dear classmates

Dear Classmates:
                             I can't belive it's already the end of the school year and we are going to be sophmores! I think this year in English 1 is very interesting and helpful. At first it's very hard for me because of the language, but I have improved my english a lot with all the writing and reading we did. Our class had some trouble at the begining of the school year. But things got better after we got used to high school life and Dr.D's class.
                             I enjoy our class because we discuss topics together instead of just listening to Dr.D. When we ask questions some of our classmates will answer them. I think reading Macbeth is the most interesting part of the year because we got to act it out. It made me undersand the book more. I wish the next year will be the same!

Participation Evaluation

                   For this quarter,  I'm usually prepared for class except I forgot my outside reading book once. I always wait to be dismissed and use time between classes for bathroom. I also check email and website everyday and use appropriate email communication. I always turn in assignments at the beginning of class.
                  I always listen to Dr. D and take notes. But I didn't contribut many comments and ask many questions. I listen to peers’ questions and comments and doesn't engage in side conversations. I also focus on task in class and actually do the work. I doesn't distract others and doesn't engage in conversations that are not relevant to task. I think I'm not really helpful in group works and I need to work on this next school year. Compare to the rest of the year, I think I got more involved in the class instead of just take notes and listen. I want to get more involve in class next school year and work in give my classmates good suggestions in group works.

                 

outside reading over this blog

                I've changed a lot as a reader over this year. I was surprised at how many books I have read this year, I have never read so many books before. My reading skills have improved a lot. I have read different kinds of books such as mystery, adventure, science-fiction and so on. I have difficulty reading books like Macbeth.
                I used outside reading to think about how to annotate well. I will look at plot, characterization, theme and so on. Next school year, I need to choose more challenge books in order to improve my reading skills more.
 Nation: P165-P297, 159min

lady macbeth

               If I read the book in the perspective of Lady Macbeth, I think I will change how I think about Lady Macbeth. When we first met Lady Macbeth, I think she's a horrible person because she's violent. Lady Macbeth think that murdering someone is not a big deal and doesn't feel sorry about it. When Macbeth said he doesn't want to kill the king, she became angry.
               If I think in the perspective of Lady Macbeth, I maybe will understand her. She want to kill the king only because she wants her husband to be the king. She felt guilty before Macbeth killed the king but she forced herself to calm down because she needs to calm her husband calm down too. I think Lady Macbeth is a good wife.

writng response

                   My writings this year didn’t get a good grade. According to all the feedback I received on my writing, I always make mistakes on common errors such as comma splice, fragment, and run-on sentence and so on. There are 2 run-on sentences, 2 fragments, 1 comma splice in my literacy narrative essay, 1 comma splice in my profile essay and literary analysis essay. In my literacy analysis essay, I have weak paragraph transition and didn’t show how each paragraph connect to my thesis. I was weak on using quotations and didn’t explain the quotations well in literary analysis essay and research paper. In the WrAP test, I was weak in sentence structure and supporting my thesis.

                   Our first essay as a class was the literacy narrative essay. I have never such a long English essay before and I have no idea what a literacy narrative essay was. It turned out that I didn’t do a good job on the essay, I made a lot of grammar mistakes and my opening is not attractive to the readers. I also made some grammar mistakes on the next essay, but my grammar mistakes decreased as I write more essays.

                   Based on the feedbacks, I knew that I had made a lot of common errors on my writing, but the errors I make decreased as I write more essays. I also knew that I was weak on using quotations and transiting paragraphs. My sentence structure also need more work.

                   Since the beginning of the year, my essays have improved in common errors, organization, word choice, and ideas, but I still need to work on interpreting rhetorical situations, using and explaining quotations, word choice, and transiting paragraphs.

                   I think the feedback I received on my writing this year match my understanding of my writing work because I noticed that I’m weak at grammars and made a lot of grammar mistakes, I was also weak in using quotations. The way I evaluate my writing has changed over the course of the year. At first I just think about how I can write enough to reach the minimum, but as I begin to write more essays, I begin to think about how to improve my writing and fix the mistakes I made.

