The three short stories I have read for free choice reading are, "The Return" By: Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, "The Catbird Seat" By: James Thurber, and "The Sniper" By: Liam O'Flaherty. Now out of all these stories, none of them really "spoke to me"or even registered in my brain except "The Sniper."
The reason Ive chosen The Sniper as "the one" is because of its extreme attention to detail. Now, Im a stickler for detail, and no matter how many times I revise a paper, I always try to add more and more detail each time. The extreme detail in this story really painted a picture in my head, which is also a vital thing I must be able to grasp from a story in order to connect. The author used sentences like "the pitter patter of the machine gun bullets across the ground scattered it various directions, just barely missing me..." and my most favorite "as I duck to cover, I mercilessly turn over the body to reveal it's identity. As I glance to see my victims face, I find myself staring into the eyes of my brother....."
If you just read those previous paraphrases you now see what I mean about the vivid detail. The great detail also helps the story build plot structure and density making it a very import factor to include in all stories. So that was my story I plan to use in my analysis coming soon. I will continue to write and edit my future analysis during our time in reading "Lord of the Flies."
Monday, October 29, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Reading Response
10/18-read 30 min 10/19- read 125 min
Ok so Im back again with a late Monday night blog. Like Ive said before, yes I know its Monday and this blog was for last week, but again I'm so busy that I never find the time so I guess Monday will be the official blog day.
As you can see my reading times are not very spread out ( again, never find the time,) and I know some of you will again say, " Look at that! He's so faking no one reads THAT much in one day!" Well someone does read that much in a day, and that someone is me.
If you read my past blog you will see my very radical claims and wording, but you will also see my very... one would say... hyper, energetic, enthusiastic response to my reading. I did read the short story of my choice, But no one wants to hear about that. What the want to hear about ( or at least what I am going to tell them ) is how my book is doing after that rapid climax. Well it has been good, but its starting to decline from that very high intensity moment back to the boring " side chat " ( other useless talk bout eating and characters in which you already know.) So, I will be continuing ti read more and try to spread it out but chances are when I pick it up Ill never be able to put it down. Cant wait till the next blog!
Ok so Im back again with a late Monday night blog. Like Ive said before, yes I know its Monday and this blog was for last week, but again I'm so busy that I never find the time so I guess Monday will be the official blog day.
As you can see my reading times are not very spread out ( again, never find the time,) and I know some of you will again say, " Look at that! He's so faking no one reads THAT much in one day!" Well someone does read that much in a day, and that someone is me.
If you read my past blog you will see my very radical claims and wording, but you will also see my very... one would say... hyper, energetic, enthusiastic response to my reading. I did read the short story of my choice, But no one wants to hear about that. What the want to hear about ( or at least what I am going to tell them ) is how my book is doing after that rapid climax. Well it has been good, but its starting to decline from that very high intensity moment back to the boring " side chat " ( other useless talk bout eating and characters in which you already know.) So, I will be continuing ti read more and try to spread it out but chances are when I pick it up Ill never be able to put it down. Cant wait till the next blog!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Reading Response
10/8 read 30 min 10/9 read 30 min 10/10 read 90 min
Last weeks reading was composed by more demented short stories and an intense reading session.
Not all of the blogs last week were extremely weird some were WAY better than previous ones, but all in all they were very good and enjoyable. During this time we were learning about all of the different literary elements in writing, so we all used this to our advantage and annotated for each individual element. This I think was a very good way for us to get to know each one better, and understand how each of them work.
OK OK OK big NEWS EVERYONE. My reading the last week was PHENOMENAL! All of those dull, mopey blogs before whining about " how I'm so lost in the story" and " oh woe is me I hope it gets better soon" days are OVER the plot just thicken to where it has exploded every where and formed words on paper. The book was so realistic, the pictures were so clear that at one point during a high intensity moment I was literarily holding my breath, and breathing heavy, my heart pumping faster than pistons on a motor of a formula 1 car. It was truly spectacular. As you can see I read 90 minutes on the tenth. Now I know what most of you are thinking " Oh he jus ran out of days to evenly spread out his time so thats why he just crammed it all into one day" or "That looks mighty fishy," but its not I was so hooked into the story I literarily could not put the book down. Well since I've poured my reading experience out to you all it has come time for me to end my blog and continue on to studies and homework. Wish me luck!
Literary Elements
So far this year you will come to learn that I love to start paragraphs with the phrase " So Far..."
No Im just kidding, even though that is a true fact what I meant to say was...
So far this year we have learned about the literary elements P.O.V, setting, theme, and many others!
For some reason that sounded like a cheap infomercial towards the end, lol. Im not sure why Im so RADICAL in this blog. Its probably because I just drank a coke to stay awake in preparation for my long night of blogs, homework, and studying. All of them a glorious result of my absolutely,utterly, pitiful time management.
I have to make this short because I have a TON of homework to do and I can't miss the "Jerry Springer" reruns at 10:30. Oh my gosh why am I bouncing off the walls. I apologize to whomever is reading this utter shipwreck that is this my blog, which should be aimed toward literary elements. So without further of due my blog.....
