Letter to the class

Class,
I think we have come a long way this year. Our writing skills have improved a lot. We have been introduced to all sorts of different writing topics and assignments. I hoped the writing this year prepared you for the future like it did for me. It has shown me my strengths and weaknesses of writing. I have also found many ways to improve these problems from fellow classmates in peer reviews. We have also learned a lot about annotating literature and analyzing plot. We have read three different books with each a different meaning from the other. I hope that in the future we are prepared enough for more advanced classes!

-Nick

Evaluation

A: General Procedures - I always come to class prepared. I always have my books and utensils ready for class. I have had my free reading most of the time. I never asked for water/locker/bathroom breaks this whole nine weeks. I have had a great attitude toward our class and what we learned in it.


B: Lecture, announcements, whole class discussion - I have been taking many notes in our class. I do not think they are much help to me because they are basically summaries of the class. I feel connected with class discussions sometimes, but if they are out of my grasp to understand then I do not pay much attention.

A: Individual and Group Work - I love doing group work in this class. I like seeing everyone's opinions about the subject. When it comes to individual work, I stay on task and get the job done. I have never had any problems with staying on task when it comes to working.

B: Growth - I have gotten more mature and understanding about English over the past school year. I do not think I have reached my full potential. I just do not understand many things and it is hard for me not to give up. Throughout the year I have pushed through many hard assignments and confusing ones at that. I hope to do better in English II with the materials taught to me in English I.

Outside Reading Reflection

My outside reading has taught many things throughout the year. First of all, it has gotten me back into reading more often. I find myself wanting to go to Barnes and Noble every once in a while to find a new interesting read. Also, I have learned that I am not understanding the subtexts of the story that well. I hope to improve on this so it will not affect my future in literature.

I am close to finishing The Hunger Games. It has taken me awhile due to a few papers and projects. I hav been having fun comparing the movie to the book. I think its a scientific fact that the book is always better than the book. I am surprised at the minor differences that can change the whole perspective of the story. I have enjoyed this book so far and looking forward to beginning Catching Fire.

The Hunger Games - 150 Mins -

Thursday - 50
Friday - 50
Saturday - 50

Lady Macbeth's Perspective

When will I be queen? I mean how many more people do I need my dear Macbeth to kill? Killing Duncan was not a problem, but we came close to being suspected. If it were not for me, Macbeth would not know what is best for him. As soon as I become Queen I will control all of Macbeth's actions.

I am sure just a few more killings will make Macbeth and I king and queen. I hope we can get away with it without fault. Hopefully Macbeth does not realize that I am using him. If he does, what might happen to me? I will keep pushing Macbeth into thinking this whole "killing spree" is easy enough. I will be queen in no time!

Common Errors List

Commons Errors List

1.     Punctuation Outside Quotation – EX: “The Right to Bear Arms”,  (Research Paper)

           

2.     Subject/Verb Agreement – EX: “government have always wonder” (Research Paper)

3.     Armadillo Road Kill – EX: He shoots the animal, but does not leave. “Everything is slow, a creepy Secondary Era slowness like a drip of water.” (Literary Analysis)

4.     Staying Inside the text – EX: I have no example for this, but I tend to wander off during planning the paper.

5.     Comma Splice – EX: I notice that forest park offers many activities such as,  a dog park… (Profile)

6.     Article Error – Ex: Across from field, I can see the enormous gym. (Profile)

English 1 Reflection

             All of the writing we have done this year has shown me my strengths and weaknesses, such as my common errors, and aspects of writing. Every time I re-read a graded paper, I always noticed that I made a mistake, grammar or organization errors. I also noticed these errors during the peer reviews. The writing we did this year included Narratives, blog posts, and a Profile. All of these assignments involved a variety of methods of how to successfully plan and write the paper.

            People always said that in High School, we would have to write many papers. This information for me was a shock, because of my organization and supporting details. I figured out that planning my ideas in some sort of visual chart, such as a flow chart, helped me organize my thoughts in order for me to write my paper. I eventually became routinized in planning my ideas (which I had not done before). In doing so, I started strengthening my support in my papers. The rubrics you gave to us before most papers also helped me when I was proofreading and going back to add or remove certain statements.

