Conclusion

Wow, that was the fastest year ever. Freshman year went by so quickly. It saddens me to leave my teachers and my classes, but on the other hand I finally have no more homework and no more school!...Well, at least till September. As I read through my blogs, I got pretty much a summary of my year as a student in Honors English 9.

Reading over my blogs, I have come to see that in many of my blogs I have reflected on what I had recently learned. I have also seen that as I progressed through my blogs, they have had more content and details. I progressively got more ideas and more things to write about in my blog. My way of thinking has also improved. At the start of the year it was hard for me to formulate really good ideas, but now they come to me so easily, so my blogs don’t take too long. I also noticed that my perception on this blog has changed. As a writer, I have learned lots of things including diction, point of view, quality research, formulating ideas, text analyzing, creating high-quality annotations, and more. At the start of the year, I approached every blog as an assignment, but now, I see it as a learning opportunity to reflect on what I have learned over the past week or so. My work nowadays seems to come to me more easily due to the facts that I can now analyze text quicker, and still get high quality ideas. Before this year, I barely knew what any of these literary elements were, but now not only do I know what they are, but I can pick them out of any writing piece and analyze to an extent. Reading books like Animal Farm helped me practice analyzing text to get a sense why the author used the things he/she used, the way he/she did. At the start of the year when we did a few annotations in Romeo and Juliet, I wasn’t able to fully grasp onto changing from what to why, but as we practiced through the year, I was able to easily change from what to why while reading Animal Farm.

Over the course of the year, I have also grown as a person and as a student. I’ve joined new clubs, played sports, met new people, and developed into a better person. FBLA has taught me to persevere and stay determined towards my goals. I have developed into a leader and as a better speaker gaining confidence within myself. One major thing I have learned this year is also time management. With school, basketball, FBLA, extracurricular activities, and having fun, I have had lots of practice with finding ways to fit everything in my schedule without being too stressed. Learning new things has helped me add to my character to make me develop into a better person, and as Gandhi once said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” 

Thinking about Literature

         Before this class, I have never read a book and noticed so many little details. I've learned to not only automatically look for literary device that the author uses, but why the author has used it, and how it adds to the meaning of the book. I think that Animal Farm is a great book to practice noticing author's craft and understanding why the author wrote it the way he did. Over the course of the year my thinking has changed to understand the true meaning of the author's decision. My annotations now analyze much deeper and more thought proking questions.
          An example of this, is shown in Animal addressing why Orwell chose to use the pigs as the main characters in the book. Why were they the leaders of the group, and shown as the ones that are mean and overpowering. Thinking deeper, I noticed that Orwell chose to use pigs to represent overpowering leaders because in real life they are very lazy, and mostly seen as a negative connotation. This shows why Orwell chose to use pigs as the overpowering leaders.

Freshman Year: The Path of Trials

          Oh wow. Freshman year is already almost over. It seems like just last week we started started school. Freshman year has been fun. Before Nova, I went to Tumwater Hill Elementary so coming into Olympia High School, I didn't really know anyone except from a few people, but slowly I met a lot of new people. I met a lot of my new friends from basketball, shared classes, and from FBLA. I will definitely keep in touch with these people, and hopefully meet more new people next year.
          Over the couse of this year, I learned a lot of new skills both academically and socially. I've learned a lot of public speaking skills from FBLA. I've also learned a lot of basketball skills over this past year from the coaches. But I've learned the most new skills this year from classes like English (Creative Thinking and Text Analysing), Math (How to approach questions), and many other classes.
          I didn't have too many challenges this year except for procrastination, I would almost always procrastinate on doing homework at the start of the year, but slowly I changed, and finished my homework right when I got home, and found that it was much better when I finished my homework earlier.

