Roy’s English Blog

 I wasn’t here in 2nd period today. I had a dentist appointment. 

 Summary: Today we started a new poem by a new guy- Lawrence Ferlinghetti. We read his poem “Constantly Risking Absurdity”, about the risks that come with being a politically charged poet in society. He conveyed the message by comparing himself and other poets to acrobats, walking on a tightrope. Reflection: This poem was better for me than the other ones. Not only because it wasn’t super abstract, but because I could understand and relate to the themes he was covering.  Evaluation: All we did today was read and annotate, but tomorrow we’re supposed to start answering the questions on the back. Admittedly I answered a few of them today because I didn’t know if we were supposed to wait or not, but it can’t hurt.

 Summary: Today we finished (finally) with the poetry analysis presentations. I already did mine yesterday, so I didn’t have to do any public speaking today, thankfully. I did also finish the audience sheet (attached above) Reflection: I actually had an easier time than I thought I would filling out the stuff for the other groups. I thought it would be hard to find substantial information to write, but it actually went fine. Evaluation: Today would have been better if 25% of my classes today weren’t gone. I don’t know what they’re doing, but in each class today there’s been at least 2 or 3 missing students. Anyway, anything I could say about the assignment I already said yesterday.

 Summary: Today we presented our poem from all the way back on Monday. I re-read the poem like 10 minutes before the presentation, and realized a new theme that I hadn't written down yet (the one about change), so I had to- during the presentation - reword every question that was worded badly on the spot. Though, we made it through fine.  Reflection: I'm not good at presenting, but I would say today went fine. I'm also not good at reading to the class, and I do think it's just wonderful that our group got the longest poem. Evaluation: I can't say I haven't learned from this assignment. I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon. :)

 

 Summary: Today we kept working on the group assignment from yesterday, except half of my group was absent until about 9:30. Though, one guy did come back, and everyone that was there seemed to be making good progress.  Reflection: I decided to spend today working on physics work. Make of this what you will, but I got half of the week’s work done.  Evaluation: I’m not actually sure if I wrote the right kind of questions for this- I think I did, but we will see on Thursday.

 Summary: Today we started a group assignment where we all have a task and we have to analyze a poem in a certain way. I had the job of making questions pertaining to the poem, which was simple enough. I barely finished by 9:50, though. Reflection: Because I finished today, I'm not sure if I will be able to do anything tomorrow. I guess I'll just help the other people at my table, even though I myself am not very good at analyzing poetry. Evaluation: Part of me is worried about the "group grade" thing, but I saw that the other guys were  working, so I'm sure it'll be fine. 

 Summary: Today we did another enthralling vocabulary assignment, with words like “debacle” and “denouement”. There isn’t much else to say about it. We also did some assignments from the decrepit books we have in reserve for days like these. Reflection: Why are these books so messed up? Mine wasn’t attached to the cover, and last time we did a vocabulary assignment, the cover wasn’t even there to begin with. I see that they’re 10 years old, but my AP Gov books were literally made before 9/11 and they’re all fine.  Evaluation: I did write all the words from the section, but not on the paper I turned in. I said on the paper that I would put the actual list here today, so I’ll attach that. Not much else to say about today. Vocab Vincent 

 Summary: Today we read the poem "Birches" by Robert Frost. It detailed a guy- about 40 years old- going back to a grove of birch trees where he used to play as a kid. He reminisced about his childhood, and lamented the hardships of his adult life. Reflection: I think about the questions we answered today a lot. Especially the ones about what we liked and did during childhood. Evaluation: Today felt like a uniquely personal class among the others on my schedule. And, I appreciate that difference; it gives me something to think about for the rest of the day.

 Summary: Today we wrote 7 paragraphs analyzing the poem from yesterday. Each one had to cover a different group of 5-6 lines, and analyze the importance or meaning of that section. Today's assignment built wholly upon what we did yesterday, with the annotations. Reflection: Apparently I did very well on this one. I didn't even finish until about 1 (one) second after the bell rang. However, I did hit just about every point on the worksheet, so it is what it is, and it works. Evaluation: Today was fine, and I don't really have anything more to say about it. I accomplished the task well.

