Animal Farm

For my project I decided to show the Animal Hero classes in a pyramid. The first one shows the class levels that the animals decided upon. The animals created a military decoration called "Animal Hero, First Class". This consisted of a brass medal to be worn on Sundays and holidays. The animals said that they wanted Snowball and Boxer to be in that class. Then "Animal Hero, Second Class" was created and it was confirmed that the it would be put to the dead sheep. I put a third class in the pyramid  to show where all the other animals were. The first pyramid shows the animals in the beginning of the book. As the story progresses, the pyramid starts to swap the animals around behalf on the animals actions. At the end of the novel, the First Class belongs to all the pigs. Napoleon, Squealer and any other pig on the farm. The next section went to the dogs and the sheep. They are the closest to the pigs and don't have to do any work. I put  Boxer the horse in the mid section between the Second and Third Classes because the pigs used Boxer and took advantage of his hard working ego. The pigs "liked" him out of any other Third Class animal but not as much as the sheep or dogs. Then the Third Class consisted of all the other animals on the farm. The one pig in the red circle with the slash through it is Snowball. Since Snowball got chased off the farm, he wasn't part of the farm anymore. In the end the pigs took over and they slid themselves to the top to take power and become the leaders of the farm.

Poetry Out Loud: Follow Thy Fair Sun

           This poem spoke out to me in a random moment. The title isn’t the most catchy or the best part about the poem. Follow Thy Fair Sun was written by Thomas Campion, he lived through 1567-1620. The words that were written in the poem are now out dated and not used very often. For example thy, thou, depriveth, thee and shineth. They may not seem like actual words but they are. This poem didn’t make sense to me in the beginning. But for some reason I decided to stick with it, it gave me a feeling that non of the other poems did. I didn’t get the real meaning of the poem until I did the Analysis Questions. It really helped me understand what the poem is saying. I think that the meaning of the poem is to not let bad things in your day/life (the shadow) ruin your “sunshine” so to speak. Don’t let it bring you down even when things look their worst and nothing is going to get better. There is always something to shine down on you to brighten everything up. Don’t give up, its always worth trying and getting up stronger than before and keep going.
            I don’t think that I am going to do much while performing except to try to look at everyone. I think that making too many gestures and movements and worrying about how you look just effects the whole performance. When people perform it’s best if they make the gestures with their voice, and that’s what I’m going to try to do. Make people interested just by listening to the words that will flow from my mouth. There isn't much that I can say besides what I have already mentioned. This poem was very well written and every single person, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they look like, can relate to this poem in some way.

Poetry out loud

Part One: Website Cruising.
1. Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2. "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe
3. Sarah suggested Do Not by Stevie Smith. I suggested Onions.
4. For love by Robert Creeley and You charm'd me not with that fair face by John Dryden

Part Two: What do you think?

• Out of the five poems, I would have to say that I like For love, You charm'd me not with that fair face, and "Alone". I really like those ones because the first two are about love and romance and togetherness while "Alone" is kind of a dark style and it talks about when being a child, this person was not able to do things and go places that the other children were able to do and go. I like them, they're not the shortest but they're not the longest either. I don't know exactly why I like those three but they intrigued my thoughts to go deeper and created a picture.

• I didn't like Kubla Khan or Do Not, they weren't my style and the words didn't... I'm not exactly sure what I don't like about those. They just don't appeal to my likings. In Kubla Khan, the beginning is boring and I just want to skim it. I don't want to get into the poem and really image what the poem is trying to say. It's kind of the same thing with Onions... I don't like onions and the poem is talking about  sauteing them in butter and I got something along the lines of animals being in the poem and it was kind of confusing and not my style.

• I actually chose a different poem to do than the ones on the list above. It's called Follow Thy Fair Sun. I was just looking around and I came up on this one, I liked it a lot more than the other ones so I chose it. But if I had to choose one of the six poems above, I think I would choose... "Alone". I really like it because of how the aura isn't fake, it made me think that I could see the child and everything that was going on. 

