Free Post!

Well looks as if we have been assigned a free post containing what ever it is that we want. I'm not sure if any of you recall this, but I believe that in a previous post I said if we were given the chance, I would release the first paragraph of my essay. So, with out further adieu the first paragraph of my literacy narrative.

­­I remember the day all too well. It was a Tuesday morning and another typical day in the life of a fourth grader. It had rained earlier in morning and the dew was already collecting over the fog stricken grass. Condensation covered my hand as I turned the doorknob, cold air rushed past my body as I entered Mrs. Bullock’s fourth grade English class.

“Take your seats, put your tubs under your desk, and take out your poems we had started yesterday,” said Mrs. Bullock in her high ear piercing, nail scratching voice. The day was already shaping out to be a long one. All until my “girlfriend” walked through the door the wind blowing past her soft, blond hair. As she passes a note expertly falls into my lap. We had mastered the art of note passing. We developed many foolproof ways to get our love notes to and from each other and had never ceased to be caught. Or so we thought. 

So? What do you think of my first paragraph? Does its closing make you want to read more or put it down? Are their any improvements I could make? I do have some minor changes to make, but other the that this is my full final (so far) first paragraph. Please leave a comment so I can have something to respond to or know what are some changes that me other peers that I did not meet with have to say. Thanks again! Can't wait for the next blog!

Reading Response

This week I read 150 minutes and 85 pages. I also spent some where close to 35 or 40 minutes working on my literacy narrative. This week I started the next book in the series due to my completion of the last one in the past week. So far it has started out amazing, the author diving me right in to the action of bing behind lines canoeing up to german occupied beaches and surveying the land in the pitch black darkness.

One thing that already made me have more anticipation to read the next one is because of the cover. For the most part the author ties the cover in with the plot of the book, but this time it was more intricate and harder to digest. At the same time of making me anticipate it also made me nervous. " Well if the cover is hard to digest then how will the book and the text be?"

So far it has been fine. Like I mentioned before the author puts you straight into the action right away which is a plus for me. But, I'm only a couple of chapters into it so I have a lot of time to decide whether its amazing or not. All in all I am super stoked to start this book and can't wait till my next blog!

Literacy Narrative

Well its that time of year in English class again. Every upper classman warns you about the day. When you see "Literacy Narrative" up on the board. Me personally writing isn't a bad thing, but like Akbar said "Im still not the happiest clam" forgive me if thats wrong, but you get my point. As long as I have a near decent topic that I like I can try to go off of that and make something of the essay. But if I can't connect to the topic... then forget it I will be a stick in the mud if I can't remotely connect some way to a topic. You can even ask my mom this for she knows all to well when I get a bad grade on an essay she knows why.

I am a very strong writer and when I truly connect with the topic I can write for days. To be honest this is the first time that after reading someones writing or essay I will actually use something I learned from theirs. For example look forward to seeing the usage of the short 2 to 3 word closing sentence. Now I will not "beat a dead horse" when I use this technique and over do it but I will experiment with it. I don't want to reveal to much about my writing strategies for my narrative. For they are still under construction, but if we do another blog concerning our narrative I might give a sneak peak of the first paragraph so people can get an idea of whats to come.

Reading Log

So for this week I took the advise of my excellent friend Akbar and reserved time before bed to read on Monday night. Turns out I read for 150 minutes, 84 pages, AND I finished the book! Great advise it really worked out as you can clearly see, although I did check a few text and respond to a Facebook friend request, but I will get better as time progresses.

As Akbar also said with great encouragement; that my book would soon get out of its "funk" and turn around. It did. Im not sure what it is with Akbar I think I should get his opinions on stocks because every thing he says seems to work and come true! Aside from that I REALLY enjoyed the ending it answered about 1000 questions left hanging from the pervious series (based in the future). I greatly anticipate the next book and all the action I'm sure is packed into every fine print page. Well on to my next blog, thanks again Akbar.

Weekly Reading

Last week in my weekly reading I read 150 minutes and only 85 pages. During the reading I found trouble grasping the situation happening in the story due to other outside distractions. Last week was a stressful week and when I got the chance to read I was most likely doing something else at the time. Therefore causing me to slow down.

Personally I did not enjoy my reading for the week. This is very unusual because so far I've loved this book and all of its previous ones in the series. It could have been because I had to go back and reread some sections and I absolutely hate to go back and dread things. But mainly I haven't really been "feeling" the setting and current plot. One of the reasons I like this series is because the author stays on track and doesn't stray from the center plot, but recently in my book he has and its very surprising. Hopefully it will return back to it original "grove" but I have confidence that it will.

Comment Response

Thanks to everybody who took their time to comment on my blog! I greatly appreciate it and please keep them coming!

"Yeah Will, you are a pretty fast reader. That, or those pages are small. Aside from that, your book seems interesting. Did Henderson actually have the affair? Or is she just making that up?"

Gavin

Yes I am indeed a fairly fast reader. Last summer my father made me take an english class at LSU and I hated it, but during that painful time we learned the art of speed reading therefore my large reading quantity. While Henderson was undercover in France after he had joined forces with the children there was a lady he met who helped them escape and stay alive who he did have an affair with. Although his wife did not know that in the story she was recently carted off to jail and a mental institute for stabbing Henderson while they were at the parachute training program.

"I did almost the same thing, but never do it in the front yard. Neighbors may yell at you from across the street..."

Akbar 

Well yes I did take this into thought as I recently learned some kids tried to canoe in the park when someone called the cops. Although I would not have done it in the front yard because the conditions of the grass to water ratio were not optimal for the high skill intense skim boarding I do. Basically the grass couldn't handle me. But the back yard was perfect and the water wasn't too deep nor too high so I spent around thirty minutes "tearing" it up until my mother wanted me back inside.

Weekly Reading

     For this weeks reading i started a new book and on 8/20 I read forty pages for forty minutes in the book Secret Army by: Robert Muchamore. I am a fast reader but win it comes to personal books I tend to take my time and read fairly slow and some times it will take me longer than a minute to finish a page because of distractions, a part I did not understand, or wanted to read again. On 8/22 I read forty five pages for fifty minutes. Finally on 8/23 I read sixty-two for sixty minutes, for a grand total of 147 pages and 150 minutes.

      So far in the book Henderson's undercover espionage unit is located at an old school house and they had e equipped it with firing ranges, dojos, class rooms (already pre-existing), and dorms. Henderson's wife Joan Henderson is appearing to show signs (at least to the students and trainers) of hallucinations and mental insanity. She is ruthlessly complaining and screaming at Henderson for having affairs in France while he was operating under cover with children as help in german occupied France. In the mist of all this happening HEnderson is battling to keep his unit from being shut down and to also gain access for them to get parachute training in order to safely drop their agents into german occupied areas. I am looking forward to finding out what ends up happening in the second part of the book and can't wait to blog about it.