After reading your midterm exam in light of the handout we have provided, relfect on the choices you made in responding to the midterm 2006 AP Language and Composition prompts.
Please comment below on:
What new goals and resolutions you will set to improve your performance in this marking period as you choose to develop/reinforce habits that will assist you as you strive to be an informed citizen/scholar.
Please offer:
any suggestions that will be helpful to us as a community of students who are working toward the same goal: success!
For these timed writings,vi was able to full complete them for the first time. Usually I am unable to write my conclusion within the given time period. Also, I feel I was able to make great points in the "are others opinions worthwhile" essay, but I forgot to tie to the second part of the prompt, which was about those opinions fostering democratic views. Ivrealized that o forgot this near the end of my essay amd didn't have time to go back and rewrite it. So I just quickly mentioned it in my conclusion. I should have read the question more carefully and retread it after writing my introduction to make sure I will remember everything, which is something I did before.
ReplyDeleteFor my suggetion, I would have to say to continue to work hard and dont lower your standards. Just try your best and be sure to either read or watch the news to further enhance your knowledge and have something to being to class discussions.
A new goal I have set for myself is to watch the news or read a newspaper at least every other day. I have realized that it is necessary to have knowledge of what is going on in the world outside of Abington to be more successful. It will help me in exams to provide examples, which I lacked in my essay on the midyear exam. It will also help me to be a more informed citizen which has more benefits than just helping me raise my English grade.
ReplyDeleteI am going to learn to organize myself more efficiently, especially in timed writing situations. I feel like I often take the time to organize and plan my essay for granted, and my work can suffer from that. Like Mackenzie, I also plan to become more informed and pay more attention to the news. I would advise any incoming student to remember that there's really no such thing as too much information. Being well-informed is extremely important.
ReplyDeleteI new improvement that I can work on for futre timed writing is organization. In one of my essay's my idea were sort of all over the place, which I believe lowered my score. Some advice for organization is taking the time to really unpack the prompt, and before starting your essay, make a quick graphic organizer. Those who have trouble finishing in the time given, should just make sure everything you adress in your paper is related to the prompt.
ReplyDeleteOne of my weaknesses on the midyear exam was organization in my essays. I should have taken more time to make a graphic organizer which is one of my goals for the upcoming timed writings. Along with Mackenzie a goal I have is to become a more informed citizen by reading newspapers and watching the news. Doing so will allow me to use examples in my writing which was another weakness I had on the midyear exam.
ReplyDelete-Amy Hackett
In the future I plan on paying more attention to the news in order to be aware of what is going on around the world and in the United States. This way I have the ability to provide examples in my timed writings. Like evryone else I also plan to be more organized before starting to write my essay. I also want to make sure I read over my essay and edit it before passing it in.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing my midyear exam, I realized that I need to study the rhetorical strategies more because whenever I try to list off many strategies to use as examples in my essay, I have trouble remembering them. Also, I need to focus more on refining my support to make it stronger by using in-text examples or using real-life examples. Both would help to improve my writing for the future.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing my my midyear exam, I have realized that I need to work on explaining my reasoning. Saying something is so isn't enough, unless there is further support to my reasning. Also, I need to work on substituting words like "strong", "bold" and "positive" by discovering new words from my tone list. By using more sophisticated words, it will help to be a stronger essay.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing my midterm exam I have realized I have to focus more on writing a good conclusion. I need to work on using stronger vocabulary and descriptive words.
ReplyDeleteMoving forward to the second half of the year, I realize that I have to work on my vocabulary to make my timed writings even better. Also, if I use an example to help state my point, I have to make sure that my facts are completely accurate, I can't just know some of the story.
ReplyDeleteIn the new year I really need to stop overgeneralising. I tried to do it less on the midterm exam, but not hard enough. I did give more examples especially for the third question, but I still didn't take it as far as I should have. I still also need to look at grammar rules for possessives. I guess since spell check and auto correcting grammar rules on the computer has made me less aware of the serious errors I am making.
ReplyDeleteFor the new year I need to work on being able to show my understanding of rhetorical devices in my essays. I also need to work on expanding my ideas and putting more detail into my points I make in the timed writings. Both of those were problems on my midyear exam, and have been problems in the past.
