Second Quarter Reflection

       I think I've made my biggest improvement on citing evidence and using the TIQA format for the AOW's. I've improved since the beginning of the year. I've also noticed that I've been using better word choice for my writing. Looking back on my old AOW's, I noticed that I always missed something so I needed to revise. The most recent AOW, in my opinion, is the best one I've done. I made sure I added the essential question and made sure that I chose the best pieces of evidence.
       Something that I've accomplished since the new year that I am proud of is my recent investigative journalism piece. I think I did the best that I could've. I worked on that piece for a while and I'm pretty proud of what I've written. I tried my hardest to make it as best as possible. It was a great topic for me to work on since I knew some background information and also I've always been interested in wars in middle eastern countries.
       The most challenging part of 2nd quarter was annotating articles. I'm not used to annotating books and articles as I read. It's a good learning tool and I should do it more often. I've gotten more used to it since in science we always has to annotate Newsela articles for homework and in ELA class.
       Out of the books I've read this quarter, my favorite was Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Jacobson. This was my favorite book this quarter because this book is different and it captured my attention. So far, this book has been really good. At the same time, this book is confusing. I can't wait to find out what happens at the end.

Book Talk

        The book I am currently reading is Small As An Elephant by Jennifer Jacobson. The genre of the book is realistic fiction. Small As An Elephant is about an 11-year-old boy named Jack and his mother. Jack and his mother are on a camping trip in Acadia National Park in Maine. Jack wakes up one morning and realizes his mother is gone. Jack refuses to tell anyone, he'd rather solve this case himself. He has no company but a plastic elephant by his side.
        So far this book is very exciting but also confusing. It's exciting because Jack is on mission to find his mother. It's also very confusing because I don't understand why would a mother do this to her 11-year-old child. I've made some assumptions and guesses. I can't wait to find out why and what happens towards the end of the book.
        I liked this book because the summary of the book in back caught my attention and the title is unique. What I remember most about the book was that Jack has no one but this small plastic elephant that he adores so much. I would recommend this book to middle schoolers because this book isn't as challenging, but it's still very interesting and attention grabbing. I recommend this book to you guys because I feel that you'll enjoy it as much as I have been so far. This book has a lot of plot twists that you wouldn't expect.