Outside Reading Reflection

     As a reader I have learned that I a great vocabulary and I understand complex plots. I like read to a lot and when I really like a book I have a tendency to read fast.  I mostly read science fiction books , but I also like to read adventure books, picture books, autobiographies, some biographies, and mystery books. Those types of books appeal to me the most because it stimulates my imagination. I have a very big and creative imagination and science fiction books and many other types appeal to my imagination.  I am, however, surprised that I am able to understand the complex writings of a playwright like Shakespeare.  I normally don't read Shakespearean plays, but we were required to read it and I ended up really liking the book. 

     Outside reading has helped me a little when it came to recognizing where to put commas and other punctual mistakes.  Sometimes when I am being really meticulous I look for punctual errors. It makes me feel good because I'm getting better at recognizing when a comma is needed or not.

      

Macbeth Perspective

     That was a horrible dream I had last night.  I can't get Duncan's face out of my head.  It's like reliving those events every night.  I think I'm losing my mind slowly.  At least I'm the king though.  It feels nice to be wealthy and popular.  Wait.  With wealth and popularity comes envy and jealousy.  Since Banquo's children are to be next in line for the throne then I shall make sure he has no children to inhabit the throne!
    I know what I will do.  I will hire a group of murderer's to kill him and his heirs and that way I can kill two birds with one stone. Banquo you have been a very trustworthy and great friend to me, but I must do what is necessary to retain my reign!  If that means that I have to have you killed then so be it!.

Letter to my Classmates

Dear Block 4 classmates,

                                    I have had a great first year with you guys.  It has been great to have share a class with such fun loving, caring, and studious classmates and friends.  We had a rough start in the beginning of the year.  It was hard adjusting to each other’s personalities, a brand new teacher, a different way of learning and not to mention the ox load of homework received on a daily basis.  As the weeks passed we became more and more acclimated to each other and our great English teacher Dr. deGravelles.  We participated more and even looked forward to going to class at times.  I must say the hardest book that we have read this year was Lord of the Flies.  It was the most confusing book I read during my freshman year.  Though it was hard to understand and slightly boring, I came to like the book.  It was interesting in a twisted way.  There was so many allusions in the book and once you connected one idea you couldn't stop.  It was like a wild fire once it spread there was no stopping it.  We continued on into the final parts of the semester and as it came to a close we started looking more like mature high schooler's.  I think everyone, (besides the Biology Honors students)  would agree that Dr. deGravelles midterm exam was the most frightening exam we had.  It turned out that it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be and we all did pretty well on the test. 

    Coming into the second semester was probably the hardest thing this year because you have to translate all the hard work, study habits, and initiative into finishing out the school year strong.  Most of did well of closing out this year strong.  Some of us poorly and that includes me, but that stories for another day.  The second semester flew by quickly with many laughs and two new additions to our English class crew.  We were lucky enough to get to awesome new students named Lele Keller and Peyton Gutierrez.  I'm sure they enjoyed the end to their freshman as much as me and our other classmates enjoyed it.  Overall I think I had a great freshman year in Dr. d's class it has been a very tough road and I have learned a lot from my mistakes.  I hope that I can do even better in 10th grade.  Farewell Dr. d's 4th block  English class!

                                                                                                                                 Sincerely,

                                                                                                                               Jerry Dunbar, Jr.

                                                                                                    

Evalution

     This fourth quarter has been the worst performance of my high school career.  I'm always prepared for class having my material on my desk ready for the days lesson, but when the class starts it seems that I cannot stay focused. I'm not the type of person to ask to go get water when I don't need nor do I ask to go to the bathroom when it is obviously not an emergency.  Lately I have not been checking my email so that has really hurt especially since teachers have been emailing showing their concern over my grades.  I appreciate that, but it seems that I still could not get it together in time.  I'm ashamed at my poor effort this quarter, but I am optimistic about next year because this has been a great teaching lesson to me.

     As the fourth quarter wore on I became more and more pessimistic in my classes.  I stopped taking notes. I did however continue to participate because in some cases I was sincerely interested in the topic at hand.  I like d Macbeth but I really disliked annotating especially when I had tons of other homework every night so sometimes I couldn't get to annotating, but that's no excuse.  Work that is assigned is meant to be finished and sometimes my work simply wasn't finished. I think I did great when it came to giving my peers the attention and respect needed when they were confused on something in class.  However, I would get off topic sometimes because I was worrying about the wrong things.  I should have been more focused. 

     I would say that 60% of the time I was focused on the work that was given to me.  As you might have realized I have a very hard time focusing on classwork especially when it is to be done independently.  I completed the work assigned most of the time. I stayed on task when working on assignments and I tried my best to not to disturb other while working.  

