The Final Conclusion

Right now, as I'm typing, I'm looking back at all we've done this year. It's gone by pretty fast, it's hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day. I've learned so much this year; especially analyzing poetry/literature. In 8th grade all we really did was read a book and right a plain book report on the plot of the story. This year's been a big jump, learning deeply about symbols, motifs, themes...there is so much more to name. Anyways, I counted up my posts and I have made 25. Doing a blog almost every week helped me because it would boost my grade up, but also gave me alot of knowledge by reading other people's blogs. The first post we made was Writing About Reading. Everyone got to explain their reading habits and what types of books they liked. I thought that it was fun to share ideas and comment on other blogs. Ever since that first post, I got used to blogging and checked it every week. I noticed as the blogs grew, the more developed they were, in material and concept. For instance, the 3rd post was about tone- which started the specific literary devices. It moved on to Symbols and Motifs after, and kept getting more complex. I think that this helped me a lot with understanding difficult concept in literature. My favorite subject was Animal Farm. We analyzed specific literary terms, as well as having fun making a project. The good thing about blogs were that you could communicate with other students, especially when we were working in a group. When we did the Collaborating on Your Group Essay post, it gave us the opportunity to work out the essay before the next day. Great Expectations was probably my least favorite part of English. It was difficult to understand for me, and the analysis was pretty hard. But reading and making a blog helped me understand the subject more clearly. In the end writing the essay was much more easier after discussing in class and posting blogs. An important post was the question one. I think almost everyone got their question answered on the blog, which helped everyone. For example I was confused with Magwitch and Compeyson, but I was informed in class the next day. The skits we did in class were fun, everyone acted out a scene important in the book, which helped everyone understand the story more. What I liked was how Mrs.Gilman let us blog about English itself(English reflection), and how we feel about the class and what to improve on. Overall the blogs helped us communicate with each other as well as with the teacher. Moving on to books...normally someone wouldn't choose to read a book on the Honors English Reading list right? Well, thanks to this class, it has opened my reading area and exposed me to a new world of books. I enjoyed reading Of Mice and Men and Animal Farm, and also The Catcher in the Rye. To add on to that, after seeing many book talks, it makes me want to read more like Catch-22. Last semester I got a final grade of A-, because of the finals. At the moment I have an A and I'm striving to maintain that. But what I get as a grade shouldn't matter that much- it's about how much I learned this year, which is quite a lot!

"Present fears are less than horrible imaginings."
-William Shakespeare

Thanks for teaching us about literature and poetry, I learned so much this year, and I'm well prepared to take on next year's Honors English~
Extra Credit link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNVITWDQVrs





And I'm stuck on the Experience-based questions right now

Essay Writing

In the beginning of the year, I probably could not write a full 5 paragraph essay, without much help from anybody. Now, I feel alot more confident on how to successfully build a decent essay, and how to connect everything into 1. I don't see myself as a fully accomplished essayist, but I believe I can write an almost decent report. Literary analysis. I find that a somewhat deeper investigation to the true meaning of a book. Instead of just finding the main characters and the plot, I can uncover much more, such as metaphors and symbols, and how they can all connect together into a theme of some sort. The challenge is- it's hard to explain and write out. However, the reward is an unexplainable knowledge you get from analyzing a book as deep as possible.

My essay might contain more than five errors, because I am not very good at tracking down every single mistake I make. One time, I accidentally put "Wilde" instead of "Dickens". I still can't believe I didn't catch that mistake,I don't really know how i missed it to be honest. Also, I tend to miss out and go astray from my main idea. Every sentence I construct tends to lean farther away from what I am really trying to explain, so I'm trying to prevent that too.

Summer Reading List

I feel like this school year has gone by fast, and then when you think about when school is going to end (30 days), it seems so slow. Anyways, to be honest, I probably won't read at all during the summer, other than the books that I have to read for the requirements of the classes I'm taking next year. I'll end up finishing a book a month most likely.

However, if I were to read, I would read the Everest, and those series, I have heard that they are good, but I haven't read any yet. Reading adventure books is quite enjoyable to me, and I would read them on my spare time.

