Animal Farm Project

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Poetry Out Loud: My Poem

The poem that I chose is called Invitation to Love by Paul Laurence Dunbar. This is a beautiful poem and I have loved memorizing and trying to develop a deeper understanding. The main meaning of the poem is that love is everywhere; all we have to do is open our hearts to it.

I did not necessarily connect with the poem on a very personal level, but what did speak to me was imagery. The author does an amazing job at painting a picture with his words. He shows that love can come in any form, place or time. What is special about this poem is any person can relate to it. The poem could be about two lovers, friends or a family. This makes this so versatile and allows it to touch that many more people.

When I present this poem I want to articulate the words well. I also will try to pause at certain places to give the audience time to picture what the author is trying to tell them. I am going to try and stay as relaxed as possible and not talk very fast. This way my audience will have a better  time listening and hopefully find a connection with my poem.

Extra Credit Blog

In my To Kill a Mockingbird paragraph I realized that my quotes were not embedded very well. Another element of the 5 part paragraph was the commentary. I had the right amount of commentary but I did not elaborate and that caused my paragraph to be very short. One of the last things I realized needed work on was my concluding statement. My concluding statement needed to be stronger and wrap up the overall idea of my paragraph better.

In The Knife by Richard Seltzer I believe that I embedded my quotes better and that the overall project went smoother this time. I tried to elaborate more and I feel that this will add more depth and understanding to my paragraph. This time my concluding sentence wraps up the entire paper summing up the meaning of the paper.

Poetry Out Loud

Part One

1. Mezzo Cammin by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2. Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon

3. Invitation to Love by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

4. Piano by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

    Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas

Part Two

Of these five poems I thoroughly enjoyed Invitation to Love and Piano. Both of these poems described scenarios and the inner most feelings of the writer. I related to both of these poems which made me want to read them over and over again. I did not enjoy reading Mezzo Cammin and Dreamers because they were depressing poems. Poetry is supposed to show feeling but I felt like I did not relate well to either of them. Of these five different poems I would be interested in studying Invitation to Love the most. I feel like this poem shows love and that connects with me in many different ways. I also really enjoyed the way he almost van paint a canvas with his words.

Part Three

Two of the criteria that I believe will be easy for me are physical presence and evidence of understanding. I am very good at giving presentations and reciting different things in front of people. I also have very good comprehension skills which helps me understand what I am reading. I feel like I will have more difficulty with dramatic appropriateness and accuracy. I am not the most dramatic person and I hope that I do my best at conveying my feelings about my specific poem to my audience. I can sometimes rush when speaking and that could possibly impact my accuracy.

Part Four

I watched Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem by Gegory Corso and Forgetfulness by Billy Collins. Both performers had slightly satirical poems and did very well with the dramatic appropriateness. They thoroughly understood their poems and that was noticeable throughout the performances.

Part Five

I feel that Poetry Out Loud will be a very good experience. I liked being able to read different poems and hear different opinions about the same poem. I think the competition will be fun and that we will all learn from it. I feel that I will do well, I enjoy memorizing different things. The poem that I will recite is Invitation to Love by Paul Lawrence Dunbar. I chose this poem because I felt have a connection with this poem and I enjoy reading it, I want to share that same enjoyment with my classmates. The website was extremely helpful in trying to find different information quickly and effectively.

Lobsters

            The author Howard Nemerov uses a comparison between lobsters and humans in a very satirical way. One idea that caught my attention was how lobsters have many different colors. "Mud red, bruise purple and cadaver green...This is their camouflage at home." In my discussion we decided this was his attempt to show his audience that humans are all different colors and most of us tend to blend into our surroundings, not wanting to be seen or discovered.

 When I first read this poem, I thought it seemed very literal, but as I started to annotate and discuss it with other students I realized it was about much more than just lobsters. The more time I spent with this poem, I began to see the symbolic meaning. One main point the author talked about was death. He talks about how lobsters wait around in a glass tank, waiting for a human to pick them and take them home to eat. Throughout the poem, the main message was that we cannot escape death. This symbolic meaning made this piece of literature very dark, one without hope.