            I then noticed another problem I had with writing assignments. Recently, I discovered I had a disorder in reading comprehension. It explained why I was not grasping the concept of the paper. In other words, I did not understand what to write the paper about. I usually felt confident about papers that I had written, until I received a grade for it. I sought help from you, Dr. deGravelles, and we focused on the Literary Analysis. The Literary Analysis was the paper where my disorder shown itself the most. My thoughts were very unorganized and the sentence fluency was tough to follow along. I then found a simple way to help this aspect of writing, which was once again making some sort of flow chart.

            I had gathered lots of information on my research paper topic and assembled them into ‘noodlebib’ notecards. Them when it came time to write the paper I had taken a few days trying to cram in more information and repeat ideas just to try and reach the length requirements. With haste, I turned in the paper confidently with out proof reading it that well. When I received the grade for it, I was astonished at how horrible the conventions of the paper were. I had many repeated words, run on sentences, comma splices, and punctuation outside quotation. I then doubted myself on why I chose such a difficult topic. In the comments for the paper, you specifically said,  “You need to put a lot more work into proofreading”, I agree with this statement. I have learned and will try to make writing a paper as easy as possible next research assignment.

            The WrAP assignment is a different story that mainly involves time management and limited planning. Since we only had two class periods to plan and write it, there was no way I would be able to make a successful above average grade. Of course, when the assignment had been graded a returned, organization was the lowest scored of all of the aspects. So, I still need to work on support or it will come back to get in later school years. I hope to resolve this issue in the near future. I feel it would greatly improve my writing grade.

            The highlight of writing in my year of English 1 was the Profile. I had made the highest grade on it out of all of the other papers. It is also the paper that showed my common error the involved keep the same perspective throughout the whole paper. Every paper throughout the year taught me another issue I had when writing. It seemed as if every different paper we wrote involved a different style of writing that challenged us to find new strengths and weaknesses.

Outside Reading Times 4-23-12

The Hunger Games - Total

4-19-12      45 Minutes
4-20-12      30 Minutes
4-21-12      45 Minutes
4-22-12      30 Minutes

Eight Days A Week

The song I decided to analyze is "Eight Days A Wee" by The Beatles. First of all, here is the link for the songs lyrics: http://tinyurl.com/6eoysl :. The first thing I noticed in this song was the rhyme scheme. 


Oh, I need your love, babe
Guess you know its true
Hope you need my love babe
Just like I need you


Notice the Rhyme Scheme: True, and You
There is also the repetition of the word "Babe"
The caesura between 'love, babe' adds more of a rhythm to the song.
You can tell from this beginning stanza that this is a lyric poem, because it is expressing feeling
This first stanza is also a quatrain




Hold me, love me, hold me, love me
I ain't got nothing but love, babe
Eight Days a Week


As you can clearly see, there is a LOT of repetition (although it is a song)
Also notice the other use of the word babe.
The writer also used hyperbole when writing "Eight Days a Week"


This stanza is basically the refrain of the song. 


This song has a lot to do about love, so basically the song is showing giving loving someone for 8 days which is impossible, but the love is so strong that it is possible. Its a very interesting concept in my opinion.

Outside Reading - 4/16 Post

So, I know I started on "Flags of Our Fathers" recently for my last blog post, but I finally got the Hunger Games. Yes, I know, everyone has the book so I won't restate as many things as others have been. First of all, in the first chapter of the book I have noticed things about a few characters that I never would have found out while watching the movie. I have not read much past the second chapter, but I hope to see the contrast between the book and the movie.

Since our poetry annotations were counted as our outside reading, I will be also talking about those poems. Many of the poems we have been reading seem to relate to our lives everyday. "Homage to my Hips" was quite an interesting poem, just the word meaning tripped me up a little but analyzing the poem was not much of a challenge. I have been enjoying poetry so far and hope to continue it longer!

45mins - Poetry
105mins - The Hunger Games

Flags of Our Fathers

Recently, I picked up the book Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley. This book was made into a popular movie, but i have never seen this movie. This had been my brothers book. My brother was always into warfare books. As soon I opened this book,  into the first chapter the author did not create a long dragged out prologue like in most books. The story was straight forward jumping into a scene in the book. Chapter 1 mainly talked about the soliders that held up the American Flag in Iwo Jima.

