Comments Q4 Week 5

Ian Begnaud
https://ianbsblogs.blogspot.com/2017/04/statements.html?showComment=1493172380458#c5493711399440916879

James Christian
https://jamescblogpost.blogspot.com/2017/04/hits-and-misses.html?showComment=1493172665028#c4151678006080208491

Anticipating our next Book

I strongly agree that everyone is capable of lying, betrayal, and violence. But, I neither agree nor disagree that they are basic parts of human nature. Just because people are capable of doing something doesn't mean that it is a basic part of human nature. Not all people go to violence when they are mad at someone or something. I do agree that lying could be a basic part of human nature, because people lie about even the simplest things every day.

I also neither agree nor disagree that ambition is a positive, desirable trait in a person. It depends on the situation whether ambition is a positive or negative trait in a person. Ambition can be positive if someone is trying to accomplish a goal, such as getting an A on a test, or helping someone out. Ambition can be negative if someone's goal involves hurting someone or something.

Hits and Misses

I have had hits and misses with all my papers. I definitely had a large miss on my personal narrative. My personal narrative wasn't that bad, but my rough draft was about five pages long when it only had to be two to three. At first, I was totally confused on the part that we had to focus in on a short event, because my idea of a short event was two weeks. So, I ended having to cut almost everything out of my narrative when I finally understood that I needed to focus in on a shorter period of time.

My biggest hit this school year was my research paper. All the preparation for writing the paper helped me a lot on the paper. The hardest part for preparing for the research paper was making notecards and the outline. Once I got those done, writing the paper became the easiest part. After writing the personal narrative and the literary analysis, I had a better idea of what a good paper looked like.

Comments Q4 Week 4

Trevor "Book Challenge information"
https://20trevorh.blogspot.com/2017/04/book-challenge-information.html?showComment=1491940562207#c1485461544837023102

Ian "prompt response"
https://ianbsblogs.blogspot.com/2017/04/prompt-response.html?showComment=1491940900218#c5249420887830086773

Reading

Purple Hibiscus started out challenging for me to read. I am doing annotations to show what I am thinking while reading. I am not a fast reader, so with the annotations it has taken me a while to read each night. At first, I was annotating too much, then I was able to shorten my time with not as many annotations. I eventually got the hang of reading faster while doing the annotations.

The annotations have been very helpful while reading the book. It helps me to recognize what is happening during the story better and why certain things are important. The annotations also help me find important parts of the story easier. Doing the discussion posts have also helped me to think more about the big ideas in the novel.

Prompt Response

Prompt: What places do you remember fondly from childhood?

One of the places that I remember as a child was the nursing home that my grandmother lived in. I remember going to visit her almost every weekend. My family and I would bring her to church most Sundays and then we would bring her to our house for lunch. I remember having to walk down a long hallway to get to her room. My grandmother's room was very comforting. She had a reclining chair, a couch, and a very soft rug. A lot of the times that we visited her, I fell asleep on her couch.

Every time we visited my grandmother, she was sitting in the same reclining chair watching TV. Her room seemed to have never changed. I remember my brother and I would always play with the games she had. Our favorite game to play against each other was marbles. We also really liked to play with cards. My brother and I didn't play card games against each other, but instead would stack the cards.

Comments Q4 Week 2

Jack T. "Political Article"
https://graysonallenftw.blogspot.com/2017/03/political-article.html?showComment=1490738486334

Charles L. "Political Article"
https://20charlesl.blogspot.com/2017/03/political-article.html?showComment=1490738839143#c6250298797634280523

Political Response

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/saturn-ufo-moon-pan-nasa-cassini-space-science/

I found any interesting article in National Geographic called Here's Our Best Look Yet at Saturn's "UFO" Moon. I found this article by looking through National Geographic. I chose it because I have always like read about new findings in space. This article talks about a "flying saucer" that is orbiting Saturn in the outer rings. This object that NASA's Cassini Spacecraft found is a moon named Pan. It is only about 21 miles long and has a distinct shape. The Cassini Spacecraft was able to get images observing the moons shape.

Pan is a type of moon called a shepherd moon. It is located in a gap in the rings of Saturn. This gap was created from Pan vacuuming particles of the ring. The gap was actually discovered before Pan and it was what led to the finding of Pan in 1990. What interested me in this article was how Pan was able to create this gap and how Pan was able to obtain the shop it has. It makes me wonder how much bigger the gap will be in the next decade.