You are an Epic Hero

          Reading through the first few scenes of The Odyssey, I can understand that Odysseus is a very intelligent, risky, and courageous man. He is put into many circumstances that require him to use his wits to survive. Such as when they went into Polyphemus's cave, they didn't know how to get out, but Odysseus found a way to do so using his brains. One of Odysseus's flaws is that he is too cocky. We know that he is smart and courageous, but is the exact opposite of humble. Once he escapes from Polyphemus and gets onto his ship, he yells back at Polythemus telling him that his name is actually Odysseus and not Nohbdy, which was unnecessary.
          Vin, the indian boy who was on a mission to kill a monster, had lost his Chinese friend to the monster in the cave BUK, and was in deep sorrow. He was as sad as a boy who found out that his "mother" was his grandfather, and his "father" was his grandmother, but his they weren't his actual grandparents, which meant he had no parents. As Vin walked through the cave of BUK, he noticed the green eyed monster running. He tried to follow the monster but he had no luck. Then he saw the monster eat something, and all he could hear was "Bwlack bwack munchmunch munch" That was it, his Chinese sidekick was gone, eaten up. He decided to go teach the monster a lesson about Indians. He ran after the green eyed monster, and tackled him. Then he yelled at the monster "Eat me boy!" The monster stared at him dumbfounded. Slowly, the monster picked Vin up and right before it was about to eat him, Vin took out his SriRacha hot chili sauce, and poured it into his mouth, along with a couple of spicy peppers. Immediatly, the monster started choking, and its eyes turned really red. It dropped to its knees, threw up, and then died. As he was vomitting, Lau, came out whole from the monster's mouth. Lau thanked Vin, and they both went off to their next mission. Vin had saved the day, and couldn't have done it without his weapon, the bottle of SriRacha hot chili sauce.

Reading Great Expectations

     Great Expecations was one of the most challenging books that I have thus far in my life. It took a lot more than just skimming over the chapters to understand it. I had to slowly read each paragraph, sometimes even had to re-read it, to understand the point it was trying to get across. I would read almost every day, but a few times during stage 2, I just skimmed over the chapter and then read sparknotes because it got really boring. Reading this book was a good challenge for me. To help me understand each section after reading it once, I either re-read it, read sparknotes, or even listened to the chapter on youtube (but not often because each chapter was like 20 minutes).

     The part that I liked the most about this book, was when all the truths were revealed and Pip finally understood who were fake and who were true to him. Rather than that, Pip just made me mad throughout the book due to his decisions, so I wasn't to fond of seeing what mistakes he would make next. Thanksfully, I was able to hang in and stay till all of the truths were uncovered. I didn't really like this book to much due to the amount of boring content in the middle of the book, but the first few chapters of the book and stage 3 were pretty interesting. This has been a new experience for me because usually when I read a book I have a full opinion on the book, but Great Expectations is different, I have a mixed opinion on it.

Writing about Great Expectations

          From when we first started working on our thesises to now, I have really improved on finding a thought-provoking idea. At the beginning of these thesises, my ideas were very obvious and my thesis would sound more like plot summary. Now, my thesises aren't exceptional, but instead of them being based on a obvious topic, they are focused on specific motifs represented throughout the book. I started off with the big idea of Pip's perspective on the world changing, but later realized that this big idea was very obvious and not very unique. Then I slowly started changing my focus to the relationship between Pip and Joe, and how it has been affected by other characters in the book.
          "In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip's opinion of Joe becomes more complex when his perspective on life changes as a result of his awareness of his family's status." I think that this is my best thesis so far because it is focused on a specific motif in the book rather than the whole plot. The idea of Pip and Joe's relationship is the part of this book that I find the most interesting because as Pip changes, Joe's perspective on Pip changes, and that was exactly what Pip didn't want to happen at the start of the book when he helped the convict. This sentence skillfully places together my most interesting idea with the reason why it occured. This thesis allowed my following sentences to flow more smoothly creating a better overall paragraph.

Great Expectations: How's it Going?

          So far the reading is going okay, i'm able to understand most of the book after the first read, but I only get the whole picture after rereading the important parts of the book. Going over the parts of the book that we read in class also helps me understand the chapter. I'm able to understand the connection bewteen characters like Joe and Pip because I either have those connections in my life or have read books with similar connections. This helps me understand the feelings of guilt that Pip has felt through the book for not telling Joe about his thievery. Some parts of the book have been a little hard to understand, so I would have to reread those parts, and specifically look at each sentence to see the true meaing behind the words. This has made me better understand the book, and has made me a better reader.
          I have been reading the book everyday before I sleep in my room on my bed. Now, I know that at first look, it doesn't seem like a good idea, but all throughout middle school I have been reading the assigned book before I sleep on my bed, and it has worked great. My room is probably the best environment for me to read in my house because it is the quitest place in the house. Reading in my bed is really comfortable for me and allows me to just concentrate on the book. If I was sitting on a chair or even on the sofa, I would be fidgeting alot to find a comfortable position which wouldn't allow me to concentrate on the book, so my bed is the best option. The best and most effective strategy that I use is rereading. Sentences, paragraphs, or sometimes the whole chapter, I will reread it to help me understand each line more than I did before. 

