My Favorite Assignment
The assignment I am most proud of is my IB written assignment to the dedication in Machiavelli’s The Prince. I chose to write my written assignment with the goal of interpreting the first section of Machiavelli’s book, adding historical context to discover the author’s purpose. The idea for this purpose began when I wrote a one page response to a similar prompt, and I felt that it was the first piece of writing in which I truly understood what the author was thinking when he wrote the piece. As I analyzed the dedication, I felt like I was deciphering the hidden messages which Machiavelli had left for us to find. This connection that I developed with this work was something that I chose to elaborate on, through my written assignment. In both of these essays that I wrote, I was proud of how I responded in a full and complete way. I am also so proud of the enjoyment that I had writing this essay as I really felt the passion that I have for learning and discovering new things.
Trends and Growth
Each year, many of my scores trended upward throughout the course of the year. Specifically in writing, I can see a consistent increase each year. I would attribute this to the effort of all of my english teachers, and their ability to teach me something new each year to improve my writing. In language, however, the scores stayed fairly constant which is indicative of the increasing standards placed upon me. For example, my essay from freshman year, which I rewrote, contains many grammatical mistakes and lapses in sentence structure, yet it received high marks in the language category. As I have grown and learned more about English, I have been challenged to meet higher criteria and therefore have scored about the same, despite my increased knowledge of the language. Similarly, in literary response, my scores have remained constant despite my internal feeling of improvement. I feel like this category is where I have grown the most, as my ability to understand an author’s purpose has increased dramatically.
Using the Portfolio
When I first returned to my portfolio in preparation for this project, I expected to find a heap of papers thrown into a manila folder. However, I believe I had underestimated myself. Organization has always been a challenge because it juxtaposes two separate areas of my brain: the logical, rational part and the lazy part. But when it comes to school, the rational brain usually wins. My portfolio has always been an opportunity for me to analyze my strengths and weaknesses, in a quantitative way. Besides learning about how obsessed with numbers I am, the portfolio helped me recognize the need to improve my public speaking in 10th grade. I forced myself to become more comfortable in Socratic Seminars and other discussions as a result of my initial low scores. By the end of the year I earned perfect scores on most of my speaking grades.The portfolio, especially for me, served as an opportunity to recognize by weak areas and improve upon them.
The Future
Great Oak High School, and more specifically the IB program, has helped me to approach learning and education in an open-minded and interdisciplinary way. As I travel to college next year, I know I will appreciate the attention and care that all of the Great Oak faculty have given me. I have grown so much in the four years that I have been here, becoming more of a leader and a scholar. Great Oak has even helped me to recognize my own success, through the Riverside County Academic Award and the GOHS Student of the Year award. Attending Great Oak has encouraged me to do my best in every facet of life, and it is thanks to this school that I am excited for my educational future at USC.