As I looked over my reader responses, I realized that I have improved a lot. The most significant proof of my improvement is the increasing word count of my reader responses (Word count of every reader response in order: 155,192,299,604). As I got more experienced at writing in English and thinking in English I was able to indicate my ideas better in my reader responses so I didn’t struggle while writing longer reader responses. Also (as you will see the examples in the following paragraphs) I enlarged my vocabulary by studying words in Quizlet (especially the descriptive adjective sets), Membean (E.g. level 3 lower middle school exercises), and the books that I have read (E.g. Island of the Blue Dolphins) also, every single reader response and the feedbacks that my friends and teachers had given me was a guideline for the next one. For instance “Duygu Savaş: Good job, Berra. Can you give specific examples from the book for Asian stereotypes?” this feedback reminded me to include more descriptive words in the fourth reader response. I still have skills that I can improve but there is a remarkable improvement between the first and the last reader response.
Starting with the first reader response, my first persuasion about this is the length and the simplicity of the sentences. I can give "The painting is mostly painted with lilac and pink” as an example for simple sentences. Also looking at my word choices I noticed that I used too many common words. Also, I saw that I used plenty of simple words such as "... some of them are angry and some of them are scared as I said before. " I am talking about the words "scary" and "angry" in this quotation. If I were writing this reader-response now, I would have used other words such as "irritated" and "frightened".
Now I will talk about the second reader response. First of all, I realized that I have improved my connections. The second reader response contains more specific connections than the first one. For instance "There was some dried blood around his mouth and on his chin, and a wound on the right side of his face.” this is a quotation from the second reader response, and “Maybe we can relate this painting to the theme of identity” is a quotation from the first reader response. Compared to the second one the comparison in the first one is more general. Also, I can see the improvement in my vocabulary by looking at the various kinds of words that I’ve used. Although there are developments I still think that I could not indicate my ideas to my reader responses because both of the reader responses are still too short and simple and neither of them had a proper conclusion.
I will be talking about the third reader response in this paragraph. In this one, I can spot that I tried supporting my ideas with another resource. The part that I am talking about is “The definition of identity according to the Cambridge dictionary is "who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others.” Also, I believe that I took a huge step forward in expressing my ideas in my writings. As you can see in this quotation "... I define identity as a charm that only you have and no other people can possess that charm." I included my thoughts on the concept of "Identity". Lastly unlike the previous ones, I concluded this one. Here is the conclusion: "For now, I should just keep trying to see life from other perspectives like the man in the comic does." Although it is still simple and short, this is the first paragraph I can consider as a conclusion among the first three reader responses. Even after the fourth reader response, I think that I should work more on my conclusions.
About the fourth reader response, I see an enormous change in the word count. I can understand that I got more used to writing in English. If I were to compare this one with the first one I could show the difference between the length of the sentences. For instance "The god encounters the monkey and calmly explains that the monkey can't defeat him but since the monkey is so arrogant and thinks he is the most powerful of all he doesn't listen to him." is a sentence from the fourth reader response and "There may be a fight between two groups." is an example sentence from the first reader response. The second thing about this reader response is about creating my voice. As I read this reader response I can observe that I am a reader that likes to make inferences. Here is my proof " ...from my point of view his calmness represents his wisdom and experience with these creatures." Another thing I realized while I was reading was the connections I have made. In the 7th paragraph, I connected the topic with history “ The god who refused to use violence may be representing Gandhi and the monkey maybe Hitler.” As the third reader response, I see that I concluded this one as well.
This is all about my development throughout the first unit.