Welcome to Second Semester!

          Finally, 1/8 of my high school year is done! As a learner I have learned that I learn better when working in groups and getting ideas and thoughts from others as well as myself. By getting input from others, that either contradicts or supports my thought, I can find out the correct meanings and ideas. I should study by splitting up larger topics into smaller ones so that it will be easier for me to understand. I found out that I memorize and understand things better by studying off of Quizlet or flashcards because I can test my knowledge, whereas if I study straight off my paper, I just end up starring at a piece of paper for a long time not understanding anything.
          I was surprised when I found out I learn better when working in groups because usually I work better individually. When completing tasks or learning material I usually work more efficiently when working alone, but after working in groups in this class, I found out that I actually learn a lot more when working in groups because I get lots of other input. To be successful in this semester, I plan to continue to work in groups so that I can learn a lot. When we start reading Great Expectations I plan to read in a quiet place in my house because this is a major part of this semester's grade.

First Semester Goals

          At the start of the year, I wasn't great at the 3 goals. I couldn't totally understand why the author made the choices he did, nor did I know what element of literature I was using when I was writing, and usually I looked for what the author did rather than why he/she used it. As we went through the semester I slowly got a hang of these. By reading the novels in class, and discussing them as a group, it gave me practice to understand the why from the author. I started to understand the different elements to a written piece, and what each element adds to it. Now, after getting practice from many novels and poems, I feel that I have understood these written piece elements.

          This semester I learned many different things including Diction, POV, Characterization, Inferences, Big Ideas, Author's Craft, Literary Devices, and much more. I learned all of these by doing group activites, and reading books and poems. It helped me understand how each of these literary elements are used, and what they add to a written piece. Mentally I started changing from looking at "what" to "why". Now, while preparing for the final, I know that I can pick out almost all of these elements in a poem by just taking a little bit of time to analyze it. By doing this, I can understand the full and deep meaning behind the poem.

Connecting With My Poem

          As I read through multiple poems trying to find the one that connected to me, I saw "Coy Mistress". "Coy Mistress" is a poem that has a meaning hidden inside of it. You have to read it multiple times to decifer the meaning inside of it. This complexity and the rhyming rhythm of the poem attracted me to the poem. Another reason that I chose this poem was because it was very unique, instead of telling some fictional story in a rhyming way, it shows a woman's perception on her lovers respect upon her. She perceives Time and Love as people that are paving the way for her. This idea of respect and patience made me choose this poem. 

Analyzing Author's Craft

          So far, I have found this novel very intriguing. Scout's point of view makes it really easy to understand the scenes because she is just a child, but when Atticus starts talking, you half to breakdown the paragraphs to understand what he is saying. Thats the only challenge that I have in this book, rather than that, this book has been very easy to read and understand.
          Almost everything Atticus does has a in-depth meaning to it. For example, when Atticus says its a sin to kill a mockingbird, the meaning behind that is that its a sin to kill or do bad to something that hasn't done any harm, and even though Atticus said that earlier in the book, its pretty much the moral of the whole book because it applies to the Tom Robinson trial. Tom Robinson is the mockingbird that hasn't done any harm, but the jury and the Ewells convict him for a crime he didn't do. I can relate to Scout a little in these situations, because sometimes she doesn't understand what is happening or she falls asleep during the trial. I used to do that when I was younger whenever adults were having an in-depth conversation about politics because half the time I wouldn't understand it.

Something We Missed

          One major thing that I noticed in the book that we haven't discussed in class, is the maturity of both Jem and Scout. Jem is 10 and Scout is 6, but throughout the book, their decision making and speech is much more advanced than it should be for their age. You would think, when talking to a 6 year old they wouldn't have much to contribute rather than their imagination, and that they wouldn't understand much, but when talking to Scout, you don't see a 6 year old, but more like a 9 or 10 year old. For eample, when she was talking to Miss Maudie she understands slmost everything that Miss Maudie says, and knows that based upon that information, Jem's decision to sneak into the Radley house wasn't the right one.
          In the same way, Jem doesn't act like a regular 10 year old. He has a lot of guts for a 10 year old. Sneaking into a scary house and trying to get a note to a scary guy are not things normal 10 year olds would do, even if they did have a lot of guts. He acts more like a 13-14 year old, and you can see this in both his actions and his words. 

