Dara Haj-Hariri Fall Semester 3 PM Junior English Portfolio
I feel like I participated in class a lot this year, at least more than I usually do. Especially after I spent more time getting to know everybody at the school, which of course includes English class, I felt I was even more open to participating in class and cracking jokes when appropriate, as well as just having a fun time in English class this semester, and, of course, Dr. Vignone was also a joy to have as a teacher this semester, and I am looking forward to having Dr. Vignone as a teacher again next semester unless I for some reason have a different teacher in the spring semester. I give myself a 3/4 because I participated and was usually on time, even if I got to class almost right when it started, I (usually) did the readings before each class, and I put a lot of effort into my essays, although I felt the quality of my essays still was not great even though I was putting effort in, which was kind of disappointing to me.
Meta-Reflection
Although my work this semester may not have been my best, I acknowledge that and have worked to improve my attitude toward writing. I am still proud of what I was able to accomplish this semester, as well as the amount of effort I was able to put into my work, especially while struggling with having to adjust to my new STEM classes that were significantly more difficult than the courses that I was used to at my home high school. I am grateful to have met Dr. Vignone this semester, and I have had an enjoyable time in her class having discussions with her, and I am glad that my classmates and Dr. Vignone see the value in having fun while also getting work done. I remember the disappointment I felt when I got my first essay back as I realized I had never gotten below an A on an essay. However, this also motivated me to try harder to make my essays flow and connect back to my thesis, something that I am still working on but have made an improvement on. I think that I did my best work when it was a topic close to my heart that I have experience with, such as how I felt I was able to write a strong essay about my mother who passed away or how I did at least a decently good job of staying on track with my extended essay on the politics of language. I am going to work on my theses relating to what I am actually writing about, a great tip that Dr. Vignone told me to work on.