Extra credit Blog: New Year's Resolution

Every year I make a list of New Year's resolutions that never end up being persued. This year I'm going to actually stick with what I have set, for the entire year of 2011. I have put a lot of thought into what my resolution should be and I finally came up with more of a fitness goal. My resolution is to continue eating healthy and to exercise everyday or every other day. Being fit and staying healthy is important to me for a couple different reasons. The first reason is because when I workout I feel better mentally and emotionally. Secondly, eating healthy is better for your body. A lot of packaged food has ingredients to make it not spoil as quickly and when we eat that food the unnatural ingredients go into our bodies. Thirdly, high school soccer is my main sport. During fall we'd been playing five days a week but now I've had such a long break between sports that I want to stay in shape. I know I will be able to make this resolution successful because I've made a planner and have gotten my family to do it with me. The more support the better. Past years I have made academic goals but this year I don't find

it is needed. High school has proven my skills and I am right where I want to be.

Animal Farm Project- Paralleling

My poem!

The poem I ended up choosing for Poetry Out Loud is The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. Each time I recite it I get the same pictures in my mind of one time when I was seven or eight and I went on a nature walk with my mom, my friend and her mom. While we were on the walk I collected all different shapes and colors of leaves. When we came to a bend in the road, we together chose which way we wanted to go, sometimes wondering what would have been different if we had taken the other trail. Sure I have been on plenty of other walks but this was I time when I wasn't good with directions and every little thing interested me.

With the metaphorical meaning of this poem it makes me think of when I have had to make decisions. I've never had big decisions to make but my parents have and it would have affected my life if they had made different choices. For instance, my dad was going to go to law school but he thought he chose journalism school. Also, he was offered a job in San Francisco before he met my mom and if they had never met I wouldn't even be here. When my parents made the decision to move to Washington from Kentucky. I wonder sometimes what life would be like if other decisions were made but I never want to go back. Which is like the line from the poem that says, "I doubted if I should ever go back.

To show the meaning of this poem in my performance I am going to have a somber look with a little bit of happiness because he is serious but then he chooses the road he takes still looking back on the road not taken. I am going to wear a nice outfit that shows I am prepared to preform this great poem. I plan to not use any gestures because I don't want to distract the audience from what I am saying and it is not a natural thing I do when I speak. I am going to speak slowly and take my time while I am up there. I have noticed teens today often mumble and rush when they are speaking and I am going to do the opposite. The reason I will slow down the speed of my poem is so I have people in the audience thinking about what it means to them.

Extra Credit Blog!

Before I began writing my second 5 part paragraph I looked back to what I needed to work on with my To Kill a Mockingbird paragraph. I felt that I had a strong first 5 part paragraph but some of the things I would change were the dead words and other words that didn't need to be in the sentences. Mistakes made various times in our class were lack of transitions but I thought mine were included very clearly. In this paper, I made sure my transitions were obvious and clear. The way I developed these skills were looking at the blog of what I needed to work on but the most helpful for me was having the final draft of my other 5 part paragraph where Ms. Gilman changed a couple words. To see what she would have changed about the paper made me understand what to change in this paragraph.

Poetry Out Loud

Part One:

1. Eagle Plain

2. Keeping Things Whole

3. Nude Descending a Staircase

4. A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky and The Luggage

Part Two:

1. The poem I like they most was A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll because of how he uses language that relates to Alice in Wonderland. Also, I believe the words he uses create images in my mind of what is going on to help me understand.

2. I did not like the poem Eagle Plain because to me, the word weren't interesting and I didn't get what the meaning of writing the poem was.

3. I would like to study A Boat Beneath a sunny sky because Lewis Carroll, also author of Alice in Wonderland relates the poem. Or I might do Happiness because I love the meaning and the symbolism used.

4. The poem that connected with me was how I had vivid pictures with the Alice in Wonderland and with the other poem I connected with it because I know how it feels to be happy and to have those feelings.

Part Three:

1. The criteria that will be easiest for me is physical appearance because I have good posture and will be confident with what I am reading.

2. Voice and articulation will be the hardest for me because sometimes I have trouble slowing down while I talk so it comes out with a slur of words.

3. You need to focus on what you look like, how well you recite the poem, how much you get into the poem, how hard your poem is and how you read it. Also, you will get judged on your overall performance.

Part four:

Allison Strong recited the poem My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun and it was very well done because she sounded like she enjoyed every word of what she was saying and because of her dramatic output.

Madison Neirmeyer recited I Am Waiting. I liked how she read the poem and how she got into it. It made her sound strong and seemed like she felt song about the poem. Madison made me like the poem she was reading and appreciate it.

Part Five: Poetry out Loud seems like a strong program in which many students in the US recite poems from this website. I think the competition will be scary at first but fun to listen to what they have chosen to say as their poem.

Lobster Discussion

In the discussion about the poem "Lobsters," Levi brought up an interesting point when he shouted, "Slave trade." He was comparing the poem and how we choose lobsters by picking any one we want which was a lot like slave owners picking out which slaves they wanted. I had never thought about slave trade relating to this poem but when he said it I was really surprised how much they compare. They both have a higher authority choosing which one they want of the lower selections. I found it interesting how many different ideas were brought up in the discussion.
When reading through the poem first, I thought it was about going to the store and eating the lobster but when I continued to read over it and after the discussion, I had a whole new view on what the meaning of writing this poem was. I think the author wrote this to show the taking and choosing between social classes and humans taking advantage of what is available for them like when he says, "needless pleasures." We don't need Lobster to survive people just enjoy having it. I believe the reason Numerov used lobsters because they are one of the few foods you bring home to kill and eat. The discussion helped me fully wrap my head around the ideas of the poem.

Recipe to a successful paragraph!

In order to write a wonderful 5 part paragraph, you first need to make it clear about what you are going to write about. In your topic sentence, it is good to have a hook to make the person continue reading along with a small amount of background information. After you have chosen the topic you should find concrete details. In the theme paragraph we used quotes as our concrete details so with the quotes make sure they are related and go along with what you are writing about. After you have the quotes, add in some commentary that does not restate the quote and have it be your own thoughts. When you have all of this together add in some clear transitions indicating that you are switching topics. Finally you should make a conclusion that sums up your paper but does not repeat what you said in your topic sentence.

The thing I put down as a weakness in my journal about other papers was people not being clear enough, lack of transitions and spelling errors. The papers that were not clear enough we ones that had quotes that did not relate or overused words. To improve my writing skills I shall continue to make multiple drafts in the process and realize that you can keep on editing a paper and it will always have something somebody else sees that they would have fixed. When I write my next 5 part paragraph I want to list all of what I am going to write about such as the commentary and concrete details before I jump in and write it.