6th Grade
This assignment is my literary essay on the book entitled, The Owlstone Crown, written in my 6th grade Reading and Language Arts class. Going into middle school, we did not have much prior knowledge as to how we should write literary essays, so this was a new concept to me. There were multiple steps to the process, which included summarizing the story, identifying the protagonists and antagonists, identifying the theme, telling about our favorite part of the book, and writing a recommendation. These are all essential literary techniques, and in order to be able to do this, we had to have a good hold on the novel that we read. Comprehension was a key part in the entire process, and I feel that this paper reflects that I have a firm grasp on that skill. This paper also reflects how determined I am as a student. Coming from elementary school, writing an essay was considered quite a daunting task. Being able to produce this level of work shows how I have progressed as a student, and matured over the years.
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7th Grade
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This paper is my memoir on the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, written in my 7th grade Advanced English Class. I am proud of this assignment because it yet again shows the progress that I have made in my writing. This is the first time I have ever written a memoir, so the whole format, mood, and writing style was completely new to me. The task at hand seemed to be quite challenging, but that did not worry me, because I was able to take what I was taught, analyze it, and then I applied it in my own writing to end up with a writing piece that was excellent. This project also reflects on how flexible and adaptable of a student I am. Writing this memoir shows that I have the courage and ability to reach out and explore other styles of writing, and it shows how flexible I am in writing other types of papers, from literary essays, to memoirs, to research papers, I am able to do it all, which reflect the kind of student that I am.
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This assignment is my And Then There Were None Literary Essay written in my 7th Grade Advanced English Class. For this paper, we had to use the C-E-R method, which stands for Claim-Evidence-Reasoning. Unlike our other literary essays which included the recommendation of the book, favorite parts, etc., this essay was based solely on the theme of the novel. In each paragraph, we had to make a sub-claim that supported the main claim (theme), and then find textual evidence in the novel that supported the sub-claim. Next, we had to do the reasoning part, which was the most difficult. We needed to explain why our evidence supported our claim thoroughly, and then make some connections to real life. For me, this format of a literary essay was quite different from what I was used to. I have done C-E-R on a paragraph before, but not on a lengthy paper! So I had to adapt, and change my way of thinking. Mrs. Ulewicz guided us through the process, step by step, and I listened carefully and intently so that I knew what to do. As we learned more tips on how to make our paper better, I edited my paper so that it could become even more fantastic. When I finally turned my paper in, I was satisfied, and my teacher was too! I had followed the format exactly, and my reasoning was spot on. This paper is a great reflection of who I am as a student.
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8th Grade
These are my three WordMaster Tests, completed for my 8th Grade Advanced English Class. These are great for my portfolio because they are a great representation of my learning abilities. The WordMaster test requires that students learn 25 challenging vocabulary words, and be able to know all of their definitions well enough to be able to answer complicated analogies that include those 25 vocabulary words. This is quite a feat, especially for the final WordMaster test, which includes 25 new vocabulary words, along with the 50 old vocabulary words, meaning that the student must know 75 challenging vocabulary words, inside and out. This shows that I am a dedicated student to whatever that is assigned to me, whether big or small. This may seem like just a vocabulary quiz, but learning all 75 words that I have never heard about nor used in my speech can be quite challenging. This shows that I am a dedicated, hard-working student, because even though the task ahead of me was very challenging, I pushed through, and ended up getting one of the highest scores in the 8th Grade for all three tests.
This is my Tablets vs. Textbooks Research Paper, created in my 8th Grade Advanced English class. This project is a great representation of my writing skills, and shows how I am a responsible student who is persistent, and knows how to manage my time. Writing a research paper is not new to me, and I knew going into it that it would be a long process. Despite that I completed all of the steps, and was able to produce a "college-level" paper as my final product. This project also shows how well-planned I am, because we were given a certain time slot to finish each step of the process, and for each step, I was able to complete it not only on time, but with quality to it as well. This project also shows that I am a very persistent student, because this project took four whole weeks to complete. I could have easily just stopped trying because this project was just taking too long. But I did not! I tried my best through the entire process, and ended up with a final product that I was proud of.
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