Roy’s English Blog

 summary: todays class was reading the book to ourselves and taking notes on it. i was looking forward to reading it again, and i was getting attached to bono. but i suppose not every dream can come true reflection: it’s a good story. but i don’t get why you couldn’t have just read the lines without the word that people complained about. we’re still reading the book anyway. evaluation: it isn’t that important. plus, i’d rather do the questions than the whole analysis sheet you gave us on tuesday from what i heard about it as you can tell by my very emotional lack of punctuation this has affected me deeply

 Summary: Today we began reading the play Fences  by August Wilson. Everyone else was filling out a graphic organizer for the characters, traits, setting, and events. However, I and 3 others were reading the lines out loud. Reflection: I was very, very careful reading every line I had to make sure I wouldn't be arrested if I said it. And like I said, it reminded me of the time Kendrick Lamar pulled a white girl onto the stage at a concert, and she sang all ( all ) of the lyrics, and everyone got mad at her for it.  Evaluation: That aside, I wouldn't mind reading for Bono on Thursday again. Although I know I have to fill out the rest of the analysis papers. 

 Summary: Today we were introduced to the next unit on the play Fences . IIRC, it was written by August Wilson about the societal borders between races in America during the 1950s. The fence is both an actual thing in the story, as well as a metaphor for societal boundaries.  Reflection: Reading. I don't need to mention again, how much I LOVE reading!! :D:D:D:D  At least this new story seems interesting to me. We will see tomorrow. Evaluation: I'm fine with reading in class to ourselves, but I'm always really weird when I read out loud. I don't know how else to describe it. I get why teachers do it, but that won't change the fact that I'm bad at public speaking

 Summary: This time I was NOT wrong about something; I finished the worksheet well on time. Also, we finished the movie, and learned just how wonderful and awesome the kids became in life. I actually started scream crying during the credits and the teacher had to take me to the office.  Reflection: The worksheet was simple like I thought, but my hand really hurt after. It was a lot of writing for a film analysis.  Evaluation: I don't know what you have planned for the rest of the semester, other than finals. And about that, all I can say is: It is what it is. Anyway have a good break 

 Summary: Today we took the assessment I thought we were going to do tomorrow on the Rockpile. After that, we filled out a page on Kenya, Argentina, India, and Morocco, which followed into the last part of the lesson. Lastly, we started watching a documentary on these 4 kids that had to walk over 10 kilometers every day to get to school. Reflection: The test was easy, personally. I think it's because The Rockpile is a simple story to understand, and it doesn't have many complex, hard-to-grasp themes. I ended up getting a 96 on it.  Evaluation: I liked this story; it was better than Emily Dickinson. And I am 100% not biased because I don't like reading poetry (this is true). I also can't imagine the rest of the school thing is going to be too hard, either. We'll see tomorrow. (clueless)

 Summary: I lied again- we do NOT have a test until Friday. But today, we had to draw our neighborhood, our house, the neighborhood eyesore, and our family. We also had to write down 10 rules of our household and a tragic event that has happened in the neighborhood. Reflection: I finished, but I am really bad  at art. I realized this in 5th grade, and since then I have not dared to try again, because I "moved on to playing music". Also, as I tried to crop into the bottom left corner, I do not like drawing my family, because I am so bad at doing people that I feel like I've let them down in doing so. This is absolutely a reasonable reaction to this, I'm sure. Evaluation: I always like the idea  of doing art, until I have to do it, and I remember that I don't know how to. I guess I just like the creative liberty of it. I get the same feeling for creative writing, but at least with that, I actually know how to make something out of it.

 Summary: Today we didn't do anything. Not really, at least. We had a sub, so all we had to do was a pretty simple worksheet on The Rockpile, which I finished. If I remember correctly, we have a test tomorrow, though. Tomorrow will be more interesting than this. Reflection: I finished the worksheet on time. However, it didn't happen without mild (really bad) wrist pain, but that's normal for me after writing so much in such a short time.  Evaluation: I appreciate the actual assignment over a vocabulary sheet. Even though I KNOW you gave the other guys a vocab lesson- I saw it on the board. I actually almost asked the sub about that, and then I noticed that "2, 4, 6: Do Rockpile worksheet" was written on the other whiteboard, so I just stood up and sat down like a moron. 

 Summary: I was wrong. Gabriel, in the next paragraph, is described as both "furious" and "malevolent". Great start for today. At the end, John is picking up Gabriel’s bag, and he comes face to face with Gabriel’s shoe. I took this as an implication of John getting beaten or something, despite Elizabeth’s pleas. Reflection: I noticed the activity on the board in the beginning of class, about the tv character. I was so ready to write about how Walter White and I are different, but I guess we didn’t have time for it. Evaluation: It’s a good story. Although, I don’t care for the open-ended approach he took to the ending. Either way, I was able to follow it fairly well, which is usually my issue with reading.

 Summary: Today we started the obligatory short stories unit of the course. We started reading "The Rockpile" by James Baldwin, which was a story about a family that lives in a poor neighborhood, with a rock pile on which kids are always fighting, and the main character (me) gets injured in a fight after sneaking out of the strictly run house. Reflection: We never finished the book. We only got to the third to last page, I'm pretty sure. But, from what we've seen so far, I like the story. I noticed that I could relate to the story in that when Roy got injured at the rockpile, he was super worried about what his dad would think. And, when his dad gets home, he isn't mad, but instead concerned. This reminded me of when I was in a car with my friends, and we hit a curb and busted one of our tires, in the middle of the night, on I-285. When my mom texted me about where I was, I was terrified at first, but it turned out all she was was concerned about me.  Evaluation: ...

 Summary: Today we presented all the poems that were submitted by the class. I'm glad I went first, because in 3rd period, I had a big unit test for AP US History (God bless), and I needed to cram so that I could remember what I was doing during the test. The poem went well, though. I'm probably going to send it to SKALD at some point, because "Published Poet" would look good on my college application. Reflection: Although I was not looking forward to presenting my poem, as with every piece of expressive art I make. And, you could probably tell I was nervous while I was doing it, but I just figured that I had to do it so there's no point in not pretending to be confident.  Evaluation: We both got what we wanted today. I got to study, and you got my presentation. See you Thursday :door:

 Summary: Today we did an almost-test-not-really on the poem from earlier this week. It was 30 questions, and I only finished at like 9:48.  Reflection: I still think I’m not good at comprehension questions, but I am proud of the 87 I got on this one. It makes me ever so slightly more hopeful for AP Lit next year. Evaluation: I actually didn’t think I’d finish to begin with. By 9:40, I was only on #20. But, by the end of the class I kinda decided I absolutely do not want to make this up, so I locked in and finished.

 Summary: Today we wrote a 40-line poem based on the stuff we've studied so far. I ended up writing about a guy who sells apples meeting another guy who gives him more apples and he gets greedy and loses his business. The messages are about greed, hubris, etc.  Reflection: When I got the paper, I really didn't expect to get anywhere. But, I guess I struck a cord when I came up with the whole greed thing. In the end, I'm proud of what I ended up with. Evaluation: I have mixed feelings about the way we just got an assignment like this and were sent off to do it. On one hand, I get why it makes sense, given how open-ended it is. But on the other hand, it is an admittedly complex task to write a poem, and it took some strong initiative to actually get anywhere.