Poetry Out Loud: My Poem

When we went into the computer lab a couple weeks ago, I had no idea what poem I would do. I read many poems and liked a lot of them, but none of them stood out or gave me a good feeling about presenting it. I finally picked one that I liked and was ready to start memorizing. Then I had to think about how I connected with it, but it just wasn't the right poem for me. So another night, I went on the Poetry Out Loud website and looked for a long time. I finally found a poem called Ice by Gail Mazur. I just felt all fuzzy when I read it and instantly connected with it.

It describes a day in a little town when it's so cold with ice. At the end, a girl skates with her father and has a better time then she could have or anyone else has. Its about the special moments and being with an important person is better than being with everyone else. It makes me think about the special relationship I have with my father and special relationships I have with all the important people in my life.

At the competition, I intend to say my poem with different paces and feelings. My face will be smiling, but serious at times. I don't intend to use very many gestures, but the ones I do use will be small. I am nervous, but very excited to recite my poem!

Poetry Out Loud: So many poems!

Part One:

1. "Dog" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
2. "Learning To Swim" by Bob Hicok
3. "Onions" by William Mathews was suggested to me and I suggested "Dog" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
4. "Hero" by Paul Engle and "Tree" by Joyce Kilmer

Part Two:

• I really liked all of the poems, but my top favorites were "Dog", "Hero", and "Tree". I liked "Dog" because I could really picture it and have thought of some of the things it was saying. I liked "Hero" because it was really thoughtful and inspiring. I liked "Tree" because it was an all together fun and happy poem.
• I wouldn't say I disliked the other poems, but they just weren't my favorites. "Onions" was one of those because it was funny, but I just plain don't like onions. "Learning To Swim" was one because it was about an old man and a little boring.
• "Dog" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti!
• I see the author relating a dog to someone who can't say their opinions and do what they want to do because they are a dog. I'm still a kid, or a teenager, but I haven't yet felt the freedom to do what I want to do and decide everything for myself.

Part Three:

• One of the criteria that will be easiest for me is Voice and Articulation. I am good at speaking and love to speak. If I truly have it memorized, then I will be able to say it loud enough and in a good rhythm. Another criteria that will be easiest for me is the level of difficulty. I still can't believe I chose such a long poem and the overall meaning of it still confuses me. There are also words I don't know how to pronounce or what they mean.
• One of the criteria that will be more difficult is Evidence of understanding. There are many ways of perceiving something and sometimes it's hard for me to tell exactly what the author is trying to say. Another criteria that will be more difficult for me is Dramatic Appropriateness. I sometimes feel weird standing up on my own and trying to act or be dramatic so I think that could be a problem.
• The Evaluation criteria subjects are Physical Presence, Voice and Articulation, Dramatic Appropriateness, Level of Difficulty, Evidence of Understanding, Overall Performance, and Accuracy.

Part Four:

• I watched "Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins performed by Jackson Hille. This was a successful performance because I was very intrigued to keep listening because he made it funny without being overly dramatic. His voice and articulation is very good by using the right tone and spacing out the words.
• I also watched William Farley perform "Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams. This was a successful performance because he gave out the tone of the poem really well by performing the poem whimsical, but also serious at times. He spoke very well and gave out the right body language for the poem that all just fit perfectly together.

Part Five:

I think the poetry out loud website was very interesting and something fun to get into. I am nervous for when I have to perform because watching those perfect videos makes me think that they had to work very hard at making their performance just right. No matter if my performance ends up being perfect or not, I believe this will be a great and fun experience!

The Most Important Skill

I really cannot believe that over one quarter of the school year has passed! I think that the most important skill I've learned so far has got to be analyzing things.

 When we corrected other students' papers in middle school, we mostly just looked for spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, made sure the paper made sense, and fell under what we believe sounded like a "smart" paper. We also would read stories and poems, but we didn't really go over symbolic meaning, but more the literal meaning. We definitely didn't talk about theme and tone.

