reading conclusion

During the year I have not read much for free reading, but in class I have read a lot of books which I wouldn't have read otherwise. I have enjoyed some of them, but my favorite books are always about survival or outdoor themed story lines.

Next year I think I will do better about outside reading because I have heard that there is less homework, so I should have more time to read. I have advanced as a reader this year because I can almost understand poetry and I see story lines more clearly.

My reading for this week is:
wed: 1hour 15min.
Thurs: 45min.
sat: 30min.

MacBeth

In MacBeth, I think that out of lady MacBeth and MacBeth, lady MB seems to be the most power hungry and I think that she wants the power more than her husband. Currently, she is probably eager to become more powerful, but maybe nervous that someone will find out about what she and her husband did.

MacBeth, on the other hand, is the more anxious of the two, and is very nervous about what he did. MacBeth seems to also feel more guilt from his actions than his wife, which might be because he actually killed the king, but I think it is just his personality.

Writing WrAP up

Allen Singletary                                                                                                                                             4-30-2012

Dr. deGravelle                                                                                                                                                     Block 2

Writing WrAP up

               

Throughout the year we have written several different papers in English class, and in all of them I have seen similarities relating to weak and strong points of my writing. Out of all of the different sections including: organization, support, sentence structure word choice, and mechanics, my best in all of my papers was word choice and organization. My worst seemed to always be sentence structure and organization, while the others, such as overall development and support were always somewhere in the middle.

                My strongest point in nearly every paper was my word choice because nearly every time I was describing something in writing I would get a positive comment on the clarity of the description. I was glad to see that feedback because whenever I read I usually find that the setting and descriptions interest me the most out of all the different aspects in writing. I am also a very visual person and tend to picture the characters and landscape when I read, so that might have helped me be clearer.

                The worst points in my writing are usually sentence structure and organization, but in the wrap test it said that sentence structure and support were the most lacking. In the wrap test support was probably lower than usual because we don’t get to research the topic and this could have caused some uncertainty when writing. Organization is one of my lows because if you know me you probably already have realized that I am not exactly a very organized person, so when I write my ideas and thoughts come randomly in short bursts so it is hard to organize them on a timed assignment. Finally, my absolute lowest point in every paper I have ever written is my conclusion. When I try to write conclusions it feels unnatural because lots of the time I feel like I'm repeating what I just said in the body.

                The rest of the aspects of my writing will sometimes vary in quality, depending on the subject or point of the paper. Usually the things that vary are my introduction and just following instructions. My introductions used to be my lowest point, but I figured out how to keep them relevant and interesting. Following instructions is also in the middle because I will start out knowing exactly what I'm doing, but as the paper goes on I stray farther from the original point and I lose what my main idea was going to be.

                This year I have improved a lot on most of my writing, and a lot of it is due to getting a tutor, but my best improvement seems to be organization and maybe word choice. I learned how to read my own writing and find the “foggy” spots where my organization has caused something to become unclear and my vocabulary has improved because I learned some words from my tutor. This year I do think that Dr. D has graded me harder than my past English teachers, but I have definitely learned where I need to work on my papers the most. I still need to work on my conclusions more than anything, but at least I have still improved in my other areas of writing and I now know to look more carefully when using the rubric to grade myself. Overall my writing has improved and I know not to procrastinate as much when writing essays, so my freshman English year has been positive.

Common Errors:

More creative titles: The title of my personal narrative was, “Personal Narrative”, I need to make sure that I come up with creative titles for papers.

Book titles: I need to make sure I put correct title formats and not just quotes like, “Hatchet”, by Gary Paulsen.

Hyphens: I need to use hyphens on things like, “fast paced”

Sizes: unlike I did in the profile paper, I need to find different ways to tell sizes

Commas- I need to put commas after prepositional phrases such as, “Off to my right is a stream”, which should be, “Off to my right, there is a stream”.