My Big Idea

          The big idea that I chose to track throughout the book was "Out of Control". I chose this big idea because this idea is represented in many ways throughout this book and other books I have read. For example, in The Fault in Our Stars  Hazel had some moments when she felt like she was out of control and felt like blowing up. In Romeo and Juliet pretty much the whole book is filled with sections where some characters are out of control. This lead to bad decisions, which in the end, caused many people to die. In Romeo and Juliet, both Romeo and Juliet try to kill themselves multiple times when they don't get what they want immediately. For example, when Romeo finds out that he is banished from Verona, he goes to Friar Lawerence, and instead of thinking of somekind of solution so that he can see Juliet, he almost commits suicide. This idea of "Out of Control" is represented throught this book.
          This idea adds to many aspects of the play including suspence, grief, and many more. The "out of control" behavior represented by mostly Romeo keeps you on the edge of your seat because you never know what he's going to do next. He might kill someone, he might try to kill himself, you never know. Even though this idea is mainly represented by Romeo, it is also represented by Capulet when he is mad at Juliet, and Juliet when she is forced to marry Paris. I think that Shakespeare added this aspect into the story because it made it much more interesting and unexpected. Modern stories always end in a 'happy ever after' tone because that's what is appealing to the audience, but Shakespeare added in this "Out of Control" quality which lead to bad decisions and a different ending to a story where lives are sacrificed to unite peace between two families.

First Impressions of Romeo and Juliet

          Romeo and Juliet. I never thought I would actually read this book, but here I am sitting in my honors english 9th grade class reading this book. This book is actually very hard to understand due to Shakespeare's word structure in which he puts the verb in from of the noun and mixes up parts of the sentence to make each line have a poetic flow with the other lines, but the more I read this book, the better I get better at understanding Shakespeare's language. Reading each scene out loud in class and pausing at parts to talk about what it means really helps me understand each scene. So far, most of the characters seem really weird, especially the nurse. When reading the book, the characters don't seem too weird, but when watching scenes of the movie, the characters seem really weird.
          Overall, the story is actually pretty fast paced and, again, the characters are really weird. I think that one of the only parts of the story in which I relate to a character in this book is when Benvolio goes to make Romeo happy and to stop him from being so depressed about Rosaline. I can relate to that scene because I have helped lots of friends when they are feeling sad or depressed. Rather than that, I don't really relate to any of the characters from Romeo and Juliet.

6 weeks done! Only 30 more weeks to go! Wait 30 more weeks???

          Wow, 6 weeks of school already over. Most of my classes have gone by very quickly, but Honors English, not one of those. Pretty much all of the classes I've ever had have been very easy, so even with miminal effort I could get a grade above 97%. Currently my grades in all my classes are above 97%, but the class that I've had to work the most to get this grade in is Honors English. In this class, I have to put in lots of effort to get a good grade on an assignment. So far I don't think we have been overwhelmed by the amount of homework, but I think going farther into the school year, we will be required to finish larger amounts of homework in a shorter amount of time, and I'm ready to step up to that challenge. I think Nova has set me up for a quick and easy transition into high school classes because my English class at Nova was very similar to this class and required me to finish large amounts of homework in a very short amount of time. So studying Word Power and writing the blog every week with ongoing homework isn't too overwhelming for me.
          Over the course of this semester, and my year as a freshman, I plan to maintain an A grade in Honors English. I will continue to work hard, and not only put quantity, but also quality into my work. I plan to throughly read the books we plan to read, and understand the new material we study. My goal for this year is to improve my vocabulary in preperation for upcoming highschool tests, and I think by studying Word Power I can acheive this goal.

Anticipating "Spear Shaking"

          I'm really looking forward to Shakespeare because I've never really read or watched any of his writings. I've literally had 0 experiences with Shakespeare and Spear Shaking. In class, I hope that we get to act out scenes in groups about what we read, and actually get graded about how we act.......actually now that I think about it, I would rather have it as we act out scenes in class, but don't get graded on it. I'm actually very excited to learn the old English language, or in other terms, "Shakespearian" language.
          The only things I know about Shakespeare is that he writes poems and plays, and that he was alive in about the 15th century. As I said before, I have pretty much no experience with Shakespeare. The only thing I know about, that is affiliated with Shakespeare in some way, is Romeo and Juliet. I think that the most exciting thing about this unit will be acting out the scenes. I also look forward to actually reading Romeo and Juliet and understanding what the play is about. So far, I can see that this unit is going to be very fun!

