ENG4UE
TERM 1 READING GOALS
READING GOALS
READING GOALS
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To be able to read more than 2 or 3 books before the second term of the semester, I plan to make a reading plan and update it every day to track progress of my reading. Additionally, I want to set aside at least 20 to 30 minutes every day to read. This will ensure that I can finish the books before the deadline.
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To expand on my vocabulary, I want to learn at least 10 new words per week. This will happen naturally through my reading of different materials. Whenever I encounter a new word, I will write it down in my notebook, define it, and utilize it in an example sentence.
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I want to improve my critical reading and analysis skills by learning to annotate all the text that I read. To do this, I will highlight and write tiny notes within books to identify topics that I don’t understand, new words, important themes and ideas, as well as any other points of interest.
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I want to be able to improve my reading speed by tracking how many pages I read per minute. I can do this everytime I read and showcase it in my reading tracker.
Becoming a Better Reader…
Over the past few weeks, I have worked steadily toward improving my reading abilities by directly following my four goals. So far, my progress toward the goals I set for this semester has been a mixed bag with some successes and a few areas that still need more focus. Here’s a breakdown of how things have gone and how I plan to adjust moving forward:
(1) Reading More Books
Goal: Finish at least two to three books by the end of the semester.
Evidence: Reading Log
So far, I have successfully completed my first reading goal almost two months early. Not only have I been reading for 15 minutes during silent reading in class, but I also enjoy reading at home. In total, I’ve completed two books: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. Additionally, I am also on track to finish my third and fourth book, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan as well as Beartown by Fredrik Backman.
In order to stay organized, I kept a detailed reading log with information such as book titles, pages read, and time spent reading. This log helped me stay accountable and track my progress throughout the semester. This has been one of the most useful tools for me, as it provides a clear record of my accomplishments. Furthermore, I’ve been monitoring this dataset in order to determine whether I would successfully meet my targets by the deadline.
Setting this reading goal has definitely kept my focused and on track. Without these goals, I might have procrastinated or become distracted by other tasks. Knowing that I had specific objectives to fulfill motivated me to read more, even if I felt like there were “more important things” to do. In my opinion, having this goal and gaining the sense of accomplishment is extremely rewarding. Since I have finished this task, I will be adjusting my book reading goal to increase to 6 books by the end of the semester. I am very confident in my ability to achieve this goal as my reading has become more voluntarily rather than forced.
Although I technically finished my objective, I didn’t entirely follow through on my original plan. In my personal goal document, I had stated that I would read for 20-30 minutes every day, but I missed several days as reflected in my reading log. Most days, I only managed to read for a maximum of 15 minutes.
Despite these inconsistencies, I would say I’m making great progress so far. While I didn’t perfectly adhere to the daily reading schedule, the fact that I completed two books and am almost done with my third shows that I am still on track. In fact, I feel like I’m exceeding my own expectations by reading consistently in class and at home, even if it wasn’t always for 30 minutes per day. Prior to this class, I never read at home and only read when instructed to by either an assignment or assessment. To have adapted to reading majority of days in my free time, I see this as an excellent step forward.
In consideration of all the factors attributing to the first reading goal, I would give myself a “E” level in terms of progression because I am exceeding past my expectations.
(2) Expand On Vocabulary
Goal: Learn at least 10 new words per week.
Evidence: Vocabulary Log
Half a semester in, my progress in expanding my vocabulary has been a mixed experience. I set out with the goal of learning at least ten new words each week through my reading, but I have not been as consistent as I had hoped. While I initially had high expectations, I have only managed to compile around 30 words after 4-5 weeks. This indicates taht I am falling short of my goal, which is disappointing given my initial enthusiasm.
I indented to keep track of my progress using a vocabulary tracker, but I didn’t update it as frequently as I should have. This lack of regular updates meant that I lost track of the new words I encountered, making it harder to achieve my goal of learning ten new words per week. Additionally, my original version was on pieces of paper making it super difficult and time consuming to manage. This crucial factor may have infleunced my motivation in continously updating the tracker. As a result of this failure, I am reflecting on how I can better manage this goal for the second term.