The second book I would like to read is something by Shakespeare. I guess this would be enjoyable, as it would help me in the future, since I know I'm going to run into Shakespeare's language later on. It's actually quite humorous how words and symbols were phrased back then, and how people thought about events that happened around them. I wish thou an absolute summer break!

Fate

Since my birthday is the 14th of November, my horoscope is Scorpio. I am supposed to be passionate, perceptive, resourceful, possessive, focused, and too many other things. This does sort of fit in with my personality, as I usually focus on things that I am determined to do. The "sun" in Scorpio represents intensity. Scorpio's never give up, and aren't afraid of doing what they have to do to get what they want. They are sneaky on getting something that they want, at the right time. There are also many other "stages" of Scorpio, that mean different things, which can describe different personalities.

In Romeo and Juliet, "fate" is a huge reoccurring theme/symbol. Romeo and Juliet seem to base their relationship and the events that are happening around them. Symbols such as stars, the sky, and nature contribute to fate, in a significant way. I don't really believe in this astrology stuff, but I know that this book is based on fate, as a theme. Every event that occurs always comes with a symbol of some sort, that in a way foreshadows the next event.

Culture Shock

Ever since Shakespeare released the play Romeo and Juliet was released, it inspired many other plays, and the progression of movies, to base them on 2 lovers, or "star-crossed lovers". Movies in the present day, like the ones listed from this website, http://www.lovefatedestiny.com/2009movies.htm, were influenced by the start of Shakespeare's play. Many ideas of movies are based around the plot of Romeo and Juliet.

english reflection

I thought that Honors English was hard in the beginning of the year, but now I realized thats it's extremely easy. Just kidding it's pretty hard, and I've learned alot so far, including how to analyze themes/motifs/settings and more. I'm getting DGP better, except for diagramming, which I don't fully understand yet. Getting there though. I think that the blogs have been productive with our learning, and it's an easy grade too.

I've liked the books we read, although Great Expectations kind of sucked in the beginning, it got better though. One thing I don't like is annotating. Every time when I finish reading the amount we're supposed to its like NO I have to do annotations when I'm about to fall asleep. Other than that, it's been a great year, I had fun doing presentations, watching videos, and everything else.

Skits

There are many scenes in the book that would be great to make skits out of, but these three are the ones I think are the best.

1. When Pip meets Miss Havisham for the first time, aswell as Estella. The reason is because it was so weird and awkward the way Miss Havisham was to Pip. The main characters would only be Pip, Estella, and Havisham. The importance of this event is how Pip started off, before great expectations came.

2. Another good event would be when Miss Havisham catches on fire, and Pip saves her. This isn't really important, except for the fact that Pip saved her, when she was so cruel to him before. However, this would be fun to watch.

3. The scene that I think is important is when Pip runs into somebody on the staircase. Later, he learns that the person was the convict that he ran into when he was a kid, or Abel Magwitch. This is important because Pip learns who his benefactor is, with a coincidence. The characters would be Magwitch and Pip.

Another Question

In Chapter 42, Abel Magwitch tells Pip about Compeyson. My question is, who exactly is Compeyson, and why does he want to catch Magwitch? I think that Compeyson is the other convict, but I'm not sure if I read the passage right. If so, is Compeyson's desire to catch Magwitch because of something that he did, or what happened? Please tell me if I am on the right track, or completely wrong.

Question about a Passage

There is one aspect of Pip's visit to Mr. Jaggers house which I don't understand. When he went to dine with Mr. Jaggers, he told Molly to show her wrists. "Molly, let them see your wrists...The last wrist was much disfigured-deeply scarred and scarred across and across."(228)Chapter 26. I don't know why Mr. Jaggers would want to show everyone Molly's wrists so badly.


The question I have is: Why does Molly refuse so much to show her wrists(and also why Mr. Jaggers wants her to show), and what is it trying to point out? My interpretation is that Mr. Jaggers wanted them to see what Molly went through in her child-hood or past life, to get where she is now.

Great Expectations: Photo Cast

I chose this picture because it represented everybody else in Pip's past life such as Mrs/Mr. Joe, Biddy, and everybody else he was living near. Pip is the bird flying away, and leaving his past behind. As of now, the birds are happy-like, but what Pip doesn't realize, is that he would have been happier staying with Biddy and Mr. Joe, other than leaving and becoming a "gentleman". Also, since usually the other birds are expecting the leaving bird to come back, Pip might come back later in the book.