 This year I can read another students paper and can analyze it for DIDILS and TWIST. I can also read a passage or poem and find different meanings and found that there are many different ways to interpret things. More specifically, I learned this when analyzing and writing To Kill a Mockingbird papers. Also, when we had The Knife, "Lobsters", and "Shoulders", where we had to annotate, write statements, write questions, write theses, and have discussions.

I believe this is a great skill because not only can we help each other write better papers, but we can understand ourselves how to make our own papers more meaningful and learn from other students' papers. I feel much more confident writing papers even in this short amount of time and I can only imagine how amazing our papers will be by the end of the year!

In the future, we will be able to read a magazine, a newspaper, a book, anything and will be much more insightful and understand what we are reading better. I believe this is also a good qualification for many jobs and something important to know, unlike other crazy things we learn in school!

Something Interesting

Since I was absent for the "Lobsters" discussion, I will be writing about The Knife discussion. I entered The Knife discussion thinking about things like the author first making the readers think he was a murderer and then finally letting us know he was a surgeon and all of the different similes Richard Seltzer uses. At the end of the discussion I had many new ideas about the passage. A main idea that interested me was that the author related a surgeon to a poet and a priest. Also, the seriousness of a surgeon that he showed.

My new ideas about the poem are that the author uses similes to relate to religion. Also, the surgeon is like a God the way he can save lives or in one little mistake, take them away. A surgeon intricately and artfully carves perfect surgeries, like a poet and their masterpiece's. The surgeon is disgusted with his profession, yet in awe with how beautiful it is. I like having discussions like this one because they really do get me to think in different ways.

So Many Paragraphs, So Many Skills

Over the last few weeks, I have listened to many five part paragraphs. Some of the most common problems were with the concrete details, commentary, and embedding quotes. Many classmates had chosen quotes that didn't directly fit with their topic or chose three quotes that didn't relate to each other so their topic was too broad. Plot summary was the biggest issue with the commentary and was sometimes difficult to understand if it was actually well written commentary. Embedding quotes seemed difficult to some people. Classmates got confused on the transition point and introducing the quote. Students also seemed confused about placement of quotes. Following the proper format and making sure you have everything in the checklist was a difficult and very important task.

For the next 5 part paragraph, I need to improve my commentary. My commentary was borderline to plot summary and I felt that trying to distinguish  between them was the hardest part about writing this paragraph. I wrote about how my quotes showed my theme, but I now believe I will write about that in a more insightful way that connects to other things and really shows my thoughts. Another thing I can do to improve for my next paragraph is really thoughtfully think about and choose the very best quote to prove my topic and make sure all three quotes are more spread out throughout the book. I enjoyed writing this paper and look forward to getting a chance to show how I will improve my next one.

Formal vs. Informal Dicton

Subsequent to my departure of Friday afternoon, I pondered over my week and considerably, nothing too  stimulative happened. Wednesday was my Grandfather's birthday, so I presume that was the most exhilarating occupant I enjoyed this week. My Grandmother's sister was in town for his birthday and I was very much pleased to see her doing well.

First, my family and I, all journeyed out to dine. The restaurant was not unequivocally elegant enough for my taste, but after all, it was my Grandfather's birthday. There was a superb beverage defined as "strawberry lemonade." This refreshment truly was exquisite with fruity hints of enchantment and delight. Afterwards, we arrived at my residence and seated ourselves for pumkin pie while my grandfather, full of animation, opened his gifts.

I have always treasured being with family and friends on their birthday. The absolute merriment, laughter, and excitement warms my heart. Sparse jubilant moments likewise of this one can make a dreadful week just a slight more bearable.

Writing about Writing

I have always loved to write, except for when I'm forced. I don't like being given an assignment where I write about something I've read or being restricted to only write about certain things that anyone else could write. I know this is a problem because I have to do this in school all the time, but I love writing about fantasy, my thoughts, and my experiences. I like being creative and putting my own twist on things. Because of everything I've said so far, the writing piece that I am most proud of would have to be a story I wrote in elementary school: Cheesy Dorito Chip.

