Exam Study Plan

     Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday  

           English I is my second exam on Tuesday. To study for this exam, I will break down each unit and study one specific topic each day that way I can really focus on the subject, but also have enough time to study for my other exams as well. The topics I will cover are: traits of good reading/writing and vocabulary; literary analysis: features and styles; working with quotations and conclusions;  Nervous Conditions; elements of research; poetry; Macbeth and elements of drama. Dr. D has several PowerPoints and Word documents that are key to studying for the exam. If you are missing some of the notes, you can email me or comment on this blog post and I will send them to you. 

Sunday: Traits of Good Reading/Writing and Vocabulary. 

           I put these two topics together because they are both pretty small and the Wordly Wise quiz is Monday so I need to study that anyway. I will reread the handout that we have on the traits of good reading/writing, then I would writing them down again because writing things over and over again helps me to remember it, and finally I will try to apply them. For the vocabulary, I will quiz myself with the flashcards that we made for class and then I will try to use the words in a sentence (one that is not on my card). 

Monday: Literary Analysis

           Reviewing for the literary analysis is especially important since we will have to write one about the things that we read this year for the exam. I will read the notes that we took in class on the features and styles of literary analyses. There is a section in the Norton on literary analyses that I will read and annotate. I will then look at my literary analysis of the short story and the comments and think about the ways I could improve it. Next, I will think about ways to connect the reading we have done this year in preparation for the essay.

Tuesday: Working with quotations and conclusions

           Quoting and concluding will be crucial to the literary analysis essay so I will study the notes that we took on both of these topics. Since I have had trouble with quoting and concluding before,  I will look at my past essays to see what I did and what I need to correct. Then, I will practice both of these skills by trying to quote things for articles (for example, a Yahoo! article) and I will rewrite some of the conclusions from my other essays. 

Wednesday: Nervous Conditions 

           Since we spent a lot of time reading and talking about Nervous Conditions, I do not think reviewing for this will be too incredibly difficult. I will start off by studying the notes we took on postcolonial literature (its characteristics) and general notes on the book (social/temporal/psychological setting, characters, and meanings of the title). Next, I will look at the questions we had to answer for each chapter. Then, I will review the main points of the book, such as theme and reasons for the organization of the book. 

Thursday: Elements of research 

          Studying for the research portion of the exam should not take too long. First, I will look at the research prezi that Dr. D has posted online. It includes an overview of the research process, notes about plagiarism, and a review of quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Then, I will at the list of transition terms and list of words for introducing summaries and quotations (also posted on the web). I will end by looking at my own research paper and noting the things I could improve.

Friday: Poetry

           Poetry will be the most difficult subject for me to study for because I found this to be the most challenging unit that we covered. I will begin by making flashcards for the literary terms. Then, I will try to memorize how meter works, study the handout of TP-CAST and how to read a poem. I will end by looking at all of the poems that annotated in the poetry booklet. 

Saturday: Macbeth

           Macbeth will be the easiest to review for since it is the unit that we have most recently done. I will go over the notes we took on the elements of drama and make flashcards for the key play terms. I will then look at the handout on the characters of the play and study my annotations. Because we will be finishing the book this coming week, I can ask any further questions I have in class.  

*On Sunday, I will take a break from English so that I can study for my exam on Monday. 

Monday: Everything

           On Monday, I will review everything that I have been studying, especially things that gave me trouble. I will not spend too much time studying this day because I have my biology exam on the same day and I will need all of the time I can get to study for that. 

Outside Reading Reflection

In the past, I have always enjoyed reading and I usually have no trouble finishing books. Unfortunately, that did not stand true this year, when it really counted. I had a tremendous amount of trouble getting through all of the books I attempted to read. It was not because I wasn't interested in the book itself, because I found them all to be very interesting. What I did read, I enjoyed but I had difficulty staying focused and reading for an extended amount of time. I hope that this struggle is just a phase that I will outgrow soon. And when I do, I want to go back and finish some of the books that I did not make it through.

Even though I wasn't able to finish many books this year, I still believe myself to be a good reader. Last year while reading Romeo and Juliet, I discovered that I was adept at recognizing symbols and themes, and their meanings. This was further proven to me, during the first semester of freshman English class while reading The Lord of the Flies, which is an allegory. I have recently started reading a book called, Beatrice and Virgil, because my aunt (who is a book publisher) gave it to me for my birthday. It is by the same person who wrote The Life of Pi, and it is an allegorical story. I enjoy this fact because I have fun analyzing the story and looking for the deeper meaning. After I finish this book, my mother wants me to read one of her favorite Stephen King novels. 