Since Ive already mentioned some of the literary elements in my cheap infomercial above let me tell you about the story I thing most exercised the literary element of P.O.V.
"To Build A Fire" I believe executed P.O.V very well. I personally love the constant change of perspective, forcefully pulling you to a different perspective. This technique gave a slow story a very fast, upbeat plot. It really forced you to pay attention to all of the transitions because on sentence is "The man is a new comer, a chippewe" Then all of a sudden you are at "The dog slowly approached the man..." P.O.V changes like that really make a read slow down, reflect, and digest what you just read, because like the great Edmund Burke said, " To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
No Im just kidding, even though that is a true fact what I meant to say was...
So far this year we have learned about the literary elements P.O.V, setting, theme, and many others!
For some reason that sounded like a cheap infomercial towards the end, lol. Im not sure why Im so RADICAL in this blog. Its probably because I just drank a coke to stay awake in preparation for my long night of blogs, homework, and studying. All of them a glorious result of my absolutely,utterly, pitiful time management.
I have to make this short because I have a TON of homework to do and I can't miss the "Jerry Springer" reruns at 10:30. Oh my gosh why am I bouncing off the walls. I apologize to whomever is reading this utter shipwreck that is this my blog, which should be aimed toward literary elements. So without further of due my blog.....
Since Ive already mentioned some of the literary elements in my cheap infomercial above let me tell you about the story I thing most exercised the literary element of P.O.V.
"To Build A Fire" I believe executed P.O.V very well. I personally love the constant change of perspective, forcefully pulling you to a different perspective. This technique gave a slow story a very fast, upbeat plot. It really forced you to pay attention to all of the transitions because on sentence is "The man is a new comer, a chippewe" Then all of a sudden you are at "The dog slowly approached the man..." P.O.V changes like that really make a read slow down, reflect, and digest what you just read, because like the great Edmund Burke said, " To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
Class Evaluation
General Procedures: Overall I do believe that I am a OK student when it comes to class. I mean nobody is perfect right? Im not saying that I'm a bad student, just not the "shining star." Like Ive mentioned time and time and time again, English is not my best subject. So far Ive been very surprised with my success in the class and am surprised at how well Ive been doing. I always have the materials needed for class, and even if its half way rushed and messy, the homework. I always try to voice my opinion in class (if my opinion is appropriate and not irrelevant.) I am not so good with the whole "not packing up early" rule, but I'm sure I will improve in that aspect.
Lecture, Announcements, Whole Class Discussion: I thing the method of note portrayal and lecture is working very well. I fully understand every thing that is being taught to me and the methods that they are being taught are very helpful. Like I previously said, I always try to state my opinion when it is my turn and as long as I can classify it as (somewhat) relevant to the conversation. I never use my computer in my class unless we are assigned some work that can be completed using the computer, so no illegal usage there. I always try to keep my personal talking down to a bear minimum. Now, we all have those days where there is something on your mind that you just have to get off and sometimes that means discussing it with your partner. When ever I do talk with my partner it is usually kept to a short, crisp few sentence exchangements, that are based on a topic discussed or being discussed in class.
Individual and Group Work: Anytime there is individual work assigned I always try to stay on course and not stray too far from not being concentrated. When theres group work on the other hand, then it gets more dicey. Some factors include; Who is in your group. What topic are you discussing. How much time you have. And most importantly. What time of day it is. All of these things effect how well you and your group perform. Some times you need that one person to step in and get the group back on track but other than that it usually goes smoothly.
Growth: Like I've said before I think Ive grown a lot his year in English, but there are still things I very much need to improve on. On of the things is time management. As you can see it is around 9:06 at night and Im just now finishing this blog to go on and do two more blogs, followed by test corrections in World History, and studying for the Worldy Wise quiz that we have bright and early tomorrow. So wish me luck on to the next blog.
Lecture, Announcements, Whole Class Discussion: I thing the method of note portrayal and lecture is working very well. I fully understand every thing that is being taught to me and the methods that they are being taught are very helpful. Like I previously said, I always try to state my opinion when it is my turn and as long as I can classify it as (somewhat) relevant to the conversation. I never use my computer in my class unless we are assigned some work that can be completed using the computer, so no illegal usage there. I always try to keep my personal talking down to a bear minimum. Now, we all have those days where there is something on your mind that you just have to get off and sometimes that means discussing it with your partner. When ever I do talk with my partner it is usually kept to a short, crisp few sentence exchangements, that are based on a topic discussed or being discussed in class.
Individual and Group Work: Anytime there is individual work assigned I always try to stay on course and not stray too far from not being concentrated. When theres group work on the other hand, then it gets more dicey. Some factors include; Who is in your group. What topic are you discussing. How much time you have. And most importantly. What time of day it is. All of these things effect how well you and your group perform. Some times you need that one person to step in and get the group back on track but other than that it usually goes smoothly.
