2nd Quarter Reflection 1/22/16

Prompt: 
- In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts?
- What strategies have benefited you?
- What have you learned about the world?
- How have your research skills improved?

          Throughout this quarter I have improved on many of my skills and learned a lot. I have mostly improved on my annotating and my writing skills in general. I've improved a lot since August. In August, my writing wasn't as good as it is now due to the fact that over the summer I didn't write much. Now, I've polished my skills again. I've also polished the skill of research. Before, when I did research I just had one question and then looked for the answer. Then found more information along the way. Now when I do research I ask myself a couple of questions and from there I start my research. Also, with the articles of the week I have learned a lot about what's been happening around the world. Over the summer I wasn't as updated as I am now. 

           I think that my annotating skills and my writing skills are one of the biggest things I've improved on so far this year. In the beginning of the year my annotating skills weren't as good. Most of my annotations were very basic and just pointing out important information. Though, thanks to annotating the whole book of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee my annotating skills have increased by a lot more. Now when I annotate I can actually fill up the whole margin of the article with questions, comments, connections, etc. Also, much of my writing has improved. In the beginning of the year my writing was really sloppy because I didn't do it as much over the summer. Now that we've written a lot of pieces over the course of the year, my writing has improved a lot. Those refreshers on how to write a thesis, topic sentence, etc. helped me a lot too. 

           Throughout the course of the year I've also learned many strategies that have helped me in my writing and I've also learned much about the world. For example, the TIQA format has helped me a lot. It has made writing easier for me because now I know in what order to put things. This format helped me a lot in my To Kill a Mockingbird essay. It made things flow a lot smoother. Though, during this quarter I've also learned a lot about the world. For example, that animal abuse has now become a more serious crime. I also had no idea that animal abuse could possibly have a link with household abuse. The articles of week helped me get updated on everything that's been happening around the world that I didn't know about.