My eighth grade and seventh grade English class with Mrs. Lepre has been a great learning adventure. My class learned how to make our evidence flow better in our writing and practiced writing counter arguments with rebuttals. Mrs. Lepre made us better at writing essays and a better annotator. That’s why for Portfolio Night of May 2016 I chose two writing assignments, one from seventh grade and one from eighth grade, so you could see my growth in writing.

In seventh grade I wrote an essay about tap water being better for humans to drink than drinking bottled water. I proved my opinion with evidence from the sources that were provided. Even though I was a good writer in seventh grade there was still some places where I need more practice. For example, the introduction was one of my weaknesses because I didn’t make it easily flow and went from one topic to the next. The way I stated the evidence was one of my strengths because it was relative to what I was talking about and proved what I was stating was accurate. As a F.L.A.G.S student this artifact showed that I am an effective communicator because I can conclude my ideas with strong evidence.

My eighth grade assignment is an argumentative essay about either having the pure water program or not having the program. The pure water program is when sewage water goes through a filtered system to make clean water, that we can use or drink again. Which for my assignment I stated that the pure water program is better to have than not to have because it is better for humans and earth. It gives water a second use rather than just one use. For this assignment we had to write five paragraphs about why people should go ahead with the pure water program including a counterargument and a rebuttal. The counter argument is one of my weaknesses because it isn’t the best that I could have done. Out of all the F.L.A.G.S outcomes, this assignment showed that i’m a critical and creative thinker because I can read different sources that have an opinion and from that get my own opinion on the matter.

Between seventh and eighth grade I have improved very well in writing essays because I am better at stating accurate evidence in my own words and making introductions properly. I learned new ways to write my evidence which makes the writing better. In seventh grade I usually started introductions with a question but over time, I can state introductions differently while making the writing better. Although my counter arguments aren’t the best right now in eighth grade, over time I can practice writing counterarguments, so writing them will be easier.