First Semester Reading

Books:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Short Stories we read from the book
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
This isn't What it Looks Like by Pseudonymous Bosch
The Return: Nightfall by L. J. Smith
The Vow by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter

   This semester I haven't really learned anything about myself as a writer. I prefer to read mystery true event books. I don't really like to read autobiographies and biographies because I think they are boring. I usually just end up not finishing the books I think are boring. I guess my greatest strength would have to be comprehension, because it is easy for me to understand what I read and not have to read it again. I'm not really sure what my weaknesses are.
   I think the reading goals I am setting for next semester are in reach. I would like to be able to say I have completely read 16 books, 8 per semester. Also, I want to finish reading two biographies or autobiographies, because those are the books that I have the hardest time getting through. My last goal is to read more than 150 minutes per week. 

Reading Times
Monday: 15 minutes on my paper
Tuesday: 59 minutes on LOTF
Wednesday: 39 minutes on LOTF
Thursday: 46 minutes on LOTF and 21 minutes on my paper
Sunday: 51 minutes on LOTF

Total: 36 minutes on my paper and 195 minutes on LOTF

Reading Times

Monday: 21 minutes
Tuesday: 14 minutes
Wednesday: 33 minutes
Friday: 39 minutes
Saturday: 28 minutes
Sunday: 17 minutes

Total: 114 minutes(book), 38 minutes(LOTF) and 116 pages(book), 30 pages(LOTF)

LOTF Survival Update

  My focus I am supposed to be tracking is survival. There have been different types of survival I have noticed so far. The main one would be the kinds of foods and types of shelter available on the island. But the boys aren't treating the island correctly, so the fruitful island is becoming scarce of the things need to survive. Also, the signal fire is the boys way to get recognized so they can be rescued. Another would be how Jack keeps trying to kill the pig, which isn't really for food. But, hunting is a way of survival the boys use.
  The ways my focus has shifted from the beginning of the book to now aren't very dramatic. First, like I said above, the boys are neglecting the island and are ruining the beauty of the island. Then, there is how Ralph is trying to get rescued and notices how the boys aren't working or really trying to support the island. Ralph wants the boys to work instead of just playing all the time.

Semester Overview

  This semester I feel the material hasn't been very confusing. I understand the literacy narratives, traits of good writing, and short stories. The only subject I really am not sure about are literary analyses. I am not sure how to compose one still. Also, I don't really remember In Defense of Food from summer reading. 
  I need another example of the setting charts because I still don't understand the different levels. I would like it if we went over In Defense of Food again. I think that I am very prepared for the first semester exam.

Reading Times:
12/26: 45 minutes
13/26: 39 minutes
14/26: 33 minutes
15/26: 48 minutes
19/26: 47 minutes

Total: 94 pages and 128 minutes

In Class Plane Crash

   Our class's plane crash activity didn't go so well. We had no leadership and just ended up voting if we did or didn't want to be a democracy. I think our one strength was that we weren't really arguing that much, and we didnt break into any huge fights. also, we were able to designate jobs to a few people. I think if we were to be stranded on a island together, we could most likely figure things out.
   If we did have the need to figure things out on a deserted island, I know it would take longer than the ten minnutes we had in class. I figure that for more than half the time we would be arguing and coming up with ideas. Personally, I think our class would start eating the first graders if there was no other food source. And our class would end up breaking into smaller groups because we can't stand each other. I believe our class as a whole would not be able to get anything done if we were stranded on an island.

Reading Times:

Monday: 18 minutes (book)
Tuesday: 29 minutes (book)
Thursday: 47 minutes (book)
Friday: 25 minutes (LOTF)
Sunday: 37 minutes (LOTF)

Total: 94 minutes (book) and 62 minutes (LOTF)

Short Stories

  For the three short stories we were assigned to read last week, I read Araby, by James Joyce, Sucker, by Carson McCuller, and The Sniper, by Liam O'Flaherty. When I read these stories, nothing really popped out at me that seemed interesting to write my thesis on. All of these stories were quite good, but I'm still not sure what to write my thesis paper on. I think that reading a few more of these stories and finding an interesting thesis in them will help me write a great thesis paper.
   To be honest, I haven't really thought about what my thesis should be and how to create a good thesis. Even though I have not found what I am looking for in the short stories, I am still a tiny bit confused on how to come up with a thesis. I understand that it is a statement that needs to be arguable, but I'm not sure how to form a thesis statement. 

