December 8th 2010

Today in class, we finally turned in our Scarlet Letter Essays. It was a relief to finally be finished and to be able to rid my mind of the stress. We are moving on to thinking about and reviewing our semester's work for the midterm. It is interesting to see what we have done this year and how it has actually all connected. For example, all of the ideas that we worked on at the beginning of the year, such as transcendentalism and realism, connected to the reading of the Scarlet Letter. Without the knowledge it would have made reading the Scarlet Letter much more difficult and we would not have been able to understand it as deeply.

As we were reading over the midterm review today in class, I realized that the thing I was most nervous about is the ominous essay that seems to hold a million possibilities. We have a vague idea about what the essay will be, but I am still very anxious. We seem to have learned so much this year and it could be about any of them.

Other than that I the midterm is going to be very challenging and I am going to have to start studying immediately!

Therefore, my word of the day is diligent. Diligent means hard working and staying on task, both of which I am trying to do this coming weekend and week!

December 8th, 2010

Today in class, we first turned our final essays in (as well as our rough drafts) to Ms. Flournoy. Second, we spent a while on our course evaluations. After completing the course evaluations, Ms. Flournoy asked us to pull up the review for the midterm on our computers. We spent about 20 minutes talking through all the topics on the midterm. The class asked a lot of questions and it was really helpful because I sometimes don't think about certain things, and when my classmates bring them up, I'm so grateful because I could have missed them on the exam! Finally, for the last part of class, we got a list of famous writers (Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, J.K. Rowling, Ben Franklin, and Nathaniel Hawthorne) and our job was to research the thoughts and themes seen in their writings. We made a timeline on a piece of notebook paper and spread the authors out according to the time periods in which they lived. The purpose of this exercise was to prepare us for our midterm, for it is important that we understand how these authors thought and what their writings centered on. I really enjoyed today's class simply because I felt it was a great way to organize my thoughts about the midterm. Admist the craziness of the holidays, we can get really caught up in the unsettling idea of midterms. However, this class period helped me to put my exams into perspective and feel less intimidated by how much information they cover. A quote from Lauren Graham, "Perspective is the most important thing to have in life." This is so true, for we need to put our studies in perspective. We tend to make them seem much more scary than they really are, and if we buckle down and focus on organizing all the information we've learned, we realize that it really isn't that hard. We have learned everything that will show up on the test and should be confident in that fact. A new vocab word that I feel connects with today's events is the word "daunt." Used in a sentence, it reads like this: Although midterms may seem daunting at first, when we look at things from a confident viewpoint, we realize that we are more than capable of surviving them.

December 6th

Today in class we had to have our rough draft completed and printed. We spent the whole class self-editing our rough draft. Our homework for Wednesday is to have our completed final draft done and printed by the start of class. I found it very helpful to carefully read and mark all over my paper and make corrections. I think having a printed rough draft to edit is the easiest way to read and think about your paper without distractions or getting confused. I know that whenever I read things on my computer I can easily get confused, words get jumbled up, and I can't clearly think about what I'm trying to say. Getting a new perspective on things sometimes can be extremely helpful and eye opening. I decided to connect class today to a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche. He said: "You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." I like this quote because I think it represents what we all our doing and feeling as we write our papers. We are trying to write deep, intellectual papers that really analyze The Scarlet Letter, and that's a hard thing. I think this quote can help remind us that we can search and search for the perfect way to say something, and we can try our hardest to write a perfect paper, but these things do not exist. This can also connect to what I said about a new perspective. Maybe what Nietzsche is saying is that we all have our own ways, but it's important to look at other perspectives. Maybe next time we edit, we should peer edit to see other perspectives and get their take on ours. A vocab word I would like to share is vantage point. It means a place or situation affording some advantage especially a comprehensive view or commanding perspective. Example sentence: Although you may think your vantage point is superior to those around you, it can not be certain until you look through their perspective.

