Reflection

Compared to the last few years, I feel that my work ethic has improved, not just in this English class but in all aspects of my life. This semester, I put a great amount of effort into all of my work. If I had any confusion about any assignment, I came to my teacher with my questions and didn’t wait until the last minute. Every assignment I was given, I completed on time or before it was actually due. Organization has always been difficult but this year I have really tried to keep everything organized and stay on track. Since the CU Succeed class was on Monday nights, I always started my assignment for this English class on Tuesday whether it was the research portion or the writing part. I think I have shown that I am capable of being a much better student that I have been in the past. I know that part of this improvement is because of the knowledge that “this is my last chance,” but some of the change for the better is due to maturity.
Reading comprehension has always been a difficult thing for me and as this semester passed, it appeared to be easier. I do not like to read and rarely do for pleasure, but as I got more into my subject, it became less of a chore to do. Writing is also not my favorite activity but I really was interested in Pearl Harbor so it didn’t seem so bad. Some of the assignments were tough, like the poem. I hate poetry so that was a hard assignment for me to do. It helped that my teacher provided possible questions to ask in the blogs about the movie and web site review because I would have experienced a more difficult time with that type of writing. Reading the non-fiction book Day Of Infamy,
was tough, I did not enjoy it at all. However, reading the reference material on web-sites, articles and portions of other historical accounts of Pearl Harbor were easy and somewhat enjoyable. My reading skills have definitely improved from this semester’s experience. I am a slow reader and I used to dread having to read anything which made things worse for me. My biggest challenge is in writing as I do not have much confidence in what I put down on paper, but I think there are improvements there too.
What I will keep from my research this semester is that there are usually two sides to every story and sometimes, the truth is not what you have always been told. One piece of information that I found that has made an impression on me is that our government will basically lie or with hold the truth from us to get what they want. Unfortunately, that costs human lives at times. Pearl Harbor really has nothing to do with what my future plans are, but I am still interested in this subject and I know that I will continue to follow articles or public information on this. I do not feel any differently about Pearl Harbor, I have always believed the United States was not surprised by the Japanese attack and the more I read and researched, the stronger my belief became. Overall, I am very glad that I chose my topic, it kept me interested and there was enough information for me to write about it for an entire semester.