Humanities

This school year, I hope to improve my comprehension of informational text. My goal for reading is to score in the in the Grade 9 range of the Comprehension: Informational Text domain of the End of the Year i-Ready reading diagnostic test. Indicators of my success will be my ability to analyze and evaluate an author’s choices to understand informational text, apply knowledge of word structure, grammar, and context to determine the meaning of new words and phrases in increasingly complex texts, write well-developed and logically organized informative/explanatory texts, conveying relevant content through precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and formal style.

This seminar included content where we talked about the injustices we've read about in Just Mercy and how they were perpetuated by the Constitutional convention of 1787. I got a meets on my written assignment because I listed many good points and whether I agreed or disagreed. I got an exceeds on my verbal grade because I had many well spoken points and based on information, while also saying things in my own way and not copying off of my sheet. Although I got an exceeds, I think I spoke a lot and overtook some people who wanted to speak. In the future, I want to include more people and give them the opportunity to share their opinions and feel included in the conversation.

This seminar included content where we talked about the injustices we've read about in Just Mercy. We discussed questions like how Bryan Stevenson's  personal journey shaped the message of the book and how it relates to US history, How the book asks us to reconsider the humanity of those who have committed crimes, and what we learned from Walter McMillians appeals and eventual release. I got an exceeds on the written assignment and verbal participation. I talked a couple times and quoted the book, but I felt like I got my argument across in a way that was concise, detailed, informational, but also polite while being confident at the same time.

During this seminar, we spoke about some of the events we have read about in Blood and Thunder. The three main question were of whether John C. Fremont was of better moral character than Kit Carson, if at Narbona Pass, the natives were defending themselves and their land, or if they had malicious intent to murder the Mexicans that intruded on their homeland. We also talked about if kit Carson was an American Hero or a mass murder. I got an exceeds on this seminar, on both the verbal and written part. I think this was because, during the actual seminar, I spoke many  times, yet I never spoke without backing my claims up with evidence or quoting a chapter. I did the same thing on my written assignment while also fully and confidently stating my opinion to the group. I think that I also helped to correct others, but I don't think it was in a condescending or know-it-all way, but rather just helpful. 

Overall, I learned  a lot about inequality and discrimination against many different marginalized groups, but most specifically women's rights and discrimination against women. We learned a lot about the discrimination and inequality that African Americans face in the justice system with Just Mercy. I gained some new skills about doing accurate and productive research, formatting a presentation creatively and informationally, and writing and memorizing a script that was easy to understand yet still accurate and informational. I got an exceeds on my oral presentation and an exceeds on my slides. I got these grades because I had a very creative and relevant formatting of my slides, and I didn't have too much or too little information. I was able to summarize the main idea of my subtopics on the slides, without making them too wordy. I also had accurate and relevant statistics. In my oral presentation part, I memorized most of my script, kept it under 9 minutes, and maintained eye contact with audience members and also maintained consistent volume levels. A goal I will set for myself in the next humanities project will be to procrastinate less and be less of a perfectionist. These are two of the things that I kind of struggled with in the last unit, because  procrastinate a lot and am sort a perfectionist, I realized I din't have a lot of time for certain aspects of the project, and was stressed a lot. I want to give myself more time and want to be able to have time for other homework and projects.

We studied westward expansion and the idea of manifest destiny, along with the life and history of Kit Carson and his experiences. We studied language arts concepts like vocabulary, sentence structures, literary analysis, and paragraph structure and how to write a RACE paragraph. I grew as a student during this project because I found myself putting in more effort and refinement on my projects. I think I really enjoyed this unit more than others and I cut down a lot of my procrastination. I met a challenege when I missed a week of preparation and had to catch up on my work for my closing, diret, and cross examination. I put in a lot of effort to do this by working hard at school and at home, rereading chapters from Blood and Thunder to find evidence, and taking on a role of leadership in my group to help us get our work done. I learned that the law can be really interesting, and not as boring as it is made to to be by movies and books. I think I took a liking to law, and may want to pursue a career like this in the future. I think I can also apply this to my future if I ever have jury duty or have to attend a trial. The knowledge that I have gained about law during this unit can be really beneficial in the future. I learned that I really enjoy law because it is not quite like arguing, yet each side is trying to prove heir point with evidence and credibility. I think that it is fun to create direct examinations and be able to cross examine a witness. I learned that you also learn new things about people during a trial, for example, I learned many new things about Kit Carson from the defense side that I did not know before. I would grade myself a meets-exceeds on this project. I believe that I got an exceeds in most categories of the rubric, yet I had slight trouble with the oral presentation. Although I spoke well and confidently, I stuttered over my words, spoke too fast, and was a little bit nervous. Other than that, I think that I exceeded expectations. For the next unit, I plan to make up any missed work as soon as possible, so that it doesn't stack on top of everything else and create a heavier workload for me. I will also encourage my group members to work more on the things that they need to and will support them while still holding them accountable. I think that these goals will be much more beneficial to my group in the future and will help us a lot more.