Blog Post #18: Final Portfolio Reflection

After a challenging trimester of AP Lit, it is somewhat refreshing to reflect on the accomplishments and growth that I have achieved before proceeding to the second half of the course.

                The first assignment that I was most proud of was my creative project. In this project, I created a diary of Adrian’s theorems, based off The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, and shared some of my philosophical findings with the class. This diary was encased in an evidence bag, representing both the extreme value and secrecy that this diary had. This was a proud moment for me because I know I am not very creative. I know my presentation skills are not spectacular. I know I have a very monotone voice. Even with practice, improvement only comes slowly. I have learned however, that I have to work harder than other students on my projects and assignments in order to counteract these obstacles and flaws. This project was extremely special, as I found a way to connect literature to something I love much more: math. In doing so, this offset my creative handicap and allowed me to explore a different avenue and perspective of the book, a humorous, logical, and thoughtful take on the essence of the novel. I discovered that this type of project was the perfect opportunity for me to harness the limited creativity within. It surprised me how easy things became once I made the connection between the novel and high school level arithmetic. Not only was my presentation and project humorous and creative, but I enjoyed the process of finding connections between the polar opposite subjects of math and literature. The weaknesses of my project, in my opinion, revolved around my spontaneity in writing the diary. I did not prewrite anything, so the entries in Adrian’s journal were quite sloppy and sometimes unorganized. Nevertheless, in reflection of my effort put into this project, I can still confidently declare that my diary of Adrian’s theorems was truly unique and something that I am definitely proud of.

                The second assignment that I take great pride in was the American play group project. In this assignment, we were tasked to pick groups and essentially act out the thesis and evidence that would normally be on an argumentative paper. Also careful mis en scene choices had to be made in order to create a fully attractive and appealing film. This project was one of my favorites because I had a group of very diverse people. I detest acting because I know I struggle at it, and my group helped make accommodations to support my request to not have a major role in the acting portion. Ultimately, my decision to refrain from being a main actor was to better the success of my team. The other three of my group members all were fantastic actors and made the process of filming smooth and simple. I, in carrying my fair share of the project, took extra measures to write the script, organize the documents and requirements, and type up the majority of the synopsis and justification—all of which I consider myself to be decent at. I learned that in order to achieve the best final product in any group project, you must identify the strengths of each of the group members and work according to those strengths. I thought that my group carried this out extremely conveniently and efficiently; we finished all our filming in school and never had to get together outside of school. We worked at a rigorous pace, but I was extremely comfortable because we did this project in stages—it was not a “pull-an-all-nighter-to-finish” type of endeavor on the last night. The final product was a well-acted and coordinated video and synopsis sheet that addressed all parts of the AP prompt and requirements of the rubric. The weaknesses I identified in this project were the lack of fancy props/settings and at certain times, a lack of communication. Certain measure could have been taken to avoid these small shortcomings, but for the most part, I was quite satisfied.

                 In the classroom setting, I have never been the eager one who raises my hand—unless I know the answer for sure. In this advanced literature class, oftentimes in class discussions, the things that were being said were far beyond my previous education in the topic matter. Many of the areas we discussed were completely new ideas for me, and my share of class participation in this sense revolved around listening, taking notes, and absorbing all the information that was being presented. Whenever we were assigned a piece of literature to read, I put in the effort to read and reread because I had difficulty comprehending many of the concepts being presented with the initial reading. Through a development in active reading (taking notes on all aspects of a novel/work), I learned how to break down a piece of text. I believe at this stage, I am much better at finding the deeper meaning of the work and how diction and syntax decisions contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole. In my individual papers, I asked a wealth of questions. Whether to clarify the requirements of the rubric or to get a thesis evaluated, I was never hesitant to ask for help. I remember, during the huge compare/contrast essay we had to write about our novel and its film depiction, I got my thesis checked four or five times before I found one that was satisfactory. In the midst of all the talk and rumors about each element of the rubric, I directed a fair share of time each day in class to clarifying every inquiry I had, whether it was a small issue or a legitimate concern. Also, when we were peer editing the paper, I had a group of about five students edit my paper while I provided my personal feedback on each of their papers. Not only did this provide each of us with better papers, but it provided me opportunities to read other writing styles and elements of analysis that I had not encountered before. With such a large and crucial paper due, I made sure I did everything in my power to have as many eyes look over it before it was turned in. I also did my best to help out my classmates with their papers, frequently answering their questions about concerns I had previously inquired about already.