December 3, 2010

Today in class we started off my learning how to build your essay. Mrs. Flournoy taught us the buildingsroman, which means the coming of age. She explained how our basic essay should include an Introduction and sentences that go from very basic information to a narrowing focus. Then we learned that a body must include a Topic Sentence, 1 Commentary Detail, and 2 Commentary Sentences. There can be up to four body paragraphs in this essay. After finishing the body paragraphs, you need to write a conclusion that connects and finalizes your whole essay. Mrs. Flournoy told us to question our conclusion and say "so what?". This helped us question our whole essay and give it a great point. In class, we are told to write our thoughts for our essay down. We are constantly reminded that writing your thoughts down is very significant because you find great ideas and writings from letting your ideas out. After we discussed the Buildingsroman, we discussed our heading and header for our paper and how it should be formatted on a word document. Mrs. Flournoy informed us that the Heading is different from the Header because the heading is only on the first page and includes: Your name, Subject, Teacher, and Date of Due Assignment. The header is on ever page and for this paper our header is including our last name and the page number. We then included our Title and have our double space paper! Even though we already know the basic format of an essay, this was a great review and there were several questions asked, so this cleared everything up. We then were given the rest of class to continue our essays and work on strengthening our body paragraphs. Getting time in class to work on our essays is essential because we are able to ask questions and work diligently. The Scarlet Letter essays are coming out great and we are all working hard in class. This essay is our last one before the semester ends and our printed completed essays are due on Monday as Rough Drafts. We made a lot of progress today because we had a lot of time to work on our drafts!

I thought that the review of the format of our essay was extremely helpful! I did not know the proper heading, so I am glad that we went over it in class. I really like having time in class to work on our essays. I think that all of us value the time in class that we have to write. Writing in class gives us the opportunity to really concentrate in a good environment and progress. This allows us to ask questions and work on the needed areas in our essays. A quote that I believe is a good connection is, “Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.” -Francis Bacon. We are told to write down our thoughts and ideas. Even though we may think that we are not on the right track or that our writing is irrelevant, it is actually great. As we prepare to complete our drafts, it is good to remember that we need to keep our ideas fresh and let them out.

The vocabulary term that I think defines what we did in class is "headway". This term means a forward movement or progress. My Sample Sentence for headway is: We were making headway in working on finishing our Rough Drafts today in class. Overall, today’s class was very productive and I think that we all made progress on our essays.

Tuesday, November 30

On Tuesday in class we worked on our Scarlet Letter papers. We began with Ms. Flournoy checking our thesis's for completion and working with a partner to improve them. We tweaked them and discussed how to write a paper well. We talked about the importance of depth in a paper rather than length or the "big picture". Thesis's should also be in depth and a topic sentence to a paragraph is like a mini thesis and should be detailed and important. We then had individual meetings with Ms. Flournoy to check our thesis's and work on them. While individual meetings were going on, students were able to work on their papers. The homework was to work on the paper (rough draft due Monday) and write a body paragraph for Thursday.

I thought this time in class was really helpful for writing the paper. It's a time to focus and also Ms. Flournoy was available for questions and thoughts on writing. A quote I thought related to our class experiences was "Writing is thinking on paper."-
William Zinsser. A lot of the thoughts we put into our papers turn into beautiful and thoughtful writing. The thoughts that seem messy and unorganized can be put together to create beautiful writing, even for book essays.

My new vocab word is insistent- compelling attention. Students need to be insistent with their work on their papers in order to be successful.

Monday, November 29th

We started class today with a quick exercise. We all wrote down a small description of things that we saw, touched, tasted, heard, and smelled over the Thanksgiving break. We then went around the room and each person shared one response and the class identified what sense the description appealed to. Next, Ms. Flournoy handed out a sheet of paper containing the Scarlet Letter paper topics to each of us and we went over it as a class. We took a few minutes to review the topics individually to see which one interested us. Then, we looked in our actual book to get ideas about possible topics. Next, we were instructed to make a diagram type structure to form more ideas. After, we opened our laptops and wrote down thoughts that came to mind about our topics. All of these exercises helped our minds start flowing and helped us get an idea of what we want to write about. At one point in class, we discussed scope and sequence and depth over breadth. Ms. Flournoy explained to us that it is important to focus in on one area of the book and go into great depth analyzing it. Also, a few important things were written on the board. For the thesis, focus on the subject matter and what you will argue. And, a few questions to think about: Which concrete elements of the text will you examine?, Which literary devices will you explore?, and What is your overarching point?/What ties everything together?. Our homework for tonight is to create a thesis for our paper.

