Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Conclusion

Over the course of the year I have had many different feelings toward the blog. When it was easy I loved it, and when it made you think I hated it. At the beginning when you first said we were doing the blog I expected you to forget about it pretty quickly so I never really had much thought for it. That is until after the first couple. I saw that you were gonna make some fun and others very very hard. This helped me figure out what I thought my blog is about which is being able to go back and see my growth in understanding and comprehending literature. The first three blogs were about what we look for in a book, what book we were reading, and some analysis of that book we were reading. I pretty much looked at this as three strikes and thought the blog was gonna be terrible because it really made me think. Why do I choose to read which was actually kinda hard and made me think about the deeper meanings of Treasure Island. The next three blogs were all reassuring me that the blogs still could be fun. They were about a memory, a best friend, and advice. You might think that these are just random things to write about but they all relate to a story we have read which is why I think you assigned them. But what i really liked about these blogs is not only were they fun and still going on with what we were doing in class but they seemed to be more about our lives and helped me see not only in school but how I have grown as a person and what I have been through. Which is another thing I think this blog is all about. However my hopes of all fun poems to me that is was stopped by the next three. They were about the Mockingbird Motif, Poetry videos, and an Animal Farm poem that I wrote. Each of these blogs were back to the learning to comprehend reading and more of what I am going to call the school type blogs. In the Mockingbird Motif blog is when I first started to fully get the meaning of motif. At least I think i get it. For the poetry videos we had to watch a video and write about what we thought the composer did well which helped understand why poetry is sometimes written in what seems a weird way. As for the Animal Farm poem I chose to do this for my project on that book because I felt confident in my poetry skills because we had just had a huge poetry unit and I felt like I understood it pretty well and I felt Like I understood Animal pretty good too. These three blogs are another good example of showing the meaning of my blog is to see how I have grown in comprehension because after we learned this stuff in class I felt confident writing each of those blogs and thought I was doing in write compared to some earlier blogs. Pretty much the rest of my blogs were the school type blogs except for two of them. The school type ones were about researching the Victorian era, writing to my group about what I have written for my part of the Earnest essay, writing about the the first stage of Pip's life, and looking back on how I have become better at writing essays. All of these I feel i can look back of and see that I have grown because on each of the books test or essay I did good. Which the blog played a big part in doing good because they helped me comprehend the information. Overall I feel that the blog has taught me so much. Without it I would not understand motifs, themes, and how to get the meaning out of a story like I do now. I have written about numerous classic novels and things about my life. I see the meaning of my blog is the growth in me and my ability to understand literature. I would like to say thank you Mrs. Gilman for teaching me this year and helping learn this.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Essayist

I definatly feel liked an accomplished essayist. I think anyone should if they try there hardest on the essay no matter what the grade turns out to be, but if you didn't get a good grade there is always room to improve. The literary analysis has definatly helped me out this year. The purpose I see out of it is as writers we can learn out bad habbits and simple mistakes and ultimatly become better writers from it. Some challenges of the literary analysis is getting what its asking. Sometimes I dont really get the mistakes it says I should look out for and it confuses me. Overall though the reward is definatly good if you understand it and it will make you a better writer.
To tell the truth I think I did pretty good on my essay. The weak parts is I use alot of the same transition words and I need to elaborate a little more on my concrete details and commentary. Other than this I do feel pretty good about my essay and the good grade that I will hopefully get with it.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Summer reading list

In my time that I've been on earth I have read probably about 20 or 30 books. Thus leaving my choices for a book very big. The first book I want to read is The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck because you have to in order to get into honors ten. So this must be a good book if there going to force us to read it. The second book i want to read is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. I want to read this so i can say I've read a 1,000 page book and I thought the movie was ok and the book is always better than the movie so the book has got to be better than the movie. Thats my list.

Friday, May 7, 2010

DREAMS

In all my dreams that I have ever had one still sticks in my memory to this very date. It was the night before my first football game ever. I was so nervous and couldn't fall asleep. Eventually tired over took me. In my dream I dreamt that I would score a touchdown on a awesome run. The next thing I dreamt was that I would break my foot the next day later in the game. Eventually I woke up and the next thing I new it was game time. I hoped that I would get the touchdown and not break my foot. I was very cautious in the first half. in the second half i completely forgot and scored a touchdown and ended up breaking my foot. Truthfully I have to side with Mercutio in the fact that I don't really believe in dreams. Dreams are a huge motif in this third act. they have foreshadowed a lot of whats gonna happen soon with death and the characters fate from their decisions.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Extra Credit blog