Transitions: I need to make sure my transitional phrases flow well with the thesis

Possessive apostrophes: I need to make sure I show possession, “the dogs bone” should be “The dog’s bone”

Dispatches

For my outside reading book I am reading Dispatches by Michael Herr, which is about a soldiers experience in the Vietnam. The book feels like I am watching a movie and you really feel like your there. Mr. Karpiak also showed me some maps and diagrams that give me more of an idea of the setting. I even watched one of my dads war shows so I have a really good image of whats going on.

The main character has been through several firefights by now and they are described in the book to look just like the ones on tv. So far the book is pretty interesting even though I barely ever have time to read, so its nice to sometimes get to read at the beginning of Dr. D's classes.

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

I chose this poem because the title reminded me of deer hunting on the weekend since it is always winter. When I annotated the poem, I focused on the writers use of adjectives to emphasize a certain feeling. The author repeats words like cold, early, morning, labor, splintering, breaking and cracked that are harsh words which make a vivid image in the readers mind.

I also noticed how the author makes the main character seem lonely and unrecognized for his time and effort. The man wakes up every morning and repeats the same pattern of getting dressed and working. The weather is so cold all the time that his hands are chapped and chronically sore from cutting the wood in the cold. The point seems to be that the father is very nice and works hard for his families happiness.

english projects

Today during study hall I was discussing with Mr. Karpiak what he thinks would help me get a good grade on the english projects that are due this week. So far I think that my partner and I will do pretty much the same thing for both. We will have a painting that will represent something in either the book or our paper, and we will have a power point to explain the meaning of it.

I was wondering if anybody was thinking of doing something similar, because I really don't know what anybody else is doing. My main concern is that the presentation will not be long enough or something like that. I hope it all works out and everybody does well because I really need to get a good grade.

Dispatches

Dispatches is a book I started reading a few days ago. It is about a soldier and his experiences in Vietnam during the war. I haven't gotten very far into it, but it is very detailed so it makes you feel like you're there. I have read a lot of other war books, mostly on world war 2, but this is the first one that I have read on the Vietnam.

The author seems to focus on the danger of the helicopters so I think that it may be important later on in the story. The book is good so far, and I will probably find some more books by that author because it is good for outside reading.

Track

I have been running track for about four years, but two of them I couldn't really do anything because of my knees. In track I have been doing the 200 and high jump, but I might start to do long jump instead of the 200. It is a lot different this year than it was in middle school because we have new coaches and everything is much more serious at practice. I think that if my knees hold up this year it should be a pretty good year because I have a really good coach for jumping.

Nervous Conditions

This week in nervous conditions Tambu's school is visited by a group of nuns. The students were suspicious of the nuns because they had heard stories about them like they would make you do things you didn't want to. They all took exams and Tambu had passed, which meant that she could go to one of the really nice schools to continue her education.

At first Babamakuru said she couldn't go, but Tambu and Maiguru changed his mind by convincing him that she would have a much better life because of it. When Tambu's father heard of the news, he thanked Babamakuru  a lot and said that his family couldn't survive without him. It was strange that Baba. listened to Tambu and Maiguru because they are both women and he usually didn't accept any opinions from them, especially a really big one like this.

My Holiday

For my Mardi Gras vacation I got/ had to stay at home because I had to have surgery on my knee. It was weird to be at home but not able to do whatever I want because I had to let my leg heal. After about 3 days we went to my grandparents house in Bossier to see my cousins and visit. While we were there me and my family went to the river walk next to the red river to eat and walk around.

Even though I had surgery my vacation was okay because I had no homework and I could be lazy and play x box all day. I really hope it gets well fast so I can go back to riding my bike and running track after school. By now a lot of the pain has gone away and I don't even limp anymore so I think that it will be completely healed soon.

Nervous conditions

I am reading the book Nervous Conditions for my english class, which is about a girl growing up in Africa and how shes trying to get an education. S far she has gotten to her wealthy uncles house, who owns the school. She is staying with him so she can go to school. She is shocked by her cousins disrespect to her family, and even more shocked when she finds out that she smokes. Tambu ( the main character), also figures out that the other students at the school don't like her cousin because of her accent and the way she behaves and dresses like she's white.

this summer

I am really looking forward to summer this year because I get to do more than most. For Christmas this year I get to go to camp over the summer and then go to the beach with the family. I am really excited about camp because last year I got to go camping, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and some other things.