• Follow Thy Fair Sun and I connected. I'm not quite sure how but I do know that I really like the flow of the poem. There is a rhyme scheme and that pattern is A B B A. I just really like the way it was written and it somehow really spoke to me in a way that the other poems that I read didn't. 

Part Three: Scoring Criteria

• Two criteria topics that will be easiest for me are Physical Presence and dramatic Dramatic Appropriateness because I don't have that bad of stage fright. Sure I have a little but so does everyone. I'm good at looking around the room and making eye contact with the audience. I can stand up for a long time in a good posture and my body language isn't going to be negative. Also I know not to over do the poem. Not to exaggerate on every word and to just let it flow and be natural. I have a good strong voice and I know how to control the volume it is audible but not over powering. 

• Two criteria topics that wont be as easy for me are Accuracy and Articulation (that's part of Voice). They wont be as easy for me because there are a fair share of difficult words that I may have a hard time pronouncing and the poem also uses words like thy and thou and divineth. Sometimes I get nervous and I start to speed or forget things really fast. And then the words start blurring together and are comprehensible.

• There are 7 grading criteria topics that are listed. Physical Presence, Voice and Articulation, dramatic Appropriateness, Level of Difficulty, Evidence of Understanding, Overall Performance, and Accuracy. All the topics listed are important while resiting the poem. You must have good posture, be in consideration of your eye contact, body language, and poise. Your volume, pace, rhythm,
  intonation, and proper pronunciation must be in your mind and with rhymed poems, you have to be careful not to recite in a sing-song manner. Also watching your breaks, dont make them too long, take one if you need one but don't over use the opportunity to take a break. Don't act out the poem, it's not a skit, or a play. A hand gusture here and there is allowed but not preferred. Keep in mind the accents, what;s an inappropriate tone, singing, distracting or unnecessary emoting. Level of difficulty is all up to you. It's your choice. Chose one that speaks to you, one that you like. Not your neighbor or mom or dad, but you. Don't choose a super easy one though, make it challenging and fun. Be attentive to
  the meanings, allusions, irony, tones in your poem. Be sure you know the meaning of every word and line. Overall performance is many things that are added together. It's just the little things that aren't but into a criteria category. Make sure that you know how to pronounce your poem, deductions will be put in action if things are miss recited or miss pronounced.

Part Four: Videos
Stanley Andrew Jackson- "Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem"
Right off the back his voice is very intriguing and his facial expression want you to watch more and see where he goes with it. His articulation is excellent and he really puts power and meaning to every word that is spoken. He has really good stage presence and has a voice that you want to keep listening to.

Allison Strong- "Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun"
She has a really good voice and is very articulate with everything. If you weren't watching the video and just listening to it you could tell what her expression and emotion was just by listening to the sound of her voice. Even though I hinted a rhyme scheme, she didn't do the sing-song thing. She kept it alive and the language up to date even though it was written by Shakespeare.

Part Five: Summary
I think that Poetry Out Loud is going to be fun and challenging at the same time. I'm not sure about the competition because I don't know everyone's speaking styles, strengths and weaknesses. I don't know if they have an amazing voice or if they have a way with reciting things. I think that I will do pretty well. I have stage fright to en extent. I'm always afraid of messing up and people laughing at me or not remembering or totally going blank after working so hard to remember it. Overall I think that I'll make it out alive and with a pretty good score. Maybe I'll move up to the school round but you never know. The poem I am memorizing is called Follow thy fair sun.