65 minutes of Macbeth

85 minutes fo Beatrice and Virgil 

 

From the Perspective of Lady Macbeth

I want to be queen. I want to rule all of Scotland. No. I will be queen and I will rule all of Scotland. Now that my husband has killed Duncan, this is very much a possibility. Of course it did take quite a push from me for him to do it. That is his problem: he still has morals and ethics. I'm glad I no longer have a conscience anymore; it makes it much easier to get what I want. Macbeth really should just follow in my footsteps and let nothing stop him from getting to the top.

Even though Duncan is not a problem anymore, we still have his sons to worry about, although I do not think they will be much of an issue. They are scared someone is out to kill them too and have fled to separate countries for now; Malcolm to England and Donalbain to Ireland. This have raised suspicion and now there are rumors going around town that they are the ones who killed their father. Needless to say, I cannot be thankful enough that this has dragged the attention away from Macbeth for the meantime. I just hope that if and when the time comes, and we have another obstacle in our path to the throne to get around, that my husband, Macbeth, will stand by my side and let nothing stop us.

Writing Wrap- Up

           Writing has never been something that has come easily to me, nor has it ever been something that I enjoy. That did not change this year. In fact, my writing has gotten progressively worse throughout the year, as evidenced by my grades. Over the course of English class, we wrote a wide variety of essays. Some of the genres I had been familiar with, and others were completely foreign to me. I acquired several skills needed for each type of essay, but I have trouble utilizing in the actual paper.  Most capabilities in each graded category fluctuated greatly with each paper, except for support, in which case I always did poorly.

            Ideas, organization, and conventions are the categories that I struggle with the most. I have a difficult time trying to find out what I want to say and then supporting those statements. This was the primary issue in my literacy narrative, literary analysis, and research paper. As for conventions, this is the category in which I worry about last. Usually, I have procrastinated writing the essay and then I am in a rush to turn it in so I often forget about or do not have time to check for simple mistakes. Improving my ideas and organization is a matter that will take time and effort. I can achieve this by spending more time pre-writing. Conventions should prove easy to refine by leaving myself enough time to review my paper for mistakes before turning it in.

            Voice, word choice, and sentence fluency are the subjects in which I tend to do better in. I have an aptitude for diction and syntax. The skill was especially exemplified in my literacy narrative and literary analysis. Although I did better in these categories, they can still certainly be improved by reading my papers aloud to myself and seeing how it sounds. Reading your own writing aloud is a valuable skill that we learned about at the beginning of the year. I may not know what I want to say or what order it should be said in, but I can arrange an adequate choice of words in a sufficient order that will hopefully be satisfactory.

The first two essays I wrote, the literacy narrative and profile, were the ones I did best on. The literacy narrative was about my experience writing an essay for the Trustees’ Scholarship, and the profile was a descriptive essay that used a unique perspective to describe my bedroom. I believe I did better on these papers because the topics were something that I knew well and could connect with; something personal. In these papers, I did well on voice, word choice,  and sentence fluency. However, in the literacy narrative my weakest part was ideas, specifically support, and in the profile my organization was poor. Again, I think this could be solved, or at least tremendously improved by better quality pre-writing.

On the literary analysis and research paper, I received similar grades. It was not one category that I did particularly poor in, but rather my entire paper was inadequate. My lack of understanding and capability to complete this assignment acceptably was the basis for this. I would also blame my lack of interest in the topics I was writing about for the results. I was required to redo both of these papers multiple times.

The WrAP test this year does not exemplify a piece of my best writing. The WrAP is a writing test that assesses your ability to interpret and respond to a prompt. I found this year’s topic difficult to write about because it was not an issue that I was very familiar with. This made it tough to provide enough support to back the stance I had taken. I scored the same on overall development, organization, sentence structure, word choice, and mechanics. Support was the category that I scored the lowest in.

The quality of my essays depend on the level on interest on have in the topic I am writing about and this can be detrimental to a paper that is vital to my grade. This is something I can strive to be better at; producing an acceptable paper no matter the topic. Next year, my goals are to spend more time pre-writing my essays so that I can improve my ideas and organization, along with allowing more time for reviewing. This year has been a great learning experience and I will be able to build on the skills that I have developed. 

Common Errors List:

Unnecessary commas

Ex: The only good writing experience I remember having happened in the spring of eighth grade. 