     I saw significant growth in the first months of school.  As the year wore on however, I began to deteriorate. I stopped turning in homework. I didn't pay attention in class.  I hope to improve and to keep improving next year so that I may have a successful high school career.

WrAP and other Literary things

I knew it was going to be a hard year going into high school especially since there was going to be a new curriculum and a new teacher.  I tried to mentally prepare myself for this class because English is my worst subject.  Unlike the other subjects we take on in high school English just does not come to me as naturally as the others.  I have always had trouble with writing papers and I did especially bad on the Literary Analysis receiving a 77 C.                      The first paper we wrote in Dr. deGravelles class was the Literacy Narrative.  I remember writing that paper especially because it was all about my 7^th grade experiences in English.  I thought that paper was very well written.  The grade I received was much unexpected I believed I deserved a better grade. That was until I looked through Dr. d’s comments and noticed just how many mistakes I made.  For one thing I didn’t turn in most of the materials that were asked for so that kept me from having a higher grade on the paper.  I also failed to place correct punctuation marks like commas and sometimes semicolons.

Then we wrote the Profile Assignment.  This writing assignment was the hardest paper we’ve had all year.  It required you to either interview or observe something closely to infer characteristics about the person or place that the author does not say directly.  I did horrible.  My ideas were screwed up and I ended receiving a D in that area.  When it came to everything else it was a mixture of B’s and C’s.  I literally bombed this paper.  The paper was not organized at all, my sentences were choppy, short, monotonous and predictable which made the paper boring and hard to read. Once again I did not do well at placing commas in the correct places, I didn’t conclude my piece of writing, and I failed to turn in all the necessary materials.

On the Literary Analysis we were to choose a short story annotate it, create a thesis statement, gather quotes that supported our thesis statement, and interpret what those quotes meant to us.  I feel that I did especially well at interpreting the quotes.  However, I did not do as well when it came to relating the information to my thesis statement to support it, using the correct punctuation at the at the appropriate time, and I did not create a proper conclusion.  On the Literary Analysis my conventions were not as great as I thought they were.  I made simple mistakes which caused more harm than good. My Sentence Fluency and Organization both received C’s and looking back over the analysis I can tell why.  Some of the sentences were choppy and hard to read, some sentences should not have been in a certain paragraph, or I just overused a certain sentence structure. For example, while analyzed quotes I continuously started each new analysis with “This quote means…”.                      

The last paper we did was our Global Issues paper.  This paper was by far my best typed paper.  I did almost everything that was asked of me in a very correct manner.  I was surprised that I got a B in the Voice category, but then it dawned on me that in certain parts the required voice which was business formal was not there. Other than that there is nothing else that I can say about that paper.  I worked hard and I got the grade that I deserved.                                   

Overall I did pretty well on most of the assignments assigned to me.  I believe as the quarters passed by my organization of my writing improved greatly, my sentences flowed a little smoother, and became a little brighter.  Out of all the traits of good writing I believe my conventions, voice, and word choice were the ones that showed the least amount of improvement.  I also think that I need to work on how to conclude a paper for that has been one of the main causes of my grades being so bad on most of my papers.

Common Errors List:

1. COMMAS

2. Conclusions

3. Ideas

4. Quotations

5. Citations

6. Turning in required materials

"Lets Stay Together" by Al Green

     When we were assigned this particular this as homework I could not think of a song to use. I brainstormed for several hours and I finally found the perfect song to use. I decided to go with the song "Lets Stay Together", which is sung by Al Green.  The poem is 20 verses long. In this song a couplet can be found in the verse,

'Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you

In these verses the words new and you rhyme with one another. When I analyzed these verses on a deeper level I came up with the conclusion that Green is trying to say that the woman that he's with gives him a new type of feeling and that feeling is so amazing that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. 

In this song there is some repetition also. The words 'good' and 'bad' are repeated several times throughout the song. When Green repeats these words I believe he's trying to emphasize the fact that no matter what he and his partner goes through they will tough it out and pull through and end up still being together.

"Caught Between the Pages" by Marlene Carvell

     This week I decided to read a new book. I went to the library in hopes of finishing a series that I recently started, but sadly I was disappointed to find out that someone had already checked that book out. So, I went on a book hunt.  Most of the books I flipped through were boring and weren't very exciting.  I was about to give up until I found this book entitled "Caught Between the Pages".  This book is written by Marlen Carvell and by skimming through the book I can infer that it is a very exciting and compelling type of book. 
     In this book the main character PJ is a know-it-all type of student who thinks he's above doing homework.  He's constantly not turning in assignments and he is always being bullied by the older and much more taller captain of the soccer team. He is also nagged by his English teacher Mrs. Jordan to do better not just in her but in all of his classes. This constant bullying and pressure from his teacher causes him to have not care about anything. If he doesn't start to take responsibility for his actions then he will surely fail.