Comments Q4 Week 1

Alex Harlan- "Me as a English Student"
https://harambememelover.blogspot.com/2017/03/me-as-english-student.html?showComment=1490028727997#c4164766913522426083

Sa'Veon- "Free Post"
https://saveons.blogspot.com/2017/02/free-post.html?showComment=1490029006160#c8455569959529214180

Free Post

My favorite book that I have read this year was Four Blind Mice by James Patterson. Patterson rights about a detective, Alex Cross, trying to solve his last case before he retires. This book never got me board of reading it. There was always something interesting happening. There were many events in this book that eventually led up to the climax, which kept my reading it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about crime solving. I liked this book so much because there was also a lot of suspense. There were many parts when you knew something bad was about to happen. Patterson did a great job of keeping the reader's attention throughout the story. This was definitely my favorite book this year, and probably one of my absolute favorites.

Learning Reflection

Throughout my first year of high school, I have become a better writer. Although, my writing still isn't that great, but it has definitely improved. My writing in the first semester started out not so great. I remember doing the personal narrative and trying to make as much vivid detail as could. I also remember having to focus in on a short period of time. Even after my final draft, I still didn't have enough vivid detail and didn't focus on a shorter period of time.

My literary analysis went a little bit better than my personal narrative. After writing the literary analysis, I was definitely able to tell that my writing had improved. When we started doing the research paper, I had found an interesting topic and a lot of information about it. While writing it, I knew that it was going to be my best writing this year. Overall, my writing this year has improved greatly this year.

Comments Q3 Week 7

Jordan Ramsey "Mardi Gras Vacation"
https://jordoniam.blogspot.com/2017/03/mardi-gras-vacation.html?showComment=1488903772680#c3393788365358994131

Lathan Minton "Free Post Prompt"
https://jamaicanenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/03/free-post-prompt.html?showComment=1488903958882#c6050632588897783673

Song

Gillan Welch uses repetition and internal rhyme in his song "Dark Turn of Mind" to emphasize what he is singing about. He uses repetition to express his senses, "Now I see the bones in the river/ And I feel the wind through the pine/ And I hear the shadows a-calling..." The senses he is expressing is sight, touch, and hearing to show what the mood is like.

Welch also uses internal rhyme to express the mood of the song. He sings, "But oh ain't the nighttime so lovely to see?/ Don't all the nightbirds sing sweetly?" The words "nighttime" and "nightbird" tells that the it is night but they also make the mood of the song more calm. 

http://www.songlyrics.com/gillian-welch/dark-turn-of-mind-lyrics/

Mardi Gras Break

This Mardi Gras break will not be very exciting for me. The only thing I have planned so far is going to my camp in Mississippi. I am going there this weekend with a friend and my family. We usually go there for hunting, but now hunting season is over. We have a pond there so we will probably go fishing.
For the rest of Mardi Gras break I am doing nothing, but I will probably find something to do. I don't think I am going to any parades. I will probably go to my friend's house. I will also probably go back to my camp. At least I will have a break from school and will have time to relax.

Comments Q3 Week 6

Sutter "Poem": https://sutterenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/02/poem.html?showComment=1487706052151#c9104378996034930869

Jett "3 Words": https://1025jett.blogspot.com/2017/02/3-words.html?showComment=1487706362884#c6555412946693302025

Poem

Simile, Euphony, Cacophony

The room is hot

as a boiling pot.

Dying of thirst and 

my mouth is about to burst.

The AC is fixed.

The cold air soothes 

my skin.

Finally, I am satisfied.

Vocabulary

remunerate, monetary, beneficiary

The other day I had to remunerate a friend for using his money to buy lunch at McDonald's. It was around six months ago that we ate lunch there. I had to pay him back $10 for my meal. He was very mad at me because I was supposed to pay him back a many weeks ago. I thought this monetary wasn't a very big deal, but for him, it was. I also thought why he would be mad, because he was the beneficiary in this situation. He eventually forgave me for not paying back for long time.

Comments Q3 Week 4

Jack T.: Respones to Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
https://graysonallenftw.blogspot.com/2017/01/response-to-absolutely-true-diary-of.html?showComment=1486400031111

John H.: Research
https://johnhenglish1block3.blogspot.com/2017/02/research.html?showComment=1486400354952#c4245470486384001265

Research

I have learned may things from doing my research paper. I have learned how much the Chernobyl explosion has impacted people in surrounding areas of the Chernobyl power plant. It has impacted them by forcing them to evacuate their towns, it has caused many health effects. Through writing my paper, I have also learned how to embed quotes better. There are many other interesting impacts of the Chernobyl explosion.

Transitions are one thing that we have learned about through writing this research paper. I am having a little bit of trouble in writing my transitions. I also had trouble with writing my transitions in the other essays that we have had. I hope that I will be able to improve writing transitions in this process of writing my research paper.

Reading Response ATDPTI

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is the weirdest book I have ever read. This book is different because it is very straight forward. It is straight forward especially when Junior chooses to go to Rearden for school. Usually, it should take a long time to make a decision like that. It is interesting how Junior interacts with the teachers at Rearden. So far it seems like the teachers are very annoyed with Junior. 

