Final Exam                                               Thomas Williams

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                                                                                                                                  6/12/15

Reading Reflection

Context & Reflection

The reading reflection that I chose to focus on for the final exam was about the weekend when my cousin Lucas came over and played basketball with me. One reason I chose this piece of writing is because it reminds me of how much I enjoy hanging out with him, but also how much I hate losing to my cousin in a game of basketball. It really makes my blood boil and, I can get really defensive! I think that revising this piece will help me to think about the reasons I always lose to him and help me to be a better basketball player. The other reason I chose this piece of writing has to do with the fact that I wrote this piece more recently. I wrote it in the middle of May 2015, and now it is a little over a month later that I am choosing to revise it. The time in between May and now of writing this piece, has allowed me to remember the event more vividly, reflect on how I wrote it, and think about how best to improve it.

The Piece (Revised): Basketball

Every weekend I have chores to do. My mom and dad make me clean my room. I have to strip my bed of its linen, vacuum my room, put anything on the floor away, and clean my bathroom. So, I did the same thing I do every weekend before I could go out and play basketball with my cousin Lucas. I hurriedly stripped my bed of its linen, vacuumed my room, cleaned the bathroom and I went outside. I waited on my porch for my cousin. He told me he would meet me at 12:00 pm on the front porch and we would walk to the basketball court on the corner of Meadow Street and Wood Street across from Tops Grocery Market. I practiced dribbling on my front porch while I was waiting for him. While I was waiting for him, my sister came out on the porch and asked if Lucas had arrived, but I told her not yet. She asked if she could go with us.  I said, “sure”. My sister ran back inside to get her water bottle and by the time she came back out, our cousin Lucas had gotten to our house. As soon as we begin to walk to the court, all I could think about was how I planned to beat him in our basketball match. I was lost in my own thoughts when Lucas asked me, “Have you been practicing some shots?” I said, “yeah and I am going to try them out on you today!” He smiled and laughed. He said, “Okay, we will see.” I smiled and kept thinking about the moves I would use on him. My sister and Lucas kept talking until we got there. When we finally got to the court, all I could do was hear the ball bouncing on the concrete. It made an echoing sound especially since it was just the three of us there. My sister sat on the bench and watched us play. It was almost a blur as to how fast the basketball was moving between us. I was playing defense and he was offense - half court. My cousin was good at playing basketball. He kept dribbling the ball and dunking it. I couldn’t seem to keep him from stealing it from me. He dunked on me so many times and I never got one shot. But I said to him, “I want a rematch!” Then, he said, “Okay lets go.” My sister asked if she could join in the next round and we both said, “sure”. My sister wanted to be on my cousin’s team, so it would be two against one. I needed to concentrate and find the right moment to steal the ball based on my cousin’s physical position and how he was holding the ball. See, he is a lot taller than I am, so I had to use my size to try and beat him. I’m shorter, a lot quicker, and can duck real easy to fake him out. Even though my sister was playing, she could never get the ball from us, so I really didn’t have to worry about her. I remembered what I had been taught by my dad when practicing - “make sure half of your weight is distributed to the fronts or balls of your feet.” “Heel should still be in contact with the ground.” I pointed my feet straight ahead to create an angle that would help me to provide more force against the ground and be stable. I made sure my feet were slightly wider than shoulder width apart. I silently repeated to myself, “hips back & knees bent”, “knees inside of feet to create alignment with your lower body which enables you to explode more efficiently in any direction”, “butt down to stay balanced”, “shoulders over knees, but don’t lean forward too much – bring your hands above your head to help bring the upper body more upright.” I seemed to really focus and before I knew it, I had dribbled to the right, then to the left. I dribbled the ball between my legs and then got really low to the ground. I bounced the ball between my cousin’s legs, darted past him to get the ball and made a jump shot into the basket. I slam-dunked it! I said, “I WIN!!!!” I don’t think my cousin or sister could believe it, but they both walked over to me and said good game.

About the Author

My name is Thomas-Jerome Williams. I am currently a 7th grader at Dewitt Middle school. I enjoy playing sports, especially basketball and baseball. Although I am not the best at writing, I am working on my writing skills. When I think about where I was last year compared to this year, I have tried to do more independent writing without a lot of other people always giving me suggestions. I feel that I have improved because I am working on using more detail in my writing so it is not so plain. I want readers to be interested in what I have to say. All of my English teachers have worked with me, both this year and last year to help develop my writing skills. They’ve helped me to recall certain moments of my life - making me really think deeply/critically about what I did or how something happened. I also think I have improved by editing and revising things I have written. It has helped me to see what I could have done better and make the story come alive.