My Final Blog Post!!!

After reading through my 18 blog posts for this entire 2009-10 school year, I have noticed how my literary skills and my vocabulary have improved in this short amount of time. I think that doing so much work on tone, diction, and Word Power have been a big part in this improvement.

My favorite blog post for this year was the Animal Farm project. For this project my group made a movie trailer that shows the main themes portrayed in the book. This blog post was both fun to make, but also was a very useful way to understand the literary elements expressed throughout the book.

The actual blogs that I have posted have both increased in length and detail throughout the year. For example the very first blog I posted, Writing About Reading, I was very vague and just answered the question at surface level, "Why do you read fiction? I read fiction because the storylines or plots are entertaining. It's also cool because you can sometimes relate to the characters in the story." One of the lastest blogs that I have posted, Essay Writing: Challenges and Conquests, is a lot more sophiticated and has a much higher diction than at the beginning of the year, "As almost all people, I do have some shortcomings in my essays. Some of the 'B grade or lower reasons' that I can spend more time to correct is poor transitions. I can also work more on creating a better conclusion paragraph that wraps up the entire essay and makes the reader walk away with an emotional or sentimental outlook on what I addressed."

Another aspect of the blog for this year is how it helped understand the literature that we were reading in class. Most of the blogs were to anaylize some part of the book, play, poem, etc. which again, made you try and find the deeper meaning besides what is on the surface. This deeper understanding of the piece of literature helped me in the discussions, on the tests and quizzes, and an all around better understanding of the assignment as well as comparing a novel of poem to another piece of literature.

Apart from the improvement in my writing skills from my blog, I noticed that this blog has in some was told who I am and some major events that happened in my life. Each persons writing has a voice and you can tell what kind of person the authoe is by their writing. This collection of blog posts tells about the author which makes everyones blog unique and fits their own personality. For example the blog post, Great Excpectations: First Stage, asks you which event in your life formed the person who you are today. This blog post was very emotional to me and it really made me sit and think.

The main point that I am trying to get across to sum up the Honors English blog for this year is that this blog teaches you to be your own person and you learn more about yourself than you knew before. Like Jack Worthing said in The Importance of Being Earnest, “On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”

Essay Writing: Challenges and Conquests

Now that I am finishing up my final essay of the 2009-10 school school year, I feel really accomplished in how much I have improved my literary skills and writting essays. The most challenging part for me in the essay-writting process is to thourghly understand what I want my essay to express, or the big picture surrounding my ideas. Once I have all of this clearly understandable, I feel very rewarded with the result: a well written essay.

As almost all people, I do have some shortcomings in my essays. Some of the "B grade or lower reasons" that I can spend more time to correct is poor transitions. I can also work more on creating a better conclusion paragraph that wraps up the entire essay and makes the reader walk away with an emotional or sentimental outlook on what I addressed.

Summer Reading.

The Lone Survivor- Marcus Luttrell
           This book is on my summer reading list because my dad read it and he told me that it was a great book. It is also about a topic that I am really interested in, war. I heard that it is about a true event that took place in Afganistan a few years ago.

The Kitchen Boy- Robert Alexander
          My mom told me to read this book and I've been meaning to read it for a while. It is about a masacre that took place at the last Tsar's house in Russia and the only survivor to tell the story was the author, the family's kitchen boy.

Culture Shock

(Hey Juliet)
I think you're fine
You really blow my mind
Maybe someday, you and me can run away
I just want you to know
I wanna be your Romeo
Hey Juliet
 
This segment from the song, "Hey Juliet" by LMNT, is an example of how references to the play, Romeo and Juliet, are used everyday and we see these references all the time.

Extra Credit Blog

This year Mrs. Gilman's 3rd period Honors English class has been a pretty good experience. I have enjoyed the entertaining class discussions where both sides fight to convince the other that they are right. The time-consuming reading assignments havn't been the best, but other than that I havn't had a problem with the actual work. I respect Mrs. Gilman and all of my classmates which has made this a fun and memorable year.