                                                                                             ^ no comma

Passive

Ex: Starting at the desk, there is a corkboard that is covered in organized notes and small objects that were made by friends or given as gifts.

            Starting at the desk, the corkboard hides beneath the organized notes and small objects that hang from it.

Fragments

Ex: And options that again, public figures do not want to take a stance on.

            Public figures, again, do not wan to take a stance on these options.  

Comma Splice

Ex: Approximately 40% of all pregnancies were unintended last year, if that were fixed it would make a dramatic difference in the population.                                                      ^ no comma

Citation:

The old-man strongly suggested that “no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below” (par.21).

Poetry in class

A few weeks ago, we started the poetry portion of our English class. I had been dreading this all year, and unforunately the time had arrived. I have never liked poetry. I did not like writing haikus in third grade, I found the 6th grade anthology of poems project to be a very unpleasant experience, and I absolutely hated the 8th poetry course involving the close reading or Romeo and Juliet. I don't know what it is about poetry- maybe the way the poems never seem to make logical sense or the way that the structure can change the entire meaning of the poem or the way the craziest of adjectives can describe the most minute of details- but it always seems torture to try and get through this part of the class.

So far in class, we haven't had to write nearly as many poems as I thought we would but
I still fear what is to come. We have mostly just been annotating poems, looking for the different techniques that are used in each one. I still do not enjoy poetry, but the course has not been as bad as I thought (but we still haven't finished.)

The Hundreth Man and poems assigned in class
150 minutes

Song Analysis

I chose to analyze the song, "Sail" by AWOLNATION because it is one of my favorite songs. I found many different literary devices that are being used in this song. One of the poetry techniques that stood out to me immediately is their (the band) use of imagery:  'an angel cries' 'sick pride' 'cry for help' 'kill myself' 'different breed' 'sail with me into the dark.' These dire images give the song a dark tone but I think the constant repetition of 'sail' breaks up the darkness with an idea of hope. Sail could mean breaking away from bad things, or leaving his 'angel,' or even leaving permanently by 'killing [himself.'] This is how I show my love could refer to the different ways he expresses himself because of his A.D.D.. This is how an angel cries could mean that someone he loves has to learn how to handle his A.D.D. too. I blame it on my own sick pride might mean that he feels guilty for like having a learning disability (his A.D.D.). Repetition is another main technique being used here. 'I blame it on my A.D.D. baby' is repeated at the end of every stanza. After two sad and somewhat depressing lines, the writer tells us to 'blame it on [his] A.D.D..' This line makes it seem like the writer is okay with how he is and like he is excusing the two lines prior to the one about his A.D.D.. Repetition and diction. The repetition of the word 'maybe' makes the writer seem like he sets himself apart from others; possibly due to his A.D.D.? There is no real rhyme scheme in poem.

Sail


This is how I show my love
I made it in my mind because
I blame it on my A.D.D. baby

This is how an angel cries
I blame it on my own sick pride
Blame it on my A.D.D. baby

Sail
Sail
Sail
Sail
Sail

Maybe I should cry for help
Maybe I should kill myself
Blame it on my A.D.D. baby

Maybe I'm a different breed
Maybe I'm not listening
So blame it on my A.D.D. baby

Sail
Sail
Sail
Sail
Sail

La la la la la la oh

La la la la la la oh

Sail
Sail
Sail
Sail
Sail

Sail with me into the dark
Sail
Sail with me into the dark
Sail
Sail with me into the dark
Sail
Sail with me, sail with me
Sail

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/awolnation/sail_20976449.html

Nervous Conditions Project

For the Nervous Conditions project, Avery, Sarah, and I decided to work together as a group. The assignment was to look at the book from a different perspective, find new insight to either one of the character or another key part of the book and present it in an original and creative way. We really had a difficult time deciding how approach the book from a new perspective. Our first idea was to write an example of the letters that Tambu and Nyasha sent each other while Tambu was at Sacred Heart. Then we decided that we really wanted to perform something.

After realizing that, Sarah, Avery, and I thought about the complex characters in the novel and ways we could dissect a part of their identity and learn something new from that. We found sections in the book where the characters would say one thing but mean something completely different. So we analyzed these situations, and turned it into a sort of character versus conscience thing. When we perform, I will give the context of the quote that we have chosen, Avery will say the quote, and then Sarah will act as the character's conscience, saying what they truly mean.