Extra Credit Blog

        The school year is flying by, i can’t believe that we are almost half way through but we have so much time left till the end of the year. There is much more to learn and do in class, but time has it’s way to interfere and make it seem like it was just yesterday that we were all walking into the class room for the first time. Now getting back to the blog, I guess that I would have to say that these diction and twist assignments are the “most important skill or concept” that I have learned. I hadn’t herd of DIDLE or TWIST before they were introduced in class, i barley herd the word diction in middle school. My language teachers never brought up this subject class and even if they did it was only for a brief moment. The “diddle” and “twist” are interesting ways to annotate pieces of writing.
        I have learned that for me twist is easier to understand, it’s less complicated to remember what each letter stands for. I have learned that just marking a writing piece in random places and looking for the simple things to annotate isn’t enough. If you are annotating it, might as well go all the way. This is important because it breaks down the poem or passage, etc. in a way that breaks it down and the reader can understand what is going on better. This may seem like a middle school thing to some people but it’s really new to me and I still have troubles decoding some of the letters. One of the things I have trouble with is the first T, tone. I look at the tone words that we got in class but sometimes I don’t see one that would fit but other people can spot them, if that makes sense. I also have trouble with the second T, theme. I always have a hard time finding out the tone in more difficult pieces. I don’t know why but it just doesn’t come to me as it would to others. Anyway, as time progresses and I practice it, it will get more and more useful.

"Lobsters"

         The idea that triggered in my mind during the discussion was the thought of how the author was, in a way, relating the lobsters to people. I have never thought about it that way. I can’t remember who brought it up, what topic we were on, or about when in the discussion it was brought up but i do remember that it stuck in my mind. The idea- Lobsters, they are being related to humans. Humans are lazy and slow, and just “meant to die”. “Who may choose whichever one he wants To carry home and drop into boiling water And serve with a sauce of melted butter.” This makes me think that we are just picked and chosen at anytime to die. We don’t have a say when or where it happens, it just does. Something else was said that compared us to them but i forget what it is, unfortunately :/
          As a result, truly, the poem didn’t change much for me. I didn’t get a whole new perspective as some other people might. It just gave me something new to think about and interpret into my own thoughts. Sure I got some new ideas, and some new information but nothing too special. At the beginning of the poem, i didn’t understand what the point of it was. Yea, lobsters in a tank, their colors, and then us eating them. I didn’t understand the main meaning of the poem until i sat in the discussion and listened to everyone’s ideas. It really helped me get the ideas and... I don’t know how to describe it, I got “Lobsters” a lot easier. 

Five part paragraphs

          To write a good paper you need to include many things. You have to be organized, if you write things in different orders and mix up the points it makes it hard for people to follow. A good paper should include: topic sentence, hook (optional), at least three points, transitions and a conclusion. Also depending on what type of paper your writing you also need to include concrete details and commentary. The paper should be interesting and intriguing. I know that most people don’t like to listen to papers about boring things. They just lose their interest and think about other things instead of your writing piece. Vocabulary and grammar also play a part in this. I know that I like to listen to papers with big, exciting, and powerful words. It gives me something to think about like what it means and why the author choice the words. For example; A boring sentence: The cat laid on the mat. A interesting sentence: The cat gracefully walked onto the mat and stretched as far as he could so the sun beams would dance on his belly. I personally like the second sentence better than the first. A good paper requires time, patience, and quality work. Working on the paper for two minutes and scribbling your ideas on a piece of paper is not quality work.

          I know that I have a lot to work on. I need to improve on making sure that my writing makes sense to others. Sometimes I’ll understand what I’m trying to explain but it is almost impossible for other people to understand it. I need to have a better/ larger vocabulary. When I was reading my paragraph I got embarrassed because I forgot how it was written and how I put things together. I need to follow the paper more carefully, my commentary and concrete details were in the wrong order, which isn’t good. For the next 5 point paragraph I’m really going to make sure that it is all in order. I don’t want a repeat of what happened earlier today. My skills are always open for improvement so I’m open to new ideas and different styles.

          I think that the weakness in the classroom would have to be the concrete details. Everyone had a different opinion concluding if it fit with their topic sentence or not. I think that people need to improve on bringing out their own writing styles/ their voice in their writing. I know that we have to follow a paper telling us what needs to be in it but I also know that a lot of the papers were all the same. It was about prejudice, Scout, innocence and etc. There were many topics to choose and I believe that most people stayed in their comfort zone and didn’t step out of the box when it came to choose what to write about. Of course not everyone did that but this is what I felt when listening to the papers. 

