Reflection of Our Year in ELA

Dear 811 and Ms.Galang,
          I want to start off this letter by saying thank you. I didn't know what to expect walking into Ms.Galang's classroom for the first time, accompanied by my brand new homeroom, but as the year has past I am now confident that every time I walk into that classroom I will not fail to enjoy myself. To me, having the reassurance that everyday will be a good one when I walk into school is just so amazing and I know that I owe that all to my class and of course to Ms.Galang. This year in ELA has really enlightened me on so many topics, from children books to shakespeare, and I'm so thankful for everything that I have learned.
          One unit that I really enjoyed was the poetry unit. I have never really enjoyed poetry and have always had trouble writing it until now. When we learned about all of the different poem structures I was truly shocked due to the fact that my whole life I had only been writing free verse poems that had a rhyme at the end of every sentence. After gaining information on multiple types of poems, rhyme schemes, rhythm, and literary devices I decided to try poetry again, with an open mind. Soon, everything from nature to the food I ate at lunch became an inspiration and a new idea for a poem and I felt free to express myself in the simplest of terms, like through a haiku, or through the complicated yet beautiful sonnet. Then, deep into our poetry unit, I was informed that I was to read my poem at City College with two of my other friends in the class. I was pleasantly surprised by that news considering I had never gotten to do anything like that before. I felt like everything that I had learned in class was helping me accomplish things I never thought I would.
          Another unit I had fun doing was book clubs. I don't think I had ever done something so creative for a bookclub until Ella, Jane, Olivia and I decided to write a song about our book. Doing that not only helped us understand our book better, it also helped us have a positive outlook on school work and made the project enjoyable for all of us. Having this bookclub together was a great way to share our ideas, questions and assessments of the book and I can honestly say I looked forward to every book club meeting that we had.
          Reminiscing on this whole year and writing this letter has been harder than I thought because it's hard to find the right words to express how thankful I am for this class and the whole year we've had together. I feel so lucky to have been placed with such a smart, talented, kind and overall amazing group of students and I will never forget the bonds we have made as a class. I wish you all the best of luck in high school and I know that you all will exceed any standards set for you in high school and beyond. Thanks for a great year, I'll miss you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) <3

Performance Reflection

          For the Shakespeare performance project, i was Lady Capulet in act four scene five. Lady Capulet played a mostly minor role in the story until the climax of the story when Tybalt died and Juliet was rushed into marriage. Act four scene five portrayed Nurse and the Capulets finding out about Juliet's presumably real death and their reactions to it. While acting out this scene i really wanted to express the loss and shock that Lady Capulet felt after hearing the news about her daughter's death. I also wanted to express her drastic change of emotions from the beginning of the scene to the end. In the beginning of the scene, Lady Capulet felt anxious about the wedding and just wanted to get it over with because she knew how unhappy Juliet was, however she went from anxious to very distressed and hurt when she discovers Juliet.
          I felt that my group's final performance went pretty well and that we made good use of props and were confident in our lines. However, there were a few things we could have improved on. For example, I feel that if we had practiced feeding off of each other's emotions while we rehearsed, the scene would have been more intense in our final performance. Overall I am proud of my group and I believe that our annotating and analyzing of our script helped us improve our understanding of the scene greatly.
          Through this unit of Romeo and Juliet, I have learned many things. However, the greatest skill I developed while doing this lesson was connecting the story to real life to develop a deeper understanding of the book. Getting the chance to act out our scene really made the book come to life. As i was memorizing my lines and annotating them, I found myself truly understanding all of the characters and their emotions in the scene in addition to the character I was acting out. Also, I learned to channel emotions that I was experiencing in my everyday life into my performance. For example, Iwas able to channel my anxiety about the regent exam into the anxiety that Lady Capulet was feeling on Juliet's wedding day. I can use these skills in high school english class next time we are assigned a book to read and have to take specific notes on characters and their emotions because I now feel confident in my ability to analyze characters.

Summer Reading List

Although I haven't recieved a summer reading list from my highschool yet, these are a few of the books that I have been interesting in reading or that have been recommended to me. 

- Little Women 

- Paper Towns 

- The Mysterious Benedict Society Series

- The Girl on the Train 

- The Book Theif 

Lady Capulet POV Poe

Never have I thought this day would come

Death shalt have fallen upon me before young Juliet

Why has God lain upon me this glum

Her life coming to a close like sunset 

Just before her wedding day, this family has been cursed

Her heart has frozen like flowers in winter's frost

This terrible news has caused our happiness to be dispersed 

This sudden tragedy has caused many opportunities to be lost 

I will cease to forget your radiance and beauty

And wish I had understood all of your pain

Being a mother wasn't always my greatest duty

But I regret that now, hence your life has had much bane

My dear Juliet will soon be sent to lay with our elders forever 

And though she now lays still and silent, every memory of her we will treasure 

Reading Response 

               As you begin to reach your teen years and you receive more responsibilities, having control over your life and the decisions you make is very important. The main character of the novel Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a very good portrayal of someone who is beginning to lose control over her own life. After visiting her Dad in Albuquerque, Kristina starts to come into counter with things that she has never had to deal with before and from there struggles to obtain the power in her own life. 