The class work and assignments this year have been pretty time-consuming and repetative but when it comes down to it, I have learned a lot of useful information. For example, I learned how to diagram sentences and how to "TWIST" a piece of writing. Honors English has also forced me to read some pretty good books that I would have most likely never read before taking this class.

Skit Prep

The first scene from Great Expectations that I would consider for the skit would be the very beginning of the book when Pip first runs into the convict in the marches. This would be fun to act out because of all the emotions that Pip goes through such as freight and exhaustion.

The next scene that would be fun to act out in class would be when Miss Havisham catches on fire while Pip is visiting her. This would be kind of funny to see how it would be presented in class.

The final scene that I would consider using for the skit would be when Pip is almost killed by Orlick and then is rescued by Herbert. There is a lot of action in that scene so you could do a lot in acting it out.

More Questions About Great Expectations

Another part of this book that I did not fully understand was in chapter 38 when Pip and Estella are spending a lot of time together at Mrs. Brandley's house. Pip says on page 325, "The nature of my relations with her (Estella), which placed me on terms of familiarity without placing me on terms of favour, conduced to my distraction." Since they are spending so much time together I am wondering what officially is Pip and Estella's relationship status? Are they just friends, dating, engaged, or anything of that sort?

Question!

Reading this book, there have been many parts that I don't understand fully. For example, in chaper 31, Pip says his expectations have been cancelled. My question is "What are Pip's expectations?" Are they lifelong goals set by himself, things required to become a gentlemen, or things he was told to do by another character like Mr. Jaggers, Miss Havisham, or even Joe?

Great Expectations: Photo Post

This picture represents Pip daydreaming about Estella while working as an apprentice for Joe. He loves Estella but is still ashamed for her to see him in his social class, and he feels that he isn't good enough for her. While working for Joe, Pip keeps thinking about Estella and he sees her face in the window as he works.

Great Expectations: The First Stage

In this sentence Pip is referring to his "lower class", boring life. He is ashamed of his family and home compared to Miss Havisham's house and social class. He is in a somewhat depressed state of mind ever since he visited her house for the first time. Pip wishes to be rich and have to do nothing just like Miss Havisham and her acquantences. Also, he feels that he isn't good enough for Estella even though he loves her, just because of how he was raised.

One of the most memorable days of my life that began my "chain" was back in the fall of 2004. My dad and I were driving home from my sister's soccer game and I told him that I wanted to play football. I was only about 60 pounds at the time, so it took a while for me and my dad to convince my mom to say yes. Since that day, football has taught me some of life's greatest lessons including: hard work, responsibility, and trust. Because of my size, I had to work a little harder than everyone else. That memorable day, back in 2004, was the beginning of the formation of who I am today.

Group Essay

For my paragraph I am writing about the satire and stereotypes of women throughout the book. For my first point I will talk about what men see in women, looks and pleasure (not true love.) The CD will be when Algernon says "The only wat to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to someone else is she is plain." My next point I will talk about how women are stereotyped to fight before they become friends. For my last topic I will write what women see in men, if they smoke, money, and his social status.

The Importance of Being Earnest/Victorian Research

Before we began reading, The Importance of Being Earnest, we did research about the Victorian Era to get a better feel of what life was like back then and to relate to the characters. For example, throughout the book Algernon always says that girls are only good for pleasure and beauty. While studying this era, I found that that was how some men felt about women.

Also, I saw that women and men weren't interested or in love with eachother for the same reasons that people love eachother now. In the book the women are mostly intrested in men for their names, if they smoke, and if they have money. The men again, only like the women mostly for pleasure. Doing research on the Victorian Era before reading this novel has expanded my knowledge on peoples behavior at that time.

My New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution is to spend more time to study for my math tests. Each night for the homework assignments, I have just been speeding through it so I could go play with friends or play video games. I still have a B in the class, but I think I could easily bump my grade up to an A if I spend more time each night on my homework. By doing this I could get A's on the tests instead of B's all of the time.

To accomplish this goal I will set a time period that I will do math homework for each night. With this extra time, I will be able to sit down and understand the problems instead of rushing through to get the homework done. When I have fnished all of the problems, I will check over for mistakes and make sure that I am understanding everything.