Portfolio

Cover Letter

            My English 1 Portfolio project is comprised of many of my works that I am both proud of and disappointed of from this year.  I hope that this portfolio can be an illustration of the skills I learned this year and my ability to put them to use in a successful way.  For my essay revision, I selected my literacy narrative, “A Brand New Tool.”  A poem that I posted on my blog entitled “EHS Girls Basketball” was my choice for the remix.  Finally, my hits were “Nervous Conditions Review,” my free blog post about the saying “Keep Calm and Carry On,” and my literary analysis, “Flipping the Switch.”  My misses were “Semester 1 Exam,” and “Research Update.”

            The reasoning behind my revision of my literacy narrative was that I struggled to make that paper what I wanted it to be.  Losing my passion for learning, and then gaining it back was a significant event in my life, and it deserved a more meticulous writing process.  I focused on word choice and organization because I overused the word “reflect,” and I also should have left out one part and developed the others. 

The poem that I wrote about basketball was something that I surprised myself with- I had never really written poetry before- and I was proud of my sister’s team, so I wanted to commemorate their hard work by interviewing my sister for the remix.  It was an entertaining experience, and she said she felt like she was famous while I interviewed her. 

I enjoyed writing the review of Nervous Conditions on my blog because I got the opportunity to critique a book and voice my opinion, and it helped me realize which aspects of books I am entertained by.  The “Keep Calm and Carry On” post was a good way for me to vent, because I was annoyed by that fad.  I provided a careful analysis and weighed both opinions about the saying, which made my post strong and relatable.  “Flipping the Switch,” my literary analysis, was an eye opening assignment for me because at first I was intimidated and didn’t think I could actually analyze a short story, but I succeeded and that helped boost my confidence in my abilities. 

My first miss was the blog post, “Semester 1 Exam.” This was a miss for me because I should have taken the opportunity to assess which areas I needed to study and how I was going to study, but instead I quickly drafted the post just to get it done.  I think that I was putting off studying for the exam, a trap many of us fall into, so I chose to not think about it in depth while writing my blog post.  My other miss was the research update blog.  After reading it again, I instantly became aware that it was boring and uninteresting.  The topic wasn’t the most appealing to begin with, but I could have added some things to make that blog post better.

Because of all the skills I have learned this year, I have grown into a more presumptuous writer.  I can now look at an assignment and recognize that I have the tools and creativity to complete it at a high standard.  This helps me not be so intimidated by the task.  The confidence that I have in my skills translates into a satisfying paper.  It is just a matter of putting all of the pieces I have learned together to complete it.  The result both pleases the assignment, as well as is valuable to my teacher and myself.  This is important because any reader is not going to find interest or worth in the works of a author who doesn’t believe in their own writing.

As I have learned more about writing, I have been become more confident in my own works.  This year, I have learned how to create a strong thesis statement and organize support to create an effective argument, as well as create interesting and engaging introductions and conclusions.  Synthesizing a thesis statement and argument is a vital tool because a strong, thought out paper draws a reader’s attention, and gets them to respect your argument.  Without this ability, my papers would lack assertion and professionalism, but I have mastered this skill now.  An effective introduction draws the reader into the paper makes it appealing.  Before this year, my introductions were so weak that they didn’t even have a positive effect on me.  This led to a further depression of my confidence.  A conclusion that wraps the paper up without summarizing the entire thing is needed too, and I believe that I have learned how to write a solid one. 

The final area that I have noticed improvement in this year is word choice.  Before this year, my papers lacked originality and voice, but now I have learned to vary my word choice to create a lively paper. The reason that I didn’t use many sophisticated words in previous works is because I wasn’t familiar with many, and I didn’t know how to use them properly.  Through reading more, I have gained an ample vocabulary, and I can now use the words correctly.  I have also found that a thesaurus can be helpful when I can’t find the right word to create the needed effect.  This year I have learned a substantial amount of beneficial skills that I can carry with me throughout life as I continue to develop as a writer.

I have learned through English class this year that I am a much better writer than I gave myself credit for.  When I first walked into Dr. D’s class, I didn’t think that I could compose a solid piece of writing.  I found myself comparing my skills to those of others, hoping to understand how to be a better, when in reality, I was just decreasing my confidence even further.  It wasn’t until I wrote my first literary analysis that I started to see the results of my learning translate into a paper that I was actually proud of.  While completing several papers, I gained valuable experience that granted me a level of credibility and self-worth that I didn’t have before. I didn’t believe in myself in the past, but now I have learned to respect my own skills and value my writing.

REMIX:

EPISCOPAL KNIGHTS

Girls’ Basketball 

Family.  That’s one way to describe the Episcopal High School girls’ basketball team.  This season, they’ve become closer as a team and relied on those relationships to get through the season.  They finished with a winning record, and made it to the state playoffs.  Today we take a few minutes with freshman Julia Powell as we talk about what her team means to her and what her hopes are for the future.

1) Does the atmosphere of the gym cause you to alter your game?  How do you react to a big, loud crowd, and a small, quiet crowd differently?

If the crowd’s pumped up, it’s basically going to get the team pumped up.  Some people get nervous, but I think that it helps my game, it gets me pumped up, and I get aggressive. 

