This I Believe

The 'This I Believe' essay was written to tell people about a belief you have, how it came to be and why it is so important to you. In writing this essay I found there were many connections with the 12th Grade Pacing Guide, made by the Jefferson County Public Schools.

The very first prioritized benchmark, 1.a(Red), says you must know how to determine the important parts, I find this very useful because when writing an essay, not every little detail is needed. Meta cognition can be very helpful when writing and using it to comprehend difficult meanings. Making it understandable for someone with different comprehension skills is also very significant. Without trying to make your reading more understandable, the reader will get lost.

The next prioritized benchmark I found was 2.a(Red). This benchmark talks about a variety of texts that use media to suite specific purposes and audiences. The 'This I Believe' essay is a popular website that has many people's stories to read. The website chooses a few stories to have read out loud. I think this is a good way to use media for the specific purpose of learning about people's different beliefs and lives really.

2.g(Yellow) talks about the use of appropriate vocabulary. I think this is important in the 'This I Believe' essay because you don't want to use vocabulary that many are unfamiliar with. The use of words that are ineffective and weakens the purpose should be replaced.

The last benchmark I found was 6.a(Yellow). I think 6.a(Yellow) is a very significant benchmark for this essay. In 6.a(Yellow) the main idea is to look into personal issues and interests through a variety of texts. This makes a strong connection between this benchmark and the essay. This essay is about a personal belief, and in reading more stories you can see that there are many common beliefs and issues. It is important to explain the reasoning behind your belief and why it is important to you still.

Introduction:

From this course I expect to learn a lot about the English language. I expect to gain more knowledge about literature from different time periods and areas. I also expect to learn how to become a better writer, using good grammar, language, punctuation, and voice. I would also like to turn into a well rounded reader.

Some skills I would like to learn are brainstorming ideas, organizing my writing, comprehending what I read and then connecting it with other texts. Another skill I wish to learn is how to make paragraphs more efficient and longer. I feel that if I had these skills I could more easily write things down and become an exceptional writer and reader.

My strengths in English are reading, summarizing, outlining, and note taking. I read books outside of school that interest me, and so I feel comfortable reading. It is easy for me to pick out main ideas from a story and summarize them. I am a really good note taker, it helps me remember and memorize what I learned.

My weaknesses in English are writing essays, research papers, paragraphs and citing. Whenever I sit down to write a paper, I feel like I have a good idea at first, but then the more I concentrate the less ideas come to mind. It is usually difficult for me to write down all of my ideas. I also find it difficult to paraphrase other people's research and citing information in the correct format.