James Bradley's writing style is quite difficult to follow. He jumps from one statement to another with out properly introducing the next topic, otherwise know as "dating spiderman". At the point I am at in the book, I definitely recommend this book for this book to guys, especially the ones who are interested in warfare type books. Like I said, I have never seen the movie so I am curious to see what this book throws at me next!

30 For Poem - 120 Flags of our Fathers

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

     I decided to read the poem titled "Those Winter Sundays". I chose this poem because it talks about the Winter which is one of my favorite times of the year. Just the feeling of the warm fire on your cold bare skin feels great. Anyways, this poem uses a lot of description in its stanzas. For instance: "I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking". I just thought the use of the word splintering was a great description of the firewood.

     My interpretation of this poem is pretty darn simple. The beginning is talking about the imagery of a cool house slowly being warmed by a fire. I liked most of the poem, until the very last stanza. "What did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?".  Now after I read this phrase, my mind had been filled with confusion. I can sort of infer that the preceding passage that says "Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well", means that she is talking about her father's love for her. I hope we can further discuss this poem because I hope to learn more about it!

Ending of Deadline

"Live everyday like you're going to live forever and everyday like it's going to be your last". This book taught me many that life is too short to make mistakes or not live it to the fullest. It is one of those sayings that you hear every once in awhile, but this story emphasized the idea and allowed it to make an inpact onthe reader. I recommend this book to mainly guys, not as much girls.

Chris Crutcher is a great author. He is easy for me to understand. For me, this book had easy sentence fluency opposed to Edgar Allen Poe. This is a great read for any high schooler who is looking for an outside reading bookS Chris Crutcher did a great job writing this book and the message he included within it.

Deadline - All 150 Minutes

Middle School Track Meet + Hunger Gamea

This weekend was great! Our track coach wanted us to help out at the middle school track meet this past saturday. It takes a lot of work and people to put one together and for everything to work out perfectly. I worked on raking the sand in the long junp pit with some friends, so it really made the time go by fast.

I saw the Hunger Games along with everyone else in the world. That movie... was very barbaric. I heard the book was so much better (like always). I am thinking about reading the book and possibly its sequel. The movie seemed great! If the book is better, than that must mean the book is amazing. Im definitely considering reading the book.

St Patrick + Track

St Patricks Day weekend was great. I did not go to the parade or anything, but just relaxed with some freinds. I went to a few parties with family and friends.

Track has already had 3 Outdoor meets so far. Everyone has been doing well as far as I can see. The end of the season is coning upon us fast! Good luck to everyone.

Deadline!

This book has gotten crazy! Ben has gotten really close with Dallas (the girl he likes). Really close... I have been enjoying this book because it was written towards our type of audience.

Im not too familiar with Chris Crutcher's writings. I do wonder what other books / poems he has written.
This book has been great so far. I hope you guys are enjoying your books too.

3rd Quarter

The 3rd quarter had not gone as well as I had planned. I finished the quarter with acceptable grades, but still not what I wanted. I will finish this next quarter with strong efforts to help my semester grades. I want to finish off this year successful!

Meanwhile, since the Christmas break, track has been continuing throughout the year. Everyone has been doing well. We have had 2 outdoor meets so far in which everyone who has participated has done great in. I can not wait to see how the team evolves throughout the year.

Outside Reading - Deadline

Reflecting on Nervous Conditions, I finally understood what the main theme of the story was about. It helped me understand and like the book more than going along with it. I can see how colonization can affect a group of people in their own special ways. Anyways, I realized the meaning of the book after we were finished reading it.

The book I have started reading, called "Deadline" by Chris Crutcher is interesting. My brother had to read it his sophmore year, and I found it recently and decided to read it for outside reading. This book is about a boy named Ben Wolf. Ben is just an average senior in high school. Later, his doctor tells him that he has a rare blood disease and that he would die in one month after the diagnosis. Ben decides not to tell anyone and live his life to the fullest, that is his plan so far.

