Best Piece of Academic Work and Reflective Essay

          My original essay can be found at the following link.  My reflection is posted below.

Best Piece of Academic Work: Shakespeare Honors Essay

Reflecting on "The Answer to the Question"

          Sorting through the mass collection of essays I have written during my five years in college proved to be a more difficult task than I imagined.  I had forgotten about many of the essays from my first semesters in college and, as I read through them, I definitely began to notice how my writing style changed and became more sophisticated.  However, my synthesis essay for Shakespeare class, in which I analyzed ideas in The Tempest and Hamlet, stood out.  Is it my best piece of academic work?  That’s debatable.  However, this essay, which I wrote spring semester of 2013, represents the strides I have made as a writer as well as a piece of writing that demonstrates the qualities that I want to see in the writing of my own high school English students.

            Although this (hopefully) is not apparent in the essay, I had a difficult time in this Shakespeare class.  I had a difficult time concentrating on and participating in the discussion that my professor led.  I often felt that my peers were grasping the concepts quicker than myself.  However, I took extensive notes in my notebook and the copies of Shakespeare’s plays, which, in the pre-writing phase of my essay, came in very handy.  I took more notes in this Shakespeare class than any other college class.  When it came to writing the essay, I felt very prepared because I was able to review everything we had discussed in class and apply my own ideas.  The actual writing of the essay was relatively simple because of my note taking.

            The importance of taking comprehensive and thorough notes is one skill that I wish to pass on to future students.  When I graduated from high school, I did not know how to take good notes, notes that are quick and easy to understand and summarize information concisely.  In college, I had to learn how to take notes on the fly.  As a teacher, I want to scaffold the note-taking process for my students so they are better prepared, not only for my classes, but collegiate classes as well.

            Through this essay, I was also able to demonstrate my knowledge and insight of Shakespeare and some of his plays.  For this essay, not only was I required to have a strong understanding of The Tempest and Hamlet, but I was also required to make text-to-text connections.  These connections move out and beyond the plays, requiring one to move outside of the limits and scope of the play and make connections between speeches, themes, and ideas.  My essay proves that I have a strong background in Shakespeare that I will be able to bring to the high school classroom.      

            Shakespeare is a staple in high school classrooms.  They are classics and their themes and circumstances can be seen in stories everywhere.  Additionally, Shakespeare’s plays are complex texts that challenge students to read closely and draw inferences.  As a future English teacher, I will incorporate some of Shakespeare’s plays into my lessons because they challenge students in different ways than other complex texts.  Additionally, Shakespeare’s plays are referenced and retold often in modern stories, so it is important that students are familiar with the original versions of the stories.

            Finally, the structure of the essay in general is very important to learn at the high school level.  In high school, I received poor instruction about how to write an essay.  My essay, “The Answer to the Question,” demonstrates that I know how to introduce and conclude an essay, relate a strong thesis statement, and defend that statement with organized evidence that has been cited correctly.  In my classroom, I would be able to teach my students this information.

            Writing my essay for Shakespeare class, I felt that I had a firm grasp on the content.  Not only did I understand how to write an essay, but I could also draw strong connections between different Shakespearean texts.  As a high school English teacher, I would incorporate this information into my reading and writing curriculum.  To me, this essay represents the skills that I would like to teach high school students because they are skills they would continue to need in college and contribute to their base of foundational knowledge.