              One example of something that has power over Kristina is drugs. During her visit with her Dad, Kristina falls for a boy that gets her into drugs, and from there, she can't stop. In the text, Kristina states, "Contentment turned into repetition. But now nothing felt right, seemed proper, but getting away, getting crazy, getting high." This quote shows how drugs have changed Kristina's values and how every drugs she takes only leads her to wanting more. Another example from the text is that after finding her Mom's new credit card, Kristina states, "I did think twice about using that Visa...but it was so easy, like fate had directly mailed it to me...Roberto (a drug dealer) wouldn't deal less than half-ounce quantities. That much was relatively cheap. And visa payed for it all.' This quote shows me how Kristina's drug abuse has even brought her to stealing her mother credit card because the need for drugs was so urgent. 

               Another example of something that controls Kristina is Bree. Bree is an alternative persona that Kristina has created for herself. Bree is the risk taker, the brave, the fearless girl who isn't afraid to make a move when Kristina can't. For example, "It seems to Kristina, you gotta be crazy. To open your windows, invite in the demons, call Bree." Kristina also states, "Kristina crumbled. I called for Bree." These two quotes show that when Kristina is in times of trouble, or needs to get wild and risky, Bree is called into the picture to do things that Kristina wouldn't normally be capable of. From there, Bree is in control and makes her own decisions for Kristina's life. 

               My last example something that has power of Kristina's life is boys. After Kristina visits her Dad and meets a boy, she begins to take on a few more of her own boys at home, but sometimes she lets them get the better of her. For example, "My shirt tore open 'Wait.' (Kristina said) 'I've waited for weeks, so put up and shut up!' (Brendan said) Kisses segued to bites. Bruises. Pain rippled through my body. 'Brendan, please stop!' (Kristina said) 'No, you promised! You damn little tease!' (Brendan said)" This quote showed that on only the second date between Kristina and Brendan, Brendan is taking control of Kristina's life and trying to take something very valuable away from her, but she doesn't have the power to stop it from happening. 

              As you can see from Kristina's own experiences, there are many things that one can run into while growing up that can start to take control of them unwillingly. This book has taught that to keep this from happening, you should always surround yourself with a good group of people who will influence you in a positive way and not make you give into peer pressure or other activities that make you uncomfortable. 

Authors Note

               Bullying is an unavoidable aspect of growing up, whether you're the one being bullied, you are witnessing someone being bullied or you're the bully yourself. Kids are being bullied, picked on or excluded in or even out of school, even for some things that they can't help, for example, how they look, dress or act. Although bullying is a major issue, there are also major solutions that are coming into play. IN schools, kids are now being taught how to deal with being a witness or victim of bullying through assemblies or books/pamphlets or even simple talks with their teachers or guidance counselors, learning how to make a change in their everyday environment. 

               In school I have been both the witness and victim of bullying and both have proven very difficult to cope with. It is sometimes very hard to face your fears and speak up for yourself or what you think is right because you don't want to cause more troubles, so it can be easier to just back down. People often resort to that too, choosing to be a shadow instead of speaking up, however kids need to find a way to feel comfortable in school and find their voice by doing anything by taking to a trusted adult or watching videos online about how to cope with bullying. 

               My hope for kids who read this book is that it will show them that there is always someone willing to help and that you don't need to spend your days unhappy because of people putting you down. The flaws that people pick on you for are the ones that you should learn to embrace, and that you shouldn't let people put you down for things that you can't change. I want to show that there is a solution to any problem your having, you just need to out in a little effort to find it. 

The Maze Runner

by: James Dashner

Question: Who has the power in the text?

Thesis: In this book I feel that there is a hierarchy within the glade because there are different groups of people who have control over the glade and its people, each group more powerful than the last.

Keepers- In the glade, keeping order is the number one rule. Part of everyone keeping order includes each glader having a job in the glade, so therefore there are people called 'Keepers' who have control over each  area of the glade. For example, during Thomas's trial, Minho stands up and makes a scene by saying, "I nominate Thomas to be keeper of the runners." Even though this is a crazy request, It is acceptable that Minho suggests it because he is in total control of the runners and can do things like that even if they are crazy. This shows that keepers can get away with a great amount of stuff because they have control over a whole area of the glade.

The council- In the glade, there is also a council which is made up of every keeper and also Newt and Alby who are very powerful and seniors members of the glade. The council is more powerful than an individual keeper because as a group, they decide things like punishment for the gladers. For example, after Thomas had broken many rules but had also saved lives, he was put on trial by the council to decide his fate. Even though many gladers wanted Thomas to be rewarded for his duty, the council overrun what every glader wanted and ended up putting him in jail for a day as punishment because a few council members were suspicious of his actions. This showed how even though the majority of the gladers wanted Thomas to be rewarded for his actions, he ended up being punished because the councils vote means more than anyone else's.

The Creators- Even thought the creators don't live in the glade, they seem to hold the most power of what is happening within the glade. Theyre behind everything in the glade, from what happens in the maze, who is sent up into the glade each month and what every last griever is doing. For example, at the end of the book, when one of the creators comes with Gally into the glade, she vaguely talks about how putting everyone into the maze was an elaborate plan the whole Time, "'Everything has gone according to plan Mr.Newton...One day you'll all be grateful for what we've done for you'" the creator States in reference in putting the kids into the maze. These lines showed that all along every creator had full control and power of what was going on in the maze because the maze itself was part of an experiment and the gladers were just lab rats.