Second Quarter Reflection Blog

Prompts:

- *In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts? 
- *What is something you have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of?

- *What has been the most challenging part of 2nd Quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?

- Of the books you have read this quarter, which was your favorite? Why?

          In general, I believe I have made many improvements. However, I think I made the biggest improvement in my writing skills. A couple days ago, I was reading different short stories I have written from fifth to seventh grade, and my writing was atrocious! There were so many grammar issues and spelling errors! In the beginning of the year, my writing was also not a work of Jordan Sonnenblick. Now that we have written a few essays, I feel I have improved with conjunctions, introducing quotes, embedding quotes, and following the proper TIQA format. Of course, I am not ready to publish a book without any errors, but I have definetly learned some tips. 

         Something I have accomplished since the beginning of the year is, it will always be my answer, but reading as many books as I have. I've always been a big bibliomaniac, to the point where I think reading damages my health. The one accomplishment that I very proud of dealing with my bibliomania is finishing the Book Thief in three days. This is a huge accomplishment for me because the longest book I have ever finished in that span was most likely After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick. To carry on with that accomplishment, the book is approxmently five hundred pages. 

          To be honest, the second quarter was a very hard quarter for me. I was up very late and very early everyday to finish homework. One day, I was up before my mom left for work at four in the morning! I would sometimes survive on 4-5 hours of sleep. After being lectured by my parents, I decided to come straight home after school, and work on homework until ten o'clock. Of course I had to make sacrfices like giving up going to youth group, or not going to a friend's house so I can catch up on homework. In the end, it worked out well enough to where I could receive a normal nights sleep, and wake up at a humane hour. 

          At of all 20 books I've read so far, my favorite had to be After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick. This was hands down my favorite book because I absolutely loved Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie. Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie, is the prequel to After Ever After. I think I liked it because it was relatable to me because Jeff, the main character, was having to go through physical therapy because he couldn't move his legs in a normal way, and he didn't have strength in his arms. This was really relatable to me because, even though our weaknesses were the effects of different causes, we were still sailing in the same boat. (And no matter how funny people think my locked shoulder is, it was a vey serious injury that if I couldn't move it, I would have lost all strength.) After seeing that a kid, the same age as me, in remission from Leukimia could start rebuilding his strength, I decided I could to. 

I commented on Jared A's. Blog. 

    

Juxtaposing "To Kill A Mockingbird" book and film

Prompts: 

1.  What do you think is the most important difference between the written and filmed version? Provide evidence with specific details.

2. How would you prove or disprove that one version of To Kill A Mockingbird is more affective in delivering its message than the other? Be sure to provide specific pieces of evidence to support your opinion.

           I believe the most important difference between the book and movie is, the significance of the tree. Inside the book, the tree played a vital role and was introduced in the third chapter. The tree was Boo's way to connect with the children without revealing himself physically. The tree inside the movie was only revealed twice, and Jem was the one who found the gifts inside the tree late at night. Inside the book however, Scout was walking to school when she found the gifts. The tree was also mentioned several times inside the book, in comparison to the movie. 

           Like I mentioned in the paragraph before, the tree was Boo's way to talk without revealing himself. It was his cry for help, minus the help part. The gifts were Boo's way to make friends with the children and let them know that he was watching over him. Boo's gifts let the children know that he wasn't the big bad monster the gossip made him sound like. This played a huge role in leading up to Boo fighting for the kids' lives. Without building the subtle hints that Boo was always there for the kids, his sporadic act of courage wouldn't have made sense.

            The book was in greater detail, so generally the message was displayed implicitly, but explicit enough so the reader would discover it. Due to the fact that the book was able to explain all of Scout's thoughts, and events, whereas the movie only provided some of Scout's thoughts and cut out some major events, we knew exactly what Scout was thinking throughout each scene. Although I was not here to watch the beginning half of the movie, I have heard that charcaters like Aunt Alexandra and Francis were removed from the movie. From this information, I can tell that not all of the message was relayed because Scout didn't have that strict role of feminism revealed to her in the movie due to the absence of Aunt Alexandra.