                   After reading all the feedbacks I have received this year, I now know what I should focus on and improve next year. Next year I will work much harder and spent more time on my writing. My goal is to work on how to use quotations and how to transit paragraphs. I need to work on revising my rough draft too. I believe that my writing will be much better if I work more on my weakness and keep up with my strengths.

common error list

1. run-on sentence: In my fifh grade, a new teacher came to teach us English, her name is Mrs. Zhang.
2. fragment: Since you are interested in reading, what about we work together and write a story?
3. wrong preposition: She helped me and built my confidence on writing.
4. comma splice: Our classmates often asked Lucy to draw something for them, sometimes it's a cartoon character, sometimes it's a place.
5. dangling midifier: By having the snake goddess as a character in the story, it made the story more interesting and more attractive to the readers.
6. long quotations: Research paper

outside reading time 4/15-4/22

4/21 150 min Nation P75-p164

outside reading 4/4-4/15

This week, I started a new outside reading book is “Nation”, since I didn’t read it during the summer, I’m reading it now. The two main characters in this book are called Mau and Daphne. Mau is a boy who has just returned from an island to turn himself into a man, he find that everyone he knows has died because of the “Big Wave”. Daphne is a daughter of an aristocrat in line to the throne. Both their lives have been affected by the 'Big Wave', and they must try to survive in, and rebuild the nation.

I think this book is very interesting so far. I think the description of the “Big Wave” is very vivid. I really want to know what will happen to the characters as the story goes on. I also spend 50 minutes of my outside reading time annotating the four poems.

4/13: 50 minutes, poems

4/12-4/25: 100 minutes, P1-P74, Nation

"Everything Must Belong Somewhere" by Bright Eyes

Leave the bright blue door on the white-washed wall
Leave the death ledger under city hall
Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today

Just leave the lilac print on the linen sheet
Leave the birds you killed at your father's feet
Let the sideways rain in the crooked street remain

Leave the whimpering dog in his cold kennel
Leave the dead starlet on her pedestal
Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today

Leave the sad guitar in its hard-shell case
Leave the worried look on your lover's face
Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain

Cause everything it must belong somewhere
Oh a train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here

Leave the ocean's roar in the turquoise shell
Leave the widower in his private hell
Leave the liberty in that broken bell today

Just leave the epic poem on its yellowed page
Leave the gray macaw in his covered cage
Let the traveling band on the interstate remain

Cause everything it must belong somewhere
Sound-stage in California, televisions in Times Square, yeah
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here
Well I know that now that's why I'm staying here

Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed
Leave the garden tools in the rusted shed
Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today

Just leave the restless ghost in his old hotel
Leave the homeless man out in that cardboard cell
Let the painted horse on the carousel remain

Cause everything it must belong somewhere
Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair
Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that's why I'm staying here
Oh, I know that now, that's why I'm staying here

In truth, the forest hears each sound
Each blade of grass as it lies down
The world requires no audience
no witnesses, no witnesses

Leave the old town drunk on his wooden stool
Leave the autumn leaves in their swimming pool
Leave the poor black child in his crumbling school today

Leave the novelist in his daydream tomb
Leave the scientist in her rubic's cube
Let the true genius in the padded room remain

Leave the horse's hair on the slanted bow
Leave the slot machines on the riverboat
Leave the cauliflower in the casserole today

Just leave the hot, bright trash in the shopping malls
Leave the hawks of war in their capitals
Let the organ's moan in the cathedral remain

Cause everything it must belong somewhere
They locked the devil in the basement, threw God up into the air.
Yeah, everything must belong somewhere
You know it's true, I wish you'd leave me here
You know it's true, why don't you leave me here?

I chose to analyze the song named "Everything Must Belong Somewhere" by Bright Eyes. In this song I found a pattern of “leave the…” and “let the…”. There is one “let the…” after each five “leave the…”. Most of the song rhymes, such as “wall” and “hall”, “kennel” and “pedestal”, “case” and “face”, “somewhere” and “stairs”, “somewhere” and “here”, “shell” and “hell”, “page” and “cage”, “somewhere” and “Times Square”, “bed” and “shed”, “hotel” and “cell”, “sound” and “down”, “audience” and “witnesses”, “stool” and “pool”, “tomb” and “cube”, “bow” and “river boat”.

