Almanza 1

Irene Almanza

Mr. R Howell

English 1 Scholars

2 October 2018

Hard Work Really Does Pay Off

Math isn’t for everyone and at one point in my life, it wasn’t for me. Growing up, I was

horrible at math and I’d always get bad grades on my tests and classwork. Partly because most of

my family members didn’t try hard in school. My family’s attitude towards school was very

discouraged, so for me, it was normal to not try hard. This is why I didn’t do well on my class

assignments. I felt like there was no point of trying and this affected me in a bad way. It made it

difficult for me to solve most of the math assignments my teacher would assign because I was

idle. As a result, I was behind, I wasn’t learning at the same rate as my classmates. I’d always get

low C’s on most of my math tests and all of my friends would get A’s. The feeling of being

behind made me become very quiet when it came to group discussions and discouraged me as a

person because all my friends were so advanced and I was basically the only one that was

struggling. I finally decided to take action of this problem when I was in fourth-grade. I had to

overcome several obstacles to improve, but thankfully I wasn’t alone. My family and teacher

were also there by my side through my growth journey.

It was necessary for me to do multiple things to overcome this challenge of mine. In the

text “The New Psychology of Success” (growth mindsets) by Carol Dweck, she emphasizes and

explains the insights of a growth mindset. She highlights how we as humans let our talents and

abilities affect us. I connect to this because I let my math abilities affect me badly and it made
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me become lazy and discouraged over the years. I realized I was starting to become like my

sisters. The thought of that horrified me and I was determined to have a growth mindset. I

wanted to stop thinking it was normal to not try hard and instead I wanted to have the “not yet”

type of mindset. Thus I had to seek help, so it was necessary for me to ask my family and

teacher. My family members decided to start tutoring me by doing my math homework with me.

Everyday right after school, my sisters would teach me different methods to better understand

the concepts I was learning. In addition to helping me with my homework, they’d also helped

prepare me for my tests by reviewing my classwork the night before. I think the help from my

family was very useful but I felt like I needed more. Therefore I asked my teacher to help me

with my class assignments. Her name was Ms.McMahon and she’d always come to me after

class to clarify and show me different methods for solving the math problems we were doing.

We did these methods and tasks my whole fourth-grade year. I personally think the help from my

family and teacher was extremely useful in my growth journey.

In addition to all the tasks I did, I also did activities to help me grow more. For example,

I’d play math games online whenever I had the chance. I’m the type of learner that gets bored

easily, therefore, playing these math games it helped me learn new concepts in a fun way. I felt

like this was more effective than other activites I tried. In the summer I also went to a summer

camp that mainly focused on preparing us for school. They’d make us do a lot of math

worksheets. Even though I didn’t like doing them, I knew it was for a good purpose. This

actually helped train me for the new math concepts I was going to learn in fifth grade and it paid

off greatly.
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It took me numerous hours and efforts to improve my math abilities. I encountered many

setbacks on the journey to my growth. For example, when I first started to become willing to try

hard in my math, I didn’t see improvement at all at first. I’d still get bad grades on my test even

though I’d study for hours. I was tempted to cheat multiple times but I never had the guts to.

Each time I failed I’d get sad, but then it encouraged me to study harder for the next test. This

encouragement made me improve more and I even started getting B’s on my tests. By the end of

fourth grade, I started to finally catch up with the rest of my friends. I’m proud to say that in my

fifth grade year I was finally considered one of the advanced children and continued to be this

way every year. I had become so advanced that it enabled me to pass in the algebra course I took

in eighth grade. Now I am proud to say that I’m taking honors geometry for my freshman year.

This experience was very tiring but it was worth it because made me realize a lot about

myself. It made me have the mindset that if you really want to achieve something, you have to

put a lot of time and effort to make it happen. For me, I needed to be extremely hardworking and

determined in order to advance in math. In addition to this, you have to do other extra tasks and

activities if you really want to grow. This experience as well made me learned that my family

and every teacher will always have a big impact on my educational and mental development.

Knowing that I could always count on them for support made me realize how important these

people really are in my life. I used to think that it was normal to not think or care about school,

but because of my family and teachers, my whole attitude has changed. I started to become

aware of my struggles and how to fix them. This is why I have changed as a person and I’m very

proud of that. I always try to always get A’s and I never give up. Now math is a huge part of my

life. ​Rubric rating submitted on: 10/28/2018, 3:10:17 PM by rdhowell1@cps.edu:

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10—Skilled 8-9—Adequate 7—Developing 5-6—Not Yet

Focus The writer clearly The writer focuses The writer generally The writer does not
8-9—Adequate focuses on the most on interesting issues focuses on a topic to yet maintain a clear
compelling issues that inform the inform a reader with topic.
that inform the reader with ideas, ideas, concepts,
reader with ideas, concepts, and information, etc.
concepts, and information.
information.

Style and The text includes The text includes The text includes The text includes
Conventions eloquent words and precise words and words and phrases, words and phrases
7—Developing phrases, showing phrases, showing telling details and and telling details to
details and rich details and sensory language to convey experiences,
sensory language controlled sensory convey a vivid events, settings,
and mood to convey language and mood picture of the and/or characters.
a realistic picture of to convey a realistic setting, events,
the experiences, picture of the experiences, and/or
events, setting, experience, events, characters.
and/or characters. setting, and/or
characters.

Comments:
This was a pleasure to read. Thanks so much for sharing! :) You're a very conversational writer,
which makes the reading experience enjoyable. Continue working to move from telling details to
showing details. See my comments in the document for specific feedback and
responses/recommendations. Do not "resolve" comments until instructed to do so.