Reflecting on my year of English with Mr. Bellew!

At the beginning of the school year, I was excited for G10 English because some English teachers had told me that Mr. Bellew is great at teaching, and some of his students told me that he is really funny and always tells jokes in class. I was, however, a bit nervous because I had struggled with writing commentaries during the previous year, and although I was able to find literary techniques, I wasn't always able to connect them to the message or describe the effects they had on the story. My main expectation was to generally feel more comfortable when writing essays and especially with in-class essays. Now I am much more confident with writing commentaries and I am getting better at going in depth and supporting my thesis.
My reading comprehension has improved slightly this year because now when I read books I think and remind myself to look for a theme or notice any turning points in the story that affect the outcome. I try to look for symbols, and it is much easier for me to find metaphors now when I couldn't before. This improvement has helped with our commentary assignments because now I am able to find a variety of techniques instead of just the same ones every time. Also, I can think of a thesis and message much faster than before, which is also because of the improvement in my reading comprehension. If I want to become a "better" reader I should always have a pen or pencil nearby so that I can annotate the text whenever necessary. Also, when I find words that I don't know, I should search to find their definitions.
My writing has improved, in general terms, by becoming more coherent and succinct and much less repetitive. Before, I always wrote on and on about something when I could have written less with higher quality. This year I tried to use stronger words so that I could improve my word choice and writing.
One assignment that really helped my persuasive speaking was the speech unit for the Speech Contest. I learned so much about being able to effectively persuade an audience just by using some speaking techniques. I feel a little bit more confident due to the activities we did in class, and having the opportunity to always participate in class. For example, the activities where we had to use a random word in our presentation, or the impromptu speeches, which I was not very good at before, helped me to feel more confident when presenting to a class.
Last year we didn't have many timed in-class essays so I really disliked them. However, this year we had many both in English and Social Studies, so I know that I definitely improved and I feel much more relaxed and comfortable with writing them. I've improved because now I am able to manage my time better by leaving time to write a conclusion instead of before when I always ran out of time and didn't include one. So thanks to having more in-class essays this year, I am able to manage my time better when writing timed essays!
Lastly, I think keeping a blog was a great idea because it was a really nice way to present all the major assignments we had done in English and some from Social Studies. Sometimes we lose our papers or throw away assignments, but by using the blog we were able to keep track of all the assignments. Also, since I am moving this year, I can use my blog to show my future English teachers what I did in tenth grade! I think that more teachers should make students use blogs because at the end of the year it is really nice seeing everything that I've accomplished. And it's a chance to be creative and have fun!

THANK YOU FOR A GREAT YEAR MR. BELLEW!!!

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