Inferences

          What is an Inference? In my words, I think of an inference as a conclusion drawn by the reader based upon facts and other evidence from the book. When I'm making an inference based upon a quote from a book, I use the facts and events happening in that quote to make an inference. If I was explaining or summarizing the quote instead of making an inference, the "inference" that I would be making wouldn't contain any new thinking or any educated guesses, but instead it would have what happened in that quote and why it happened.
          For example in "The Fault in Our Stars", John Green wrote, "Without Pain, how could we know Joy?" (pg 35). Now, I will explain the the steps I use to make an inference about a quote in my book.
 
     First, I explain the sentence to myself and the major things the quote expresses.
          The quote is showing that joy isn't free, it always comes with some type of pain and hard work. This quote is expressing abstract diction because all the concepts in the quote are very abstract, such as pain and joy.
     Then, I think why is this quote important.
          This quote is important because throughout the book, both Hazel and Gus go through a lot of pain, like cancer, to meet each other and be happy.
     Now I make my final inference based off the other 2 steps.
          From this quote, we can infer that Hazel has gone through a lot to understand that Joy comes with Pain at such a young age.

Diction, Point of View, and Charcterization

          Learning diction, point of view, and characterization were each relatively new to me, and changed my perception of my book, "The Fault in Our Stars". I've never really thought about why a book is written in the point of view it was written in, and how the whole book would be different if it was told in a different point of view. Or, about the differences it makes to the reader from writing in neutral, formal, or informal diction. After learning about these literary elements, it has really changed the way I think about and understand each paragraph of the book. To me, the literary element that stands out the most in "The Fault in Our Stars" is the point of view.
          In "The Fault in Our Stars" the point of view was first-person, major character. This allows the reader to understand all of Hazel's thoughts and what she observes. A lot of the time Hazel thinks about something but never actually does it. Because the book is written in first-person, we know what she is thinking, but if the book was written in third-person, we wouldn't be able to find out about all of Hazel's thoughts. If the book was written in third-person, omniscient or selective, this book wouldn't be all that great because then we would know what both Hazel and Augustus were thinking and observing which thus ruins the big element of surprise in this book. Therefore, the point of view the author has selected for this book is perfect because the reader doesn't know too much nor does he/she know too little.
          Overall, this book was phenomenal. It was filled with humor and had huge surprises. Not only was this a great book to read, but it also allowed me to think about the different ways the book could have been written in, and how that would have changed the book. After reading this book, I have really got a deep understanding of friendship. This book was very funny and also very sad, but this allowed the story to have multiple different elements which made the story phenomenal.
         

1st Blog Post!

          Who am I? Why am I here? What do I do? Do you want to know about the life of a really cool teenage guy? Well, I guess you do. I live with my 2 parents and my little sister. I've lived in the Northwest my whole life, starting down in Salem, Oregon and moving up into Olympia, Washington. My family has an Indian backround, my parents and some of their siblings moved to the US in the 1990's, and since then they've been living here.
          I went to Nova Middle School for 7th and 8th grade, and the English teacher there, Mrs.Hubbard, was great! The essays, books, and assignments we did really improved my reading and writing. Before coming to Nova, I wasn't the greatest reader or writer, but after, I feel that my reading and writing has improved a lot! I chose to take honors english over regular english because I think that honors english is a better fit for me. It will be faster paced, more challenging, and overall I would learn a lot more than opposed to regular english. As a student, I aim to get A's on every assignment, and I try to learn as much as I can from an assignment. I like to set goals for myself because that motivates me to work hard to achieve that goal. I also like to joke around, but I can be serious when needed.
          I like to joke around, hang out with friends, and play sports. I define myself as a studious person who likes to play sports and have fun. Whenever I have free time, I'm usually at the gym playing basketball or hanging out with friends. I always try to improve, whether its school or basketball. I always look for ways to improve. Thats what motivates me to continue. You can always improve, there is no end.