Blog Reflections

         Throughout the trimester, we have used Blogger to blog about the books we were reading and the specific elements of the book that enhanced the story. I believe that by blogging about books helped me to improve my writing as well as my reading skills. In the beginning of the trimester, I wrote a post about Hazel, the main character in the book A Fault In Our Stars. In the post I wrote, “In the beginning of the book, Hazel is very quiet, and would rather be reading or watching TV than hanging out with friends. She feels like she doesn't fit in with them, and that she shouldn't waste her time trying to.” My writing is very stiff and formal, and instead of my own voice being heard through the writing, it sounds more like sentences out of a textbook. Later in the trimester, we were encouraged to write as if we were talking to somebody about the book. In my later blog from the trimester, I wrote about a character, Jane, from the book, Formerly Shark Girl. “Jane must learn to overcome everybody else's expectations and be truly herself. Peer pressure of others has put a weight on her shoulders that she must carry around each day combined with stress of high school and life. She must let herself define who she is and who she wants to be. She has to pick up the paddle and choose a direction. This is only part of Jane's struggle. And that's just the beginning.” In this part of my blog, I feel like my voice is presented more and the quality of my writing has improved. Instead of just telling about the character, I gave some better descriptions about the character’s life.

            Through this experience, I have learned a lot about my writing style, as well as elements that make a book good to read. I struggled a little bit with the rubric and using Blogger. The rubric was very specific and focused on basic concepts that I didn’t always want to write about. But, as others felt the same way, we modified the requirements of the rubric and assignment as a class. This made the blogging more flexible and fun, and opened up more writing opportunities for my classmates and I. Blogger gave me some problems with formatting posts. As we used the blogs more, it became easier to format posts as well as add more exciting media to my blog, such as videos, links, and displays. One strength I had with blogging was the ability to add my voice to the posts, as well as make them casual. An example of more casual writing is, “Letting you know, yes, she lost her right arm. Was it easy to go back to regular life? Not at all. On top of the struggles of everyday life, and being talked about, numerous stories about the attack and her life began to appear in the news and the paper. This gave her the nickname Sharkgirl. Yes, Sharkgirl. First off, I think that is completely rude, considering she is probably scarred for life due to the attack. But, the name calling still happened. Even in her senior year, Jane is still followed by the press and the dreadful nickname, and worst of all, it began to define her.” I enjoyed writing in a casual way, as I felt that this style helped me to communicate the message, as well as make the blog easier to read.

My goal was to read 12 books during the school year, making my goal 4 books in a trimester. I ended up making my goal of four books, reading a total of seven books this trimester. I used goodreads.com to help me track my reading, find new books to read, and recommend books to others. I have improved as a reader during this trimester because I have read a variety of new genres of books, and learned more about my reading and writing through my blog. I feel that this helped me to grow a lot as a reader, and I hope to continue to blog and read new types of books in the future.