In this Socratic seminar, I expressed my ideas and views on each topic my teammates brought up. I also built on what my teammates said either by agreeing with them, disagreeing with them, or asking them questions to initiate more discussions about points I find interesting. Some things I could work on are maybe reading deeper into extracts from the book to support the points I make better and also managing the time better.  A new insight I gained in this seminar was how writers link small details, for example, chapter titles, to big parts of the story and how this makes the book more interesting to readers. An example is how the chapter titles changed from “My sister sends me an Email” to “My sister sends me a letter” to show how her condition of life became poorer. After finding out about this, from now on I will focus more on the smaller details to analyze the text/book better.

Things I did well in

• I asked questions to the group
• I talked about my opinion and asked everyone else for theirs
• I brought up some topics to talk about

Things I could work on

• I could expand more and explain exactly why my questions are important to talk about (no point in bringing up questions that will not go anywhere)
• I should build upon my groupmates opinions and ideas
• I could also contribute to the discussion by connecting an idea in the book to something in society

What goals do I have for next time?

• Ask more questions
• Bring people into the conversation
• Lead some parts of the discussion

What steps will I take to achieve this goal?

• I will ask questions that could have multiple different answers
• Include any teammate that is not participating in the conversation

The two main things I feel like I can improve are my organization and language use.

What did you do well?

• My understanding and interpretation of the poem were clear, and I could explain my thoughts distinctly. My understanding of the stylistic features used and their effects were also clear.

What do you still need to work on?

• I still need to work on my organization and language skills. My transitions between body paragraphs were not smooth, and the language I used was informal (e.g., “we”)

What goals do you have for next time?

• Refrain from using informal language
• Coming up with a better way to integrate all of my paragraphs together to flow smoothly

How will you work to achieve them?

• I will read more exemplary essays and learn how they organized their work and used formal language.

What am I doing well on?

• I am doing well in the speaking/listening and reading standards. I have improved in the reading standard because I have practised by doing more reading and annotating. I always speak out my opinions and thoughts about whatever is being discussed in class. I do collaborate with my peers whenever we are given time to discuss what we are learning. I also am responsible in terms of submitting my work on time and clarifying any questions I have.

What do I still need to work on?

• I still need to work on my writing skills. I have definitely improved from the start and the end of quarter 1, but I want to get even better, mainly using various literary devices/techniques.

What steps can I take to continue moving forward?

• I can ask my teacher whenever I need help on my writing tasks as she can help guide me and give me feedback that I can work on. I can also use tools like Grammarly to help edit my work more carefully. I can also read more books, articles, and reading material to improve my vocabulary and thought process of forming sentences.  I can also use IXL to practise my writing and reading standards.

I am currently reading the book “One of us is next” by Karen McManus.

In my opinion, this book does not have much potential for the final literary essay project at the end of this year. The book is very literal and the writer does not use many literary devices to describe the story. This book is a good book but I don’t think it’s a good book for me to analyze and write an essay on. My next steps are to maybe find another book I think might be more suitable for me to analyze at the end of the year and also to analyze the book while I am reading it.

What did you do well 

• I used imagery and many phrases to easily convey the setting or how the character felt

What do you still need to work on 

• I need to work on my grammar and my narrative techniques

Set a goal for yourself for the creative writing portfolio and post-assessment

• I hope to improve my grammar and how to describe experiences/characters better

I am currently reading the book One of us is next by Karen McManus. It is the sequel of the book One of us is lying.

I like how the book already introduced the main plot in the third chapter because it makes me question what will happen next.

I was not able to successfully read 20 minutes every night over the weekend but I will do it from now on because the book just got more interesting!

Strengths and Weaknesses :

• My strengths are that I am a good listener and I am very observant. I can catch small details and connect the dots between two things very quickly.
• My weaknesses are that my vocabulary could be stronger and that I am not too strong at analyzing texts.

Some goals I  want to achieve :

• I want to  increase my reading time everyday to 20 minutes so I can improve my vocabulary and how I analyze texts.
• I want read or watch more news related articles/shows. I believe that if I read more news articles, I will have a better sense on what is going on around the world and might be able to incorporate it in my essays or discussions.

Resources that are available to me :

I have many books at home that I could easily pick up and read to help me achieve my goals. I could also visit the school library to pick up some books.

Potential Obstacles : 

Some obstacles that I could potentially face is not having enough time to spend time on reading books because of other subjects. To solve this, I could make a schedule to plan out when I can read books so I have enough time to focus on my other subjects as well as english