I thought the different methods we used today to get our minds thinking about what topic we would like to do were very helpful. I especially liked free writing on our laptops. I think this is a really great way to get all your thoughts onto a page. Then, you can you those thoughts and ideas to move forward with your paper.

A quote that I think is very relevant to the process of picking a good topic is as follows, “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” I think it is very important to pick a topic that really interests you. If you are interested in and excited about a certain topic, you will easily go into depth with the topic. And, it might be enjoyable to write the paper because you can use your creativity to come up with a totally original idea about the subject matter and think of great ways to argue your thoughts.

The vocab word for today is “ruminate”. Ruminate means to think deeply about something, to reflect on, or to ponder. Sample sentence: We need to ruminate before starting our papers by looking over each topic and refreshing our minds about the main ideas in the novel.

English Class on Monday, November 15th

Hi Guys!

The first thing we did in class today was learn about the schedule for the next few weeks. Ms. Flournoy explained that we are going to finish The Scarlet Letter by Friday and that will be learning about our paper soon after that. After a week of working on our papers after Thanksgiving, we will be going straight into review week. And then Midterms! After that, Ms. Flournoy had us write assertions about important occurrences from our reading over the weekend (ch. 16-18). As we read them aloud, I noticed that most people focused on the theme of sunlight. Some people connected it to purity, God, and goodness saying that it shied away from the sinful Hester. Others commented on how it represented a renewed chance at life for Hester and Dimmesdale. One of my favorite points of the discussion was the connection made between Hester and Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God. It hadn't even occurred to me that they both had transforming moments in which they let down their hair down and left behind items of their past selves.  My own assertion had more to do with this concept than it did sunshine. I speculated that the discarding of the scarlet letter was symbolic of Hester's release from sin and her past identity; however, the fact that the scarlet letter did not land in the stream and float away represents its remaining presence among the characters. The last part of our discussion was a debate centered around if Hester and Dimmesdales' meeting in the forest was good or bad. There were many conflicting ideas about this, and the predominate answer came to be that it was both good and bad. Finally, our homework for tonight is to read the next two chapters (pg. 19 and 20).
One of the things I struggle most with in this book is that there is no definite right or wrong. Being a person who likes answers rather black and white, the many different interpretations of the book get me all confused. It sometimes frustrates me, for even when I have a eureka! moment, I soon after get lost in deeper analysis. But, I guess that is also part of the beauty of writing and literature. It can mean many different things to many different people. Because of that, I really enjoy our group discussions in class. I've recently found a really good quote about confusion, that helped me come to terms with the difficulties that come with interpreting literature. “Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity,” said by Michael J. Gelb. I liked this quote, for it helped me realize that great ideas can come from just pulling things out of the confused wad of thoughts in your head. This is also a helpful concept for writing papers, for while at first you may not know what to write about, you may eventually come up with some extremely creative ideas. Lastly, the word of the day is "wicked." I think there is so much power behind just the pronunciation of this word. This word is defined as evil, immoral, bad, or playfully malicious. I thought that this was a great descriptive word to use in reference to Pearl's behavior. Sample Sentence: The wicked children taunted the poor substitute teacher by switching names, dropping things on the floor, and pulling pranks. 

Class November 12, 2010

We started off class today by having a competition to see who could finish the Scarlet Letter crossword puzzle first. After the competition, we opened up the Scarlet Letter vocabulary document that Ms. Flournoy emailed to us. The class was instructed to pick ten words they did not know from the list and guess the meanings of the words. After we guessed the meaning of the words, we looked up the real definitions for the words and compared our definition to the real definition. We got into partners and wrote down definitions of the words our partners looked up. We finished class by fixing seven sentences that had grammatical errors in them. The homework for the weekend is to read chapters 16,17, and 18 in The Scarlet Letter.