One day in the cafeteria, my best friend was eating Doritos and an idea for a story popped into my childish mind. I later wrote a story where there was a life-size dorito chip whose name was Cheesy Dorito Chip. He and my friend, who was also a unicorn, fell in love. This human's/unicorn's parents didn't like him. There was also someone who my friends and I hated in elementary school, who in fact goes to OHS. He was the villain and kept trying to separate my friend and Cheesy because he loves my friend. Although I believe the first one is the best, there have been a second and third one written. It is an intense series that will keep you page turning for about ten minutes!

Since I was only in elementary school, it wasn't my best word choice or quality, but I am still very proud of it. Not only was it the longest story I had written at the time, 10 pages, it was a story that incorporated my friends in a crazy story that they all loved. My best friend who is one of the main characters loves the story and still talks about it. This silly story is a legacy between my friends and I and we will never forgot about it. I still pull it out sometimes and read it. It always makes me laugh and brings me back to the simple times of my childhood.

Outside Reading- Wuthering Heights

I am reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. To be honest, I really don't like this book all that much. I know people who have read it and say it's really good, but it must take awhile to be good if it is. Although, it is starting to pick up. At first, the book was very confusing and I had no idea what was going on; it was just one big blur of unknown characters and actions. I like the mystery to this book. For example, locked sleeping in the haunted room and hearing all these stories about Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Overall, it is hard to focus on reading this book and remembering to write annotations which definately slows me down.

There are many different characters so far. It is sometimes hard at first to decide whether the characters are actually there or just in a story being told or in a journal. For some reason, the book makes you very intrigued to learn about Heathcliff and Catherine. Arcording to the books present, Heathcliff isn't very nice and seems very troubled. Lockwood is told a story about him to try and find out why he is the way he is and makes him and everyone else the characters that they are.

Not too many things come to mind so far to relate to this book, but I can think of a few ways that Wuthering Heights relates to Beauty and the Beast. Once Catherine gets her foot bitten by a dog and stays with the Linton's, she comes back beautiful and with manners. Heathcliff is now like a beast because no one likes him, except Catherine, and no one believes he is worth anything. Even though the book hasn't actually said they were in love, I can tell that they are; just like Beauty and the Beast.

I don't know what all the criteria is for the creative project and am not sure of what I would like to do yet. I really like making posters and putting things together to look very organized, colorful, and creative. I think it would be fun to make some kind of art project to be put up on Mrs. Gilman's wall. I believe that as the story progresses I will get more ideas and actually start to see a full picture of what I want to accomplish.

I hope this book turns out to be as good as what everyone says it would be!

Extending the theme

After reading the assignment for this blog, the thing that came to my mind was being like Scout in the way that I didn't exactly act like a girl. When I was younger, I rarely brushed my hair and thought getting clothes for my birthday or Christmas instead of toys was just plain gross. I hated going to church because I had to wear dumb dresses that my grandma had picked out for me. As I grew older, I eventually loved clothes and became more girly though. My brother is older than me and he won't go on rollercoasters, innertubing, and many other examples. Now, many people probably don't think I am at all boyish because girls will go on scarey rides and things, but I have just always felt not quite as girly as other girls when compared in some ways.

Another way I can relate to To Kill a Mockingbird is my brother and I. We were never exactly as close as Scout and Jem, but we still did things together. Later as the book is progressing, Jem matures, but he gets moody and doesn't want to play with Scout anymore; that definately happened to me. A lot of the time my brother was rude and got mad at me just for talking. He wanted me to leave him alone along with his friends. I couldn't hangout with him at school at all.

The lessons I have learned from To Kill a Mockingbird are that everyone has to grow up sometimes and that being different from everyone else really doesn't matter it's just who you are and you should do what you want to do, even if other people think you should be acting differently.