Nervous conditions - 60 Minutes
Deadline - 90 Minutes

Track Meet

     This saturday was the first track meet of the outdoor season. The meet was at Catholic High School. The weather, was miserable! It was windy, cold, and raining! For a practice meet, many of us did well in our events. I hope the weather during the next meet will not end up like it did this saturday!

     After placing 3rd in our Indoor Track season, I hope we can do as well for outdoor. Everyone has been doing great at practices in their events. I hope I can improve in what I am doing and everyone else as well. Im ready for the next meet!

   

Nervous Conditions!

     For the week, we all read the ending chapters of Nervous Conditions. We learned a lot about Nyasha and Babamukuru and Tambu's parents in these last few chapters. Our discussions have really changed my opinions on why the characters actions are what they are. I have never really read a book like this before. Opposed to Lord of the Flies, the setting is survival, life or death and full of action. This book is about a family's nervousness in a household dealing with family.

     Chatper 8 really showed the tension of this book during Nyasha and Babamukuru's fight. I never actually understood the conditions of the family until these moments that grabbed the reader's attention. This book really shows the insight of a teenage girl with family problems. I enjoyed this book.

150+ Nervous Conditions

Mardi Gras

     What a break that was! I think everyone enjoyed that weak off from school, because I know I did. But know, we have to all get back into the routine of school. Our family isn't that big on the holiday, but we went to a couple of parades.

     I was not very productive during the week. I mostly sat around, finishing school work, and hung out with my friends often. It was a great time for me to relax from school. Also, our school placed 3rd in the State track indoor meet. Outdoor track has already begun and I can not wait until the first meet!

Outside Reading

     This has been a very relaxing break for me. All of the Mardi Gras celebrations and religious events made it a festive week. During the week, I completed our required chapters for Nervous Conditions. This book is starting to further explain the title, "Nervous Conditions". With Nyasha in school, and Tambu's parents. The conditions of Tambu's parents family and Takesure with Tambu's father really sets an issue in the family.

  As I have been reading, I have been thinking about many things we have talked about in class. Such as how community affects who we are. I am glad the author of this book set up the events like she did. It helps me understand the significance of each event.

NERVOUS CONDITIONS - All 150 Minutes

     

Literary Analysis + Exchange Students

    I thought I had done well on my literary analysis. Until the day we received our grades, I had not done so well. I had received a C on the assignment. I wondered what could've happened. Although, I was never good at writing papers. I hope I can get a chance to rewrite this assignment!

     The Chinese Exchange students have really enjoyed their time at Episcopal. I really enjoyed Caesar's speech that he delivered to the upper school at announcements. I hope they will come back one day, because they were really fun to be around! The French exchange students will be coming soon and I can not wait for them to be on campus.

Outside reading

     For outside reading I read Nervous conditions and Fahrenheit 451. It has been hard keeping up with the work. Trying to read a novel while trying to read an outside reading book while doing activites has been confusing for me. I have been more focused on Nervous Conditions and less on Fahrenheit 451.

     I can not really talk about Nervous Conditions because it is a class assignment, so I will continuing talking about Fahrenheit 451. The book has taken a recent change of events. The world of Montag and all of the other firemen burning books has changed Montag. He has started reading more and more books and has been fascinated with them. Montag calls it his little "problem" and tries to find a way to get rid of it. The reading is so fascinating to him he tries to get companies to start reproducing books. During all of this time, the people of the world are obsessed with TV.

Nervous Conditions - 70 mins
Fahrenheit 451 - 80 mins

Research Paper

     My research paper rough draft is complete! I had many problems starting off this paper. It was too broad of a topic and I had to narrow it down a lot. Thanks to Dr. deGravelles, I was able to develop an outline and narrow down my topic. All of the activities that we did in class, such as the conclusions and intros really helped me.
   
     For the final draft, I will be relying on my peers greatly. I need as much help as I can revising this paper. Hopefully we will have more classes on revising and editing our papers so we can have the most points possible. I hope we all do well on this assignment!

Fahrenheit 451

     For my reading, I have chosen a very interesting read. I have chose the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this book, society is completely different. The story opens up with a man named Montag. Montag is a firemen who starts fires (yes you read that right). As you read on, you learn that no one reads, and that the firemen burn the pages of different books. People in this world waste their lives watching TV and listening to radio all day long. As I read along, I just kept thinking who us Ray Bradbury?
 