I thought it was interesting how you are sometimes able to guess the meaning of a word just by looking at it. During class we guessed the meanings of ten words ,and I was surprised that I was able to correctly guess the meanings of some of the words. Knowing Greek and Latin roots would help you immensely in figuring out the meanings of many words. The ability to figure out words by looking at them reminded me of the movie Akeelah and the Bee. In Akeelah and the Bee, Akeelah is memorizing roots of words in preparation for a big spelling bee competition. By memorizing the roots of words she is able to spell and figure out the meanings of numerous words. Akeelah is able to guess the meanings of words just by looking at them similarly to what we did in class. This skill would be a very useful on standardized tests, such as the PSAT and the SAT.

The new vocabulary word that applies to today’s class is bout.

Sample sentence: In class, there was a bout to see who could finish the Scarlet Letter crossword puzzle first.

Thursday the 4th

Last thursday we began class after reading chapter 3 and 4 from The Scarlet Letter, this was one of our first times to do independent reading for this book. Chapter three is titled Recognition, In this chapter, Hester is standing when she see's a man (which we figure out to be her husband) walk into the town. She is later questioned by Governor Bellingham and other people in the town. They want to know who the father of the child is, but she will not reveal who it is. In class we discussed why she is trying to protect who the father is, because if she would reveal who it is she would receive less punishment. It is also revealed in this chapter that the baby is a girl. The chapter ended with, "It was whispered, by those who peered after her, that the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior.", This passage helps show the supernatural aspect of Hawthorne's writing.

In chapter 4, titled The Interview, We find out the husband of Hester. They had been married in the UK when they immigrated into the colonies. He was supposed to meet her there but she didn't. Roger Chillingworth seems like a very inteligent man, whoever he did spend some time in the wilderness before arriving in the town. He has a mysterious, dark part of a personality. We will see how his character unfolds in the book.

When I think of some of the characters in this book they remind me of silhouette because of Hawthorne's dark and light writing style.

Although this is a well-known word contradictory is my word of the day. Because Hawthorne's writing is very contrasting and he shows dual nature, good and evil, and dark and light

Monday, Nov 1

This Monday we began reading The Scarlet Letter. The handout we got was a copy of the first chapter of the book. We read it then analyzed the basic themes, such as light and dark imagery and individual versus society. The first ideas we discussed were the contrast between the rosebush and the prison door, and the irony of the prison being one of the first buildings made in the colony. Afterwards, we started reading Chapter 2 as part of the homework.

The reading was a lot like the Minister's Black Veil and had the same dark and supernatural imagery and themes. The vocab word we discussed in class was liminality, referring to the "rite of passage" Hester experiences in her story.

An example usage of the word is: Medical interns experience a term of liminality when going through their first year of medical school.

Tuesdays Class by Alexis Vitenas

On Tuesday we discussed Nathanial Hawthorne, and we took notes on a power point on his background and beliefs. We learned that Hawthorne was a dark romanticist whose works explored the idea human nature and that he was concerned with the inner truths of our hearts. After discussing Hawthorne, we discussed chapter two of The Scarlet Letter and pointed out the light and dark imagery. We also talked about the townspeople’s view of Hester, but in particular we looked at the women’s critical views toward her. After discussing the chapter we looked for reviews that had been written during the time of The Scarlet Letters Publishing. As an addition to the class discussion I have found a review of The Scarlet Letter that connects to what we have been learning about.

http://ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/loring.html

This review goes into greater detail about the transcendentalists and their views in relation to the novel. It also explains what we discussed about Hawthorne’s exploration of human nature.

The new vocab word is Malefactress. It is found in chapter two of the scarlet letter.

