where I can do these in a timely fashion!

[Student #10]

Out of everything we have gone over in class, I still think I can show much improvement in essays. Weather it be in-class, writing analysis, or just a plain essay, I think that I can be so much better at writing, and I want to be. I want to be able to make a creative and convincing piece of literary work without being able to sum it up on a "bumper sticker." And rather than my work being single layered and simple, I want to be able to write something that is very deep with multiple layers and can attract readers. If you think that meeting with you would help with this, I would be more than happy to do that during tutorial, advisory, lunch, 6th period study hall, or just over e-mail, if it decides to start working again. ;)

[Student #11]

I would like to debate about certain topics that arise. I would like to learn how to better prepare for debates and how to construct arguments. I would also like to become a better public speaker becuase i tend to not do so well infront of crowds. I would like to hopefully have another debate in the class like the Frankenstein one. I look forward to the rest of the year and the infromation i will pick up.

[Student #12]

I think I have improved every thing in this year with you, Mr. Long. But I still have a problem in my essays. I believe I have an good ideas and strong points for write but I can't describe it’s at the best like I’m thinking in my essays. However, I will try to get better in the last four weeks. Of course, I would like to see you sometime to help me get improve.

[Student #13]

I had improve a lot this year. But I think I still need to work harder on everything. I love this year a lot. I think I have to work hard on my writing skills and reading. Since I don’t have lots of good vocabulary so I don’t think I can write a good essay. So I think I need to improve a lot on my vocabulary. Also, I think I need to read faster, because I am kind of slow on reading.

[Student #14]

The thing i would like most to improve on is my writing skills.I dont consider myself a bad writer i just know that i could improve a whole lot from where i am now.I believe i have all the right ideas on how to make elaborate and informative papers i just dont know how to put them down on paper effectively.Once i learn how to do this effectively i believe my writing skills will be flawless. This is what i focus on most when i am writing any paper.

[Student #15]

I think my writing skills could use improvement. And a good way to help this is just going through my old essays and correcting any problems I had in them. Also, writing more essays will help me to achieve my goal of becoming a better writer. I also would like to improve my vocabulary for the following years of English and SAT’s. I would like to learn how to fix my grammatical errors and know for the future how to find and fix them myself. And yes I would like to set a day where I can fix an old essay(s) of mine.

[Student #16]

I do belive that i have done a very good job on all my papers and in class essays but i wish i could improve on my content and blending my quotations into my paper making it a better and more interesting paper. I think thar i could also do a better job in placement of my infromation into my paper so it moves along with my main view and helps prove my argument that i am trying to get across to the reader. Also think i could improve on my introductions and conclusions so that they are not just a waste of space and just written to fit a page but have meaning and structure for my paper to move smoothly from beggining to end.

[Student #17]

Well i want to improve on many things, but luckily this year has taught me how to modify not to be the best at something but to be my best. One thing that i noticed ived improved on and would like to continue to improve on is my in-class paragraphs.
I would always rush on them and never would fully understand what i wrote. I learned to take my time and plan out what i am going to write before i write it.I plan to work on my essay writing to not only create an outstanding essay for the teacher, but for me as well.

[Student #18]

One major thing I noticed about myself was that I had to ponder the real meaning behind a certain sentence or paragraph. To really understand what the author is trying to convey to me with his book. This is a problem because it will take me much longer to truly grasp what the book is really about, rather than what is litterally written. My plan to improve this, however, is to read slower, and let the debth of what ive just read sink in. This is an extremely vital skill in my opinion because it will make me not only a stronger reader, but a better writer aswell.