Reading times:
Monday: 12 minutes (book)
Tuesday: 17 minutes (book)
Wednesday: 77 minutes (short stories)
Thursday: 23 minutes (short stories)
Saturday: 11 minutes (book)
Sunday: 16 minutes (book)

Total: 56 minutes (book) and 100 minutes (short stories)

"The Waltz of the Fat Man"

  Throughout all the short stories we have recently read, the one that sticks out most to me was "The Waltz of the Fat Man" by Alberto Alvaro Rios. I think the reason it sticks out most is because the story is so sad. The guy is so alone that he gets excited over going to wakes so he can kiss the widow's check. I think one literary element that works its way into the story would have to be setting.
  In this short story, the physical aspects are shown when he talks about his good blue painted house and the walnut trees and wild oleander. I don't think there is a specific time period this is told in for the temporal aspect, but the main part of the story seems to be told over about a month or so. The social aspects in this town are focused around looks and actions and are very judgmental. Like whenever Noe puts up the clocks in his butcher shop, people ask to see if there is a law against it. The atmosphere in this place doesn't sound too friendly for the psychological aspect. The people make small talk to everyone, but don't really talk to anyone they don't like.

Reading Times:
Monday: 39 minutes (short story)
Tuesday: 44 minutes (Uglies)
Wednesday: 53 minutes (short story)
Thursday: 39 minutes (short story)
Saturday: 31 minutes (Uglies)
Sunday: 29 minutes (short story)

Total: 160 minutes on short stories, 81 minutes and 87 pages in Uglies

Quarter Evaluation

I believe that this Quarter I have been a good student in English I. I have not been late to class once, always bring all of my supplies, and check my email everyday. I think I pay attention to lectures, take notes very productively in class, and don't normally engage in side conversations. There are still a few things that have room for improvement. 
There are few things I could work on in class like trying to participate and add more comments in class discussions, or maybe trying not to go off topic whenever we are in small groups. I think I should also get more sleep, because I sometimes feel like I am going to fall asleep in class. I feel that by the end of Second Quarter, I will be better than I am now.

Reading Times

Monday: 18 min (Uglies)
Tuesday: 32 min (short story)
Wednesday: 37 min (short story)
Thursday: 35 min (short story)
Saturday: 33 min (Uglies)

Reading Response

   This past week, I started a new book. My new book is called Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. This book is set in a future world, where everyone is turned "pretty" by plastic surgery when you reach the age sixteen. The main character, Tally, finds a new friends named Shay. Shay believes that being "pretty" is shallow and the people of Pretty Town have actually been and "pretty-minded" by the operation. I just recently started the book and am excited to see if Tally goes through with the operation or flees with Shay to the outside of the city.
   Because I haven't quite gotten into my book, I can't really determine the plot structure. But, having read only the beginning, I have a few ideas for the plot structure. I am already sure that the protagonist in this book is Tally, with the antagonists being the Pretty Town rulers who make people have the operation. I think that the conflict is Tally's decision to become "pretty" or stay normal. One detail of the rising action so far would be when Tally met Shay.

Monday: 26 minutes (Uglies)
Tuesday: 21 minutes (To Build a Fire)
Wednesday: 14 minutes (To Build a Fire)
Thursday: 56 (To Build a Fire)
Saturday: 34 minutes (Uglies)

Total:
60 minutes and 47 pages in Uglies
91 minutes reading and annotating To Build a Fire

I am a Writer Who...

  I am a writer who is not confident. Throughout my academic life, I have wrote everything from papers to made up stories. Even though I enjoy writing because it gives me a way to express my ideas and voice, I have never felt confident in presenting my work. I get anxious that people will think my writing stinks or won't understand my message. I like to keep my writing to myself.
  I still give my best effort to make my writing amazing, but always feel I am missing something when I'm finished. I would really like to gain more confidence and improve my writing skills in everything I write.

Free Post

Over the past weekend I did many things. On Saturday morning, my parents left with a few of their friends for the LSU vs. Auburn game in Alabama. My parents realized that three girls wouldn't want to be alone in our big house all day and we needed to be able to get places because none of us can drive yet. So right after my parents left, a girl named Alex, who works at my dad's office, came to stay with us. We then had to get ready for Anna Scot's soccer game that started at ten, which meant we had to be there at nine. So we loaded up the car and watched her team lose terribly 8-0. Anna was down because she knew that she had another game after that. So we had to eat really fast at Chick-fil-a and rush back to the soccer fields. Thankfully her team won this game 8-2. We were all very pumped because she scored her first goal of the season, because she usually plays defender. 