Hester Prynne was seen by her puritan contemporaries as a malefactress because she had committed adultery.

october 12, 2010

In the day prior to this class period, we had been assigned to read, analyze, and answer the questions of the document, "From Resistance to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau. Today, we discussed what the main theme was, and went over questions we faced while reading the document. The main idea we settled on was a collaboration of the class thoughts. We decided that the document really was emphasizing the point that when individuals come together in a government, there is some sort of a corrupt force and it is very important for every individual to focus on their own paths. We also said that according to Thoreau, there is no true government unless the individual is thoroughly respected. While trying to go deeper into this idea of a group of people coming together and once together, losing morals, we branched off into an idea from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. What we used from that novel was the idea of, mob mentality. Mob mentality is best explained as when a people come together as a group, they lose individual morality, and conform to the morality of the group. This is how Thoreau describes the government, while his message is that our true righteousness is in our individual selves despite the beliefs of the group.

My thoughts on our this document start with thinking back to what I knew about Henry David Thoreau. In previous classes, we had established that he was a Transcendentalist. Knowing that Thoreau was a Transcendentalist, I also knew that the tree things his life really revolved around was God, nature, and this idea of individual self. Knowing this really helps because I can now grasp that Thoreau, through out this document, isn't always commenting literally, but figuratively. From within his jail cell, Thoreau says, "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was still a more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could be as free as I was". Thoreau is not saying that he is more free then those men under the law, but in essence of life. I understood that Thoreau meant that even though he is trapped in jail, he is more free because he has broken out of the group of alikeness, he has achieved enlightenment. I also started thinking about how this discussion really brought us back around to the beginning of the year when we were talking about Will McLean, and Lennie and George, and how they were all against society. I thought it was interesting how we went back to that drawing which was so familiar from our first unit, of the lone large stick figure faced by a series of smaller stick figures compiled into a large mass on the other side. I think it is really important to take note that the one person standing alone is very large. Seeing this really supports Thoreau's claims of of the strength of an individual, he says, "...for a single man can bend it [government] to his will".

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

On October 13, we discussed Transcendentalism and began talking about self reliance and going beyond the range of human experience or belief of powers. We learned a lot about Transcendentalism and the major writers during that time including Emerson and Thoreau. We went into depth with the differences between these writers. We discussed how Emerson was interested in Nature and was a thinker, whereas, Thoreau was interested in Walden, about simple things of life, and was a Doer. These two writers differed, however they both surpassed the human experience. I think that the handout called Transcendentalism, which explains Transcendentalism and the dissimilarities between Thoreau and Walden, is very helpful because it went into depth about each individual and the topic.

My thoughts during class were that Transcendentalism is a very interesting topic and that it is fascinating to learn about such an extraordinary subject. Before today, we had studied the Brook Farm which gave us a broader view on the topic and gave me a great introduction to what Transcendentalism really is. Transcendentalism focuses on living close to nature as this handout mentions that, "They strongly felt the need of intellectual companionship and interests (Brook Farm) and placed great emphasis on the importance of spiritual living." I think that this quote portrays the main thoughts and interests of a Transcendentalist, even though the whole subject goes into greater depth. In class, I tried to imagine being a Transcendentalist and really being one with nature. This brought the class and I to really think about how we never really see how great nature is, even though it is such a significant part of life and the whole environment, we never take the time to really appreciate it. I had never been introduced to Transcendentalism before this class and I think it is a remarkable topic that helped my learning process.

Thursday October 21, 2010

On thursday in class we reviewed our vocabulary terms for the upcoming quiz. We were placed into groups of two and given three words to define in a sentence and draw a a picture. This activity was fun and helped the class have visual representations to understand many of the words. Personally I can still remember that Kobayashi easting one hundred hot dogs is not a hyperbole. We had no homework on thursday except prepare for the vocabulary quiz on Friday.

