Talluluh's Ap Lang Blog

  Answer: After reading my feedback, I learned that I did a good job on my evidence and commentary. I had lots of examples of personal experiences that I connected to the argument, and I explained them effectively. But, one of my reasons was that selfies “capture genuine and authentic feelings,” which can be contradicted because people can fake or present themselves differently in a selfie. I should’ve used qualifying claims to address this. Also, I used a lot of personal experiences as my evidence. Next time I write an AP Lang essay, I’ll be sure to use a variety of evidence so what I can write is not limited. Summary: Today we read our feedback on our argument essays, then started our digital poetry posters.  Reflection: I learned how to better my argument writing skills, and how to use figurative language and word choice in poetry.

  Answer: In 7th grade, I had to make a poem book. The hardest poem for me to write was a limerick, a five-line poem where the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other and are all eight syllables, and the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other and are six syllables. It was also supposed to be a silly, absurd type of poem, and I couldn’t think of what to make it about. I finally decided on a limerick about a sneeze, because I could make it very exaggerative saying it “blew roofs off cars” and “blew all the way to mars.” In the end, I liked the finished product because it was just as silly as I’d hoped. Summary: Today we read and analyzed the poem, “Constantly Risking Absurdity” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.  Reflection: I learned the steps to reading and understanding a poem. I not only have to read it once, but twice: one time to get a feel for it, and one time to find the deeper meaning and connect it to my own experiences.

Answer:  I think the hardest part of writing the argument essay was coming up with evidence. I also felt rushed during the last few minutes because I still had to finish my body paragraphs before writing my conclusion. Next time we write an essay, I need to work on managing my time. The planning needs to only take the first few minutes, and then the writing of the essay should take the rest of the time. The easiest part of that argument essay was coming up with the three reasons, or claims. Backing them each up with two pieces of evidence and then explaining it was what was hard. Summary:  Today we wrote our full argument essay. Reflection:  The essay prompt was about  whether or not selfies are a way to document one's life. 

  Answer:  I think one of the words I'll use a lot is "discerning." Discerning is a word that describes the characteristics that make something different of distinguish it from others. A situation where I could use discerning is when comparing two things, like in an essay. Using words like discerning in my writing rather than more simple words can add more variety to my writing. Summary:  Today we wrote down fifteen more vocabulary words. Reflection:  After writing the vocabulary, we also wrote our own sentences for each word. Writing sentences helped me understand the words better than just writing their definitions. Also, expanding my vocabulary will help me improve my writing later.

  Answer:  After practicing the "So What" method on my own, I was able to better understand its purpose in the body paragraph. The commentary should take up the most space in the paragraph, because I need to explain what it means, why it's important, and how it connects to the claim. It shouldn't be just one sentence. If my commentary is only one sentence long, that means I'm missing some important information I could add. Summary:  We practiced writing commentary about different claims and their evidence. Reflection:  Practicing the "so what" with different examples helped me understand the structure of the commentary so I will be prepared when I have to write it for my argument essay.

  Answer:  In 9th grade, I had to do a project on the book, Fahrenheit 451 . I was supposed to draw a picture that symbolized an event in the story and write a paragraph on why I chose that picture. But, I didn't know about the paragraph because I didn't fully read the instructions. Afterwards, when I got a bad grade, I didn't understand why. If I checked the rubric then, I would have at least known what I did wrong. If I had looked at it before completing the assignment, I would have been able to go back and fix my mistakes. When writing my argument essay, I will be sure to check the rubric before submitting it to make sure I did everything. Summary:  Today  we went over the rubric for our Argument essay. Reflection:  I learned the expectations for the introduction and body paragraphs of an argument essay.

  Answer:  After reviewing different student's argument essays. I learned how good arguments essays look compared to bad essays. Using the Ap rubric, I determined that most of the bad essays failed on the body paragraphs, which are the most weighted. Usually, they didn't explain the evidence well enough. They didn't answer all of the questions that are supposed to be answered in order to have a good commentary. For example, one of the essays was about how soccer is overrated. One of their pieces of evidence was that "watching soccer games shouldn't cause your blood pressure to rise." Their explanation was very short and didn't explain how the evidence connected back to the claim. Summary:  Today we used our Argument essay rubrics to score students’ work from previous AP exams. Reflection:  It made me more confident in my argument writing, now I know what to do and what not to do because I saw what a 1 looks like versus a 6.