After the soccer frenzy, we went back home and had fun watching TV and being lazy. Alex then had to leave because we were spending the night with our family friends. The next morning, we were forced to do homework and study. Soon after we started, our parents got back so we went to eat brunch. It was delicious. When we got back home, we had to finish our homework because our parents were mad we hadn't finished it already. We rushed and finished with time to spare. Because all three of us were finished with our homework, my parents let us buy a movie and watch it. My weekend was full of laughter, joy, and homework.

Reading Response/Literacy Narrative

This week I read and wrote my Literacy Narrative for class. I finally finished my book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I was really fascinated by how it turned out that Hannah just misinterpreted some of the things that happened to her and didn't realized how the other people felt too. I think that if Hannah had given some of the people a chance to explain she would have still been alive. I would recommend my book to anyone who likes to read books about the effects of bullying, because it is filled with many valuable lessons.
My Literacy Narrative is coming along nicely i think. At the beginning, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to write mine about. Now that my first draft is finished, I have gained confidence in my writing and believe my story is better than I thought it would be. I really liked the day when we had the group and we read each other's stories. I got some constructive feedback that helped my revise my draft. 

Monday-37 min (book)
Tuesday-62 min (paper)
Thursday-29 min (book), 24 min (paper)

Total: 66 min, 65 pages
           86 min for narrative

My Literacy Narrative

    When I read the example literacy narratives assigned to us, I was immediately excited to compose my own narrative. But then I realized I had no idea what to write mine about. Since I never really had any realizations or anything about reading or writing, I was pretty lost. Now I have a few ideas and still am not quite sure what to write about. 
    The two ideas I can't decide between are from when I was in kindergarden and we were learning about the alphabet or from first grade when everyone made their own picture books.  From the handout we received about the assignment all my questions were answered, so now I am ready to write my first draft.

Reading Response

    This week I continued to read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. My book has really picked up the pace by revealing some of the shocking misfortunes that happened to Hannah. I think that this book is a fantastic read and nice to get caught up in. Even though this book is mostly creepy, it has a really important story line that affects every person. I am really excited to find out what the last person on the tapes did to Hannah and see why she built everything up for the last part or finale. I feel that what will happens will be unpredicted and tie everything in the story together in a weird and unusual way. 
    There have been many loose ends, which makes it hard to follow sometimes. Every chapter has an unexpected twist that leads to another person's individual story with Hannah. Even though I am super close to finishing this book, it is still hard for me to process why any human being would torture or ridicule another person the way various people have to Hannah. I really enjoy in this book how the author tells and lets us live Hannah's experiences and troubles with her. It is fun to imagine the scenes and people in the town form all the explicit detail written by Asher. I hope that the end will be even better than the beginning.

Tuesday: 23 minutes
Wednesday: 34 minutes
Thursday: 17 minutes
Friday: 26 minutes 
Sunday: 54 minutes
Total: 154 minutes 212 pages

Comments

    The comments I have received have been very helpful and caring. The posts from Dr. D have been helpful in my writing because I now realize some of the things she corrected me on. Also, my classmates have been sweet in their comments on my blog and sincere in how they are in their  constructive criticism. I like having these blogs because it gives me an opportunity to get better in my writing, even if these posts aren't essays. 
    No body has posted any questions or been confused from one of my posts so far. I am excited to see what kind of comments and ways to improve my writing to come in the future.

Reading Response

    This week I am still reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. So far, I have learned through five tapes and eight of the thirteen people that affected her life. I think that some of the things that happened to her, which was mostly bullying, are so sad and wish they never happen to anybody. I feel so bad for Hannah and glad that she still saw the positive in everything after the things that happened to her. A question I kept asking myself was why anybody would want to hurt Hannah when she was one of the most liked people at her high school? A few things are confusing to me in this book.
    I also read this week all five of the literacy narratives assigned to us for homework because I wasn't sure which three of the five I would enjoy the most, so I read and annotated all of them. I enjoyed all of the narratives and learning about each persons struggles or realizations that they were writing about. I am excited to write my own literacy narrative in class.