Great Expectations: The First Stage

The quote that Pip is referring to explains several aspects of how the events occurred in his life. It is mainly about how a "memorable day" creates a first link or chain for the future. This means that this one single event has affected him, emotionally and maybe physically for the rest of his life, creating a "chain". I believe that this day was the day that he had lied to his sister, and Joe. He is altered when he realizes how lying impacted Joe, how he was so trusting to Pip. After Pip learns about Joe's life, and his appreciation to his dad and lying, he is forever changed by how Joe feels.

Pip learns that he has to appreciate everything that he has, no matter what happens. Joe endured the pain from his father, and still loved him. Pip, knowing this, is more mature and understandable, and learns that he shouldn't lie about things, and respect his sister and Joe. One memorable day I had that began my "chain" was when I took my first piano lesson. I was amazed on all the different notes the piano could make, and how good my teacher was. From then on, I was inspired to learn piano well, and I am pretty decent as of today. Music changed my view on life; there are many things that music can contribute to going from entertainment and beyond.

ANOTHER view of the quote refers to Pip's first day at Miss Havisham's house. This changes or alters Pip's life when Havisham brings up Estella to him. Pip immediately becomes attracted to her, and soon learns that she was cruel, and mean. Also, Pip learns many things, and has changed his view on being a blacksmith, like Joe.

Collaborating on Your Group Essay

Hi Cole and Nicole,
My main topic is to explain how Wilde uses small institutions to project the ways of marriage during the Victorian Age.

Our Thesis:
In Oscar Wilde's play, The importance of Being Earnest, Wilde uses black humor and a satirical manner to show the shallow, and hypocritical views on marriage in the Victorian Era.

I plan to take a smaller path to explain how he uses these hypocritical and shallow views of marriage, such as "Bunburying", and how it relates to marriage. My CD is just giving a brief explanation of what bunburying is, then describing how it's used throughout the book with examples.
Another thing that I would explain is either the age between men and women when they get married, or the role of women in society. I would explain how people get married and what women usually do when they get married. I'm not sure on whether Nicole is doing that, but I'll figure out later when I see your blogs.

The Importance Of Being Earnest/Victorian Research

Researching the Victorian Era helped me understand many things in "The Importance of Being Earnest" such as social classes, marriage, and even education. I learned that many young women did not get taught school subjects like German, but instead were taught to become a normal housewife. Rich people however, were usually taught regular school skills instead of housework skills, since they most of the time would marry another rich person and have servants. If you were a poor person, marrying a rich person would be very unlikely. But even though Cecily was given the opportunity to learn school subjects, she disgusted it. "Horrid Political Economy! Horrid Geography! Horrid, horrid German!"-Cecily p.40.

I also learned that marrying your own cousin was normal back then. It was considered normal to become engaged to somebody after only just meeting them. Even more, most people who loose their husbands/wifes, usually get re-married very soon. Marriage was known as "business" back then. For example, when Lady Bracknell questions Jack before he gets married with Gwendolyn(p.23-27). Basically, for Lady Bracknell, marriage was based on a persons' background(lower class, higher class). I'm glad we did research on the Victorian Era, because it has helped me understand many aspects of "The Importance of Being Earnest".

New Year's Resolution

For me, New Year Resolutions aren't really that important to me, since I usually forget about them a week later. But, I do have a goal academically, and that is to get A's in all my classes except math(A-). Honors Algebra 2 is kind of hard, there are a few people in my class though that have A's, so I'm going to try my best. In fact, I have an A- right now, all I have to get is an A on another test. The only problem is the tests are worth 80% of your grade..so yeah I'm going to have to study more, and concentrate. My mom pushes me to get A's on tests alot.

Another thing I like to do is procrastinate. I always wait until the last day to finish a (semi) big project. I realize now that the sooner I can finish projects and homework, the more time I have to do other things. Also, it can help raise my grade if I spend more time over a wide span of days, other than those 5 hours in 1 day. Hopefully these goals will stick with me throughout the year, and get me a fresh start to high school.