Leanna's Final Blog!

This year has been a big eye opener for me when it comes to the world of English. I started the year not knowing how to post a blog or even what a blog is, but now I have my own account and have successfully posted about thirty different blogs!
We started the year off by reading To Kill a Mockingbird, Poetry Out loud, and Animal Farm. I really enjoyed reading To Kill A Mockingbird, in fact it is my favorite out of all the books we read this year. In our first few blogs we wrote about a "Boo Radley" in our lives and about the theme of the book. I wrote about my grandpa and how he is always looking out for my throughout my life. Also, the first post about theme helped bring me to see that there are more than just words written in books, there are hidden meanings behind them that you have think about to understand. Before this year I had never given a second thought about symbols, theme's and motifs. Poetry Out Loud stands out as one of my low points this year in English class. I memorized my poem but when I went up to say it to the class I completely blanked. I was mortified because I had thought I had been so prepared, but I obviously wasn't. A quote that  reflects this certain event and all of my blog is "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall" which was quoted by Confucious. Even When I forgot to turn a blog in or was late, I still continued to try! In the blogs I posted before the date of our presentations I wrote about how excited I was, and how I could really connect with the poem. Little did I know that I was on a horrible path! I liked Animal Farm, but for some reason it didn't stick in my mind as well as To Kill a Mockingbird did. In my creative project I created a comic strip making visual ties to the book and the Russian Revolution.

In the middle of the year we read the book Great Expectations, which we spent three months on! I really liked this book, and reading over my blogs reminds me about how much thought I put into my projects while reading it. I remember reading about all of the new characters that enter the book through the different stages and discovering what each of them brings to the story. We also posted blogs about Great Expectations connecting with other things like movies. I chose the movie Shrek because both Pip and Shrek go through great character changes in their life as a result of meeting another character

We wrapped up the year blogging about Romeo and Juliet and learning more about Poetry. I posted about my connections to the characters and their experiences in the play and how Shakespeare has made such a huge impact on the modern world by writing it. Conflict is what keeps the play so exciting and interesting, and I blogged about that too! Poetry was our final unit of the year, and I posted about my experiences with it so far, and as you have already read they hadn't been so great up to that point! After learning about it more though, I have come to enjoy it. This was a great year for me, thanks for being such a great teacher!

Sorry, this is a day late... :(

Great Expectations Essay

I've spent the last five minutes thinking back to all of the different projects you have assigned to us over the past school year,  and the one I felt best about was the Great Expectations essay. Though I didn't exactly enjoy it, the hard work and effort I put into writing the essay definitely makes it stick out the most overall. My grade was a representation of all my work because I received 195 out of 200 points on the assignment!
The task was to chose

I chose my essay topic as how Pips growth as a man was because of his discovery of the importance of possessions versus love. I proved that while Pip was changing into a more caring person, he was also learning that possessions would not please him compared to the happiness he would feel from his loved ones. I spent a really long time writing and perfecting his essay, and I'm glad I did because the assignment taught me a lot!

My Experience With Poetry

I've been writing and learning how to write poetry every year sense my first going to school. From Shel Silverstein to Robert Frost I've heard all kinds of poems on all different skill levels. One positive experience I've had with poetry was in 4th grade when my teacher had us have a poetry reading party. I read Spaghetti by Shel Silverstein. 

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows—up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I’m terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they’re all buried).

I told them, “Bring presents.” I said, “Throw confetti.”

I guess they heard wrong

‘Cause they all threw spaghetti!

I think I chose this poem because at the time my favorite food in the world was spaghetti. At the party each student chose a poem out of a book to memorize and recite to the class. I remember being so nervous, but after I had said mine perfectly I was overjoyed. 

This was a really good introduction of poetry to me because I learned that poetry can be serious from other students but also that it can be really silly. After I memorized my poem I remember wanting to read more because I liked it so much, so I checked out Shel Silverstein's whole book of poetry so that I could read them all!

When I hear the word poetry I think of fun and easy. Unfortunately my experience with Poetry Out Loud put a damper on my love for it, but hopefully I will be able to get over it. I'm really excited to begin studying poetry in the next few weeks of English!

Uh Oh Conflict...

Throughout Romeo and Juliet there have been many examples of conflicts but one of the most influential is the conflict between Romeo and Juliet after Romeo kills Tybalt. A while after Romeo kills Tybalt he exclaims, 'O, I am fortune's fool!" He realizes that killing Tybalt could have huge consequences on his relationship with Juliet. Because Juliet is loyal to both her family and to Romeo she is faced with the difficult choice of choosing which side to support. This conflict develops one of the central themes of the play, forbidden love, because the death of Tybalt puts Romeo and an even farther distance from Juliet, making it even harder for them to be together.

The conflict of having to chose between those that we love and those in our family occurs a lot in life, even today. Even if it isn't choosing between my family and someone I am deeply in love with, I still have to make the choice between family and boyfriends or even good friends. The significance of this conflict is that we have to make a huge decision between that can cause trust or relationships issues, so we need to be cautious about our  decisions. It brings meaning to my life because without it I would never think about the importance of my family or my loved ones in the same way. In general, the people that I surround myself with deal with conflict well. You need to know when to forgive and forget, but also when enough is enough.

Romeo and Juliet is everywhere!

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there on a balcony in summer air
See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say hello, little did I know 

That you were Romeo
You were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don't go 

And I said
Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all that's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say
yes 

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew
So close your eyes, lets keep this down for a little while
Oh, oh, 

'Cause you were Romeo,
I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don't go 

And I said
Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all that's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby, just say yes 

Romeo, save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story,baby, just say yes 

Oh oh

I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town 

And I said
Romeo save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said 

Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby, just say yes 

Oh, oh, oh, oh 

'Cause we were both young when I first saw you 

Love Story by Taylor Swift is a perfect example of how the classic story of Romeo and Juliet is still displayed in modern culture. This scenario is not only found in songs however, but in many peoples lives!

Connecting With Romeo and Juliet

I am really beginning to enjoy Romeo and Juliet! In the fifth scene of the book, Juliet meets Romeo, falling in love with him. She soon discovers that he is a Montague, the natural enemies of her family. If she pursues her love towards him she knows that they will both get hurt. I can relate to this because in seventh grade I had a boyfriend that my dad didn't approve of. Even though my dad didn't like him, I spent time with him anyway and it only got me into more and more trouble! Juliet and I both liked someone who we knew we weren't supposed to be with.
I am enjoying reading this book because it's a much lighter read than Great Expectations! I can understand the overall message of each of the scene's but sometime's I need a little help with the comprehension of the individual lines. I am using the notes on the sides of the pages to help along the way. The reading in class is also helping a lot because if I don't get something the first time I read it, reading it again helps me a lot!

Wrapping Up Great Expectations

I believe that the overall message in the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is that money should never be thought of as more important than love because it will always result in less happiness. The story is really about  the lesson of this theme, that everyone learns throughout their life. Those who were born this year, or a million years ago, all had to learn this lesson because all through time there has been the conflict of having love versus money. Everyone learns, whether they learn it the easy way or the hard way, that love is much more important. Those who chose money over love will always end up unhappy.