Reading Record Week 7

1 hour for Dry September
30 minutes for A&P
30 minutes for A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
120 minutes total of reading Short Stories

Short Story Plot

Plot for Short Story 

Exposition: Introducing Allie and her background life

Rising Action: Training for the Grand Supreme competition, and all the stuff leading up to the competition

Climax: Losing the Gem right before going on stage and winning with out it

Falling Action: Her thoughts after winning with out the gem, and how her overcoming has led her to several resolutions

Resolution: Getting the gem back and going back to her every day junior life

Short Story Reflection

After reading five short stories and learning three literary elements in the short story unit, I think I have learned a lot. The short stories are not that short, and you have to pay attention to details very closely. Some of the stories can easily change moods, and are not all what you expect them to be. For example, when Dr. D told us that the short story Harrison Bergeron was going to be creepy I had no clue it would be about a guy who escaped from jail and had all these restrictions. That one was a little more than creepy.

Many of these stories have been very confusing but they do teach us a lot about setting, character, and point of view in general. I like to learn the difference between literary and literacy, because I get very confused between the two. I am also very excited to write my own short story. Using the skills I am learning now, I hope my short story turns out to be half as good as the ones we have read so far. I look forward into reading and learning more and more about short stories as we begin to write our own.

Reading Log Week 6

3 hours to read short stories: Harrison Bergeron, A&P, and To Da-duh, in Memoriam  

Allie's Thoughts

 Why? Why me? I just don’t understand why it happened to me. Out of 7 billon people in this world. Me. My parents. Dead. It’s all I think about, especially when I’m laying in my oversized bed just thinking. Dings go off, I know its Noah so I just stay right where I am. If I could only rewind time and make it all go away. Make that guy not go to the bar, not put his key in the ignition, and not run into my parents.

I dream of walking down the aisle with my dad and bonding sessions with my mom. I miss them. Everyday. I just wish they were here, as my eyes start to close and my mind starts to go blank. Every night the same thoughts come back as if I was reliving everyday. 

Short Stories

We have started reading short stories this week. To be honest when we first got the book of many short stories, I was very intimidated by them. I don’t like being forced to read, and I HATE annotating. I like to annotate in my head or if I feel like there is something really important to remember not because I’m forced to focus on one thing and everything that applies to that needs to be written to the side about.

As I started to actually read the first story though, I started to like them and annotated wasn’t so bad. They are short stories, which I like because they are short! Although it takes a long time to finish, it ends up being worth reading. We have only read 3, and I have enjoyed all of them. I am very excited about continuing the section of short stories. 

Reading Log

Reading Record
120 minutes on literacy narrative
30 minutes of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (pgs. 400-461)

E-Books

The idea of creating an e book is very interesting I think! In class on Friday, we saw an example of an e book and I thought it looked very cool. Publishing is a huge process of writing, and making our literacy narratives go public is very exciting!

       Personally the fact that people are all open to reading my narrative is pretty nerve-racking! There opinions mean a lot and I have worked very hard on this piece of writing. I think it is going to be good to see the differences and similarities between people’s narratives. Overall, I think that it is a very good idea to see other people’s ideas as well as yours combined in one!

BLOGS ON BLOGS ON BLOGS!

Commenting on blogs can be very stressful. I can never pick just two peoples to comment on out of the 15 or so. I like to comment on blogs when I actually do my blogs; just hoping somebody else has already done theirs. I feel like I should have gotten into the hang of it by the 5^th week now. Commenting on the blogs is a cool way of seeing people’s thoughts and writings, and I like that a lot.

      

       Kaylin’s blog is absolutely the most creative and unique blog ever! Every time I click on her page, I say in my head that I wish my blogs were like that. She always has pictures and her writings are long and full. She fulfills the assignment, and it seems effortless. I love reading her blogs, and the vivid details in all her writings such as the literacy narrative. I might need a few lessons on doing my blogs. Keep up the good work Kay. It really pays off!

Reading Record Week 4

Reading Record
120 minutes on rough draft for Literacy narrative
30 minutes of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (pgs. 364-400)

The Group Text

     Hannah, Lilly, and Gretchen are three best friends! They tell each other everything and nothing was kept as a secret. 6^th grade is one filled with new memories and obstacles, but when you have two great friends by your side nothing can get in your way! Ryan Klemperer was the cutest 6^th grader in town! Everyone thought he was the cutest and these 3 were determined to get him to text at least one of them!

"Hey y'all," Hannah types on her brand new Iphone 5.

“Hey,” both Gretchen and Lilly reply in the group message between the three.

“Big News,” Hannah tries to express her exciting emotions through the message.

“Spill,” Lilly and Gretchen both click send at the exact time.

"RYAN TEXTED ME," Hannah typed in all caps.

“What did he say?” Gretchen and Lilly both sent the exact same message.

“Come to the Movies,” Hannah types with kissy emojis.

“OMG you're so lucky,” Lilly types.

Gretchen who is so proud that at least one of her two best friends is going on a date with “The Ryan Klemperer.”

“Have fun Hann,” both girls reply to end the conversation of the night.

     Hannah ends up going to the movies with Ryan, and he becomes friends with all three of the girls. The group texts continue to go on, and Ryan is now the forth member of the group text!

Literacy Narrative

         My literacy narrative is about a persuasive letter Audrey, Sophie, and I wrote to my dad trying to convince him to take us to the beach over Spring Break. I really like the assignment of writing my own literacy narrative! Reading examples in class has gotten me very excited to write my own. I am struggling with dialogue in my narrative. I have read over the section of notes we have gotten three times and I'm working on using it correctly in my paper.

         Overall, I really like the idea of publishing our own paper to share for others to read. I think it really preps us for harder papers that are assigned to us in the next few quarters. It's a good opening process to getting back into the groove of writing. I'm working very hard on my narrative and I'm very excited for it to be published.