Informal vs Formal Diction

         Goodness gracious this here week had not been a bundle er joy fur me. I have not been thur most cumfortable considerin that I have got all this here homework to do. I reckon that I have had more than ya’ll can imagine. I can’t wait till this weeken gets here. I got me so many plans! It’ll be so much fun! I’m gonna be hootin and holleran my way to the movies and the mall. But this week is not in my fava. You wana know why? Well, it has to do with the fact that I’ve a gotten too many papers here to work on. My classes have been gettin longa and longa since school started. I’va got more work and less time to do things. But I guess that’s the way high school goes. I havent gotten much sleep for the past few nighs becuz I’ve been workin my tail bone off just tryin to get all my work dun. Is not an easy task, to get everythin dun in time.
          Today, as I was gettin on the bus, a major headache just hit me like a hurricane hits a town. I just wanted to get back home and rest till it was ova. But this here bus was not helpin my headache at er, it was loud an noisy an it started to smell bad. I just about felt like gettin off ther bus and walkin home from the next stop. I stayed an closed my eyes and just waited. Waited fur that bus to come to my stop wher I could happily get off. Finally, fresh air at last, I walked into my house and starded to ger goin on my homework. Well I better hit the hay, its gettin late an I still gotta lotta work to do. Good nigh, sleep tigh, don you let those bed bugs bite ya’ll hear? Nighty night.

Extra Credit Blog

I have always loved writing. It was my favorite thing to do in Elementary and Middle school. I always felt like that was the one talent I had, but then I realized that there was more elements than words on paper. I actually have a few pieces of my own writing that I really enjoy. One off the top of my head is my song/poem for my 6 year old cousin Charley Beers. She recently died do to an illness that her body just couldn’t fight off. They were just the symptoms of the flue but she felt worse than she seemed. In the morning the next day, she left everyone in the hospital bed. I was just walking out of the weight room feeling good when I got a phone call that I wasn’t expecting or wanting. After the news and many tears, I decided to write a song for her, family, and friends. I am proud of it because she was such a special girl that she inspired me to write a song in her honor. It’s not a long song and doesn’t have a tune but it’s called ANGEL IN THE HEAVENS. I enjoyed writing this because I got to think of all the memories I have of her. I got to cry and release the pain through lyrics and music. Here it is:
    ANGEL IN THE HEAVENS
You left too soon. So much of your life hasn’t been discovered. You left without saying goodbye and left without a trace. Life has been hectic, tears have been shed all because of you. All because of you.
    Angel in the heavens wont you come down tonight. Angel in the heavens please don’t say goodbye. You don’t deserve to go, your much to young and not ready to leave this world. Wont you stay a little longer with me.
    You slipped out of your mother’s arms to join him in the sky, you knew it was time to go, time to say goodbye. Your body lies lifeless but your spirit runs free. This is not a time for sorrow but a time for celebration you see. She lived life to the fullest, made everyone’s days, danced and sung and spread joy from her heart. Now all we have is those memories of her to live off of.
    Angel in the heavens wont you come down tonight. Angel in the heavens please don’t say goodbye. You don’t deserve to go, your much to young and not ready to leave this world. Wont you stay a little longer with me.
    Our little girl, the one we all know and love is with us all the time. Don’t you hear his whispers n the wind, see her smile in the sun, feel her love when it rains and her spirit all around. This special girl will always be with us to stay. To never leave and to sit and play. Thank you lord for giving us this gift. This gift full of hope, love, joy and most of all full of you. Thank you for sharing her with us, she really is her own. Her own star, her own dream and now she is yours.   
    Angel in the heavens wont you come down tonight. Angel in the heavens please don’t say goodbye. You don’t deserve to go, your much to young and not ready to leave this world. Wont you stay a little longer with me. Angel in the heavens... wont you come down tonight. Angel in the heavens... goodnight
She was the reason that I wrote this song and started writing more pieces. In this piece, I am telling about the pain that we went through and what it would have looked like in third person. Her spirit will always be with us and she will always be in our hearts. Charley Beers is such an inspiration. All of the 6 and ½ years that she lived, she lived to the fullest. She was so much mature than anyone would think. Instead of being taught lessons, she was the one sharing and telling people what was right from wrong. She would have grown up to be an amazing person. So that is why I wrote a song about her. About her life, memories and more. She was the one that brought the song up in me, I just wrote the lyrics on a piece of paper. She really was an angel.

