Blog #12 Final Reflection

The Hamlet final project was a challenging but also fun experience, for my group and I. Having to incorporate at least ten quotes directly from Hamlet within our lines, plus the "gossip girl" lingo was difficult, and then also having to connect our script to our style model added to the challenge. This project had fun aspects as well, being able to write Hamlet in a way that was more relate-able for kids our age was really cool especially since half the time I, myself can't even figure out what Shakespeare is trying to say. Another fun part of the project was being able to incorporate our own costumes, props and even bring in friends to add to our "cast" because it gave us a chance to show our creativity. Most often after a unit in any subject or class is over you take a final exam, but being able to do a fun project instead of having to sit down and write yet another essay that I had no desire to write is a nice change. I also think that as a whole I came to understand Hamlet better through this project than I ever would have with an essay, I highly suggest doing this project in future years, it was a project that I thoroughly enjoyed being able to do with friends.

Blog #11 Hamlet Final Project

Gossip Girl Actual Promo Our Final Project

Blog #10 Hamlet Style Analysis

Blog #9 Heaven vs. Hell

Blog #8 Rebel Without a Cause Day

I am Katniss Everdeen, a tribute in the Hunger Games from the 12th district. You may think I am a typical contender but that is not the case, I for one will not support going into an arena and fighting to the death.  I volunteered to take my sister’s place to protect her and in the end became the face of a rebellion against our nation. 

“At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.”   -Suzanne Collins 

Fight song- "Girl on Fire" 

Blog #7 Final Draft of Memoir

Blog #6 Rough Draft of Memoir

Blog #5 Personal Memoir Topic Approval

 Surface culture component: Language
The deep culture component of my memoir would be concept of time, I think this would be the best fit for my memoir because my junior year (last year) on the way to school my sister and I were in a car accident. Even though it was a minor accident it still made me realize how quickly things can change, people always say that everything can change in a split second and I never really understood the full extent of that saying until I had my car accident.
The turning point of my story is after the accident happened and my sister and I got out of the car to make sure everyone was okay. This particular moment was the turning point I believe because that was when it first hit me that it only takes a second for something bad to happen and that I had to be more careful and aware of my surroundings.
I've changed from my turning point by learning to be more careful and conscious of how little time it takes for something to go wrong.

Blog #4 Memoir Style Model Analysis : Scars by David Owen

The surface culture components for the memoir Scars would be celebration and then the deep culture component would be concept of self because the author was in a way celebrating the scars that he and others he knew had, he was saying they aren't something that you should want to hide. The deep culture component would be concept of self because he kept emphasizing that your scars make you who you are and they each tell their own little story about your life. The turning point of the memior would be when the author realizes that scars are something that you should take pride in and that they should in a way be celebrated. The author shows that he has changed at this point by showing that he has had a change of mindset about his own scars.
"On a hill in the neighborhood where I grew up, in Kansas City, was a suburban ruin that my friends and I called the Burned-Down House. There was a crumbling tennis court, which was enclosed by an overgrown chain-link fence, and there was a concrete slab with a dirt-floored crawl space underneath it, and there were two limestone chimneys. During the summer of 1972, when I was in high school, my friend Duncan and I sat on top of one of the chimneys lighting firecrackers with our cigarettes and throwing them at two other friends, who were sitting on a limestone retaining wall and throwing firecrackers at us. Between explosions, we tried to think of something less boring to do. Most of our firecrackers were Black Cats, but we had some cherry bombs, too, and one of those blew up a few inches above my left foot. When I could hear again, and when Duncan and I had stopped laughing, I noticed a nickel-size piece of cherry-bomb shrapnel embedded in the rubber toe cap of my sneaker. When I pulled on it, it came out of my foot like a cork, and blood spread up through the canvas and into the laces. Duncan drove me to the office of my doctor, a pediatrician. The waiting room was full of mothers and weepy three-year-olds, and I took off my shoe and handed it to the receptionist, to show her what the problem was. (Scars Owen)"  This paragraph stuck out to me because of the imagery that the author used enabled me as a reader to really visualize what he was describing. I also liked that you could obviously hear the authors voice throughout this paragraph as well as the rest of the memoir.

Blog #3 Their Eyes Were Watching God Compare and Contrast

"Empathy and Transfer"
What would you do in Janie's place when Nanny told her she had to marry him even though she knew that she didn't love him?
"Universal theme"
After reading the first six chapters what do you think the major themes of the book will be?
"Close ended"
In chapter five why do you think the whole town starts out loving Jody but then begins to grow apart?Was there something that he did?
"Open Ended"
What do you think Janie's hair symbolizes?
"Cause and Effect"
Why do you think that Janie did not speak up when her husband called her innocent and hit her?

Blog Post #2: Poetry: Sonnet The Ladies Home Journal

Blog #1: Reading Fiction Closely

The Bright Forever By Lee Martin Innocence Crossing the Threshold "Raymond R. crossed the White River. Fog was starting to settle in the low-lying bottom land. The truck crested a hill, and as it nosed down the other side, he could see in the headlight beams the smoky swirls of fog, and for a moment, his head electric with LSD, he imagined he was flying over the tops of the clouds. Then Katie said,"It's almost dark." He remembered her then, the girl. "Dark ain't nothing to be afraid of," he said. "You're a big girl ain't you?" He could swear she was shrinking. Each time he glanced at her, she seemed farther away from him. Finally, she was so small he thought he could pick her up and s tick her in his pocket. Like Tom Thumb, he thought. That was a story he'd always liked. Tom Thumb hidden away in places too small and tight for ordinary folks to go: a mouse's hole, a snail's shell. Tom Thumb swallowed up by a cow and then rescued, only to be eaten by a wolf. Tom Thumb always trying to tell people where he was." (Martin,206) "Wheee!" He was laughing . "Wheee!" he said again. They were gliding through the fog, and for a good while there was only the sound of the truck's tires bumping over the seams in the pavement and the rush of the wind coming in through the open windows. Raymond R. turned off the highway onto a gravel road. He drove another mile north and then found the old shale road that snaked back into heavy woods, the road he had seen through his binoculars the evening he and Clare had driven to Honeywell. In the woods, all the light went out, and there they were in the dark. The road was narrow and sapling branches whipped up against the fenders and doors, squeaking as they scraped over the paint. The truck tires sank down into the muck of mud and shale. The air smelled of wet, moldering leaves. Trees rose up in the headlight beams, thick trunks laced with wild grapevine. Somewhere in the woods a screech owl screamed" (Martin, 208). The theme that I chose for The Bright Forever is innocence because the whole book revolves around finding out what happened to Katie and who did it. The opening line to the novel is "I'm not saying I didn't do it. I don't know," this quote comes from Raymond R., and I chose it in support of my theme because it appears that Ray is not entirely innocent but he's also not entirely guilty and this quote was a good example of that. Another quote that contributes to the theme of innocence is "Did I think that Raymond R. might hurt Katie? I spent the rest of the evening convincing myself it couldn't be so," this was said by Henry Dees and it's a good example because it shows you how Dees was trying to prove his own innocence to himself, he was trying to reassure himself. The passage that I chose reflected the theme of the novel because in the passage I chose it illustrates Ray with Katie and what exactly went down the night that Katie went missing, it also solidifies Mr. Dees' innocence which for me was in question throughout the whole book until that point when it was confirmed that Ray had killed her.