2)    On average, how many fans come to your games?

Honestly not that many.  We get the parents and family members, a few close friends, and basically the rollovers from the guys’ game.  They’re there to watch the guys, and if they’re early, they watch us.

3) Do you look at the scoreboard during the game, or are you focused on playing?  If you see you’re behind, do you get nervous, or determined to win?

I am constantly looking at the scoreboard.  I’m thinking about the school, how far we’re down, how far we’re up, and what we need to do to get back up there for the win.

4)    How do the attitudes of your teammates reflect how you all play?  Are people able to put feelings behind them and focus on the physical side of basketball?

Personally I think attitude and the mental game of basketball is half the game. If you sit there and pout about it and you’re putting your head down, you don’t get anything accomplished, and you won’t come back.  Our team is a pretty positive team. We build each other up. We don’t tear each other down, that’s what you have to do to be a team.  It keeps you a family.

5)    During the game, do you think of the next game or practice, or just focus on the moment.

We focus on the moment.  Our coaches tell us to think about the game coming up, not the one next week.  We take it one day at a time, one game at a time, and just focus on getting better each day.

6)    Tell me about the teams’ breakout.

The breakout’s kind of a funny thing.  It started this year.  Bria Johnson gets everyone pumped up.  Each time we break up, we always say family on 3, 123 family. We say it instead of win or something because we really do consider ourselves a family.  I mean, they’re like my sisters.

7)    What is the locker room atmosphere like before/after a game?

Before a game, for a while we’ve got more loud players getting everyone pumped up, but right before the game, we keep a focused level and all sit around and talk about what we need to get accomplished.  We’re all self-motivated players so we just talk to each other and try to get ourselves motivated.  After a game, if it’s a win, we’re obviously all excited, it’s really fun and loud.  But if it’s a lose, it’s pretty much dead silent.  We wait until the coaches come and they say what they have to say and we sit and think about our mistakes.  But you just have to move on to practice the next day.

8)    What is your favorite memory from the season?

It’s always down to the wire, but Mary Melissa when we were down by three with a few seconds left, she puts up this fade away three pointer, she’s fading off the side of the court, and she just nailed it and we’re tied and go into overtime.  I remember that moment everyone was really excited and everyone on the bench rushed the court.

9)    Least favorite?

The first round of play offs, I was in Spain, and we were playing Red River, a team from North Louisiana.  I assumed we were going to win, but they’re worst player went at the buzzer and hit a 3 point shot to win the game.  I was on a 12-hour flight and had been texting my team before the game.  When I landed first thing I did was check my phone and I had a text from Alex Dumas that said we lost by one. Our team is a really passionate team and I broke down in tears.  The fact that I had missed the last memory-even though it was bad- that I had to end the season with a text message was really disappointing.

10)  Where does your motivation come from?

I just want to get better really. I want to get better; I want to be a leader.  I’ve watched Mary and Bria. They’re both playing in college.  That’s something I want to do.  Mainly from watching the older kids above me, I want to get better and lead the team, and follow in their footsteps.

11)  Who is your role model/idol in basketball or life?

Mary Melissa Hoover…She just always puts in extra work. She’s always the one to put in the extra shots after practice, run after practice out of her own choice and get faster and stronger and lead the team.  She’s really a team player.  I look up to her for that and I hope to lead the team like her once I get older.

12)  Tell me about the winning streak.  Was there a lot of pressure on the team?

It was really a lot of fun.  Mary looks at everyone and says, “This losing got old 3 games ago.” After that we were all motivated and just wanted to win.  We worked together a lot more and it started clicking.  We have good chemistry, we’re a family, and we build each other up.

13) What are you looking forward to about the upcoming season?

I want to have a good time and enjoy my team enjoy them while I have them.  I love them to death and I just can’t wait to spend more time with them.

14)   How old were you when you started playing basketball, and how did you get started?

Most people start when they’re really young.  I’m different.  I played for my school team in Kindergarten and first grade, and in second grade I was back ready to play again, and they said oh, no girls its just guys.  I went to a small school, we didn’t have a girls’ team, so I just played street ball on an eight-foot goal in my driveway until 7^th grade.  I played for the first time on a team and I was horrible honestly I couldn’t even make a lay up.  In 8^th grade I played for coach Mims and I still was pretty bad.  It just was not working for me.  After the season, the JV team was short of player, so I played up on the JV team.  Coach K did a lot of extra work with me and I just improved as a player and I put in a lot of extra work.

Writing Remix: Analysis of Rhetorical Situation

In my writing remix, I transformed a poem about a basketball game to an interview with a player on the varsity basketball team.   I put great detail into the aspects of audience, purpose, stance, and design to make sure that my new piece had the greatest effect on the reader.

The audience for my original poem was anyone who was interested in basketball, but because it was a poem, it was a less approachable and inviting medium for any person.  I transformed it into an interview so that it would be more tailored for a wide realm of people with different interests.  There are many topics assessed through the questions and answers that I hope will be entertaining to the readers.