On the first day of school when I stepped into the room labled as 501 Mrs. Gilman I was quite nervous. The thing is english class had never really been my cup of tea. There are bits and pieces of it however I enjoy and hoped we would cover in the time to come. The things that I have really enjoyed so far is DGP, poetry, and reading the books I thought were good. DGP I like because it helps me in my writing. I like poetry because I like to talk. A lot. As for reading books this year I've probably liked about 70 percent of the novels we've read. The part that just grinds my gears about reading books is annotating. However sometimes it does help me understand the book. Overall, I feel I've come along way in english and it's going a lot and I mean a lot better than i thought it would.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Skits

Throughout the book there are many great parts that could be acted out ;however , the three that I'm about to discuss would definitely be the best to act out. First, Mr Jaggers case with Molly. this would be a good one cause it's easy to add roles if needed and it was a easy part to understand. Second, is when Orlick tries to murder Pip. This is a good part because there's a lot of suspense in this part and would be fun to act out. Last, Mrs. Joe's funeral. This would be a good part to act out because a lot of the characters are in this part. Also it is interesting when Pip talks to Biddy and Joe. Overall there are many great parts in this book that could be acted out, but these stood out to me the most.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Question

Overall in this book I have had many questions that have been answered. One though that I don't fully understand is how come Pip so ashamed that its the convict that's his benefactor in ch.39 pg. 318. I get that most of it is guilt and he wanted it to be Mrs. Havisham so he could marry Estalla, but still I expected him to be a little more grateful. Either I don't get this part or I'm looking for more than whats there. Message me an answer please.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Quote

A question I have can be found on page 232 when Pip says, ".......I was a hero. Estalla was the inspiration of it, and the heart of it, of course." The question I have from this quote is why is Pip so confident and sure that now he's a gentleman thatt he will be able to sweep Estalla off her feet?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

This picture shows someone leaving to go somewhere and doesn't really know what will happen next. This relates to Pip because Pip has these dreams he wants to do. One for instance is to become a gentleman. When the opportunity finally slaps him in the face he agrees that's what he wants. The funny thing is he has no idea what will be on the road ahead. That's how Pip relates to this picture because nether Pip nor the stick figure really know what lies on the road ahead.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Great Expecations the first stage

This quote shows Pip thinking of a certain day that changed his life. When he says "the long chain of iron or gold" he is saying that ether this day was ether good or bad. Also when he refers to the "flowers" part of the quote he is using this as a symbol to all the good things that happened. When he refers to the "thorn" its about all the things that could go wrong. This altered him becasue hes starting to grow up and realize that bad things can happen to you even if it's unfair. This has developed him because we are probably realy gonna see how Pip has matured and how he deals with easy and tough situations.

Alot of days have changed my life, but one definatly stands above the rest. It was a tuesday afternoon. I had a basketball game that i had been looking foward to for a week. It was agianst our rivals Evergreen. The game started as usaul and i was playing good, having fun, and going all out. As I do in every physical activity. All was going well until I went up fora shot and got fouled hard. I made the shot but i landed right on my right arm. I felt it jam but that was it. As i was getting up my arm started to hurt a little more. When i looked down my stomach dropped. My arm was twisted and morffed into a very weird looking position. To cut the story short I got taken to the hospital and got my arm fixed. This changed my life forever in a weird way though because i realized how easy it is to get hurt. I used to be way more wild and out of control and daring, but after this I've really learned that sometimes i need to just settle down. Overall I'm glad it happened because it's made me a smarter person.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Importance of Being Earnest body paragraph

Hey group I hope you like what I've written so far if there are any objections to this please tell me asap. My first concrete detail is how Cecily thinks Algernon is some sort of an outlaw and how Algernon thinks Cecily is this little perfect girl. This is opposites attracting because they like each other because they think they are totally different lives than the other person and find it romantic.
For my second concrete detail I said how Cecily and Algernon liked each other before they even met. Its funny because when Algernon asks her to marry him Cecily tells him how they have been engaged for the past three months. The fact is that this is the first day they have ever met, but this is how they talk to each other Cecily says all these childish things and Algernon just goes along with it. Its a typical high social class couple they like each other over very material and fantasy things.
For my last concrete detail I said that Algernons primary interest is mostly bunburying and going on adventures while Cecilys is mostly writing about her fantasys and ideas in a diary. This is definatly an example of how opposites attract because Cecily likes to pretend when Algernon likes to act.
I no my first and last details are very similar, and I'm going to keep looking for better ones. For now this is what i got. Good Night.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Importance of Being Earnest/Victorian research

When i did the Victorian research project I learned a lot of thing about this time period that I didn't previously know. I learned that you could marry your cousin and it wouldn't be weird. Also that you could propose to someone when you barley know them and this would be normal.
The way this relates to "The Importance of Being Earnest" is this happens. If i hadn't of learned that you could marry your cousin I probably would've thrown the book away. Anyway in the play there is a named Algernon who was engaged to Cecily before they ever even met. Also she is only 18. Another time is when John proposes to Gwendolen who is Algernon's cousin. If i hadn't of known you could marry these ways the play would be much more confusing.