Reading Times

Girl With a Pearl Earring: 10/17- 120 minutes, 53 pages, 10/21- 30 minutes, 23 pages
Total: 150 minutes, 76 pages

Short Story Literary Element: Theme in Harrison Beregeron

       I have noticed that most of the short stories we have read so far have ended in death.  Some slow and painful, others abrupt.  The second description of death is what happens in "Harrison Bergeron".  The Handicapper General cannot seem to make Harrison keep his handicaps on, those which are supposed to make him "equal".  But Harrison takes control of the room, taking off the handicaps of the ballernina, lifting her into the air, and of the musicians, forcing them to play music.  Harisson, the "emperor," and the ballerina, his "emperess," are almost touching the ceiling kissing.  After hagling from the Handicapper General, Harrison refuses to come down, and is then shot with a double-barreled ten-guage shot gun.  It seems that the only way the general can make harrison equal is to kill him, because the handicaps just don't work on him.
       But let's rewind a bit.  While reading this story, many questions are raised whose answers help to proclaim the theme of this short story.  Why must everything be equal in the first place?  This story is set in the future in a distopia society.  Society seems to think that everybody must be equal and fair.  The story begins with the words, "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.  But are they really equal?  To the reader, things certainly do not seem equal.  If you are smart, you have to wear a device that makes loud sounds that disrupt your thoughts, and if you're strong and athletic, you are required by law to wear a canvas handicap bag with birdshot in it.  The average people don't have anything to help them be smarter or more athletic, only the exceptional are punnished. 
       When George considers taking his handicaps off, he says to Hazel, "If I tried to get away with it, then other people'd get awy with it- and pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else.  You wouldn't like that, would you?"  She replies, "I'd hate it."  This society thinks that by having the handicaps, everyone is equal.  But they're really not.  The bags are only making the strong stronger, and the government transmitters are making the smart even dumber than the average.  In reality, nothing can ever be perfectly equal.  And by trying to make things equal, we are taking away the joy in life.  People with gifts and talents should be able to share those with others without jealousy, and also use their gifts and talents to help those that struggle.  That is a better way to try to make things "equal".

Reading:

Short Stories- 36 pages, 120 minutes
The Girl With a Pearl Earring- 21 pages, 30 minutes

First Quarter Evaluation

       Man, has the first quarter gone by quickly!  I remember all of the high schoolers telling us that high school goes by quickly, but I didn't think the very beginning would!  So far, Engish class has been really good.  I forgot my materials a couple of times at first, but now, I'm pretty consistent about bringing my belongings to class.  I have never packed up early in class because we are always busy!  I feel like I am doing well at taking notes when Dr. D lectures and I contribute appropriatley to class discussions.  This year, I am participating more in class.  I think that is due to the fact that I find our discussions more interesting than those that we had last year.  I really  like the group work that we have done so far, and I believe that the groups that I have been in have worked well together, and we stayed on task most of the time.  The only thing that I think I need to work on in the second quarter is not falling asleep in class.  I know that I always do on Fridays since I have swim practice in the morning.  I find myself falling asleep other times too, and I should probably take note of what time of the day it is that we have class, so I can see when I am the sleepiest. 
       My goal for the second quarter is to not fall alseep in class.  I know that when I find myself falling asleep, and I start to answer more questions, it helps to wake me up, so maybe I will try to participate even more in class.  Also, I am becoming more confident in my writing, and I want to do even better on our next few assignments.  I know we have learned a lot, and I want to put my knowledge to good use!  I really enjoy blogging, and I hope we have more interesting posts to come.

Reading Times

Short Stories- 75 minutes- 13 pages

The Girl With a Pearl Earring- 75 minutes- 42 pages

Total: 150 minutes, 55 pages

Reading Plot: Split

       Over the summer, I read Split for one of my summer reading books.  It was one of my favorite books, and defanitley the best book I read this summer.  I think that the reason I liked it so much was because most of the book was the rising action, and you were just waiting and waiting for the climax.  It seemed like it would never come, and in some books, it could get boring, but the author gave you just enough hints to keep you interested.
       In the beginning of the book, the author explains that Jace lives with his abusive father and his mom in Chicago, and his older brother Christian lives in Albuquerque   One of the events in the rising action is when Jace leaves to go live with his brother.  Another is all of the emails and calls that Jace and his mom secretly have to try to plan to get her out of the house.  Jace also has a girlfriend in Albuquerque while also dealing with legal issues because he hit his former girlfriend in Chicago.  The climax is when Jace and Christian drive 19 hours to Chicago to get their mom, but she won't leave because she is too scared.  The falling action is when the two brothers drive home together and talk about what they are feeling. When they get home, the two brothers try to make the best of their lives even though their mom isn't with them.

The Girl With a Pearl Earring:
9/24- 10 minutes
9/25- 25 minutes
9/26- 20 minutes
9/27- 10 minutes
9/28- 40 minutes
Total- 105 minutes- 76 pages

"To Build a Fire"- 45 minutes- 17 pages

Writing Poem

I am going to write a haiku about my present writing.  I don't really make plans for my writing- especially my blog posts, I kind of just let it flow.  I really enjoy writing blogs because all I have to do is write down my feelings what I'm thinking about at the time.  So here it is!


I let my thoughts flow.

Think about what I'm writing.

Writing what I think.

Litteracy Narrative Process

       When I wrote my first draft of my litteracy narrative, I looked at it and thought, "This is awful."  I was really unhappy with it, so I asked my mom to read over it and give me a few quick suggestions.  I changed a few things, and I was making some progress, but it was late so I went to bed.  Then next day, I read my sister's litteracy narrative, and at first it made me feel even worse about mine, but then I used hers as an example to make mine better.  I kept working at it, changing this and that, until I was satisfied.  The next day we got into our narrative groups, mine composed of me, Matthew, and Mary Beth.  Mary Beth read hers first, and it was really good.  We gave her some good feedback, and then I read mine.  I was a little hesitant to read it because compared to Mary Beth's, I didn't think mine was so good.  But when I read my litteracy narrative, I realized that it was acutally good in it's own way! 
       I have been working hard to use all of the suggestions that Mary Beth and Matthew gave me, and hopefully I will turn out victorious over this assignment.  I am going to work some more on developing the strong, emphatic turning points in my essay, so that they are even more dramatic.  I want to get across to the reader that once these turning points happened, things changed, and my life was better.  I think that I should be more confident in my writing because I know that when I really did down deep, I am acutally a decent writer. 

Reading:

Girl With a Pearl Earring: 9/23/12- 45 minutes
Litteracy Narrative- 1 hour, 45 Minutes

Total- 150 minutes