In this song, “everything must belong somewhere” is repeated eight times, “I know that now, that's why I'm staying here” is repeated sixteen times. Almost all the format of the lyrics in this song is “leave the…in…”. It shows that the singer wants to say that everything must belong somewhere so just leave it there. At the end of the song, the singer sings “You know it's true, I wish you'd leave me here
You know it's true, why don't you leave me here?”, the singer wants to say that everything must belong somewhere and so does I but you didn’t leave here as I wished.

"Fifth Grade Autobiography" by Rita Dove

I chose to read the poem called "Fifth Grade Autobiography" by Rita Dove in the "Poems of Childhood" section of the poetry book. When I first saw the poem’s title, I thought this poem is about her experience in fifth grade and is a narrative poem. After I read the poem, I found out that I was right about the type of the poem but this poem is actually about a picture.

I found a lot of imageries used at the end of the first and second stanza. For example, “the raccoon tail flounces down the back of his sailor suit” and “sun though the trees printing her dress with soft luminous paws”. At the beginning of the third stanza, there’s a word “jealously”, it showed the author’s feeling towards her brother. There are also many enjambments in this poem. This poem seems to be a poem about the authors good memories with her family, but at the end of the poem the author says

“He smelled of lemons. He’s died—

  But I remembered his hands.” This made the poem a little sad

outside reading 3.26-4.1

This week I finished Funny Boy by Shyam Selvaduurai. The fourth story of the book is called The Best School of All. This story happens when Arjie transferred to a new school called the Victoria Academy because his father wants him to become a man. The fifth story is written in diary form which I think is well interesting.

 I think this story is a little awkward because in this story, Arjie fell in love with a boy in his class named Soyza. The author well described the conflict in Arjie’s mind after he found out he fell in love with Soyza. This week for outside reading I also read and analyzed a poem named Fifth Grade Autobiography.

3/31: 30 min

3/28: 120min, p 301-312

outside reading 3.19-3.25

                             This week I continued reading Funny Boy.  As I kept reading, I began to get a little confused about the names of the characters in this book, I had the same problem with Nervous Conditions too. But I made a list of the character’s names and it helped me a lot.

                             This book talked about race, gender, and marriage, which is similar to Nervous Conditions. Arjie’s family are Tamil and his grandmother doesn’t like Sinhalese because her father—Arjie’s great grandfather was killed by a Sinhalese.

100-200 3/24

District Literature Rally

                    Last Saturday I went to the District Literature Rally. We first meet at school at took the school bus to the Southeastern Louisiana University. We arrived at 8:40. The Southeastern Louisiana University’s Rock and Roar Fest also took place on last Saturday.
                     There were many activities such as health fair, dance camp, face-painting, pottery booth and so on. There were also a lot of food booths such as Jambalya, hot wings, curly fries, hamburger and so on. I really enjoyed the fest and had a lot of fun.

outside reading 3.12-3.18

                         Last week I started a new book named Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai. This book is also a post-colonial book just like Nervous Conditions. I chose this book because this book is a novel in six stories and I have never read a book like this before. So I think this book will be very interesting for me to read.
                         This book took place in Sri Lanka. It's about a boy who lives in a upper-middle-class family. The boy's family is a very big family, he has many cousins. When I first start reading the book, I thought the boy is a little wird because when he likes to play with his girl cousins and act as the pride when they play pride-pride. But as I kept reading ,there's more comflict and the book became more interesting and makes me want to keep reading.                 

Last week

                  Last week we started talking about the world issue research project and the Nervous Conditions project. I started thinking about both project and I had some ideas on what should I do my projects on. I started doing my project last weekend and I will keep working this week.
                  Last week was was great because Caesar came back! He came back for the robot competition. He only stay in school for one day. Last week was also fun because wednseday was pi day and we had diigits of pi reciting contest and pie-eating contest. It was really fun!

outside reading 3.5-3.11

                    This week I started a new book named The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, the same author as The bride comes to yellow sky. The story happens during the civil war. It's about a boy named Henry who dreams of the glory of battle that he has read about in school. But when he became a real soldier, he realized that the real war is not the same as what he read in the books.
                    The book talked about Henry's fear of battle and how he became more and more mature as the story goes on. I think this book is a good book. The word choice, the organization and the voice of this book is very good. The Red Badge of Courage is not onky a novel about war. It also talked about how a boy grew mature and learned during his experience of the war.

