Compare early-year and recent work to identify specific, concrete evidence of growth as a reader and thinker.
Growth as a reader is easy to feel vaguely and hard to see specifically, unless you deliberately compare real evidence side by side. This week, pull an actual piece of your own work from early in the year -- your week 1 or week 6 homework on The Call of the Wild works well -- and place it next to something you have written or answered more recently. The comparison itself, not just memory or general impression, is what reveals real growth.
Look for specific, concrete differences: Are your answers longer, or do they cite more specific textual evidence? Do you use vocabulary from this year's lessons (foil, synthesis, connotation, archetype) that you would not have used in week 1? Is your handling of an open-ended question more confident, with a clearer claim and more support? Vague growth ("I got better at reading") is far less useful than specific growth ("in week 1 I described a character's trait without evidence; now I automatically back every claim with a specific quote or detail").
Mastery looks like: They can compare two specific, real pieces of their own work and state at least one concrete, verifiable piece of growth between them.
Common stumbles: Offering only vague, general growth statements ("I got better") without pointing to specific evidence in two actual pieces of work.