ReplyDeleteStarting the second half of the year I am going to start including more textual support. Along with adding more support pertaining to the actual article I plan on slowing down my writing because that is when I tend to make small but damaging errors. These errors and lack of support are what are really holding me back from achieving that 7 or 8.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts so far...taking ownership of weaknesses and intentionally working to eradicate them is challenging.
ReplyDeleteThe real challenge is to look at one's work honestly and realize that only you have the power to transform it.
Please ask for advice, make appointments to see either of us during a study or after school.
Even writing an email to ask for a clarification of a rule would make a difference for many of you, even if you take just ten minutes after school. If a group of you would like review on a particualr topic, it could be a group appointment, too.
In this marking period I have goals to improve my timed writing skills. I need to provide more examples in my writing which means I need to be more aware of things takinh place in the world. One way I could do this is by using the information provided at state of the state discussions. I hope to improve my writing skills by breaking down the prompts abd answering every part of the question.
ReplyDeleteFor the second half of the year I will work on organizing my thoughts better than I have in the past. I need to think of what I want to say before I write my essay. This way I will be able to make my point clearer. I also need to really read the prompt and make sure I understand it before I start to put my thoughts on the paper.
ReplyDeleteFor the second half of the year my timed writing needs improvement in all areas. I think most of the reason I did so poorly was because I felt rushed and wanted to do so good on my essay's that the pressure was too much. Most importantly I need to work on the organization of my essay which all goes back to my thesis, and making sure my thesis is relevent. To do this I need to narrow down my grapic organizer and fill it more with facts. I also feel as though my writing would benefit from better vocabulary and more precise word choice. Along with making less gramatical errors.
ReplyDeleteIn the first marking period I think most of my writing was very adequate for an AP student and my grades reflected that. In the second term I would like to tighten up my spelling and grammar and avoid careless mistakes by proof reading better and editing with a keener eye. After I work on those skills I think I can achieve my goals of getting 9's on my essays.
ReplyDeleteFor the second half of the school year my goal is to get a higher grade on my timed writing assignments. My biggest weakness in this area is not providing enough examples, so I will try to listen to the news more often and pull information from the state of the state conversations to back up what I am saying in my essays.
ReplyDeleteOn my midyear, I missed the point of the prompt, even though I gave the right examples of rhetorical strategies. I also didn't give enough of a variety of examples. This semester, I plan to read the pieces given more closely, and keep my own bias out of the analysis. I need to be more confident in the assertions I write, as well.
ReplyDeleteIn this upcoming marking period I plan to improve on my timed writing skills. I plan to do this by making a more efficient graphic organizer before I write my essay so i can look back and see what i am going to write about and stay on topic. Also I plan to update myself of the news going across the country because anything that goes on can and usually does come up and connect with things we talk about in class.
ReplyDeleteThis upcoming semester I plan on organizing my thoughts in a more effective way before I write my essays. I think that if I do this, I will be able to have stronger developed essays and I will be able to focus my ideas more. I also agree with those who have said that they are going to check newspapers more often because I think that if I had been doing that then essay number three would have been much easier to write.
ReplyDeleteI found that I didn't do as well on the midterm exam than I initally thought I did. To improve my writing, I need to remember to stay on topic and give more accurate examples. I also need to work on organization, and providing enough information for my argument to make sense.
ReplyDeleteI thought I did rather well on these timed writings, even scoring higher than I usually do on one of them. I think that the exercises in class helped with my thesis and use of detail. In the next semester, I hope to get better at using more concrete detail and developing an even more focused thesis for each timed writing. I would also like to get better at making graphic organizers more effeciently to save time and to make my essays flow better. Also, I hope to watch the news more often and check places like the New York Times so I can be more informed about places other than New Jersey and Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteAfter the midterm exam I learned that I needed to explain my claims more thouroughly. I'll work towards doing that in the future aolong with fixing my grammatical mistakes. Other than the amount I explained there wasn't anything bad about my midterms.
ReplyDeleteFor the second semester, my goal is to have a better graphic organizer for my timed writing. Both of my mid year essays lacked a clear organization. My thoughts ended up all over the place and it just did not flow. By having a stronger organizer, I will be able to arrange all of my ideas and can also plan out what I am going to use for support. I want to focus on using more quotes or specific support.
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