Humanities - Final Portfolio

Knowledge is interchangeable.   That is the main, perhaps the most valuable thing, I learned in History and English class this sophomore year.  In the beginning of the year English and History class were separated.  Towards the middle it seemed as though they interlocked and fit into each other.  But it all started with the descriptive essay from English.

 

We were asked to write Descriptive Essay about something that happened in our life. I chose to write about the summer earlier that year. “Out in the 90-degree weather and a storm we were up on the roof trying to prevent the resistant leaks”.  As I realize now this first assignment in English was really the backing of the whole year. I had to learn to be more descriptive and creative at the same time. It was a bit challenging at first because I did not write like this before. As time went on and the projects called for more and more I started writing better and better.

 

Oddly enough the project that I surpassed my standard for writing was the Monologue Project for History.  For this project we had to pick a human rights struggle. I had to do a lot of research to understand and convey the topic clearly.  I had chosen drug trafficking because of the different reasons to do it and how some people don’t really have a choice. “I know she needs the money but its drug money!”(Scene-1). The daughter had kidney disease and the family needed fast money to pay for her medical bills.  This project forced me to be very original, descriptive and creative.   Though, we had a little help from Kate from Young Playwrights. She helped most of the class and I our plays.   Even still it really pushed my ability and raised the bar for realistic fiction writing that will come in the future.

 

            The Sweatshop trial that we as a class did in middle of the year was probably the most enjoyable activity for history.  The class split up into groups to take positions on the real world problem sweatshops. Each group was questioned on the amount of control that they had on the situation and why it was still going on. “U.S. Consumers - If you wanted these “sweat shops” to end, you would have to stop buying into these companies”. As well as, each group had to present opening and closing statements on their position.  Finally, as a class we voted to see which group we thought had the most guilt. My group was the Poor Country Ruling Elite.  We had to research a ton of statistics, information and articles to fathom our position and perspective on the issue.  This assignment taught me about perspective because we had to really see from a group of people’s point of view on a hard issue.

 

The most interesting piece of work this year was the Night Artwork for English class.  After we finished the book Night, which is about life in a concentration camp, we were asked to make some sort of art to go with another issue of the book. There were no limits so I created a video of key things in the book. I tried to be creative as I could in designing the video, what items to put where and what type of music should be playing.  An important thing I learned was how to incorporate skills such as perspective and creativity into one project.  This also showed me a new medium in which to express the many forms of English.    

Overall this year has been very enjoyable and memorable. I learned many new things and polished others that we rough. I hopefully will remember the experiences or the hard earned skills. English and History class in sophomore year was a wonderful opportunity. 


Portfolio  Wordle
Portfolio Wordle

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