Last summer I did the same thing, but instead of going to the beach I got to go straight from camp to meeting my family in  North Carolina, where we went rafting and stayed at my cousins house. Hopefully this summer will be just as good and I will have just as much fun at camp.

New Book in English

In my english class we are starting to read a new book called nervous conditions. The book seems like it will be interesting because it is about a girls family in Africa. I haven't ever heard of the book before but I already like the way the author makes everything so vivid.

The author also seems to be really focusing on the bus that her brother takes home, which may mean that it will have an major role in the story. I also found it weird that the author starts off the book with a very blunt, "I wasn't sad when my brother died" introductory sentence. So far the book is a good change to Lord of the Flies.

Issue Project

For my global issue project I will be focusing on the recent earthquake in Japan and the following tsunami and nuclear meltdown. The earthquake was one of the most powerful ever recorded and the following tsunami is said to have been even more devastating. In my paper I talk about the effects of the disasters and how they will impact not only Japan, but many other countries.

Some of the major effects include new environmental issues created, recovery, and now many people are wondering if nuclear power should be discontinued or at least have a new set of regulations. The major arguments over nuclear power are if it is better or worse than the burning fossil fuels. The other problem is how Japan will recover from all of the devastation.

My favorite book

My favorite book is "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, where a kid about my age ends up stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash. The book was fun to read because it was a lot like the survivor shows on tv, but the main character wasn't a trained professional.

Another reason I liked  the book was because it was pretty realistic, even though it wasn't based on a true story. Most books like this are unrealistic and everything goes their way and they have some kind of house in the woods and they get found without doing anything. In this book it is the story of how the kid has to struggle for his life and work hard just to have a meal everyday.

current book

The book I am currently reading is called, "The Old Man and the Boy", which is about how a kids grandfather is teaching him how to hunt, fish, and camp. I like the book a lot because I do that kind of stuff and the grandfather is a lot like my Dad.

I also was reminded of when I was learning how to duck hunt because it explains how the kid in the book is learning. The book was really interesting because it is the story of a kid learning to do the things I do and I was always reminded of when I learned.

One of my favorite books

        This summer I read a book called, "The Rifle" and it ended up being one of my favorite books. It was a very different book because the main character was actually a rifle and a story on it's history. I found it very interesting because I have always liked to hunt and the gun was personified by the story line of the book.
        The book is written by Gary Paulsen, which was one of the reasons I read because I have enjoyed his previous books. As I said before, the author uses lots of personification to describe the rifle and I almost thought of the rifle as a person by the end of the book.

If I grow up

I have been reading the story If I Grow Up, which is about a kid who grows up in the projects and tries to stay out of trouble even though his friends are all in gangs. The book shows how privileged I am and made me feel very lucky.

The author also does a good job of explaining how bad the area that the kid lives in is by telling the reader that there are shootings and murders so often that every window has bullet holes in it. It really made me realize how lucky I am and that I should be more grateful.

my weekend

      This weekend was a good one for me, usually I just sit around bored, but this time I actually did something. This time I was invited to go fishing with a friend. On the trip, I we went to lake Ponchitrain and fished in the marshes, most of the fish were redfish, trout, drum, and I caught a flounder.
       We woke up at about 6:30 and walked across the street to the guides boat. Overnight we slept in a trailer provided by the guide, and failed at trying to make pancakes for breakfast. On the boat we had about a 15min ride in the cold and tried several spots before we caught anything. The trip was great and I hope I can go again some other time.

new years resolution

My new years resolution is to make all A's and B's for the semester. In english my plan is to make at least an 85% for the semester. To fulfill my resolution I will stay more organized, turn in all homework, and study for my test's. To stay more organized, I will use my new laptop to keep all of my notes in one place, and to make study guides for tests. I will also keep track of daily assignments by writing or typing them down and make sure my backpack stays neat.