Final Reflection For World Literature (2020-2021)

     This semester is unlike any I've ever had. With the pandemic keeping us home, and only attending class every other day, it was a pretty big adjustment from the previous semesters. Luckily it was a somewhat smooth adjustment as everyone was figuring out how to do life and school in a pandemic. Even with all that, one couldn't miss how even this English course by itself, is so different than any other courses.

    One thing that made my English 2 Honors course different was the flexibility of it. Flexibility in a class is hard to come by with deadlines for assignments and specific stuff we have to learn by the end of the year., but this class managed to be it. For example, in class we would have conversations about when something should be assigned or future projects that students would recommend. Maybe some of my other classes would push an assignment back by a day, but they would never ask the students if it was too much too soon. Even when I thought the course was too flexible with the deadlines, Dr. Preston changed it to be a bit more stricter and clear. He was flexible enough to become make the course less flexible when it needed to be. And of course, this course and Dr. Preston couldn't be this flexible without a respect for the students.

    That is what is ultimately the most meaningful about this course, the respect. It might sound a little cheesy or cliché but it's true. The mutual respect between the students in the class is clearly important for our class to run that way it does. Lets reuse the example of Dr. Preston genuinely asking us what we thought about an assignments due date. If there was no respect towards the students and our time, the question wouldn't have been asked and we would've gotten even more stress added to our plate. On the other hand, if the students didn't have respect for the teacher, then we would've pushed for  an unreasonable amount of time and not taken it seriously. Fortunately the students did have respect towards Dr. Preston, so we were seriously listened to and everyone left happy. Out of all this respect and flexibility has come some work that I am definitely proud of.

    The work that pops into my head the most is my previous essay. I usually stick pretty strictly to the usual format when doing essays. And while I did stay close to the format, it definitely wasn't as close as before and it proved to be a good thing. Another thing I'm proud of are my journal entries. I'd never written in a journal consistently before and I'm proud that I've been able to do so. While it was a bit of a struggle in the beginning I've definitely gotten into a groove now when writing them. Unfortunately, one of the reasons I struggled with the journals in the beginning was because of procrastination. That it definitely the one thing I could get better at and wish I didn't do. I usually push of the stuff that seems easier and it starts to pile up till its really  hard to catch up. The journals are the perfect example of that situation. Half-paged journals seemed really easy to do, so I pushed them off to do more important things. After awhile there was a huge load of journals to do and it seemed impossible to make them up. However, I was able to do just that and have been on top of them ever since. And honestly, that is part of the reason I am proud of them.

    The main and most convenient thing from this course that will help me in the future are the literary techniques. One literary technique I learned was in the book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I actually learned a literary technique in that book and it was dramatic irony. I should add I knew of  it before but I didn't really understand what dramatic irony was until I did my book report. It helped me better understand the book because it kind of keyed me into what would happen at the end of the book based on what I already knew from previous books in the series. Another text I've read this semester was Les Misérables and the technique that helped me understand it better was setting. The author wrote the book in such a way that I'm constantly forgetting it is a fictional text. It draws you into the book and makes you all the more interested in it. The last text I've read this semester is the poem Richard Cory. The mood of the poem really helped me understand it as it made me t seem like Richard has this life that everyone one wants for pretty much the whole poem. Then all of a sudden he kills himself. The ending is so jarring and really grabs your attention. These examples and many more really have made me a better reader as I have started to notice and identify more of them even when I'm not looking for them. 

All of these things whether their new to me or not have shaped this semester, making it a whole new experience. This class is just so different to all my others, but it's a refreshing difference. I find myself wondering how this net semester will go, both for this class and school as a whole. It'll probably be a whole new experience on it's own and hopefully I can handle it as well as I did this semester.