So Many Pargraphs, So Many Skills

Over these past few weeks we have been reading our five-part paragraphs out loud in class. One area of weakness has been in the commentary, whether the writer had too little information, or didn’t completely explain their main topic. To begin a five-part paragraph one must have a focused topic, one that will be elaborated on through the entire paragraph. After that three concrete details are needed in the paragraph. These are quotes and must be introduced thus embedding them. Following the concrete detail is the commentary. This is where the student will explain to you in their own words what that certain quote meant to them and what they thought the author was trying to convey through the quote. Once that has been completed the paragraph is finished with a concluding sentence that wraps everything up.

With this being my first five-part paragraph I felt that I did well. However my paragraph could have had more substance in that it conveyed the general idea but I did not elaborate as much as I should have. I also think that my word choice was repetitive. I felt I understood this project and I believe I did quite well.

Formal Diction

This morning I awoke to a voice, one belonging to my father as he pulled me from my slumber. I groaned inwardly at the thought of climbing out of my warm bed, my dog curled up next to me. I had just finished getting ready for the day when my aunt arrived to take me to school. I had not had the chance to eat my breakfast which resulted in me eating my toast in the car. Upon arriving to school I had to drop off my soccer equipment in the locker room.  Fortunately for me I still had time to converse with my fellow classmates. Unfortunately the time went by too quickly and we all had to walk to our first period class. Through the course of the day I received multiple homework and project assignments, most due on Monday.

After school I had my last soccer practice. This practice was a time used for our coach in which we received our player evaluations. Meanwhile the rest of my team instructed our coach’s son’s team. They are all young boys who love the sport. There were nine boys but at times it felt as if that number doubled in size. During this time most of my team conversed with each other. Just enjoying the time spent together. This last season has been an amazing experience. My friendships that I have begun I believe will last for a long time.

Extra Credit Blog

Last year when I was in eighth grade I was a part-time homeschooled student. I had the opportunity to meet with a group of eighth grade homeschooled girls every Wednesday and do schoolwork together. We would work on science and then our creative writing projects. We decided to follow a year long curriculum called The One Year Adventure Novel by Daniel Schwabauer. He taught us different aspects of literature and how it all comes together to create a fiction novel. What was funny about this study was that all of us started to realize when we watched movies or read books; we were able to identify certain elements of literature we had not seen before.

The plot line that I chose for my novel was about a princess Lynea who lived in a castle and one day her father, the king becomes deathly ill because of poison.  This caused the kingdom to fall apart and her uncle, who is enemies with her family, planned an attack on their kingdom. It was then Lynea’s mission to make peace with her uncle and find a cure for her father.

I found that doing a creative project like this was difficult for me at first, but I began to switch into creative mode faster every time I sat down at the computer to type. I also realized how important detail and depth of characters development is to a story. This experience helped me appreciate even more the adventures I have enjoyed and the works we are studying this year. I am proud of the work I accomplished because I learned how to write in a different way and entertain readers.

Wuthering Heights

The novel that I chose to read is Wuthering Heights. This novel was, in the beginning very confusing. The author Emily Bronte gave the characters very similar names. For instance, Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff, Hindley, Edgar Linton, Hareton and then there are two different ladies named Catherine.  The beginning was hard to follow but I realized the longer I have read, the plot begins to unfold, and the more I find myself wrapped up in the story. The story tells of a forbidden love between Catherine and Heathcliff. They love each other, but because of certain ties they are unable to go through with marriage. Catherine has now married Edgar Linton and Heathcliff has started to make advancements on Edgar’s little sister Isabella Linton. This is causing friction between key characters.

                One literary element I would comment on would be the setting and characters. The novel takes place during the early 1800’s in the moors. The way the author describes the surroundings and characters adds a mysterious feeling to the novel. In the house where most of the characters grew up together was a twisted evil household filled with secrets and deceit.