Because we were learning these new prefixes and suffixes, i wondered to myself why we learn vocab. On the website line below it talks about the reason of why we study vocabulary and strategies to expanding our vocabulary. Things i thought that were important from this article were that vocabulary opens new doors. It talks about how without vocabulary we present ourselves as being not intelligent. I thought this would be important because it the years to come we will all most likely be taking college visits and interviews. Expanding our vocab, will be important if we want to be accepted in our first choice colleges. Also a way to learn new vocabulary is to either read, and search words you dont understand; or use the "elementary style." The author of the website says the elementary style is by using the vocab book we use. I think you are reading this post it would be useful to read this website.

http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/english-vocabulary/importance-of-strong-vocabulary.html

10/7/10

Last Thursday we talked about Transcendentalism and how nature is important to humans. We continued with the ideas from Tuesday, when we spent the day outside. We began by reading each other's journal entries about a concept of nature. All the ones I read were really well-written and discussed things like mountains and trees and talked about them in metaphorical terms. Personally, I wrote about aardvarks.

After that, the class watched video clips from a Ken Burns documentary, which discussed the influence of a few important transcendentalists on the development of the national parks system. I found John Muir's role very interesting, and I was amazed at what an influence on man could have in sparking the establishment of the park and in the preservation of the area.

10/14/10

Today in class we talked about Emerson and Thoreau. At first we got our brains going with a quick journal about a perspective piece on a picture, and we went around and shared our ideas. I liked the idea of the horse pens in a race; when you looked at it the picture seemed like it was just that. Then, we discussed Thoreau and Emerson, each of us having to research and find a quote that we felt resonated with us. I really liked the quotes because many of them talked about self reliance and independence. Both Emerson and Thoreau remind me a little of Ayn Rand. Although they were from different time periods, I think that their writings both covered the ideas of individualism, self-sufficiency, and a fierce will to be independent. This Thoreau quote that I used, "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor," reminds me of this Ayn Rand quote "The most depraved type of human being ... (is) the man without a purpose." Both quotes have a similar idea of being aware of who we are and aware of where we stand. Although we did not have a formal class discussion, I think that everyone learned a little from one another, just by seeing our quotes (we found out what really resonated with each other), and by our quick warm up in the beginning. It is always nice to see what our peers think, and I believe that today was a great example of that.

October 5, 2010

Today in English we expanded more on the idea of Transcendentalism. We learned that they believe in connecting with God through nature. We then got to experience connecting with nature and went outside and tried to write in a transcendentalist point of view. We connected nature with human nature and wrote about different objects in nature. I wrote about how a rock can connect with humans in that just like a rock we are moulded through life's experiences. The Transcendentalists are interesting to read about and the poems we have been reading are making me think.

Today in English Class, we began by discussing Transcendentalism, and how it relates to Nature, God, and the Human Soul. We then read poems by Mary Oliver. The two poems were titled The Journey and The Morning Poem. Each of these had imagery and figurative language. There were many metaphors in these poems, and Mary Oliver has many reoccurring motifs in her writing. Our homework Assignment was to write a journal consisting of Images and words which the two poems made us think about.

This class today helped us to analyze the poems which we read. We discussed the meaning and reason for each and every line. Mrs. Flournoy helped guide us through interpreting poems. This will help prepare us to interpret on our own. The homework will help us express the emotions which are evoked when we read this poetry; it will help give us our own views on the poetry. Although we have already gone through the whole poem, this new assignment will help us expand our ideas which we began in class.

Friday, October 1, 2010

For Friday, we began class quickly reviewing our notes on the American Renaissance (Romantics Period). After that, we discussed the previous night’s homework on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Reading important excerpts of the story, we shared our ideas on what the veil might symbolize, the theme of the story, Puritan beliefs playing a role in the village’s response to the veil, Hooper’s relationship with God, secret sins existing in every one person, and how one could outward express one’s inner self. We, ultimately, focused on how, throughout this story, the Romantics viewed good and evil of a person, an American Renaissance conception. Running out of time, Ms. Flournoy went over the weekend homework. She did the first example. We are supposed to fill out a chart with the “The Minister’s Black Veil.”