 Summary: Today we read a Robert Frost poem and analyzed it. The poem was about a boy whose hand was cut off while using a saw and dying because of it. As we did so, we annotated and took notes. Reflection: The poem was quite morbid, all things considered. I mean, a young (around 13y/o) boy dies because he is doing childhood labor in the yard with like, *the* most dangerous piece of equipment available, and he gets distracted by his sister letting him know that he can finally come inside after like 8 hours of work. Evaluation: I did understand it, though. Life is fragile, and it must be treated as such. We should also make sure to enjoy and cherish our childhoods, as it only comes once, and you don’t have any adult responsibilities that come with adulthood.

 Summary: Today we read two passages about Dave Chappelle and his silly little controversy regarding Netflix and gay people. We did pretty much the same thing we did a few days ago, and wrote our stance on the topic, and a few claims to support and argue our claim. Reflection: For the whole class period today, I was paying maybe too much attention to the language people were using about everything we discussed, because this is an issue I care about quite a bit (it affects a lot of people I know).  Evaluation: It may just be me, but I don't feel like either of the articles went into enough detail on what Chappelle actually did. They just said "He is a comedian who made a joke about trans people and now everyone is mad." and only elaborated in one sentence, where it says that he takes the side of J.K. Rowling. The article doesn't explain what this means, though! (J.K. Rowling is a well-known goofball who spreads a lot of Twitter hate towards transgender women) I think t...

 Summary: Today we were assigned unpopular opinions and asked to make a claim that both supports and argues against it. We also had to write a compromise between the two claims. My prompt was "Wigs and hair weave are creepy." Reflection: This kind of lesson was fun. I thought the prompts you gave everyone were interesting and allowed for good conversation in the class. Personally I think Angel's prompt on education and voting was the most interesting one. Evaluation: I hope we have a more discussion based class like this again. I think it was fun. 

 Summary: We read a quote about the unknown aspects of life and whether or not it is worthwhile to pursue them. We also came up with claims to support our stance on the question, as well as claims to counter it.  Reflection: Today we did a lesson that was pretty interesting personally. I am all too familiar with introspection- which this lesson partially focused on. Evaluation: I think there are a lot of things in life I want to know and learn. There are also things I never want to interact with at any cost whatsoever. Like cave diving.

 Summary: Today we were supposedly going to have a more expansive lesson, but we ended up just finding 7 claims from 2 different articles. I am not complaining, though. I was and am very ready for fall break, and I can tell you are, too.  Reflection: After I finished the actual assignment, I was bored. And, after reading 2 articles on something I am very passionate about, I was in a very specific mood to write an essay on the root cause of student debt. So, I wrote an impromptu 861 word essay in 50 minutes about lobbying and Ronald Reagan. Evaluation: My only complaint with today's class was that I didn't have enough time to mention McCarthyism and the false societal concept of socialism. That and the fact that I asked like 4 dumb questions out loud because I wasn't listening . . .  

Summary: We finished the sheet from yesterday regarding claims and reasoning. I did most of the sheet yesterday, so most of today was just copying sentences from the passages. Though you did say that's what we were supposed to do. Reflection: I hope the sentences I copied were right, though. I followed the structure of a paragraph you gave us, and copied the first sentence of each paragraph- usually . I'm not too worried, because the sentences I wrote all- to some extent- could be supported with evidence.  Evaluation: This assignment was simple to understand. It was also pretty simple to complete. Although, I don't think finding claims will always be simple, as there are so many interpretations of what the word even means. 

 Summary: We looked at 2 passages similar to those found in the EOC exam. They were both about self-driving cars, and one was for them and the other was against them. We had to fill out a worksheet after analyzing claims made in the articles.  Reflection: This week I've been kind of unclear on what a claim actually is. I know on paper it's a statement that can be argued with, but I have also been told that that technically applies to everything ever. So, I am hoping to clear that up at some point.\ Evaluation: This assignment was something! What I mean by saying this is that it is, by principle, better than the Benchmark test from last week.