Moving forward, I realized that I should first move everything to digital. In particular, I never should have made the vocabulary log on paper especially considering the convenience of an online environment like Google. Furthermore, I need to reconsider the attainability of the goal I set. Learning 10 new words per week sounds easy, but the problem is that in the content I am reading, I simply can not find 10 words that I have never seen before. A solution to this problem could be that I should read additional content or I could reduce the amount of words to a more realistic amount. Ultimately, I decided to reduce the wordcount to a more manageable number and develop a better plan. For example, I could fully commit myself to learning five new words each week, while ensuring that I write them down, define them, and use them in sentences consistently.
Although I haven’t fully achieved this goal yet, having the goal has still contributed toward motivation in improving my vocabulary. Setting this goal has forced to pay close attention to new words in the material I read. However, I need to improve my method of fulfilling this goal as I want to be able to not only learn but also retain the words in my memory.
Overall, while I didn’t exactly “knock the goal out the park”, I have gained some valuable insights into how I can better approach this objective. In accordance to my self-grading legend, I would give myself a “S” level progression as I did not meet my expectations, but I am on the correct pathway.
(3) Improve Reading Analysis
Goal: Learning to adapt active reading by annotating material.
Evidence: Book Annotations
Up to this point, I’ve made some progress toward improving my critical reading and analysis skills, though there’s still room for improvement. I’ve been annotating texts more often by highlighting key themes, new words, and ideas I find confusing, but I haven’t been as diligent about tracking my progress along the way. More specifically, the consistency of my annotations vary depending on the book I am reading. For example, if I am reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief or Ship Breaker, I tend to avoid annotation since it makes the reading process severely less enjoyable. But, for other books like The Picture of Dorian Gray where a ton of symbolism is present and the text is more complex, I will annotate to fully understand the important topics.
In my original goal, I intended to annotate every text that I read but that may be too unreasonable to complete. While I’m not failing, I haven’t fully met exceeded my goals either, so I may need to adjust by setting clearer checkpoints for progression. A possible adjustment could be that I focus on annotating only more complex or important texts rather than everything I read. This allows me to engage deeply without feeling overwhelmed and burntout.
Having this goal has helped me stay more focused, as knowing what I’m lookg for makes reading more active, but refining this goal will be necessary in order to keep me motivated and on track. Moving forward, I will aim for a balance between thorough analysis and realistic expectations to make more consistent progress.
In conclusion, I believe that I technically met my expecations for this goal and subsequently, I would give myself a “G” level of progression.
(4) Improve Reading Speed
Goal: Increase reading speed in terms of pages per minute.
Evidence: Reading Log
In my original goal, I aimed to improve my reading speed, and my reading log showed the progress in terms of pages per minute increasing. At first, I found it challenging to maintain a faster pace without sacrificing comprehension, but over time, I noticed that my reading speed was steadily increasing at a very tiny rate. Additionally, I noticed that for generally easier books to comprehend such as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, my pages per minute were significantly higher than a more complex novel like The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Nevertheless, even with a more sophisticated piece of literature, as I read more of the text, I assumed that I became more familiar with the language and structure, thus my speed increased as well. Referencing the data set found on the chart, I would say that I am on track of meeting my goal. While the improvements might seem marginal at first, there is a slow consistent rise in pages per minute that reflects meaningful progress towards this goal.
Therefore, moving into term 2, I will be keeping this goal as an objective I need to complete. However, I want to make it more specific in terms of setting a numerical value to reach for. This will give me additional motivation to stay focused and on track.
Ultimately, I would say that I am at the “G” level of progression since I am meeting expectations.
Reading Log
Vocabulary Log
DORIAN GRAY ANNOTATIONS
READING SPEED DATA
TERM 2 READING GOALS
READING GOALS
READING GOALS
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This semester, I plan to read at least 5 more books by the end and these must include 3 different genres, and I plan to continue my reading log and update it everyday to track progress. This way I can add more diversity to my reading habits.
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I want to track new words learned in a vocabulary log and then import them into Quizlet where I can continue to quiz myself on the new words every week. In particular, I want to add 5 new words from various sources I encounter them in, into my reading log.
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I want to improve my critical reading and analysis skills by learning to annotate all the text that I read. To do this, I will highlight and write tiny notes within books to identify topics that I don’t understand, new words, important themes and ideas, as well as any other points of interest.
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I want to be able to improve my reading speed by tracking how many pages I read per minute. I can do this everytime I read and showcase it in my reading tracker.
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I want to be able to ultimately read more. The past few months, I have been addicted to my phone and I believe a better use of that time would be reading. I plan to track my reading using a reading log similar to goal #1, but increase my reading to at least 1 hour per day.
