Jasmine's blog

I achieved my SMART goal, was introduced to one-act drama, learned how to analyze a poem, and realized my shortcomings through the humor unit.

This is the first time I was introduced into humor, and I learned how to analyze a poem and reinforced my knowledge about the rhetorical devices that poets used to create a humorous effect, such as irony, allusion, diction, imagery, symbols, and structure. I understood TPCASTTT, which is the method we should consider before analyzing the poem. I need to examine the title and consider its meaning, paraphrase the poem, look for connotations, look for rhythm or sound devices that suggest the writer’s attitude, shifts, tensions, examine the title again on interpretive level, and finally stating the theme. I learned to look for the structure and keywords to identify the mood in the poem. A poem should be read at least 3 times before its interpreted, and every word in the poem is there for a reason.

I begin to learn how to read, annotate one-act plays, and started to develop how to write dialectical journals with selected quotes. I learned the difference between a novel (book) and drama; you examine one’s context and description while the other one only has dialogues. You should only select a quote between 3-5 sentences, and the quote should participate in a significant role in the play and suggest conflict or theme.

I also reached the SMART goal I set at the beginning of the unit, which is to understand and appreciate a poem – I selected “Father” by Edgar Guest and analyzed the language (irony and symbolism) he used to convey humor and the theme.

However, throughout my studying in this unit, I realized my deficiency in understanding the use of stylistic features and their effect on the audience. English, being my second language, still has an enormous area to improve. I find the dialectical journals particularly challenging, they took me around 2 hours to complete and I had no idea what the theme was. The reason I feel that is because this was my first contact of “Confusion” plays and drama, therefore, I find it hard to grasp the play, select the most appropriate quote to express the theme, and understand the purpose and effects of the audience. Although I tried my best and the grading was “generous”, I still received an Approaching. Besides feeling sorrow and despair, I became aware of my shortcoming in language organization and insufficient knowledge of drama stylistic features. Hence, I would still want to learn more about annotating plays and obtaining a complex understanding of the theme and its effect on the audience.

I participated in a decent amount in the SAL criteria. I think I meet exemplary for independent learning and satisfactory overall in the  “Attitude” criteria because I intuitively learned and independently sets ambitious but achievable learning goals. I also remained to focus on tasks and is willing to accept challenges – in this case, the poetry and dialectical journals with my best effort. I wish to achieve my goal by the end of English 9, which is to receive a 6 in the final report and end this year satisfactorily. I think I satisfy the requirements for the “Responsibility” criteria because I accepted the teacher’s feedback and act upon it, prepared resources to learn, and completes assignments ahead of deadlines. But I still need to grow on my engagement and perseverance skills in the future, because I am not participating and collaborating enough with my peers and actively contribute ideas in ZOOM sessions. Instead of remaining silent, I should answer the teacher’s question and elaborate on other’s answers.

Since I already have a poor foundation, I would need to give my maximum effort and relish challenges – not only accepts them. I should try new strategies and consistently take risks to advance my learning and also to achieve the goals I set because this is the point of learning and improving. For my learning in English 10 and my future English learning, I wish to remedy my lack of language organization and vocabulary skills, I will read more English literature, memorize more vocabularies, and continue to strive for excellence in every assignment.

In the end, I want to thank Mr. Dalton and English 9 for everything and the knowledge I comprehended this year. (Even the grades really upset me sometimes:))

I will continue to improve as I go and enhance my shortage.