Robotics Club

This year, I somehow ended end up robotics club with my sister and her friends. The goal of the club is to build a robot and compete with it at the regional competition. The organization that runs the competition is called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and it's purpose is to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. All of the teams are given a standard set of parts and the details of the game at the beginning of January, at an event called Kickoff.  Then we are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot, that can operate when guided by wireless controls, to accomplish the game's tasks. 


The Bayou Regional Robotics Competition was last week. It was held in Kenner and lasted for three days. The first day is used for working on the robotic, making sure it passes inspection and operates correctly. All day Friday and on Saturday morning, teams participate in qualifying matches. On Saturday afternoon, after the qualification matches have ended, the top eight ranked teams will pick partners from any team ranked below them, and the resulting alliances will compete to be regional winner. Since it was our rookie year, we ran into several major problems, but with the help of our alliances through out the qualifying matches, we were able to finish 35th out of 49 teams.  

Global Issue Research Paper: Part II

Remember when I said that I thought writing my draft would be easy because of my outline? I was wrong. When I sat down to write my draft on Sunday, I had the hardest time articulating my ideas. I know people say that getting started is the hardest part but after that it gets better. Well everything was the hardest part for me. Even with my outline as a guideline, the order that I put my points in didn't seem to make sense. All of my information could go in different parts of my paper depending on which approach I took.

I decided that I should just follow my outline for now so that I could get all of my ideas onto the paper. And that since it was just a draft, I could always go back and change it up. I do have a few questions about citing that I would like to address in class, but overall with my first draft written, I feel pretty confident about this paper.

Nervous Conditions: Chapters 1 and 2

Last Thursday, we started reading a new book in class. It is called, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. It is a semi-autobiographical novel about a girl named Tambu, who grows up in Rhodesia during the 1960s and 1970s. The story focuses on themes of gender, race, class, and cultural change and how it affected Tambu. 


The first two chapters are mainly about the education that Tambu and Nhamo, her brother, received. Though it also talks about their way of life and Tambu's relationships with her family members. Honestly, I was not really intrigued by the beginning of the book but hopefully that will change. However, the first sentence of the book: "I was not sorry when my brother died," did raise my curiosity. If for no other reason, I want to keep reading the book so I can learn the story behind Nhamo's death.  

Memories of summer

As I getting bogged down by all the stress that the second semester of school brings, I started to reminisce about summer.  I have many great memories from this past summer but I really could not get one particular trip out of my mind. My parent's work associate owns a condo in Roatan, Honduras (a small island off of the northern coast of Honduras) and invited us to use it for a week.  Having never been before, we decided to go and see what it was like.
We flew down to Roatan during the first week of August. (I'd just like to mention that according to an article on Yahoo!, the Roatan airport is one of the most dangerous in the world.) While the island has beaches to die for, there are some more interesting facts about Roatan. Like the fact you can go to a lizard farm there. Or that there are only two stop signs on the island and no post office, they deliver mail door to door. Only stick shift cars are used on the island. My parents don't do stick shift. One time, we actually started rolling back down the hill (and those hills are steep). All in all, the experience was incredible and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Global Issue Research Paper

This week, instead of reading for 150 minutes, I focused on my global issue paper. We having been working on this project for quite a while now but I fell like I have really made a lot of progress in the past week. The assignment was to find a global issue, research the topic, and ultimately write a paper on it. The issue I chose to research is overpopulation. I thought it would be really interesting to learn more about this topic. I was curious about the views on the subject, predictions of the future of the population, as well as solutions to the issue. 


Over the past week, the time I have spent on this assignment has really helped me feel more confident about what my end result will be. At the beginning of the week, I did more research on overpopulation, gathering general information on the subject. As the week progressed, I started on the basic outline of my research paper. After, I started trying to fill out the outline. As I attempted to do that, I realized that I needed to go back to researching and find more specific information. I also started to pick out quotes and passages from the text that I wanted to include in my paper. I did not start my draft, but I am confident that it will not be too difficult because of my outline. 

Reading Response 2

I made a lot of progress in "Sex on the Moon" this week. After inventorying thousands of moon rock samples, Thad Roberts started thinking about the monetary value of them. Thad had never been that interested in money, but as a college student with at least eleven thousand dollars of debt, the idea that NASA considered some forty thousand dollars worth of moon rocks to be "trash" because they had been experimented on was crazy. So he started concocting a plan to sell these moon rocks because a single gram of moon rock dust alone, was worth five million dollars. At first, Thad had no intention of letting this plan go anywhere besides his head, but then he met a fellow college student that could help him find a buyer.


