This first semester sure seemed to fly by. Seems just like yesterday when we walked into the school, awaiting our new high school lives. This semester in honors English, I have done a lot in both my blogs and outside of class.
I have always loved reading. Back in Intermediate school, I used to read about a new book every week. Yet, when I reached 8th grade, it seemed like my love for reading had disappeared. Possibly it was because I had much more work than before in 8th grade, but I stopped reading. I stopped going to the library, and stopped checking out new books. But this year, my love for reading has rekindled. I read about 10 new books this semester. It may not have been a lot from before, but it was definitely something. I enjoyed reading new books and series such as the Maze Runner series, the Divergent series, and the Ranger's Apprentice. I normally like fictional books, so that's what I choose when I selected my books, and I don't regret the decision. Also, the weekly blog posts also encouraged me to read more, because we had to write about what we were reading.
The blog post, again, rekindled my love for reading. Aside from that, we also posted about stories we were reading in class. At first, my blog posts were not the best, I'll admit it. But as I progressed along, I started picking up things that made my blog posts slowly, but surely, better. They are still not perfect or the best in the world, but they still have come a long way since I first started blogging. For example, at first all I would give is a quick summary of the book, and what it contained. But I started adding more and more voice, and my own thinking of what I thought of the book. And soon, most of my blog posts reflected what I thought of the book, not just some short summary of what I read. I also linked sources to where I find summary's or statistics, in case someone wanted to look more into the book I was blogging about. Near the end, I started stating specific evidence from the books too, justifying my thoughts of the book.
Although my blog posts and Independent reading has grown more in the last semester, it could be better. To start things off next semester I am going to use my good reads more often. I barely used this semester, but now I will keep updating my good reads with my recent books and quotes. Also, with my posts I am going to add more connections with my thoughts and the authors, by possibly putting in a video of the author or an interview that happened with author, so people can see 'both sides of the story' so to speak. Tied in with this is that I will be trying out different genres of books, not only fiction. Even though I enjoy fiction books, most likely I will also like another genre of books, who knows? And a last thing that I can greatly improve upon, is my comments. Each week I did in fact make a comment (sometimes made two) but they were all a couple days late. I am going to get into the habit of making a comment right after I publish my post, so not only my post, but my comment is on time as well.
All in all this first semester was a blast, and certainly a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be. Next semester I hope to accomplish more reading, books aside from genre. Also I want to greatly improve my blogging, connecting with the reader and expressing my own thought.
I have always loved reading. Back in Intermediate school, I used to read about a new book every week. Yet, when I reached 8th grade, it seemed like my love for reading had disappeared. Possibly it was because I had much more work than before in 8th grade, but I stopped reading. I stopped going to the library, and stopped checking out new books. But this year, my love for reading has rekindled. I read about 10 new books this semester. It may not have been a lot from before, but it was definitely something. I enjoyed reading new books and series such as the Maze Runner series, the Divergent series, and the Ranger's Apprentice. I normally like fictional books, so that's what I choose when I selected my books, and I don't regret the decision. Also, the weekly blog posts also encouraged me to read more, because we had to write about what we were reading.
The blog post, again, rekindled my love for reading. Aside from that, we also posted about stories we were reading in class. At first, my blog posts were not the best, I'll admit it. But as I progressed along, I started picking up things that made my blog posts slowly, but surely, better. They are still not perfect or the best in the world, but they still have come a long way since I first started blogging. For example, at first all I would give is a quick summary of the book, and what it contained. But I started adding more and more voice, and my own thinking of what I thought of the book. And soon, most of my blog posts reflected what I thought of the book, not just some short summary of what I read. I also linked sources to where I find summary's or statistics, in case someone wanted to look more into the book I was blogging about. Near the end, I started stating specific evidence from the books too, justifying my thoughts of the book.
Although my blog posts and Independent reading has grown more in the last semester, it could be better. To start things off next semester I am going to use my good reads more often. I barely used this semester, but now I will keep updating my good reads with my recent books and quotes. Also, with my posts I am going to add more connections with my thoughts and the authors, by possibly putting in a video of the author or an interview that happened with author, so people can see 'both sides of the story' so to speak. Tied in with this is that I will be trying out different genres of books, not only fiction. Even though I enjoy fiction books, most likely I will also like another genre of books, who knows? And a last thing that I can greatly improve upon, is my comments. Each week I did in fact make a comment (sometimes made two) but they were all a couple days late. I am going to get into the habit of making a comment right after I publish my post, so not only my post, but my comment is on time as well.
All in all this first semester was a blast, and certainly a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be. Next semester I hope to accomplish more reading, books aside from genre. Also I want to greatly improve my blogging, connecting with the reader and expressing my own thought.
Excellent job on this post! You really summed up all your posts very well and you were very thorough! Good luck second semester.
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