  Answer:  Usually, I use the rubric after I finish writing the essay, but before I submit it. I use it to check if I did everything or if there’s anything I can fix. When I have to start writing my argument essay, I'll use the rubric to guide me through each section of the essay. After writing one paragraph, I'll check the rubric to see if I have all the requirements for that paragraph before moving on to the next.  Summary:  Today we used a prompt about things that are overrated and made an argument and list of reasons. Reflection:  My argument was that driving cars is overrated because cars cause pollution and are expensive. I practiced planning an argument quickly and efficiently so that I am prepared for the Ap Exam.

  Answer:  Our group had two ideas for what our second evidence could be but we couldn’t figure out which would be better. One member suggested we type out both evidences and their explanations, then decide together which one is best. This was a good idea and it got us to collaborate. It also helped me see that when writing an argument body paragraph, you have to make choices to better your argument. Summary:  Today we finished our unpopular opinion paragraphs.

  Answer:  In middle school, I had to email the librarian about getting to be in the school news class. I used informal language when I should’ve used formal language. I wrote in incomplete sentences, or fragments. I should've used formal language because it was an important email to a teacher rather than a friend. Summary:  Today we took notes on formal language, then analyzed and corrected other groups’ unpopular opinion paragraphs. Reflection:  I was able to see what other people wrote for their paragraphs, and how it could be corrected. This showed me how my group’s paragraph may need to be improved.

  Answer:  One major event that has happened during my lifetime that greatly affected my community is the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. The whole world was in lockdown because of the virus. We had to do virtual school, which meant teachers had limited teaching methods now that school was all on computers. I was in fourth grade at the time, and without being physically at school, I missed out on school activities like group work, experiments, and projects that would've benefited my learning way more than a slideshow or a quiz. This greatly affected my learning progress and the progress of many other students globally. Summary:  Today we revised our paragraphs based on the feedback we received from the other groups. Reflection: The feedback we got from other groups made us realize our claim and reasoning didn't make sense with our evidence. They contradicted each other. So, we changed the claim to better fit the evidence. I'm glad we got the chance to change it because it was ...

Answer:  Something I catch myself saying a lot is "I don't know." I say it when someone asks me a question and I can't think of the answer off the top of my head. I think I take a long time to think of things and I don't know why. I want to stop saying it so much though, because if people are asking these things to know more about me, and I just say "I don't know," they think I just don't want to answer the question and that's not true. Summary:  Today we wrote down and defined 15 vocabulary words. Reflection:  I learned a few new words. Some of them I recognized but many of them I had never seen before -- or if I did, I didn't know the exact definition. This taught me that maybe I need to expand my vocabulary. Knowing more words will help me make my writing better.

Answer:  I have always wondered why when I get lots of sleep at night, I'm more tired in the morning than if I were to get less sleep. For example, when I go to bed early and get a good night's sleep without waking up a bunch in the night, I wake up in the morning too sleepy to get out of bed. But when I'm really excited or nervous for something, it's harder to go to sleep. So I'm getting less sleep, yet in the morning I'm not as tired as the days that I slept the whole night. Summary:  Each group was assigned one unpopular opinion. Each group had to make a claim paragraph defending or opposing the opinion. Reflection:  This lesson helped me practice my argument body paragraph writing. Evidence is the part of building an argument that I'm worst at. But, working with a group and all sharing our ideas helped me to understand how to come up with evidence better.

Answer:  I think the most challenging part of building an argument is coming up with evidence. I can make a good argument. I can make a good claim. But when it comes to evidence, it's hard for me. Evidence is divided into three categories: experiences, observations, and readings. For me, it's hard to think of things I've done or seen or read that connect to my claim. This is probably partly because I need to read more, so that I can fill the "readings" category. I need to know a little bit about everything. Summary:  Today we learned about reasoning and how it connects the claim to the conclusion. Reflection:  Line of reasoning is how the paragraph flows. An argument body paragraph should always have evidence and commentary, which is where the evidence is explained. I need to get better at evidence.