9/5-15 min  9/6-40 min  9/8-37 min  9/9- 74 min
Total: 166 min and 188 pages

Reading Response

I finished reading The Return: Nightfall, by L. J. Smith. The book really surprised me because I had no idea that some of the characters would betray each other. The book I recently started is Thirteen Reasons Why, a novel by Jay Asher. In this book, a girl named Hannah Baker committed suicide because she was bullied. To get revenge on the main people that pushed her over the edge, she recorded these tapes before she died that told her story and delivered them to these people.
Even though I just started the book, I think the story line is sort of scary. Who would want to randomly receive tapes one day with a recording of a dead girl that tells you that something you did made her want to kill herself? I would freak out if I received any tapes like the people in this book. I am excited to find out what happened to Hannah Baker.

8/27-36 min 8/29-49min 8/30-28min 9/3-58min
total: 17min and 283 pages

Hurricane Isaac

During the week of no school, due to hurricane Isaac, my family and I had loads of fun. even though we were bored most of the time, we found ways to still laugh and have fun in the dark. One night we didn't have power and my little sister was scared to sleep in her room by herself. Therefore Kate, Anna, and I all decided to sleep on the floor together in the front, so we all got blankets and pillows. By this time, it was already dark and we needed to use flashlights to get around. When all three of us were running down the hall with blankets and pillows in our arms, Kate accidentally stepped on Anna's blanket that she was dragging and she fell forward and hit her face on a chair in the hallway.
Kate and I screamed so loudly because we were so frightened. When Anna finally stopped wailing and crying, we looked at her face and realized it was nothing more than a busted lip. We all were truly relieved that no one had to go to the emergency room during the hurricane. Anna is better now, but we learned not to run down the hall at night time when it is dark. 

Reading Response

  My outside reading book right now is The Return: Nightfall, by L. J. Smith, which is a part of the Vampire Diaries series. Over the summer I read the first of the series and really liked it. Even though i just started reading this book, it sounds really interesting and alluring.
   Im the beginning of this book Elena comes back to life and Stefan tries to help her remember everything from when she was alive. Now Elena isn't able to speak and not fully able to understand when people talk to her. So far, I have read about how Elena sees her best friends for the first time since awaking and how Damon, Stefan's brother, senses this dark power through Caroline's mirror everyday. Caroline is one of Elena's old friends that betrayed Elena in the last book.
  I am really excited to read this book and see what obstacle the characters will face in the books to come.

8/20-53min 8/22-16min 8/23-42min 8/24-14min 8/26-29min
total: 154min, pages 1-192

In Defense of Chocolate: A Chocoholic's Manifesto

   Did you ever think chocolate can be good for your health? Well, it can be. Even though chocolate is normally eaten for pleasure, there are both positive and negative possible health effects.Chocolate is made and produced all around the world and there is a variety of flavors to choose from. Chocolate is made from Cocoa beans from mostly Central and South America, but now spread to other places as well. 
   Dark chocoalte can help the circulatory system and, with limited amounts, can help prevent heart disease. New research suggests that frequently eating chocolate may positively influence metabolism. Scientific evidence has also suggested that dark chocolate can help reduce blood pressure for overweight and normal adults. 
   On the other hand, the consumption of large quantities of chocolate is thought to increase the risk of obesity in children and adults. I would recommend eating small portions of chocolate to help with cardiovascular problems. Even though chocolate can be good for you, it can also be extremely bad.

Summer Reading Response

For my free read, I read The Vow by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter. I really enjoyed reading this book because the story was so heart warming and touching. The Vow is about Kim and Krickitt Carpenter and how Krickitt was in a severe car accident and didn't remember Kim, her husband. it was really cool to read about their journey together and how they worked things out in the end. It was really amazing to learn how through thick an thin, both Kim and Krickitt strong in their faith in God.

I saw the movie for this book and really wanted to read it after  I saw it. When I read the book, I realized it was way different from the movie, but in a good way. I am so glad I read the book because it was so endearing and charming. I loved reading about Kim and Krickitt Carpenter's story.

Class Expectations

I am very excited to be starting a new year of English. I expect that class will sometimes be difficult this year, but I'm up for the challenge. I am also excited to read Lord of the Flies and Macbeth and get better at writing papers throughout the year. I believe class will be a fun and engaging way to learn more about reading and writing for the rest of my academic life.

My main goal this year in English is to get an A each semester. I also have other goals as well, such as improving my writing and being able to understand more elaborate reading. By the end of this school year, I want to expand my vocabulary in my papers and everyday writing and be able to appreciate literature. I think my goals might be a little bit of a challenge but seem reachable.