The Writing Center

I visited the writing center on Wednesday, November 19, 2013. I went because it was required and to improve my Literary Analysis. I had a very positive experience and found it more helpful than I thought it was going to be. My writing fellow gave me great advice and changed the way I look at English papers. I will be going to the writing center more often in the second semester.

Sara Alice did not destroy the paper, which is what I thought she was going to do. Instead she commented on the overall flow of the paragraphs. She also noted on my grammatical mistakes that I had not caught before. Throughout the appointment, Sara Alice was giving me compliments about my essay, which made me feel confident. Also, I liked the survey at the end of the appointment because it made me feel like I could help make the writing center experience even better.

Reading Times:

Lord of the Flies by William Golding 155-202

12/3-Tuesday- 35 minutes- pages 155-168

12/4-Wednesday- 45 minutes- pages 169-182

12/7-Saturday- 20 minutes- pages 183-192 

12/8-Sunday- 20 minutes- pages 193-202

Total Time= 120 minutes 

Reading + Work Times

Allegiant by Veronica Roth 295-391

11/21-Thursday- 40 minutes- pages 295-340
12/1-Sunday- 38 minutes- pages 341-390

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

11/19-Tuesday- 45 minutes- pages 58-94
11/20-Wednesday- 40 minutes- pages 95-123
11/25-Monday- 30 minutes- pages 124-144
11/27-Wednesday- 10 minutes- pages 145-154

Free Post: The 2 Weeks Before Thanksgiving

The 2 weeks before Thanksgiving are enjoyable. I think this because the weather is great and I am have and are going to do some fun things. For instance, Last Friday (the 15th) I went to the Rihanna concert. I had a lot of fun because Rihanna is amazing. I think this because her voice is beautiful, she is a great performer, and she is pretty. I also like all of her song, but "What Now" was my favorite because she sang it very beautifully with lots of emotion. The only thing I didn't like about the concert was A$AP Rocky because he was unnecessary. I think this because he kept on saying bad words for no reason and his songs were just plain stupid. I am also getting my braces off on Thursday! 

The 2 weeks before Thanksgiving are not fun because there is a lot of work. The large amounts of work causes me to have large amounts of stress. For instance, I have 2 tests, 3 quizzes, 3 AP World History assignments, and a paper. I am ok so far because I have managed my time and set what I want to accomplish and when. On top of this I have to miss 2 of my most important classes, English and AP World History, because I am getting my braces off, which I am really excited about.  

Reading + Work Times:

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

11/12-Tuesday- 35 minutes- pages 243-294

Lord of the Flies by William Golding 32-57

11/13-Wednesday- 25 minutes- pages 32-47   

11/14-Thursday- 22 minutes- pages 48-57 

Short Story 

11/14-Thursday- 40 minutes 

Total Times= 122 minutes  

 

 

Write Your Own Blog Post

Prompt: 

The next time you're in a public place such as a coffeehouse, park, or a store observe the people around you. Pick a person, couple, or a group and imagine what their lives might be like. 

For this post I will write about my observations at the Rihanna concert about a group of 5 women. There were 3 blondes and 2 brunets. They sat in the row in front of me and just sat down with their eyes peeled on their iPhones. I only got the names of the 2 brunets, which were Melissa and Beth, but for now I will name the 3 blondes Sarah, Jennifer, and Ashley. The group looked like they were in their early 30s.  

Melissa, Beth, Sarah, Jennifer, and Ashley looked seemed like they were best friends. They all looked like they had stable jobs. Sarah, Ashley, and Beth had engagement rings on their fingers, so they are married. Melissa is not married, but she is the leader of the group because she sat in the middle and everybody talked to her. I think she might have the most money out of the group, so she could be a lawyer. Jennifer is also not married the happiest person in the group. She seemed like the goodie two shoes of the group because she didn't drink and she kept on telling her friends to stop dancing and stuff like that. 

Free Post: Allegiant

I started reading Allegiant by Veronica Roth last week. So far I am enjoying it very much because I love all the action. I also love how the story is told by Tris and Tobias. I like this because I can understand the book better because I see both sides of the argument. I also like Allegiant because it is the last book in the series. I like the last book in a series because they are have lots of action, great endings, and are the very well written.

Although I really like Allegiant, I fell that it has some flaws. For instance, Tobias's point of view is not as good as Tris's point of view. I also don't like the arguments that Tris and Tobias that have because I feel they happen too often and they are irritating. Allegiant stresses some important parts, but some parts are a little unclear. Finally, I don't like how Tobias acts sometimes.

Deserted Island Simulation

I had fun in the class simulation and the class accomplished a lot. The first thing the class did was elect Mary Beth as the leader. After that the class decided on who would take care of the first graders, which was Kate, Amanda, Katherine Ann, and Brooke. The class also decided on who would make the shelter, which was me, Martine, and Annie. Finally, the class decided on who would find the food which was Dell and Bennett. Although the class accomplished a lot, we did leave out a few things. For instance, we left out who would cook the food and some people didn't get assigned any jobs.

If the class stayed on the island, we would survive for only 2 weeks. I think this because the plan had some great factors such as the leader and all the different jobs. I don't think that we could survive longer than 2 weeks because people would start fighting with each other and a disease could wipe all of us out. Also, we could run out of food. Maybe if there wasn't a disease and all the people worked together than we could stay for a lifetime and build a city.