My Boo Radley

            This was a very hard question for me, but once I really thought about it, something came to mind. Although, what I am about to write about is recent and not when I was a young child, but I still think it is a very important aspect of my life.
            When I was three years old, my family moved to Olympia, Washington. Later that year, the "Easter Bunny" brought my family a dog, Buddy. He was the first pet I ever had. We had a big backyard, and either he was running around in the back, or sleeping in house. We always played with him and cared for him. Since I can remember, he had always been there, seeing his adorable face every day, coming with us wherever we went, and playing with us all the time.
            Eventually my sister went off to college and my brother and I were in middle school. We were all so busy with sports, homework, and friends, but whenever we looked in the backyard, Buddy would always be there.
            One year he didn't run very fast anymore or chase after the his toys. I was worried about him,but couldn't imagine anything could be wrong. He wasn't eating, so my parents took him to the vet, came back nothing more was said on the matter. About a week later, my sister was home at the time, we were all sitting in the living room and my parents turned off the TV. They told us Buddy was really sick and had cancer. My parents told us they were taking him to get put asleep tomorrow morning.This news hit me so hard, just a few words and I couldn't stop crying. He didn't seem that old to me, he still seemed like the puppy he was when we first got him. My dad said we could go with him to put Buddy to sleep or not.
            My dad, sister, and I were the only ones who went. I don't think anyone needs details on that, I'll just say it was a very sad day.
            The point of that long story was to better explain my Boo Radley. Not even a month later, my brother and sister wanted another dog. I have always loved dogs so I went along with them, but I missed Buddy too much. We went to the pound anyway and there was a very cute puppy, we pet her and she liked us too. We actually got her, even though it hadn't even been that long since we put Buddy to sleep.
            My Boo Radley was when we brought this new dog home. She was all happy and kept trying to get me to pet her, but I couldn't. I was afraid that Buddy would be watching in doggy heaven and be upset with me. I know that some people probably think that is silly, but I believe it. I didn't want to pet, play, or get attached to this dog. I was afraid I would love her. I was afraid that maybe I didn't give Buddy enough attention or didn't play with him enough so if I didn't with Buddy why should I give it to this new dog?
            She seemed sad and I eventually realized that petting her and making her happy made me feel better about Buddy. I loved Buddy with all my heart and didn't want to let him go, but he knew it and I will always remember him. And I believe that he would want me to give attention to other dogs to make them as happy as I made him. We named the new dog Lucy and she is a wonderful dog, just like Buddy was.
            My experience relates with Scout's experiences to Boo Radley because she was afraid of him and what would happen if she met him. I was afraid of loving Lucy, and what would happen if I did or didn't. All is well, sorry my blog was so long this time! :)

Introduction to my Blog

Hello!!! I absolutely love English! It is one of my favorite subjects! For those of you who follow my blog, on most occasions you will see happy energized responses so that I do not put you to sleep. I will also try to do this so my long posts will fly by while you read them! Depending on how many people I know in the class, I can be shy or very talkative. I have a big personality once you get to know me and it shows in my writing. Every since I was in elementary school I have wanted to be an author. I have a huge binder of all the stories I have written and in future I plan to add to them and make them into novels. Overall, I love to read and you should definitely follow my blog!!!

I am a little nervous for this class because the work sounds hard, but I will give it my best shot, work as hard as I can, and get help when I need it. I definitely will enlighten the online world with my fresh and different ways of thinking, just like everyone else will because we all think differently!

I believe that the meaning of English class is to teach us how to understand things and different life settings. We have to learn to figure out lifestyles, plots, elements of writing, and many more. That could also be my answer for why English is a four-year requirement for college bound students. The meaning seems like a strange question to me.........

Excelling in English will not only give you good grades and high school and college, you will be able able to communicate intelligently by speaking and writing. You will get respect and understand things. I believe it will make you sympathetic to different people's life situation and realize how to grow up to be successful in this world. I love English, so maybe everything I've said won't apply to some people as a life lesson, but I really do believe English will affect who you are and grow up to be!