Growth: Like I've said before I think Ive grown a lot his year in English, but there are still things I very much need to improve on. On of the things is time management. As you can see it is around 9:06 at night and Im just now finishing this blog to go on and do two more blogs, followed by test corrections in World History, and studying for the Worldy Wise quiz that we have bright and early tomorrow. So wish me luck on to the next blog.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Reading Log
10/4-read 25 10/1-read 30 10/2-read 30 10/5- read 65
The past week I read around three short stories I believe. I absolutely love short stories. As you who read my literacy narrative know, short stories are what saved my career in english. I love stewing goals to try to digest and understand every event that happened in the story on the first time I read it. Most of the time this is not the case, but my favorite part is reading all of these weird stories and trying to figure out what on earth compiled these authors to write about these things. Most of the ones were not too strange in context, but the story about the man in the super market gave me that perception of, what on earth compelled this man to do this? I mean really? Who wakes up one day and says "Today, I think I'm going to write a start story about a man who works at grocery store, staring at chicks all day, gossiping to himself about others, and quitting every other day, then put it up to be published." I mean, is is me or does something about that? What ever the case this man must have weird ideas and dreams be cause this is a very extraneous story.
As for my personal reading book. I feel like I've drifted away from this story like a man sailing away on a boat. Its not that I don't enjoy this story, its just that i find a storage of time to read. Trying to balance, vocab in all subjects, test, quizzes, homework, essays, sports, studying, food, and sleep while trying to find some down time to read and relax is any thing but difficult. I always try to turn things in early, because thats just how I was brought up, but lately I've felt backed against the wall with blogs. As you can see its 20 till 9'oclock and I'm just now posting a blog we've been given a whole week to do. Like i said I can be hard some times and reading before bed as been next to impossible for me. For example, its nine o'clock and after this blog I have more home work to complete and I also have to study for the 6 test I have this week. And for those of you who think I'm exaggerating heres my test schedule for this week.
Mon-No test Tues-No test Wed-Spanish chap test, Math chap test Thurs-Social studies chap test, Health chap test Fri-Science chap test, English test.
What a week I know. Well thats all for this blog, on to more homework and studying.
The past week I read around three short stories I believe. I absolutely love short stories. As you who read my literacy narrative know, short stories are what saved my career in english. I love stewing goals to try to digest and understand every event that happened in the story on the first time I read it. Most of the time this is not the case, but my favorite part is reading all of these weird stories and trying to figure out what on earth compiled these authors to write about these things. Most of the ones were not too strange in context, but the story about the man in the super market gave me that perception of, what on earth compelled this man to do this? I mean really? Who wakes up one day and says "Today, I think I'm going to write a start story about a man who works at grocery store, staring at chicks all day, gossiping to himself about others, and quitting every other day, then put it up to be published." I mean, is is me or does something about that? What ever the case this man must have weird ideas and dreams be cause this is a very extraneous story.
As for my personal reading book. I feel like I've drifted away from this story like a man sailing away on a boat. Its not that I don't enjoy this story, its just that i find a storage of time to read. Trying to balance, vocab in all subjects, test, quizzes, homework, essays, sports, studying, food, and sleep while trying to find some down time to read and relax is any thing but difficult. I always try to turn things in early, because thats just how I was brought up, but lately I've felt backed against the wall with blogs. As you can see its 20 till 9'oclock and I'm just now posting a blog we've been given a whole week to do. Like i said I can be hard some times and reading before bed as been next to impossible for me. For example, its nine o'clock and after this blog I have more home work to complete and I also have to study for the 6 test I have this week. And for those of you who think I'm exaggerating heres my test schedule for this week.
Mon-No test Tues-No test Wed-Spanish chap test, Math chap test Thurs-Social studies chap test, Health chap test Fri-Science chap test, English test.
What a week I know. Well thats all for this blog, on to more homework and studying.
Monday, October 1, 2012
"I am a writer who..."
If I were to classify myself as any type of writer, I would be a writer who thinks very critically and breaks things down. When I write an essay its typically going to be some thing that uses a lot of descriptive detail. Detail that especially implies to the plot, characters, and most importantly setting.
When I read essays I especially look for details that really paint a picture, and give me a frame of mind as to where the character is in a story. Where they are, what the weathers like, what time of day it is, things that really paint a picture in your head as a reader. By having this mindset I can make sure that my story really paints that vivid picture and really puts the reader into the action. So, all in all when I say thinks critically I mean the way I break down the voice and detail in the story. Thats the kind of writer I am and have been shaped to be.
Reading Response
Last week was a very jumbled week. Balancing reading, writing, other homework and test was very difficult and stressful. But I'm still alive so apparently I survived and will continue on another week. I was very happy to turn in my literacy narrative, completed and edited to turnitin. Although I was not to happy about my reading.
Like I mentioned in the past, the author has begun to stray away from center and cause me to lose interest. It may be that I just have a bad headache right now (which I do) and can't really remember what happened, but I'm fairly sure I was lost for the most part. As I've said before this author, in my mind, is one of the best I've ever seen, and hardly ever strays far from the main topic. But lately it has been happening a lot and it has begun to worry me. I try to remind myself that its just a rough patch and it will be over soon, but I think its something more than that. I think something big is about to happen, that he's just holding back until something monumental happens. Like I've said again and again, I'm just going to have to wait and see what the future holds.
9/25 read 60 mins 9/27 read 35 9/25 lit narrative 55 mins
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