Last semester in English, I worked on enhancing my critical thinking and writing skills. During this class, my peers and I worked on countless assignments where we had to critically assess and answer questions. One particular assignment I believe played a crucial role in sharpening my critical thinking skills was a novel study assignment. This was a great example of critical thinking because of how we assessed the various parts and aspects of the novel. To begin, we had to choose one main protagonist and meticulously analyze their skills, traits and main character conflicts. We then split the main assignment into three parts and for each section, we had to assess a certain action the character did and why we were either impressed or not impressed by it. Using the information given in the book, we found evidence to express and support our opinions. However, in order to find and express this information, we had to critically think and use our observations (from the novel), imagination and general knowledge to draw conclusion and make good judgements. In order to understand and explain why we were impressed by certain character actions; we had to elaborate our evidence and express our answers in detail.

This year, I’ve grown the most in my analyzing skills in math. When I first started Math 9, I was confident that I would do well; however, after the first unit test I was surprised by my test score. After seeing this grade, I felt motivated to try harder and worked harder on all my other unit tests. Since the beginning of the semester, I have gotten much better at my analyzing, communicating and solving skills. When I started trying harder in math, I also got better grades and found it easier to understand complex units. I did this by working on my problem solving and critical thinking along with learning to break down problems so they’re easier to solve.

Lastly, I will focus on improving my time management skills by prioritizing assignments and trying not to procrastinate on work. In order to get my homework and assignments in on time, I will try to complete them as soon as I can and make sure not to procrastinate my work. This is important because it will help me in the future and teach me how to complete assignments quickly. I hope to continue working on this skill and become better at time management in the future.