3/10 page 1-145

The last week of third quarter

                    Last week is the last week of third quarter. We finished reading Nervous Conditions and took the test on the book. I can't belive it's already fourth quarter now. Time past by so fast! There's only 10 weeks of school left and we'll have summer vacation. Freshmen year past by so quickly and I can't believe that it is almost over.
                     I hope I can do well on the last quarter and has a good grade on my final exams so that I could finish my first year of high school with a good grade. High school is so different from middle school. We need to work a lot more harder than we did in middle school but no pain no gain, I belive all the hard works will pay off.

150 minutes outside reading + NC

           
            Last week we finish Nervous Conditions. We read four chapters of Nervous Conditions this week and we are taking a test this week. The book got a lot more interesting in the last few chapters. In the last few chapters the family discussed about wether Tambu should go to college or not. At last, Tambu goes to college. At the end of the book Nyasha went to see a psychiatrist and rest in a clinic for several weeks.
            When I begin reading Nervous Conditions I don't think it's a very interesting book. But when I keep reading, the story gets more and more interesting. There are a lot of conflicts. I learned a lot about what were the life like and what were the socity like back then.

Last week

             Last week is the first week of school after we came back from Mardi Gras Break. I think last week was a busy week because we had a lot of quiz and tests last week and we needed to read 4 chapters of Nervous Conditions. I read Nervous Conditions over the weekend.
              I think this week will be busy too because this week is the end of the third quarter. We need to finish up a lot of things. We are taking  the Nervous Conditions test this week. This test will last for two days, it's the same as the short story test we took last semster. But there's only one part in the short story test and we spent two days finishing it, but there's two parts for  the Nervous Conditions test.

150 minutes outside reading

                      During Mardi Gras break I read chapters 6 and 7 of Nervous Conditions. I spend all of the 150 minutes outside reading time reading these two chapters. I think spend this much time reading these two chapters is really helpful because I read more carefully and I understand more easily. I also annotated more carefully.
                     I think in these two chapters the book get very interesting.  Babamakuru and his daughter Nyasha get into a physical fight because Babamakuru doesn't like Nyasha hanging out with the baker boy and Nyasha is not respecful to him. Tambu's view of Babamakru change because of this. There's a new character named Lucia in chapter 10. Lucia is in some very cofusing relationships with three men, even Tambu's father. The book is getting more and more interesting.

Mardi Gras Break

                   Last week was Mardi Gras break. I'm glad that our school has one week of for Mardi Gras because my cousin's school only has three days off. I think this break was very helpful because we don't need to go to school so we can use the time to review what we did during school.
                  I didn't go to any parades during Mardi Gras break but I still had fun during the break. I went to the mall on monday adn shopped all day. I was very happy because I loves shopping. On friday we went out for dinner because it's one of my uncle's friend's birthday. We had a lot of fun. I enjoyed Mardi Gras break!

reading response

                 This week I spend some of my 150 minutes outside reading time continued working on my draft of the world issue research paper.
                  I spend rest of my 150 minutes outside reading time reading chapter two, chapter three, and chapter four of Nervous Conditions. A lot of things happend in these three chapters. Tambu talked more about why she doesn't like her brother in chapter two. Nhamo died because of a disease in chapter three.In chapter four, Tambu went to the mission with her uncle to study. I know that Tambu doesn't really like her cousin--Nyasha.

This week

                  This week we hand in our rough draft of the world issue research paper. We also finished chapter two and chapter three of Nervous Conditions.
                  This week is also the last week that the six chinese exchange students stay at our school. They are going to travel around Washington D.C. and New York City. I'm a little sad that the chinese exchange students left. During their stay, We had a great time together. We went on a few field trip together and had a lot of fun.

150 minutes outside reading

              This week we started reading a new book named Nervous Conditions in my English class. I spent 30 minutes reading chapter one of this book. After I finished reading chapter one, I learned about Tambu's life and family.
              I spent the rest of the 120 minutes working on my world issue research paper. This week I finished my rough draft and hand it in to turnitin.com. I think I still need to do some changes to my research paper. I am not satisfied with my conclusion. I think I will change it after the peer discussion because I need some advice from my classmates.

