2O11 Humanities Portfolio
To take you back to some of my humble beginnings ill take you back to one of my journals. Throughout the year we were asked to write in our journal mostly every day. Most of our journals were based on what we talked the day before or something we were going to talk about in class. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t really into writing in a journal so most of the time I didn’t keep one. After I realized that the journals weren’t that bad and would allow me to get my thoughts down on paper. So after a while I allowed myself to keep a journal to be able to not only be more a part of the class but to be able to express my feelings and also participate more. One of the units I liked the most was the poetry unit. During this time on one of our journals we were asked to free write a poem. When this day came a long I was going through a bunch of mixed feelings, which allowed me to write I Hate Who I Became. This poem allowed me to express myself at the time and created visions in my head of what I was feeling, which also helped me get my head straight.
During our poetry unit we were asked to create a Poetry Wiki Space to be able to display our knowledge on poetry, this also included having information about a poet of our choosing. This unit was one of my favorites, this being because poetry is a big part of me. Me as an individual really enjoy writing and use it as my escape. I believe that poetry is a way of releasing feelings that you have bottled up inside. Poetry, as being one of my hobbies allowed me to be able to express feelings and turn this assignment in something more then just writing poetry and meeting the requirements, but also expressing myself. Also bringing out an entire different side of me as a writer.
Creating this wiki space also allowed me to come back to my poetry roots since I had stopped writing. We were given somewhat of a base for our poems but other then that we wrote on our free will and were allowed to express as much as we could. This unit helped me grow as a poet because it allowed me to learn how to edit my work and be able to come up with more polished poems. It also taught me a lot about poetry and the different styles that can be used to create them.
One of the most interesting projects we did in history was create a Wiki Space debating the views of two different religions and their views on a certain topic.I chose to research on the views that Buddhism and Catholicism have on homosexuality. Through out this process we were asked to include different evidence to proof the views and such. This project helped me realize that sometimes we as humans can be very judgmental and hypocritical.
Through out this year we were also involved in writing up our own collection of monologues that discussed a certain topic that wouldn’t only relate to the U.S but that could be relevant in all parts of the world. I chose to research the DREAM ACT. This legislation will allow teenage immigrants to continue into higher education and be able to receive permanent citizenship and residence.
This topic was interesting to me because of the controversy that it was creating amongst the U.S and I knew I would be able to find a lot of information about it, which would allow my collection of monologues to come to life and have a lot of drama in them.
At the conclusion of this project I became attached to my characters. Through out the process they all sort of came to life and allowed me to let my imagination run wild to be able to come up with great monologues that would be relatable but also easily understood by my audience.
Not only were we asked to write the monologues and include them on a Monologue Google Doc, but we were also asked to research and also create a Research Google Doc. Creating both allowed Mr. Block to track our process and allow our mentor to be able to view what we were changing and how she could help us really polish all of our monologues and to include the research part of the five core values.
During this one of my favorite mock trials was the one we
did on Ancient Mexico & The Aztecs. During this trial we were asked to
defend our side for the demise of the Aztecs. I was put in the group to defend
the men of Hernan Cortes. Another trial we were a part of was the sweatshop trial. In
this trial we had to defend different sides on the controversial topic of
weather sweatshops should be allowed and who is really to blame for them to
keep growing. During this I was a part of defending the Poor Workers who
actually worked in the shops. These trials allowed me to be able to research in deeper and
create opinions on several topics whether they’re recent or something from the
past.
As for history we were faced with really thinking about the
topics we were studying, a way we did this was being a part of several mock
trials that would allow us to play the role of a certain group that were put to
blame. This was done by allowing us to come together in groups and research
more background on the topic and the history along with it. Not only did we
have to research our sides and facts to help us argue for our side but we also
had to find facts that would put to blame the other groups also battling us in
the fight to be able to come out as innocent.
In the end sophomore english with Mr. Block allowed me to learn a lot of different things about myself as a writer and as a student. I also took a lot of different types of styles of writing from my peers and different research habits. Overall i can say i really grew this year from where i started.
Comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Log in to post a comment.