S1: Final Reflection

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  1. From my unit 1 and unit 2 portfolio, I think that my greatest achievement has been the Great Poets Teaching Project. I put a lot of effort into this project with research, annotations, and presentation preparation, which is clear from my supplemental documents. I am very proud of my project because I think that I got to know and understand my poet very well and I think that I presented my learning well.
  2. When looking back at my work, I find that something I can work to improve on is close reading and analysis. I think that I struggle especially with interpreting poetry because I haven’t had much exposure to it in the past and I find it hard sometimes to interpret the language and abstract concepts in poetry.
  3. For my process piece for my short story analysis on “The Yellow Wallpaper”, I had three drafts. I first approached this by starting off with the major themes and literary devices that I saw present in the story. From there, I chose a theme to work with and a literary method that the author conveyed that theme through and then I wrote the thesis. My first draft was mostly getting my ideas and the basic structure of my essay down. After I received peer feedback, I revised my first draft using their feedback to make it more organized and concise. I then went to see Mrs. Brayko, since I still wasn’t confident about the structure of my essay, and together we worked through how I could refine my essay to hit the targets that I wanted to and which structure would work best. Finally, I used my peer feedback and the ideas that I generated with Mrs. Brayko to write my final draft.
  4. When looking at my Mastery page on Schoology, I notice that I have done really well on my formatives (my mastery for all the formative competences are full marks), but these don’t translate to my summative grades on the same competencies. I also notice that the competency that I think I have to improve on the most is C2.
  5. Having reviewed the semester’s reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking, as well as my collaboration, creativity, and resilience, a goal I have for Semester 2 is to improve my close reading and analysis of passages/poetry for in-class writing and improve my timed essay writing skills.
  6. Something I would like my teacher to know is that I still have questions about my grades for the Dragon Notes project. I hope that we have time to discuss this during our portfolio meeting because there are some questions I have about my grades and the feedback we received.

U1: Discussion Post Explication

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Explication of “Homage to My Hips” by Lucille Clifton

they do what they want to do.

these hips are mighty hips.

these hips are magic hips.

“they”/”these” – I think that Clifton uses these pronouns to describe her hips (rather than saying “my hips”) in order to separate her hips from herself. In her poem, she talks about how her hips are “free hips” and “don’t like to be enslaved.” By using “they” and “them” when referring to her hips, she makes it seem as if they have a mind of their own and aren’t controlled by her.

“want” – by using this word, she conveys a similar message as she did from using “they/them.”  Most people would think of hips as just a part of the body that is controlled by the brain, but Clifton wants to make the message that her hips are free-willed and have their own agenda.

“mighty” – not only does she want the reader to know that her hips act on their own accord, but she also wants them to know the “mighty” air that they carry. She described her hips as “big” at the beginning of the poem, but here her use of “mighty” can have two meanings: that her hips are physically large and that they possess some kind of greatness or something impressive.