I am proud of the girls’ basketball team at Episcopal and I want people to know what a great team they are.  I have seen the many hours of dedication put in to make this team what they are, and when I watch them play, there is truly something magical about it.  I hope more people can experience watching them because I know they’ll have a good time, but I also want to help gain more support for girls’ basketball at EHS.  In my original piece, a poem, the purpose was to mainly show my own support and love of the team, but in my new one, I am sharing these emotions so that other people can experience them as well.       

The poem’s title and appearance was boring and didn’t draw the reader in.  It provided strong imagery of the scene, but there was no connection with players on the team and the emotions they felt.  The interview introduction is engaging and draws the reader into the interview.  I thought of interviews that I enjoyed, and tried to use some strategies from them in my own.  A sports interview should be casual, and make the reader feel like they are actually talking to the player, something that every sports fan dreams of doing.  I formatted the interview like it would appear in a magazine- with a bright title, an initial to start off the intro, and distinguishable fonts to differentiate the questions from the answers.

Essay Revision

A Brand New Tool

Since I first started Kindergarten, I’ve always enjoyed school.  While some people complained about it and said they hated this class or that teacher, I was always eager to learn and intrigued by my classes.  One late night during swim season in eighth grade, I laid limply on my bed and realized that all of this was no longer true.  At school, I sat bored in a desk, tucked away in a corner where sometimes I was so unfocused, I wouldn’t even realize the teacher was talking.  I was miserable from the time the first bell rang until I got to the pool, and once I left, doing homework wasn’t any better. 

When I realized that my love for learning was waning, I knew something had to change, but I couldn’t put my finger on the cause of my distress.  I asked my mom her opinion, and she said that I had lost balance in my life.  Instead of being active in class and paying attention, my mind was always on swimming; worrying about pleasing my coaches and myself.  At first, I refuted her and insisted that wasn’t the case.  I figured that I was excelling in swimming- I was on the Varsity team in eighth grade- so why not focus on it and be the best I could be?

 “Change your attitude,” she said, leaning over to comfort me.

I thought to myself, “What does that mean?” 

Then I began to reflect.  As I sat on my bed pondering about my life at that moment in time, I came to the realization that I should sort out what needed to change.  I wrote my life down.  My pen moved swiftly across the page, putting in ink right in front of me all of the struggles I was facing.  Because of writing, my thoughts of swimming and school were able to be grasped, rearranged, and manipulated so that I could take control of my life.  My problems were real now, and they needed to be solved.  For so long, all of my worries swirled around in my head like a tornado, but now the storm had passed, and all that was left to do was clean up.  My way of cleaning up was reflecting.  The conclusion that I drew from my reflection was exactly what my mom had said.  My attitude towards school needed to shift, and although my focus in the pool was good, I couldn’t let that outweigh the love for learning that I had always had. 

The next day, instead of sitting in class, oblivious to what was happening around me and daydreaming about swimming, I paid attention to what the teacher said, quickly answered every question, and engaged in class discussions.  When I changed my attitude at school, my old feelings about school clicked back into my mind.  I felt like a wide-eyed kindergartener on their first day of school, ready to gain valuable knowledge.  Each day, I started to get more of the old feelings that I used to have about school back, and they came back even stronger than before.  No longer did I feel like I was in prison, being emancipated as I jumped into the pool, only to be locked up again as soon as I got out.  All of those feelings had escaped from my body.  I had a clean slate now and I could now start piecing my life back together.  As the days went on, it became easier to enjoy school.  I no longer had to tell myself to stop thinking about swimming, because I was already wrapped up in the moment, enjoying class.

Going through this experience helped me to become aware of a new tool in my life where I used writing as a reflection.   I now know that whenever I have a problem, I can write down my experiences and all that I am feeling, and then come to a sensible solution.  Writing helped me observe things at more levels than just having it in my head.

Writing a reflection creates a feeling of comfort that nothing else can provide.  No one else is struggling to understand you the problems you’re facing.  It’s just you talking with yourself, sorting out all of the chaos of life.  I am thankful to have discovered reflection and writing as a tool, and will utilize them in the future.

That night in my room during eighth grade was my first experience that caused me to deeply reflect on the state that my life was in, and that has become a helpful tool for me.  I now know that writing can help me observe and reflect on my life, and help me come to a conclusion about it that wouldn’t be possible without writing it down.

Writing Center Description

Boy was I nervous to go to the writing center!! I believe I scheduled my appointment at a good time because it wasn't so early in the process that I forgot everything I was told while writing my paper, but it also wasn't too late to where I was cramming everything in.  The day of the appointment, I was scared to go to the writing center because I felt like my essay wasn't good and all of the writing fellows were some judgmental brainiacs.  I was wrong!  I requested Ellery as my writing fellow and she did a fabulous job giving me new ideas and helping me revise old ones.  The appointment went smoothly and once I got in there, I told her my areas of focus and read my paper aloud to her.  She made notes of parts I should revise, and then after I was done reading, told me her thoughts.  We decided that I should take out some parts of my essay and develop the other more important ideas to their full potential.  She also helped me with word choice, coming up with good alternatives when I was stumped.  I am glad that I got the experience of going to the writing center and I will definitely utilize this resource more often in the future.