Acknowledgments

To begin, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Mrs. Valentino. Throughout this year, she has shown me the importance of who your mentor is with subjects like English. I greatly appreciate the passion for language that she expresses everyday. Her excitement for the knowledge and cleverness of authors has definitely impacted the way that I view language. I can’t lie, I’ve actually gotten chills and had my jaw drop on various occasions with the breakthroughs Mrs. Valentino has helped our class reach. It’s shocking how much can be revealed and drawn from seemingly simple pieces. Now, I even catch myself analyzing the “deeper meaning” behind cartoons and building designs (although, maybe this is actually a curse). Maybe literature actually is life…

I would also like to express my deepest appreciation for the endless amount of reading and analyzing we had to do throughout the year. Although those reflection questions at the end of the pieces felt like they would be the end of me each night, I’m glad to say that I can see the difference it’s made in my ability to understand and take meaning from works of any kind. To Deborah Tannen, thank you for writing and sharing “There is No Unmarked Woman”. This piece was able to articulate what has been so obvious, yet something I was never able to recognize and pinpoint as a societal habit. To Art Speigelman, thank you for showing me how much the quote “A picture is worth a thousand words” is not just a useless cliche. Maus has allowed me to understand that language can be expressed in endless ways. 

To my pod, thank you for making the repetitive days, weeks, and months feel a little bit shorter. I’m glad I can say I’ve learned a lot from the time we shared, although most of it is not lang-related. First, thank you for allowing me to be a part of the production of your legendary TikToks - I’m honored I got to be your designated camera-man. I’m also grateful for the (slightly terrifying) pictures of us I’ve taken on PhotoBooth. However, I wouldn’t mind too much if the memories of Rachel telling me I looked like a smiling stingray suddenly vanished. Overall, though, I can confidently say that I would definitely not mind if we somehow ended up in the same English class again next year :) (See you at Fat Ham!)

Next, I want to thank my best friends. Although they aren’t in AP Lang, they never fail to reveal new ideas and perspectives to me. Although we mostly sat in the car yelling out “Would you rather…” questions and losing our breaths while cackling about our senseless jokes, there would also be times of depth in which we attempted to solve the world’s oldest and deepest questions. Occasionally, I would ask them the same complicated societal questions we were asked in class, wanting to see how they would respond. They were able to push my thinking as they acknowledged perspectives that had never crossed my mind. By doing so, they’ve helped me realize that, although people can seem so similar to each other, there will always be another side to be considered. 

As we approached the second semester, I got progressively more fearful of the essays that would, supposedly, be the cause of my demise. I’d accepted my ability to write mediocre essays that would slightly hinder my 10th grade English honors grade, but felt that I was certainly not ready for the weekly tragedies of 11 AP English. Now, however, I feel I am deeply indebted to these essays (and Mrs. Valentino for giving them to us) for the progress they have led me to take on. Specifically, I have learned how to analyze thoroughly and draw further conclusions from the evidence. For example, in the synthesis essay about rewilding, I was able to put two of the sources into conversation with each other in order to acknowledge a counterclaim, then refute it. I stated what the counterclaim source “failed to acknowledge”, using another source as an example to support my argument. I also focused on drawing new claims and furthering the argument given the evidence. An example of this is my statement that “When urban rewilding involves implementation of small changes, it could truly change the way nature will be valued in the future”. Although this wasn’t explicitly stated in any of the sources, I was able to use an accumulation of the pieces to express a new perspective. Previously, I didn’t place much value on the counterclaims, and I mostly focused on attempting to support my argument to the fullest. However, as a result of the countless essays we’ve done, I’ve learned that being able to fully acknowledge multiple perspectives is necessary for a complete argument. Thanks to the essays, I have also been able to improve the style of my writing. For instance, in the synthesis essay on eminent domain, I mentioned that “it was deemed a success that ‘more than one-third of the displaced households’ were returned to the city of Freetown”. However, when reading this piece, I found that its perspective was overly positive for the situation at

hand. So, for my rebuttal, I asked, “What happened to the other two-thirds?” This rhetorical question allowed me to support my argument and express my concern in a straight-forward way. Although I did follow this question with further analysis and an expansion of my thought process, I believe my improvement in style over this year has contributed to the effectiveness of my essays. 

This class has provided me with an incredible amount of improvement from the beginning of the year. I have grown as a writer, reader, and observer, and the experiences have made this class more than just another period in the day. As I walk into my English class in August next year, these experiences will certainly linger.