I really do enjoy breaking down and analyzing stories. Our discussion in class was really interesting. It made me ponder whether humans are born good or bad, discussed on Thursday’s class. It made me consider, in depth, secret sins and how people cope with their own mistakes, blaming others or self-disciplining. I think the visitors were impressed! (:

Thursday, September 30th

Today in English class we took a vocab quiz consisting of literary terms and the vocab words from sections 4.1-4.8. Once we finished the quiz, we were supposed to write a quick 5 minute journal responding to this question: Do you believe that humans are innately good, evil, or both? It was interesting to here everyone's answers. Eight people thought humans were good, seven people thought humans were both good and evil, and only one person thought humans were evil. We discussed the different reasons why we answered what we did, and everyone made a good case for their answer. The many different answers forced all of us to really think about our opinions of the human race. Later, we took notes over the time period of the American Renaissance also known as the Romantics period and the two types of groups in that time period. Dark Romanticism refers to the people who thought humans are both good and evil and Transcendentalists thought humans are good. We ended our day by beginning to read a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne called, "The Minister's Black Veil." For homework we had to finish reading the story and answer some Reading Guide questions.

I, personally, really liked our discussion in class today. The topic about humans being good or evil really pushed me to think about my opinion of the human race. I think that humans are both good and evil. I believe that God created all of us to be good, I do, but I also believe that he gave us the choice to be good. Mia Gerachis said in class that God created all of us in His image to be good and I agree, but some people don't make it to the good side. There are some people that are just naturally evil and some that are naturally good. I believe God has a plan for everyone, and He gives everyone signs and opportunities to be good, but some people just don't take them. The few that do, however, and truly carry them out are the lucky ones.

Class September 20, 2010

In class today, we talked about the strengths and challenges of the student driven learning experiment. Once we had talked about the strengths and challenges, we voiced suggestions for the project. Some of the suggestions were to make the experiment more focused and a shorter amount of time. Ms. Flournoy talked about the Early American Literature Assessment and how to go about studying for it. Also, Ms. Flournoy handed out a piece of writing by Benjamin Franklin, so we could practice skimming and finding the main ideas. We also took notes on the major Puritan beliefs. Our homework is to study for the Early American Assessment tomorrow.

I thought the discussion about the experiment was helpful in figuring out the pros and cons of the experiment and how to better the experiment. The notes we took on Puritans during class helped me understand the major beliefs of the Puritan people. I thought the handout served as a good preparation for the assessment tomorrow.

3rd Period English on September 14th

Hey Guys!

Today was day three of "The Experiment". As you all know, we have broken into groups to research the broad topic of "Early American Literature." We have been given very few instructions and are allowed to use the internet freely. Ms. Flournoy strongly encourages us to talk amongst ourselves and with other groups. Borrowing ideas from other groups is totally legal as well. In class today, Ms. Flournoy clarified that we should focus on literature before the 1800s. She also reminded us that each group will be allowed to ask her two questions on Tuesday and that all work for this project is due on Friday. Some of you might be wondering what exactly what type of "work" is Ms. Flournoy looking for. As much as I wish I could answer that for you, I can't. However, I do remember her suggesting to us to think about how you learn best and use that to help arrange what you've learned while researching with your group.

My group, consisting of Taylor Dickey, Kate Chernosky, and myself, has decided to make an iMovie to present as our work on Friday. So, after researching different people and subjects last night at home, we came together during class today and started filming. We have decided to take "Early American Literature" and break it down into three phases. In each phase, we have a general overview of the themes of writing at that time as well as "interviews" with various authors and poets. Some of these include Anne Bradford, Thomas Paine, and even Captain John Smith. While my group worked hard, we definitely had a good time filming because some of us got really into character. I think this will help us remember what we have learned because we can connect the facts back to the funny interviews we conducted with our friends. Although I have enjoyed parts of this project, there are a few aspects that make me uneasy. First of all, I am the kind of person that likes knowing what I am working towards. Not knowing exactly what is expected of me is difficult, and is a little stressful. But, I have found this experiment interesting and different- and I actually have learned things from randomly surfing the internet! One thing that has really helped me has been talking with Taylor and Kate. We shared one computer, forcing us to work together. Although we sometimes got off on random tangents, we generally collaborated and came up with some interesting ideas!