Outside Reading: Slaughterhouse-five

          To be honest Slaughterhouse-five is not one of my favorite books. The beginning is confusing to me, other people might not think so. I don’t know if this book is about Kurt and his life or someone else. Im not sure if the Billy Pilgrim story is now the rest of the novel or not. The book has some foul language, which I try to ignore, and overall it is boring. There is not much excitement where I am at and I am hoping that it will get better. I am having a hard time explaining my thoughts on the book, it’s hard to get the right wording on what I think. From hearing about what people say on about the book, I am hoping that my perspective on it will change and I’ll enjoy it more.

          In Slaughterhouse-five, there are several main and or interesting characters but Billy Pilgrim is the main guy. He is a time traveler. Billy says that the Tralfamadorians, from planet Tralfamadore, kidnaped him and took him to his planet. Billy is able to travel in the past, present and future but he has no control over when he goes and where he goes. Billy can go from being at the YMCA learning to swim with his dad to being and 20-40 and falling asleep during his work. He always goes back to World War ll being beat up by Weary because he thinks that Billy is disappearing and or hiding from him and Weary doesn’t like it. Right now Weary and Billy just heard the sound of the Scouts being shot. The Germans had just striped Billy and Weary of their good clothes and items and took them back to be prisoners of war.
           I can’t say that I can relate any other book with this one. I haven’t read a book like this one before except in history. The way it is written sounds like something a text book or journal of that time would say. Slaughterhouse-five is interesting when it comes to be compared with other novels. There isn’t much I can say in this question/section of my blog because I am blank. My thoughts are getting to me but I am having a hard time typing them up. Well I guess that Slaughterhouse-five and Shiver/Linger have something in common, both of the novels take place in the woods. The woods is one of the main settings where all the action takes place. Billy Pilgrim is a soldier of World War ll, he walks through, around and in the woods all the time for protection, orders (he was told to) or that’s where he was positioned. In the other novels I mentioned, a lot of the action takes place in the woods and the outdoors. Grace, the main character, is in love with a wolf named Sam, in Linger (book number 1) you find out that Sam isn’t just any ordinary wolf, he is able to change into a human along with a number of other “people”. Anyways, the action and climax of the novel is bound to be found/ read about being in the woods.

          For the project i think that I might make a poster or draw a scene/part of the book. Im not one-hundred percent sure on what I want to do or what would be a good idea to do but I have a few things in mind so I’m not totally blank. I think that it would be fun to do some sort of painting but I don’t know the image to paint. I can’t paint the cover of the book because there is no picture. Maybe I could write a poem about the book, it might be challenging but it is unique.... but like I said, I’m not totally positive on my idea.

