End of The Year Reflection

To all of 810 and Ms.Galang,

   Thank you for making this year as incredible as it was. On the first day of eighth grade I did not expect to come out of this year having formed so many bonds with the people in this class. I did not know a majority of the people, and I knew nothing about Ms.Galang. Looking back on who I was at the beginning of the year, I realized how much I had grown as a reader, writer, and person thanks to the community I have been surrounded by every day in homeroom and especially in ELA. Two of the units this year that I remember really fondly was the poetry unit and the Romeo and Juliet unit. Thanks to Ms.Galang, these units along with many others have given me a stronger sense of who I am as a reader and a writer, which is something that I definitely was not sure of at the beginning of the year.

   Throughout the beginning of middle school and elementary school poetry was never my favorite unit of English. But this year when we received our poetry packets, especially when I read "If I should have a daughter" by Sarah Kay, I open up to all of the different forms and types of poetry that overall made me fall in love with this style of writing. Poetry is one unit but it is made up of numerous rhyme schemes and patterns that make each poem unique. At the end of the unit I had a newfound love of poetry caused by all of the different types of poems that Ms.Galang introduced to me. Without her I would've most likely continue into high school not valuing poetry as much as I should.

   Another unit that I loved was the unit on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". I grew up watching adaptations and plays based off of Shakespeare's work but I never truly appreciated it until I had the opportunity to completely take apart one of his plays and decipher what made it so unique. One thing that helped me throughout that unit was the support of my classmates, both before and after the performance. The group I was working with for my scene in particular gave me great advice and overall helped me become more confident throughout the unit.

So I would just like to thank both 810 and Ms.Galang for helping me grow as a reader, writer, and person. Thank you for such an amazing year. Good luck to all of you in high school, I'm sure that you will do as amazing there as you did here. I love you all and I'll miss you next year!

Romeo and Juliet Reflection

Post-Performance Reflection

1. The Nurse has been a loving mother-figure to Juliet throughout her life. She is loving and kind to Juliet and is a happy person. Juliet trusts her deeply and they have created a tight bond over the years.
I wanted to communicate the agony that the Nurse must've felt loosing Juliet because it was like loosing her child, someone that she had watch grow up and taken care of through all of it.

2. I think that the performance went well because everyone in my scene worked well together. We were able to give each other tips because we felt comfortable around each other considering that we were all friends before the assignment. If I could've improved something I would've tried to change the volume of my voice and make the line bigger rather than standing in the back and talking a little quietly.

3. During this assignment I learned how to better understand Shakespeare's language and how to present lines with different levels of emotion. Next year I think those skills will help me be able to comprehend harder texts quicker than I can now, and try and incorporate some of those words into my own writing.