Humanities Portfolio 2012

Over this year, I have gained so many new experiences that its truly incredible. I came into this class expecting just an everyday English/ History class with the average, Read this book, discuss, take a test, and move on to the next unit but in this class it was a completely different agenda and curriculum that started off our year was our short story unit. In our short story unit it focused on expression of your self and to show some type of growth. Growth opens you up to new environments for example with our language autobiography project. For the Autobiography project we had to write about a personal experience in your life where you had an issue with language, whether it be coming from a different country, having your parents speak a different language, or even you speaking a different language yourself. In my autobiography (Link is found at the end of the page.) I wrote about how when I was younger and I was very shy in school. I never wanted to speak and hated having the attention focused on me. “My voice didn’t need to be heard I just needed to take the characteristics of a chameleon and blend in.” this is how I came into class the beginning of the year, I didn’t want anyone to pay to much attention to me. With that being said, at this point in time I feel like I’m more outspoken than I was 8 months ago I don’t mind voicing my opinion or presenting my work in front of others because I have become more comfortable with myself.

One thing that has grown while being in Mr. Block’s class is my literature. Not just meaning my vocabulary but the description able to be given in my writing has exceeded an expectation I never thought possible. Expression in literature opens you up to broader new ideas, and a unit I feel that really describes this is the Poetry Wiki (Link is found at the end of the page). For this project my classmates and I took in a deeper analysis on poets and tried to define their work. We also created our own poems and then spoke one out loud in front of the classroom. I already had planned out what poem I was reading aloud until a classmate (Danielle Little) came over to me and read a poem she had written. It was called “the little black boy” I liked it so much I said you have to do one about “the little black girl” and she said if I did it with her she would. I never would have imagined doing collaboration on a poem but anything is possible in Mr. Block’s room. The day we had to present our Poem we went up and preformed it and many people enjoyed it. One of my classmates liked it so much she asked us to perform it at this talent show her church was hosting. This also ties into Growth opens you up to new environments. If this took place in the beginning of the year I would have never given thought of speaking a poem outside of class but in the end of it all I did.