*Changed (1)
*Changed (2)
*New (5)
IMPROVING AS A Reader…
Throughout the semester, I have consistently worked toward improving my reading abilities by following the four goals I set. My progress has been a balance of achievements and areas that still need improvement. I’ve built stronger habits, but I recognize the need to focus more on tackling complex materials and managing my time effectively. As the semester concludes, I believe I have done a sufficient job in meeting my goals.
(1) Reading More Books
Goal: Finish at least six books by the end of the semester with a minimum of three different genres.
Evidence: Reading Log
At the midterm, I had achieved my goal at the time, “finishing at least 2-3 books”, with ease. Subsequently, for the next half of the semester, I changed my goal to reflect my progress and increased the book count to six. Something I added to further change my goal was to have a minimum of at least three different genres. This promoted diversity of the material I read and hopefully allows me to explore differing views and topics.
At the end of the semester, I am happy to report that I not only achieved this goal, but exceeded it by completing a total of nine different books with at least four different genres: Beartown by Fredrik Backman, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse, Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian all by Rick Riordan.
Since my midterm reflection, I have improved my consistency and completely exceeded my expectations. I initially struggled with maintaining my daily reading as I became overwhelmed with outside activities like university applications which took up most of my time. However, I adapted to these time constraints and replaced the time I spent on other hobbies like playing video games with reading to compensate. I developed a strong habit of reading at home, something I rarely did before this semester, and found myself voluntarily picking up books more often. I managed to end up reaching my ultimate goal in reading since the start of high school which was to read for enjoyment.
I continued to track my reading through my reading log which has gained plenty of document pages as a result of the many books I picked up since November.
The sense of accomplishment from reaching my goals has been incredibly rewarding, and my perspective on reading has shifted from seeing it as an obligation viewing it as an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Overall, I feel that my progress has been excellent, and the changed I’ve made will have a lasting impact on my learning and personal growth. I would give myself another “E” level describing my extraordinary progress in this goal.
(2) Expand On Vocabulary
Goal: Learn at least 5 new words per week.
Evidence: Vocabulary Log
At the beginning of the semester, my original goal was to learn at least 10 new words each week through my reading. However, halfway through the term, I realized that this goal was overly ambitious due to the content I was reading, which didn’t always contain unfamiliar vocabulary. As a result, I reflected on my approach and decided to adjust the goal to a more realistic and attainable target of learning 5 new words per week.
Since making this adjustment, I can confidently conclude that I successfully achieved my revised goal. Each week, I committed to identifying 5 new words, writing them down, defining them, and using them in sentences. Moving my vocabulary tracker to a digital format, such as Google Docs, made the process significantly more efficient and manageable. This change eliminated the challenges I previously faced with tracking words on paper, such as losing notes or struggling to organize them.
Achieving this goal has been very rewarding, as it forced me to focus more on unfamiliar words in the material I read, and I now feel more confident incorporating them into my writing and conversations. Additionally, this process has helped me retain the words better because I consistently engaged with them beyond just writing them down—I actively practiced using them in context. In particular, I utilized a Quizlet containing all my vocabulary words which I practiced with at least once a week. Including Quizlet into this goal has made a significant difference, as it allows me to learn through flashcards and quizzes which are two types of active learning, much more effective than solely using my vocabulary log prior to the second term.
Reflecting on the experience, I realize that adjusting the goal was crucial to my success. While I initially viewed reducing the weekly word count as a compromise, it ultimately made the goal attainable and allowed me to make steady progress. By setting a realistic target and improving my tracking method, I not only met my expectations but also created a reasonable routine for expanding my vocabulary.
Overall, I would grade myself an “E” for this goal, as I successfully met the revised target of learning 5 new words per week. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made and plan to continue this habit moving forward as I find this a genuinely effective way of learning.
(3) Improve Reading Analysis
Goal: Learning to adapt active reading by annotating material.
Evidence: Book Annotations
Originally, my goal was to annotate every text I read by highlighting key themes, noting new words, identifying confusing ideas, and marking points of interest. While I have made progress toward improving my critical reading and analysis skills, I have found that my approach needed refinement to be more effective and sustainable.
Throughout the second portion of the semester, I have been annotating texts more frequently, especially when reading complex or symbol-heavy works like The Picture of Dorian Gray, Beartown, or Hamlet. These annotations helped me better understand themes and identify deeper ideas. However, likewise to the first term, I noticed a significant drop in consistency of annotation when reading lighter, fast-paced books like Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and The Hunger Games, where annotating disrupted the flow and made the reading experience ultimately less enjoyable. This inconsistency highlights a need for a more balanced approach to active reading.