This week

                   This week my English class started reading a new book named "Nervous Conditions". This week we only read chapter one. There are many characters in this book, I 'm afraid if I will get confused. But Dr.deGravelles gave us a characters list and it helped a lot. 
                   This saturday I went on a trip with my uncle and aunt. We drove to Missisippi and went to Natchez and Jackson. We drove all day. First, we drove 2 hours to Natchez and visited down town. And then we drove another 3 hours to Jackson and drove along Missisippi river. The view of Missisippi river is so beautiful!
                       

English Research Project

                 This weekend I spend my 150 minutes of on my English Research Project. I continued doing my outline that I didn't finished in class and I finished my outline.
            Next week I will continue working on my draft and try my best to improve it.

Field Trip 2

                   This friday I went on another field trip with the six chinese students. We went to the swamp and had a swamp tour. During the swamp tour, I saw a lot of alligators, some turtles, and some racoons. There are many trees on the side of the swamp. The views are very pretty and I took a lot of photos.
                    For lunch, we ate some Lousiana food. In the afternoon, we went to the mall of Lousiana and had some frozen yogurt. We had a great time together!

Field Trip 1

This Friday I went on a field trip with the six Chinese students. In the morning, we went to LSU first and visited the library, some buildings, and the stadium. And then we went to the state capitol and went to the tower, the view are so beautiful up there! We also went to the old state capitol after this, the inside of it is so beautiful so we took a lot of pictures.

In the afternoon, we went to the Louisiana state museum and it was fun. We had a very good time. Next week we are going to the alligator farm. I’m so excited about our next trip!

Outside Reading: Ruined 1/17--1/21

This week I’m still reading a book named Ruined by Paula Morris. I find out that in the past, lots of me in New Orleans had two families, one white and one black. Lisette was killed by her father’s white wife after her father died.

I think the organization of this book is very good. It made the readers wonder what will happen next and wants to read more. The word choice is also very good. I didn’t finish this book this week and I really want to know what will happen at the end of this book.

Reading Response:Ruined by Paula Morris, 1/11-1/15

This week I started a new book named Ruined by Paula Morris. The story took place in New Orleans. A girl named Rebecca who lived in New York, moved to New Orleans to live with her Aunt Claudia and cousin Aurelia because her father went to China. The girls in her new school treat her like she’s invisible. One night, Rebecca made a friend with a ghost.

When Rebecca entered Aunt Claudia’s house, Aunt Claudia told her never go to the Lafayette Cemetery across the street because it’s not safe. One night, Rebecca went into the Lafayette Cemetery. She met a black girl about her age. Her hair was long, hanging to one side in a loose braid, wearing a white blouse and a dark skirt.

Rebecca made friends with the black girl named Lisette. Lisette told Rebecca she’s a ghost and has lived in the Lafayette Cemetery for a hundred and fifty-five years. When Rebecca holds Lisette’s hand, there will both be invisible. Lisette also told Rebecca that she will be a ghost forever unless the curse is broken.

They story is very interesting so far. I’m always interested in ghost stories including this one. Another reason is that the story took place in New Orleans, which is very close to Baton Rouge. I wonder if the rest of the story is about the curse that Lisette told Rebecca. Will Rebecca try to break the curse? Will Lisette rest in peace at the end of the book?

Relatives Visiting!!!

My aunt, uncle, and cousins came to Baton Rouge at the beginning of this new year. I was very excited about their coming. I showed them around Baton Rouge, we went to the mall, downtown of Baton Rouge, and the LSU lakes. We also went to New Orleans. We had so much fun!

My aunt is very good at cooking. She has cooked many delicious dishes every night since she got here. I watched very carefully when she cooks because I want to know how she can cook such delicious dishes. She even taught me how to cook some of her best dishes!

A new quarter!

We just started a new quarter. I'm very excited because there are some chinese students coming to our school this quater. At the first two days of school I was still in the mood of Christmas break, so I have to keep telling myslf this is not Christmas break anymore. This quarter is also the begining of a new semester. I'll have too work harder because I'm not satisfied with my grade of the first semester. I'll have to put myself ahead of time.