                This trimester, collaborative group efforts were extremely enlightening, especially within all the stress of senior year. In my original literary presentation group, I was luckily assigned to a group with people who I did not know relatively well beforehand. Because of this, as we progressed through each of the presentations (literary period, literary theory, fairytales, etc.), it was comforting to acquaint myself to others who were stressing as much as I was. For these presentations, we usually rotated the sections that we chose to complete, providing each of us an understanding of the importance of each section of the presentation. Once we finished each Google Drive or SkyDrive presentation, we made sure to evaluate and edit each person’s individual part and generate transitions to allow for a coherent delivery. This practice with giving presentations as a group gave me opportunities to overcome my weak presentation skills. I believe I contributed my fair share to each of these presentations; as a group, I feel that we did a good job of not having one person “carry” all of the responsibility—we divided and completed work evenly. For our American Play group project, I believe that everyone in my group (a group very similar to my original literary presentation group) did not have the same role(s), but we shared an equal amount of work. In this project specifically, I learned the importance of planning out what we will accomplish each day before we actually proceed to working on the project. Although no formal calendar was made, I set deadlines on our Google Docs group page and most of them were met with relative ease. Overall, while contrary to the groups of many of my friends, I believe that my experiences with collaborative group assignments this trimester were extremely positive and provided growth in my personal knowledge and my ability to work with others.

            When I set the goal to analyze one poem every two to three days at the beginning of the year, I did not anticipate how unrealistic that goal would be. For the most part, I was unable to keep up with these goals because they were way too rigorous and seemed unachievable right from the start. Therefore, I have set new goals that I think are much more realistic and will benefit me more as second trimester begins.

                

                 I do not want to lose the knowledge I have gained this trimester on poetry analysis. I know the poetry analysis essay and multiple choice questions will both require an astute understanding on how to interpret a poem, look for symbols, address literary devices, analyze structure and meter, and ultimately communicate how each of these contributes to the work as a whole. As similar to my first goal that I set at the beginning of the year, I want to close read and analyze an AP style poem once every month to keep renewing my previously learned techniques. Once I finish fishing out all there is in the poem, I want to create a basic outline for how I would draft my essay, consisting of topic sentences and a thesis. In addition to this personal work, I would like to look up past essays for the AP prompt and practice norming those student produced responses in order to know how the evaluators would have scored each essay. This is similar to the activities and analyzing techniques we did in class throughout the first trimester, and I thought it was helpful in my preparation to take on the poetry section of the AP exam. I will start this monthly ritual in December and conclude in May, the month of the AP exam. This goal can only truly be measured by my performance on the AP exam, and while poetry is not the only section that the exam covers, it is one of the sections that students tend to struggle the most on. I think my new goal of analyzing one poem per month and outlining a paper is more practical for the workload I am prepared to bear next trimester.

                Another goal I want to set for second trimester is time management. Oftentimes, I found myself spending three or more hours doing an assignment for AP English & Literature! Doing this regularly is quite outrageous and is cutting deep into my sleep and personal time, but most of it is my fault. I am often too wordy in my papers; I often get distracted; I often lose track of how much time has been spent. But there are also times when I see it necessary to spend more than the customary amount, and on occasion, I think this is okay. I know at this point in the trimester that most of the work I produce is of reasonably high quality; I need to learn to produce this same quality without spending so much time working. Basing this estimation off the work load that I received this trimester, I want to spend no more than 12 hours per week or three hours a day on AP Lit homework next trimester. I will time myself every time I start working on English homework and record how much time I end up dedicating each day. I will also make a mental goal to focus completely on the task at hand each night, disconnecting my connection with the social world in order to get this work done. In setting this goal, I will learn to be more efficient, a skill that is universally required no matter which path I take in the future. Hopefully, my grades, papers, and assignments will not drop in quality.