acknowledgements

 With the year coming to an end, I’ve been prompted to reflect on my 11AP journey. Only when I look retrospectively on the year did I realize the amount of progress this class has instilled in me. From scoring 80s on essays to 90s, from mindlessly reading to being able to analyze text, I’ve genuinely felt so much more comfortable in my abilities as a reader and writer as a result of this class. Of course, this progress was made possible and was facilitated by some important figures in our English classroom.

First, I’d like to thank all my fellow AP Lang students. To my tablemates in the second semester–David, David, Tyler, Daniel, thank you for making 11AP all the more enjoyable. In times of confusion or need of assistance, I could come to you guys for aid and encouragement. When I wasn’t sure of the meaning of a word, or the purpose of a piece, or even what the homework was, I could get answers at my table and thus save embarrassment from asking Ms. Valentino. When it came time to share something as a table, sometimes you guys stepped in and saved the day… Other times I was forced to answer, and yet I am grateful as this put me on the spot, helping me develop quick thinking skills. To the people I sat by first semester–much of the same people and Ana Sofia–thank you for making getting into the groove of 11AP so much easier. I am grateful that we could suffer in this class together. To the other males in the class, thank you for existing because each time we had to get up to talk I could look like I was doing something productive. To everyone else in first hour, I appreciate you for making class fun sometimes with jokes and laughs. 

To my friends from Ms. Valentino’s other hours, I am grateful for being able to get feedback from you on my essays and works. Being able to discuss 11AP related things and exchange feedback with another student has certainly helped improve my progress and efficiency in this class. To the other students from other hours, your blogs have contributed to my understanding and developing of multiple viewpoints on any topic. Being open minded is a skill that will help on things like the essays and achieving the sophistication point, and this skill has only been furthered through seeing the differing opinions, styles, and writing voices of your blogs. 

To the in class essays, thank you for developing my writing skills. I’ve always had a deep dislike for essays, but I’ve come to realize they aren’t so bad. It is only through practice and repetition that I could become a stronger writer, and essays were exactly that. In the essay on the Great Gatsby way back in first semester, I wrote “the Great Gatsby is a story with characters of extreme wealth and also characters with nothing”. Looking back, the blatant summary was absolutely useless, alongside my shallow analysis which was just fluff. Yet, I am only able to see my flaws on previous essays now because of experience accumulated through these in class essays. Despite the stress and work that goes into the essays, the weekly essays undoubtedly will help in the exam, which is our end goal anyways. Not to mention, to the essays, thank you for being like 80% of the points in the grade book. In the third quarter when I could barely write, each essay grade was like an impending missile that struck a hopeless and defenseless small village, which was my grade. But now, I realized that the essay grades can be tolerable or even very profitable for only an hour of work each week. 

To Maus, Gatsby, and Sweat, thank you for being excessively long and boring, yet widely differing in topics and showing me the possibilities of writing. Thank you for being the testing ground for which I could experiment and hone my writing and reading skills. Thank you for opening to me the different styles of writing. From the visual symbolism in Maus, to the strong motifs in Gatsby, to the everyday diction in Sweat, these books showed me that many styles can be successful. This helped me in essays once I realized there were no limits to what could achieve a good score.

To the homework assignments–sample essays, creative writes, and blogs–thank you for building my discipline as a student, alongside of course strengthening my reading and writing skills. Truthfully, I admit that I did not always put full effort into these assignments, many of which simply became busy work. Yet I am still thankful of homework assignments for being a stream of opportunities, any of which held immense value to be extracted. 

Although similar to the homework assignments, I would like to separately thank the textbook. Thank you for opening my eyes to range of writing. The various readings and accompanying questions from the textbook that span a wide variety of topics–thank you for opening my eyes to the range of English. Each unit we went through was wildly different from the last, and each new piece was interesting in different ways. Although some of these pieces were challenging to decipher, the textbook taught me how to. Unironically, the textbook taught me how to read. It taught me not just to read the words, but also the words behind the words–the messages, implications, attitudes, and perspectives that otherwise would have remained hidden. Also, thank you for the textbook for being excessively thick and heavy for zero reason, which due to its awkward shape, was always a battle to fit in the backpack.

To vocab quizzes in the first semester, thank you for existing. You were always a free 20 points that required little studying, and certainly carried my grade. I am grateful for being given the many opportunities of vocab quizzes and the accompanying points. Throughout the course of the first semester, I learned the skill of memorizing information before a quiz and forgetting it immediately after, because I absolutely flunked the vocab portion in the midterm. But, this skill will probably prove to be useful in some future endeavor in life.

Most importantly, thank you to Ms. Valentino, our very own 11AP teacher. Thank you for yelling at me each day I was late. Truly, I’ve learned things beyond English from this class, such as getting to class on time (or at least close to on time). Jokes aside, I am thankful to have such a great and very nice teacher. You are able to guide the class, make us talk to each other, and foster a healthy learning environment. Each day I was able to leave class feeling better and better in my skills, only as a result of your teaching and choice of a wide variety of topics. Even though the strenuous essays, discussions, and nights of homework assigned by you were really painful at the time, I can truthfully say that they will pay off come the AP exam, and for that I am grateful for being pushed. From the painful things that make us grow to the lighthearted stuff that entertains the class, I could not ask for more in terms of this class.