Extending the Theme

     In the beginning I can honestly say that I was not looking forward to reading the book. The few first pages were boring and not exciting but now that I have read the book and we have done some discussions in class, I have a whole new insight on what the book is about. I now realize that those boring parts help lead up to all the main actions; Boo Radley, the trial against Tom Robinson and the life of Scout and Jem Finch. The novel didn’t really speak to me, there were a few times when I felt like I was in the book, one of the characters, and hanging with Scout and Jem twenty-four seven. But then again there were other parts in the book when I just wanted to skip it and read the next section. Defiantly the first chapter was one of the worst for me. I was really bored with the information about Maycomb and Simon and the Finches. I wanted to get into the action and suspense of the novel. 
     To Kill A Mockingbird does in some ways mean more than a novel to me. One way is that this almost seems like a diary written by Scout. Sure everyday isn’t dated and it doesn’t start out as Dear Diary,... but it does tell what happened to Scout and Maycomb. This book is pretty much a book about life lessons: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, stand up for yourself and others, and don’t be afraid to be different. Some lessons I have learned from the novel are respect, and once again: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, stand up for yourself and others, and don’t be afraid to be different. These are all super important and are key aspects of life. 
     To me, To Kill A Mockingbird is almost like a historical novel. There are some parts where it is boring and you just want to skip it but you know you can’t because something may come up later in the story that relates to that part. You just want to put the book down and do something else that you can have fun with or go outside or read something else. As for example: the very beginning when the author is talking about the history of Maycomb, some parts when Atticus is talking to Jem and Scout like at the beginning of chapter 10 and just some other small sections here and there. But when it is exciting the whole situation changes. Like during the trial,  all the parts with Dill and Boo, the fire, the jail scene and when Jem and Scout are attacked by Bob Ewell. Those are only some examples of the thrilling, page turning, exciting, impelling, wild parts of the book. Those are most of my thoughts towards and on this novel. Overall To Kill A Mockingbird was well written and a good book.   (:

My Boo Radley 2nd Blog entry

       I was told that my passi (pacifier) was sort of like my Boo Radley. At first I wasn’t interested of letting it go. I never wanted it to leave my possession. I was scared that if I didn’t have it something bad would happen. I did not want it out of my sight and if it was I was scream and cry until i got it back! I was so attached to it that it isn’t even funny now (: I know that “my Boo Radley” is probably a lot different then everyone else, and to tell the truth, this is a hard subject. I seriously can’t think of anything. I don’t know of something that frightened me or was instrumental in your development my childhood to adolescence.  
       I don’t know if I could relate my experience to Scout and Boo’s. Mine is so different that it is hard to fine something that makes them similar. Scout was always wondering if Boo was real, alive, dead, or just made up. She only realized that through a few events, he was trying to show her and her brother Jem that he was real. My passi can’t talk, walk, live or die. It is just a piece of plastic and rubber that can calm little kids down. This is a hard subject to type about. I don’t have a person that is “my Boo”. I mean I don’t have or know of something or someone that was mysterious, something that scared me or intimidated me , or something that I didn’t understand. Scout did though, her “Boo” was Boo Radley. She had a person/thing that was all those things to her yet my passi isn’t a person so it is hard to compare the two.
       In the turning point though, I don’t need my passi anymore. Having it as a younger child now helps me realize that I don’t need anything like that to calm me down or comfort me. I have people around me that love and care for me. You wont see me walking around with it in my mouth and that is a good thing. I’m just guessing that most high school students has had one in one point in their life. Not everyone but I am assuming a majority of us have. Scout didn’t grow out of Boo Radley as I did my passi. But once she walked him home to his front porch she never sow him again. My “Boo” can relate to that. After I grew out of my passi and my parents took it away, I never sow it again. Both of our Boo’s have disappeared and aren’t going to return.

First Assignment (:

    I love to read but only certain books. If I’m not interested in the book through the first few pages than I wont get into it. I’ll read it but i won’t think about, if I find I a book that I like and enjoy, I will never put the book down and sometimes I imagine myself as the main character. I used to love to write short stories about my own characters when I was in elementary school. I am a good English student. I don’t really know how to answer the question...
    People who follow my blog can expect funny and well thought out answers.  Sometimes my personality will come out in my writing and people will notice/ expect that I love to put (: (smiley faces after something that is happy or exciting). I honestly don’t know how I will enlighten the on-line world, I mean I can sometimes add a little humor to my answers but then again some people may not thing it is funny. I can make a new point of view to literature to the class and or to the books.
    The meaning of English class is to discuss books and how we think they were written and or structured. To talk about characters, plots, and if the book was too our own likings or not. English is a four-year requirement for college bound students because the higher in English you go, the more advanced it gets. It is important to take four years of English because reading, writing and communication are niceties to learning. You need all of those topics to become successful in anything you do.
    Excelling in English will help me to become a stronger student and having a new meaning towards discussion and books academically. It will help my personalty to be more of an open person and to talk out in class because I am such a shy person.