“I’ve never been good at English” “English is just not my thing”
“I don’t like reading” “I’m a bad writer” "I don’t understand where I’m going wrong”
Do any of these phrases sound familiar? Although some people may develop certain skills more easily or naturally, everyone in this class has the ability to learn the concepts and skills required to meet the outcomes of English Language Arts 10. An "I can't" attitude literally shuts down the receptors in your brain making it impossible to learn (i.e., develop new neural pathways). A quick fix for this is to tell yourself (either silently or, ideally, aloud), “I can't do it ... YET. But I CAN learn and I CAN TRY. ”
Identifying your strengths, weaknesses, making goals and selecting, monitoring, and modifying strategies are ways that you can start working smarter.
You will create goals for the 5 main skill areas in English, which you will review two more times during the course. Your teacher will provide feedback along the way as well.
Access a copy of the English 10 Goal Tracking & Participation sheet for yourself on Classroom, and edit it according to the instructions below. We'll revisit it at the end of each unit.
When forming goals, remember the principle of SMART:
E.g., My teacher keeps identifying comma splices in my writing, so my goal is to have zero comma splices in my next paper. To achieve this goal, I am going to find out what a comma splice is and what are ways to fix it by scanning resources on the Writing webpage on the English 10 Google site. Before I hand in a paper, I’m going to check over my work for comma splices and fix them.