It is also interesting how Junior interacts with the students at Rearden. On Junior's first day of school, the students crowded around him and made fun of him. Roger and his friends also bullied Junior for the first few days until Junior punched Roger. They then started to respect Junior and now most of the students just ignore him.

Comments Q3 Week 3

Lathan: https://jamaicanenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/01/free-post_30.html?showComment=1485826056045#c3578526401270581455

Sutter: https://sutterenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/01/free-post.html?showComment=1485826343877#c729915372580889865

Free Post

My research project is going very well for me. I am very interested in my topic, so I am not completely bored with it. I feel like my rough draft is going to be easy to make, because my outline is pretty good. I also have a lot of good information that support my arguments. 

I have a feeling that this research paper will probably be my best essay this year. Although, I have never been very strong in writing, but I feel very confident. My outline is organized very well and my all of my arguments answer my research question very well. This will make it easier for me to turn my outline into a rough draft. I hope that I will do a good job of revising and editing so that my paper will be best I can make it before turning it in.

Reading Response

The book Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a very different and weird book. It is nothing like any other book i have ever read. The Alexie starts off the novel is very weird. The book starts off with the narrator telling us about his head being full of water. Then he talks about how his dog, Oscar, is very sick and they ended having to kill him.

Junior, the narrator, also explains to us how separate the indians and white people are in the story. He gives us this idea of how separate they are from white people through a lot of detail. It is interesting to me how Junior decided so quickly to go to a completely different school. It was also interesting to me how his parents let him make that decision since it is more expensive and that Junior's family is poor. 

Comments Q3 Week 2

Trevor: https://20trevorh.blogspot.com/2017/01/free-topic.html?showComment=1485138143961#c5591832037525127220

Max: https://mhr416.blogspot.com/2017/01/post-2-123.html?showComment=1485138525826#c1206479906841550451

Research Topic

My research topic is the Chernobyl explosion. I found this by looking at a long list of topics, and when I saw the word "Chernobyl," I new it sounded familiar to me. I think I saw a TV show about the Chernobyl explosion one time, so that is probably why it sounded so familiar to me. All I remember from the show was that it was a nuclear explosion that released a great amount of radiation. Then I started reading one of the articles in the database and it seemed more interesting to me than I thought.

The Chernobyl explosion happened on April 26, 1986. The explosion released tons of radiation that mostly spread to parts of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Lighter levels of radiation also spread throughout Europe. There were was a large amount of short-term deaths from the explosion. There were also long-term affects from the radiation, such as thyroid, and other types of cancer. My research question is "What are the significant impacts that the Chernobyl explosion had on the citizens of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine?"

Last Semester

Last semester I learned that high school is a lot different from middle school. After a few weeks of being in high school I felt like eighth grade didn't prepare me too well for high school. It took a while for me to get used to the schedule and being in high school in general. At first, my grades weren't as good as I expected them to be. Once I got used to what the classes were like in high school, I was able to push my grades up a little bit.

I have also learned that you need to spend more time on homework in high school than in middle school. You also need to manage your time better because you are much more independent in high school than in middle school. At the beginning of the year when I was struggling a little bit, I had a hard time figuring out which teacher I should go see during tutorial. I also had to figure out when I should go see the teacher. For some reason this stressed me out a little bit, but I eventually was able to figure everything out.

Comments Q3 Week 2

Hudson "Free Post- Driver's Ed": https://huds0ngenglish.blogspot.com/2017/01/free-post-drivers-ed.html?showComment=1484663178826#c7708826597570984237

James "Free Post-Winter Break": https://jamescblogpost.blogspot.com/2017/01/free-post-winter-break.html?showComment=1484663819496#c6897686118222559141

Free Post

My dog is a fun dog to have. She is not like any other dog. Her name is Annabelle, but when my family got her, she was name cricket. At first I didn't like that name, but now I wish we called her that because it is funny.  I don't know what Annabelle is, but all I know is that she has some lab in her. This is what makes her interesting.

Annabelle sheds a lot. Every time she runs into the house, a bunch of hair flies off. She is a funny dog, because sometimes I will be sitting on the back porch and out of no where Annabelle starts sprinting in circles. My dad thinks she is crazy. She is very playful and loving. Annabelle always escapes the backyard or from out the front door. When I go look for her she is usually in the same spot.

Research

My research is going well. I am finding many interesting articles on the Chernobyl explosion. Mostly everything we've done on the research project so far hasn't been too difficult. The easiest part for me has been finding sources related to my research question. I am glad this was easy for me, so now I don't have to worry too much about finding other sources.

The most difficult part of the research project so far has been the annotations. When we first started working on the annotations, I was confused and worried, but I eventually figured out how to do the first one. After doing the first annotation, it was much easier to do the rest. Although, it was a little difficult picking what sources I should use for my annotations since I had 12 sources. I think that doing the notecards won't be too difficult.