Dear Ms. Langley,
These past few weeks have been pretty difficult for me, motivation wise, and mentally. With the rush of things coming from Thanksgiving break, going back into finals week, I was feeling a little stressed out and did a lot of procrastinating that I truly regret. Before the break, I believe that I was doing well. But it was just hard for me to get back into the routine of everything afterward. I believe that I don’t deserve more than a 90 for my grade these six weeks. I did well, but I know that I could have done better. I was also upset at myself for my late submission of my Citizen essay as I actually found myself enjoying writing about the novel. I did well when collecting evidence, analyzing the book, and preparing myself to write the essay, I just lacked good work ethic when it came to writing and turning in the final product on time.
The books I read this semester were Something like Hope by Shawn Goodman, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, In the Woods by Tana French, Jubilee by Margaret Walker, and Citizen by Claudia Rankine. I really enjoyed Citizen, Jubilee, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. I enjoyed all the books that I read, but these three I felt specifically challenged my reading as they were more thought-provoking and engaging. I’m not truly sure how to explain it, but I felt inspired and motivated after reading these books. I made personal connections with some of the characters and overall enjoyed it, allowing me to build myself as a reader. My plans for reading definitely include reading more in general. I say this every six weeks, but next semester I want to work harder to grow myself as a reader. It has been difficult to find time to incorporate reading, but I will just have to make the time for it. I am not sure what my next book will be. I think my mom said that she had a recommendation for me, so I will ask her about it. I believe I have been doing well with my padlet post. I take the time to actually answer them, rather than giving a short one-sentence response.
In the area of writing, I started off well. When discussing my Citizen essay, during the time of preparation, I did my best to stay on top of my work and get stuff in. When it actually came down to writing my essay, I began to procrastinate more and start getting behind. I turned in my final paper, and I am honestly proud of the final work that came out. I wish I would have turned it in sooner because I felt like the book allowed me to grow as a reader, but the paper definitely allowed me to grow as a writer.
Focusing on my learning goals, I know that I still need to improve in the area of reading, I am far from reaching the reading level I desire to be on, but I will not stop working to get there. In the area of writing, I think that I am doing well and I am truly continuing to grow as a writer. I think that my essay was well written and expressed my ideas in a nice manner. The only problem is that I fell behind in the area of being an effective student as I have been turning work in late. For critical thinking, I am always working to work critically and I feel that I did a lot of this during the analysis portion of reading Citizen. Overall, I feel like it has been going decent these six weeks but, I do need to increase in the area of responsibility.
Lastly, my goal next semester is to become a better reader and challenge myself to find the time to read more often than what I am doing now. I want to stay on top of my work and not fall behind as I did these six weeks because that was not fun and I truly apologize for that. I want to say thank you, for continuing to push us and teach us new things constantly. I hope you have an amazing break and a happy holidays!
Thank you,
SaNaya White
SaNaya's Poetry Blog 