Additionally, I began setting clearer checkpoints, such as annotating at least two key themes and one confusing section per chapter, which gave me a structured way to track progress. This has been reflected in my chapter annotations of my ISP book The Picture of Dorian Gray where I now include many more details compared to what I wrote on the first term. Moreover, I tried using a categorial approach to annotations found on the template of the “Beartown Notes” document. This allowed me to stay more organized compared to the previous term, and promoted looking for specific ideas in the texts. However, I believe I poured more effort into the character chart for Beartown which is found in the reading skills section of this portfolio, and likely a better representation of my improvement.
This goal has helped me develop more focus and awareness while reading, as identifying important ideas made the process more active and engaging. However, I’ve learned that it’s important to set realistic expectations to avoid burnout. Moving forward, I plan to continue refining this goal by focusing annotation efforts on texts that truly benefit from deeper analysis while maintaining a balance between enjoyment and critical thinking.
Overall, I believe I have met my expectations for this goal. I would grade myself a “G” level of progression, as I made meaningful progress and improved my reading analysis skills while acknowledging areas for continued growth.
(4) Improve Reading Speed
Goal: Increase reading speed in terms of pages per minute.
Evidence: Reading Log
Since Term 1, I have continued to work on improving my reading speed, but the progress has remained minimal and slower than I originally anticipated. While I have noticed slight improvements, particularly in familiar or simpler texts like Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, I find that my speed still fluctuates depending on the complexity of the material. For more challenging texts, such as The Picture of Dorian Gray or Hamlet, I observed that my speed starts lower but gradually increases as I become more familiar with the language and structure of the text. Additionally, my reading speed heavily depends on if I am annotating the story at the same time or not. Nearing the end where I begin to re-annotate The Picture of Dorian Gray, my reading speed drops significantly below 1 page per minute.
Referencing my reading log, the data reflects a steady but small rise in my pages-per-minute rate, showing that while I am progressing, the changes are not yet significant enough to meet my expectations. I believe that this goal requires more time to achieve substantial results, as improving reading speed while maintaining comprehension is a gradual process.
Moving forward, I plan to continue using this goal as an objective but make it more specific by setting a measurable target, such as increasing my average pages-per-minute rate by 10%. This will give me a clear numerical value to work toward and provide additional motivation to stay consistent with my practice. I truly believe that in higher-level education, reading speed is crucial to being able to understand and analyze texts at a faster pace.
Overall, I believe I am making steady progress and would assess myself at a “G” level of progression since I am meeting expectations, even if the improvements are minimal. I remain committed to this goal and look forward to seeing greater results over time as I continue to improve my approach.
Reading Log (Term 2)
Vocabulary Log (Term 2)
Beartown ANNOTATIONS
READING SPEED DATA (term 2)
(5) Read Longer
Goal: Increase daily reading to at least one hour per day.
Evidence: Reading Log / Time Graph
For the second half of the semester, I set a new goal to increase my daily reading time to at least one hour. Over the past few months, I’ve noticed how much time I spend on my phone, and I realized that shifting that time toward reading would be a far more productive and fulfilling use of my day. To achieve this, I planed to track my progress using a reading log and time graph.
As the semester ends, I believe I made consistent progress, though not without some challenges. By tracking my sessions using a reading log and time graph, I was able to hold myself accountable and see exactly how much time I spent reading each day. Near the beginning, it was difficult to stick to the full hour, especially on busier days when other responsibilities or distractions, like university applications, made it harder to dedicate time. However, I gradually built a routine that made this goal easier to achieve.
I have converted data from my reading log into a Google Sheets graph to depict the time I read each day. By analyzing the trend of the graph, I noticed that I was indeed averaging more and more time spent on reading each day, and even surpassed my goal of one hour on most days. This was a huge improvement compared to my previous habits. Additionally, this goal also helped me reduce my phone usage significantly, which was simply an added benefit.
While I didn’t perfectly meet my goal every single day, I made up for most of the time lost by reading more on other days. I’ve solidified a healthy habit of reading daily and believe that I would assess myself at an “G” level for this goal. I think that I met my expectations and made exceptional progress, but I lacked discipline and missed my mark on some days.