                One novel that I would compare this to would be House by Frank Peretti. The novels setting greatly reminded me of Wuthering Heights. Both books start mysteriously, challenging the reader to think and try to understand what is happening. Also, both novels focus on a house setting that has many secrets, not known to many people. This element adds intrigue, confusion and a sense of suspence.

                For a creative project I was thinking of doing a creative poster with Catherine and Heathcliff.  The style of drawing would try to convey the mysteriousness of their forbidden love and the setting of this novel.

                               

Extending The Theme

To Kill a Mockingbird had many different plots that in the end all worked together to tell a fascinating story about a small girl whose innocence is slowly being taken away from her. For her this is the innocence that not everything in the world is good. She begins to realize that people can be cruel and that some people can condemn a man because of his skin color. This was an intriguing concept to me and I found it interesting to read.

Another concept that spoke to me was the love that was woven in and out of the story. It came and went showing up in the most unexpected places. A couple of examples would be Miss Maudie; she was Jem and Scout’s strong point and was always there for Scout when she couldn’t play with Dill or Jem. She might not come right out and say it but even a simple gesture of squeezing Scout’s hand during the Women’s Missionary Circle when Scout would say something wrong. This was her was of offering a silent form of compassion that went a long way. Another even bigger place this is seen is with Atticus. He is the hero in the book for being the man to take Tom Robinson’s case and prove that he was innocent. To be able to take that criticism was humbling for me. When Scout and Jem started to understand why Atticus took the case they began to respect him more as their father and as an individual. He showed them the difference between right and wrong. This is one of the most loving things that you could do for your children and I believe that Scout and Jem knew that. This is showed even more if one of them had done something wrong he wouldn’t yell or do anything rash he would just be sad and disappointed. Because of the love he had for them, they would do anything to keep him from being disappointed in them. Atticus raised Jem and Scout with love that would never diminish, he was their role model.

My Boo Radley

    

           My Boo Radley experience was probably when I would have piano recitals. I would compare this to Boo and Scout because how he shapes her as a person my piano has shaped me. I have been forced to learn discipline and study hard to make sure that piece is top quality.

            I don’t like recitals and playing in front of lots of people but I have become so much more confident as a player and pianist. What has helped me the most is the work effort having to always be playing and memorizing and fixing hundreds of mistakes ultimately getting it the way I like it. This has also taught me to be patient with myself and believe that I will master the repertoire.

 At first I never wanted to perform and this is like Scout is like this because she really doesn’t want to meet him and would rather leave him alone. In the end when she finally met him she realized that it wasn’t that bad. And this is just like me when I walk up to the piano surrounded by friends, family and other students. But no matter what happens when I’m on the stage after everything will turn out alright. This is my Boo Radley.

Blog Introduction

       I love literature and the way it takes me to strange worlds and introduces me to different people. Reading helps me to slow down and relax, while writing is a great way to express thoughts and share ideas. Literature is a great way to bring people together, all in the interest of learning.
     
      When people follow my blog they will soon see that I tend to write in a way that is detailed or fact-based.This year my goal is to expand my writing style, to become more enjoyable to the reader without compromising facts and details. Being able to write on our blogs will encourage us as students to share our opinions in a different way other than a classroom discussion. I feel that many students think and talk differently in classroom discussions, possibly feeling stress in front of classmates and a teacher.This also gives the student more time to think about their response to literature.

         The purpose of our English class is to study literature with other students who want to learn and succeed. English is all about communicating, writing and reading. This class will give me the opportunity to grasp the concepts and understand them quicker by analyzing different techniques and styles used by authors.
    
         I believe that students who take four years of high school English will be far more prepared for college and a career. English will help a person learn how to communicate and get their ideas presented in a way so that  they are understood by others.

          Excelling in English will help me learn to communicate better and become a more fluent writer. English will be good academically because it will prepare me for college and other pursuits in life.