A Year of Progress

Some people say they can remember the moment they began to learn to read. I may not remember that but I remember learning being a long and hard process. Every night and even during the day my mom read to me and I loved it but it wasn’t coming to me as easily as I think she thought it should. As a baby, my whole family thought I was extremely gifted. I could speak sentences and sing my ABCs by my first birthday. They assumed reading would come just as easily. When the training began, we all found out that teaching me to read was not going to be as simple as anticipated. My mother made me read these travel size pop up books every day in the car. I must have read those little books over a hundred times and I learned to hate them. They later bought me a reading computer program that was supposed to help. My cousin had used it in order to learn to read and it had helped her tremendously. In not too much time, it did start to help, along with me reading books every night with my mother’s help.

 Once I had learned to read, I was drilled with my handwriting in order to improve. If a sentence or a word was not neat, I would have to rewrite everything. All of this training had placed me in the top of my class honors Writing and Reading groups. Even though I was there, I sat around and analyzed how the others read and how I had been bad before. It made me nervous and I was then scared to read out loud to the rest of the group. With being scared and hesitant, I became a worse reader and of course, being a worse reader would effect my writing also. It wasn’t till later in High School that I realized it was important, and I needed to make writing a part of my life in order to succeed.

It was in 11^th grade AP English that I remember changing most as a writer. Learning so many different writing skills has been something I can not only look back on, but also continue to improve on. Throughout the year I was challenged everyday with new things such as analyzing, debates and poetry. This altogether changed the way I looked at written pieces. I know that was a year I truly struggled, but it was also a year where I felt I wrote some of my best essays. It was always hard to ace my essays in this class, but once I did, I felt empowered to try even harder to improve and continue doing well in the class.

            One of the most important things I think I learned in this class was how to analyze. To practice, we analyzed essays, stories, articles and even paintings. Each piece that was analyzed had a different significance. We had to take different facts given and try to find if the author meant something by saying things in certain orders or in a certain way. We analyzed books and constantly took quizzes analyzing each chapter and sometimes the quiz would have a paragraph from a chapter and we would have to read and analyze it then. Another assignment I thought really helped was the painting analyzing. It was interesting trying to figure out what the painting may mean to the painter and what it meant to us.

 Once, I even had to analyze and then write a story about a picture. That made me think more descriptively and I really tried to add elements of the painting into the story. Another thing analyzing helped me with was understanding books through analyzing the characters.  Understanding books made it easier to write about them. From that point forward, I analyzed in depth and saw things from a completely different viewpoint. In order to be a better writer, I needed to be able to be a good reader, and analyzing helped bring that out in me. I was able to get an even deeper understanding of what I read.
               In the middle of the year we began the debate portion of the class. I felt this was an amazing experience because it not only gave me the chance to write a research paper, but it also had me write a speech. The speech felt amazing to give with all the information I had spent weeks gathering. I felt that I had so much information backing up my side that I wouldn’t have to worry about people going against my topic later. The speech was very fluid and was a hit in the class, however, people did still go against it and argue with me.

 When the Q&A portion and debate came up, I was completely ready. I had every answer and I learned to think on my feet about reactions to audience commentary. This was the first time I had done an actual research paper and I put my all into it. Now because of this, I feel ready for research papers I may do in college.

                Studying poetry was actually something that changed my high school life. It all started with learning how to analyze the poems. There were many different ways to look at each one and it all depended on what the reader saw in it. Eventually, it came time for us to recite poems. Although I was nervous, I was ready. So I got an A for reciting the poem but from there my teacher asked me and a few other students to join the Poetry Out Loud Contest. I eagerly said yes and then in the contest I ended up placing 3^rd. That is what changed things for me. When my name was announced on the loud speaker the drama teacher was listening to the results. From there she found me and told me that she wanted me to audition to be a lead in one of her shows. That year, I ended up getting a minor character, but the next, I got the lead! The Poetry Out Loud Contest opened doors for me that I didn’t even think could ever be possible. Who knew I could go from memorizing a 30-line poem to memorizing an entire script. Now I see that poetry gave me the confidence in myself as an actress and speaker and now I no longer have a problem with that.

            Throughout the year, my writing was greatly affected. The way I looked at essays, articles, poems, books and even paintings had been changed forever. I just thought about things at a completely different angle than I had before. Never before had I thought that one word could change an entire meaning. One word can add so much or even take away so much and that is why it is so important to not miss things like that when analyzing. I learned that one sentence or a paragraph as a whole can have multiple different meanings. Each reader may take something different away from a selection of reading and that is what makes it so special.

            Although not all of my intentions to take this class were great, I am so glad I did. I wanted to improve my writing skills and that is one goal I did achieve! Another reason I took the class was because all of my friends were taking it. I didn’t want to be left in the dust, so I took it too. That may not be the best reason but it had a pretty good result. I also felt it would look really good on college applications, not only the class, but with my improved writing, I would be able to make my essays better, which would improve a college application.

            In the end, it was a long year. I truly did benefit greatly from that class. I felt that my thought process in analyzing improved the most. In making that skill my base, I continued to learn more and with that, I became a better writer. It’s easy to lose sight of what I learned here and just try to write, but taking time to think about all of these skills helps me improve. Then the more I write this way, the more I feel myself grow as a writer.

           The lessons I learned to improve my writing have continued to help me even today. I developed better quote weaving in this class and I can think back to it for structure help always. Also, everyday I use my analyzing skills that I learned in this class. I am so glad to have the analyzing experience because I believe that your analyzing skills only grow through experience and different opportunities to analyze. Different teachers provide that practice and teach to expand your knowledge. That is why Helen Keller says, “The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me” (HK excerpt). Having great teachers myself, I see why Helen is so strong about her love for this teacher, Anne. Like her, I overcame “barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away,” and through much practice, they were (HK Excerpt). My skills then developed to allow me to take this amazing year of AP English and now I look back and I am so glad that I did take it. Despite the difficulty level, it made me a better writer.