Thursday, September 9

Thursday, our rough drafts were due in class. We needed to have them printed and completely written in order to edit in class. Instead of exchanging in class, we did a self- edit of our papers. We were given a form with different editing questions which we filled out while editing our paper. We were able to ask Ms. Flournoy questions about our thesis's, papers, etc, and get feedback. The homework for the night was to finish editing your rough draft and polish to turn in as the final draft on Friday. It needed to be printed for class on Friday.
I think it would have also been helpful if we did a group/ peer edit so we could have gotten another opinion and been able to strengthen our papers more. I think it also would've been effective if we had more of a group discussion and maybe another draft due. But the students should have asked themselves, is my paper edited completely? Are there any details or information did I miss? Did I completely explain my thesis in all my paragraphs? Such questions would have helped the students completely revise and look at their papers, for a cleaner, polished, final draft.

Thursday, September 2

On Thursday, we started of the class by showing Ms. Flournoy what we had brainstormed for our upcoming essay on the two novels we read over the summer. She came around and checked our ideas and our thesis statements. The thesis statements needed to be concise and specific to a point of view or argument that we needed to have formed. We then worked on our papers and asked any questions we had regarding our writing.

This class helped me to better understand the way an english thesis needs to be written. It also helped me to compare my ideas with the people sitting next to me to make sure I was on the right track. The essay we are writing is over The Lords of Discipline and Of Mice and Men. It is to compare and contrast the systems relationships they have. Throughout the essay we are asked to consider the farming system and hazing system and what they contribute to the novels. This class and essay have given me a better understanding of the novels and time to begin to flesh out all of my ideas for the paper.

Class Tuesday, August 31, 2010

On Tuesday in class we started out by passing around our one-page compositions about relationships in Of Mice and Men, and then we passed those in to the teacher. Then we brought up the topic of our big essay over Of Mice and Men and Lords of Discipline. We then split into groups of 3 and sketched some pictures of what key systems affected the relationships in each book. It was a really helpful exercise because it got the whole class brainstorming about possible ideas of systems to include in our essays. Finally, we took some quick notes on the formatting of our essays and made sure we all knew what each body paragraph consists of, how to integrate quotes, etc.

I got a lot of things out of these discussions in class. I really figured out how the systems in both books affect the relationships of each character-for example, in Of Mice and Men, the workers are the ones who really hold up the ranch and all that is produced there, but they get hardly anything from working so hard. Also, in Lords of Discipline, there might be more plebes than there are cadre members, but the cadre members and all the upperclassmen/veterans seem to have much more power because of the way they are banded together. The plebes, although a large group, have not come together in a true fellowship yet, so this makes them weaker. I got a lot of interesting ideas for my paper, and this activity really broadened my view of the intricate systems in both books. I thought the activity was very effective.

Monday, August 30 Class

In class on Monday we discussed Of Mice and Men. We each prepared a journal acting as a different character from the book in order to play hot seat. We also prepared questions to ask the people sitting in the hot seat. Two people were assigned to each character, but only one person per character shared their journal to the class in the hot seat. After, the people that did not sit in the hot seat paired themselves with a person that sat in the hot seat. They chose a person based on the relationships in the book. The homework assignment for Monday was to write a composition discussing two relationships exploring the question of whether or not Of Mice and Men is a world where true friendship can only exist through or because of cruel acts.

I enjoyed the discussion from class yesterday because I was able to hear new perspectives about topics I had somewhat explored. I was in the hot seat as Carlson so I talked about the incident of killing Candy's old dog. Then, I talked to the person acting as Candy about his dog and our relationship in the book. I liked hearing about both sides of certain relationships during hot seat. After playing hot seat, I had formed opinions about whose ideas in each relationship were most valid. I also began to empathize for certain characters more than others after hearing others' journals. Overall, the discussion allowed me to consider new ideas and form new opinions.