When I was reading this book, I had forgotten that this was a true story. But now, as I think of the things that Thad Roberts is actually doing in the book: working at NASA, experimenting with lab samples, handling actual moon rocks from the Apollo missions, I become overwhelmed. I am just amazed at all of the things that a twenty- three year has accomplished. I also find the fact that he is a triple major to be very impressive. I had actually never heard of someone majoring in three things before and I could not imagine the challenge of doing it. When Thad joined the NASA program, he reinvented himself. He was normally a shy, sort of outcast but he was given the chance to be outgoing and popular. And he succeeded. Among his co-ops, he is something of a social butterfly. I really like the idea of being able to reinvent yourself. I would like to try it sometime, not that I am unhappy with who I am, I just think it would be a very interesting thing to try.
Book: Sex on the Moon   Author: Ben Mezrich   Time: 155 minutes    Pages: 70

The Harlem Globetrotters

Last Saturday, I went on an outing with my family. My parents, my sister, Rachel, and I went downtown to see the Harlem Globetrotters. The Harlem Globetrotters are a basketball team that incorporates not only athletic skill, but comedy and tricks as well. Since the show started at two in the afternoon, we arrived early so that we could spend a little extra time around downtown. We walked along the levee and ate lunch at the North Street park. Eventually, we made our way to the River Center, where the show was being held.


The Harlem Globetrotters were amazing. For two hours, the basketball players entertained the crowd with jokes and impressive tricks. Rachel and I had so much fun watching them play and dancing to the music. My favorite part was when one of the players jumped up and climbed onto the basketball goal and started hanging off of it. I had so much fun and would definitely go and see them again.

Softball

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is that time of year: softball season. I have played softball at school for three years. I initially joined the team just because my friend had begged me to do it but as I  played more and more I started to really enjoy it. I love almost everything about the sport. Well besides the bruised legs from ground balls and the horrible cold at the beginning of the season and the extreme heat at the end of the season. Really, it's great fun.


Today, we had our first practice of the season. I am optimistic about this year's team and I am sure we will do better than last year (ranked 32nd out of 32 teams, how much worse could it get?). Although I look forward to playing, I am apprehensive about being able to balance this with my school work. With practice everyday I am worried that it will be hard to keep up. Nevertheless, I am sure my love for softball will motivate me to get all of my work done so that I will be able to continue to play.

Reading Response 1

Last week, I started a book called, "Sex on the Moon" by Ben Mezrich. Despite the assumptions you may have made from reading the title, the book is completely appropriate and actually very interesting. It is a true story about what Mezrich calls "the most audacious heist story in history.” Thad Roberts is a college student and a participant in an esteemed NASA program but more importantly, Thad Roberts is a romantic. He wanted to give his girlfriend the moon; more specifically, moon rocks from every Apollo mission. With the help of two accomplices, Roberts steals the specimens from highly classified and very secure laboratories. In this book, Mezrich tries to answer one question: Was Thad Roberts--undeniably gifted, picked for one of the most competitive scientific posts imaginable, a man who dreamed of being the first human to walk on Mars--really what he seemed? 

As I was reading this book, I was actually on my way to the NASA Stennis Space Center, which is located near the Mississippi-Louisiana border for robotics club (don't laugh.) It is very interesting to see the aspirations that some of the scientists and co-ops had for the space program during this time (approx. 2002.) With that said, it is sad to know that some of the dreams will never be accomplished due to the program shutting down. Still, I cannot wait to continue my reading. 

Book: Sex on the Moon   Author: Ben Mezrich   Time: 205 minutes   Pages: 89 pages 

Trying out this resolution thing...

Every new year starts off the same: people make resolutions, tell themselves that they will keep up with them, and then within a few months, completely forget about them. Which is exactly why I have never felt the need to participate in this little ritual. However, as 2011 was coming to a close I decided it was time for a change. So this new year, I made a resolution. A resolution for English class. 

Last semester, I certainly did not do my best in English and I want that to change this year. I have made goals that I would like to keep because I feel that if I do try in this class, I can learn and achieve much more. I plan to do all (or at least most) of my homework, actually remember to bring it to class, study, and possibly hardest of all, not procrastinate. This last goal has already challenged me in this assignment because I changed my background at least a dozen times before I even clicked on the "new post" button. But I am determined to make a higher grade in this class and I am sure the unpleasant memories of rushing to finish papers and scrambling to get my homework done will be enough to motivate me.