    After reading about an enviroment where everything is different, I like to investigate. Ray Bradbury, I looked him up online and it says he was influenced by Edgar Allen Poe (that explains). The enviroment he grew up in was all about literature which fueled him to be an author

70 Minutes - Nervous Conditions
80 Minutes - Fahrenheit 451

The 2nd Semester (So Far)

The 2nd Semester has been going fairly well for me. My grades are better than they were last nine weeks. Im glad everything has been going well, even outside of school. I have been a lot less stressful because it is not my first semester of high school. But still, things have been going well.

Most people say their freshmen year is horrible, but I don't think it is bad at all. The homework load is ok, and the tests are not that bad. We have lots of free time to get things done or just relax. I have been enjoying the difference between high school and middle school. We have more freedom in high school, which I like.

Research Paper

My research paper about the 2nd amendment has been coming together well. All during this week I have been working to get my thoughts and research organized. I spent about 40 minutes working on research and bibliographies. I also worked on my outline for about 80 mins. I have been really focusing on this outline and hope it forms a well developed paper. I needed time to gather my info and come up with multiple theses from my research summaries to choose one that would best be for my paper, that took me about 40 minutes all together.

This is my new thesis. "The Right To Bear Arms was created for protection and hunting in colonial times. These days, guns have become more dangerous, abundant, and carried. Many tragedies have occurred from gun abused and there needs to be some sort of control of this problem."

A Tale of Two Cities - Entry 2

     The story takes place in the late 1750s. There is a conflict between the two cities London and France. It involves emotional drama I have noticed throughout the book. I talks about orphans and adoption. Later on in the story, things start to turn mysterious. Since the story takes place in the late 1750s, the American Revolution plays a role in the story. The character Charles Darny is taken to court because he has been blamed for giving the French British secrets during the outbreak of the revolution.

    
      I like the way Charles Dickens writes. He comes up with brilliant idea. Charles Dickens can take history and throw in a plot with some characters and make it work. The way he makes characters known by adding similes, metaphors, personification, etc just makes the character make an impression in your thoughts.


DATE    PAGES  TIME
1-16-12      24      30mins
1-18-12      33       40mins
1-19-12      37       45mins
1-21-12      11       15mins
1-22-12      14      20mins

Track & Field

     Conditioning for track is almost over. At the end of cross country, I was focused on relaxing. Then a few weeks later, I realized track practice was upon the year. I was completely out of shape, and did not know what I was going to do. I was filling up on junk food and soft drinks.
   
     First day of track, and I couldn't feel worse about it. It was cold, and I was out of shape. Later on, I gradually got back into shape. Practices are getting better, and so is everyone's attitudes. I can not wait until the first outdoor track meet and see how everyone performs.
 

Apple Store's Great Service

    Early in the week, my iphone had cracked and the touch screen was unresponsive. I tried EVERYTHING to try and get it to work, but sadly it did not. The whole week, getting in touch with my parents was hard, because of course, I did not have a phone. This weekend we went to the apple store with the broken phone and told them what had happened. The employee went to the supply room and brought me back a brand new iPhone with even taking 10 minutes. I was surprised with their service and very satisfied.

A Tale of Two Cities

     My outside reading choice for this week was, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. For me, beginning a book is very challenging. You have to memorize the setting, the plot, characters, It's like going to a new school. But this story, was not hard to begin with. The writing of style, and an interesting plot is what makes this story easy to understand. At the beginning, it starts off telling you about the two cities, France and Britian. Later on, it starts providing you with info about them. So far, I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an interesting book.

DATE    PAGES  TIME
1-11-12      13       20mins
1-11-12      28       45mins
1-13-12      32       50mins
1-14-12      15       25mins
1-15-12       8         15mins

New Semester Goals

My goals for the new semester are to be more responsible, use my time wisely, and study more. Last nine weeks I knew I could do a lot better with my grade to support my semester grade. I believe with more study time and responsibility I can accomplish good grades during the nine weeks in the future. I was disappointed with my grades and knew I could do better, so I am going through with this for the semester.
I also need to get more engaged with Wordly Wise and get a more understanding of the words. I hope this semester goes well.