Reading + Work Times:

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

11/5-Tuesday- 45 minutes- pages 57-113
11/6-Wednesday- 55 minutes- pages 114-180
11/7-Thursday- 45 minutes- pages 181-242

Lord of The Flies by William Golding

11/9-Saturday- 25 minutes- pages 7-31

Literary Analysis Work

11/5-Tuesday- 25 minutes
11/6-Wednesday- 20 minutes
11/7-Thursday- 20 minutes

Total Time= 235 minutes

Outside Reading Time

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

10/30-Wednesday- 45 minutes- pages 1-56


Literary Analysis Work

11/2-Saturday- 45 minutes


Peermark Reviews

10/28-Monday- 30 minutes

Total Time= 120 minutes

Free Post

The retreat on Friday was fun, but it had some draw backs. The first activity I did was canoeing, which was my favorite activity although we had to pick up trash and I had never conoed in my life. The second activity was killing the invasive species, which was my least favorite activity. I disliked that activity because some people were being careless with the tools that BREC gave us and I found that there was no point to it. The third activity that I did was clearing a trail. I enjoyed clearing the trail, but when we were walking to the trail my group got lost and went to the wrong activity. When we were clearing the trail, half of my group didn't even contribute and the chaperones left us, so we had to walk to lunch ourselves.

Lunchtime was the best part of the day because I got to talk to my friends and play on the playground. After lunch, I was so tired I didn't even try to listen to the Leave No Trace people when they were talking. When we finally got to school it was 2:30 and I was really upset because I had to wait for my mom until 3:20, so I went into the library. I enjoyed sitting in the library because there was air conditioning and I could finally relax. I really enjoyed the 9th grade retreat and I can't wait until next year's retreat.  

Short Story Reading Response

This week I read "The Sniper", "Sucker", and "Araby". I enjoyed reading all these short stories, but "Sucker" was my favorite. I found "Sucker" really interesting because I really liked the relationship between Pete and Sucker. I also liked how narrator was building up suspense; it made me really eager to find out what happens in the end. My annotations for "Sucker" are the best out of the three short stories, so I think it will be very helpful when I am writing my literary analysis.

"The Sniper" was also an interesting short story. I liked all the action in the story, especially when the sniper pretended like he was dead. I also liked the climax of the story, which is when the sniper finds out he killed his brother. "The Sniper" was the easiest to annotate for because I could clearly see the plot, point of view, and the character. Overall, I feel that I have gained a lot from the short story unit and I hope to carry that information over to my literary analysis.


Outside Reading:

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness 418-603

10/22-Tuesday- 50 minutes- pages 407-468
10/23-Wednesday- 30 minutes- pages 469-508
10/24-Thursday- 25 minutes- pages 509-538
10/26-Saturday- 35 minutes- pages 539-579
10/27-Sunday- 19 minutes- pages 580-603

Total Time= 159 minutes 

Personal Questions and Outside Reading

Personal Questions: 

1. What kinds of new books can I explore?
2. What genres do I like most and why?
3. What makes me want to read?
4. How do authors use point of view to affect readers?

Outside Reading:

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

10/8-Tuesday- 51 minutes-pages 73-126

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

10/9-Wednesday- 27 minutes- pages 228-268  
10/10-Thursday- 18 minutes- pages 269-293

Short StoryWork

10/8-"The Return"- 25 minutes

Total Time= 121 minutes

Outside Reading and Short Story Work Times

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse 

10/3-Thursday-30 minutes- pages 38-72

Short Story Reading

9/30-Monday- "And of Clay We Are Created"- 30 minutes 

10/1-Tuesday- "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses"- 25 minutes 

10/2-Thursday- "The Waltz of The Fat Man"- 35 minutes 

Total Time= 120 minutes  

Comments Published On My Blog

Short Stories Remove content | Delete | Spam	Brooke	at 2:45 PM
	Short Stories	Pauldagingar	on 10/2/13
	Short Stories	AnnieK	on 10/2/13

	Short Stories Remove content | Delete | Spam	Chanler T	at 6:13 AM
	Damian's Thoughts	Martine Morial	on 9/25/13
	Damian's Thoughts	Bria T.	on 9/24/13
	Harrison Bergeron Reading Response	Katherine Ann	on 9/22/13
	We're Making a(n e)book!	Bennett B.	on 9/22/13
	The Ask And The Answer Reading Answer	Omar	on 9/20/13
	The Ask And The Answer Reading Answer	AmandaT	on 9/19/13
	We're Making a(n e)book!	Bria T.	on 9/18/13
	We're Making a(n e)book!	Pauldagingar	on 9/18/13
	We're Making a(n e)book!	Kate Landry	on 9/16/13
	The Car Crash	The Wizard Man	on 9/11/13
	The Car Crash	AmandaT	on 9/11/13
	The Car Crash	Mary Elizabeth	on 9/10/13
	Reading Response: The Mongoose of Monterrey	Martine Morial	on 9/3/13
	Last Friday Night	AnnieK	on 8/29/13
	Insurgent Reading Response	Chanler T	on 8/29/13
	Free Post- Freshman Year and High School	DBP-ENGLISH1	on 8/25/13
	Last Friday Night	Bria T.	on 8/25/13
	Divergent Reading Response	AnnieK	on 8/22/13
	Free Post- Freshman Year and High School	AmandaT	on 8/22/13