I see you’ve found my Padlet board for this year, so welcome! I hope you’ll enjoy your visit, because this board has a lot for you. Writing examples from this school year, a few projects we’ve done, and maybe even a few laughs.

As I’m sure you’ll see while you browse, there’s been a lot of improvement from the beginning of the year. I started this class not even knowing what a rhetorical analysis essay was, and thinking synthesis was something you’d hear in chemistry class.

Sure, my first few essays for each were awkward and barely classified as rhetorical analysis, argument, or synthesis... But I’ve improved a lot. I learned so much this year, and my work really shows it.

I do have a few pieces I’m proud of. For midterms, we did a rhetorical analysis poster for a spoken word poem. Mine was “Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo, and I love how it turned out. Feel free to take a look at it - it’s under the “Writing/Essays” category.

Another assignment I liked was the mind maps we did for the argument essays. Unfortunately, I don’t have that here - thanks to some technical difficulties with Google Drive - but I liked how that turned out too. It was a creative project, and those are always my favorite types of projects. Anything that’s a break from essays, really (believe me, they get boring after a while)

Of course, not every piece was a winner. I looked back at my first synthesis essay recently… It wasn’t pretty. Definitely one of the things from this year I wouldn’t mind burning. I think every first essay is messy, but looking back does show how much you’ve improved. Even if it does make you cringe and think, “I wrote that?”

But this year wasn’t all about writing and AP exams. We did plenty of reading, too - a few of my personal favorites were One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Flowers in the Attic, and Children of Blood and Bone (I seem to like books with long titles, don’t I?)

Not every book kept my interest, though. I only dropped two throughout the whole year, mostly because there wasn’t really anything keeping me engaged after the first few pages. Sometimes it was just that the book wasn’t really a genre I’m interested in, sometimes it’s the content itself that bores me after a while.

I did enjoy the book clubs we did about halfway through the year. My group did the book “Room”, by Emma Donoghue, and it was an interesting read. A bit dark, but I’ve never really flinched from the darker subjects. (look at my reading ladder, and you’ll see what I mean)

Admittedly, I didn’t have the best reading habits. I had a tendency to read later at night, when I probably should have been studying or doing other homework. Once I got into a reading session, I could easily lose myself in the book and easily get through 100, 150, even 200 pages. Sometimes I’d finish them a bit too fast, others I’d go for almost a week without reading anything.

But I still managed to get through a good amount of reading by the end of the year. 8 books (maybe more?) for someone with such erratic habits is pretty good, especially with most of my books usually being between 200 and 400 pages.

All in all, this year wasn’t too much of a train wreck, even with some of the class being remote. We still managed to get everything done, and even have some fun.

Hoping you’ve enjoyed this board,

Rachel