Animal Farm

Animal Farm:
Revision of the Past
Poem

No animal shall sleep in a bed.
Old Major is dead.
Napoleon takes over.
Pigs sleep in beds.

No animal shall drink alcohol.
Napoleon takes over.
The pigs are not sober
Pigs drink alcohol.

No animal shall kill any other animal.
Confess! Confess!
Animals will confess.
Napoleon takes over.
Animals are killed.

All animals are equal.
Pigs on the farm; think they are best.
They are treated best.
They sleep in beds.
They drink alcohol.
They control the killing of animals.
Pigs are like dictators
Napoleon takes over.
Napoleon takes over.

Poetry Out Loud Performances

In Joshua Kelly's performance of "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen, he showed a well understading of the poem. This is a difficult poem. He articulated it well. His performance stood out the most to me becasue his voice inflection was well done. His dramatization was not over the top, but it fit the poem.

"Dulce et Decorum Est" is a poem about the horror of war. Joshua Kelly conveys this well in his performance as he uses voice inflection and dramatization in the right places. As I listened to his performance I could feel the fear and nightmarish reality surrounding a gunner’s last living moments. His performance was excellent.

Mockingbird Motif

At the beginning of the year I thought motif and theme were basically the same thing. As we worked on To Kill a Mockingbird I now have a better understanding. Motif is the reoccurring theme in a novel. There can be many themes in a novel, but there is only one motif.

The motif in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. Tom Robinson is accused of a crime he didn't do just because of the color of his skin. Atticus defends him in court, but Tom is guilty of the crime he didn't commit. Tom Robinson is like a mockingbird. Mockingbirds are a sign of peace and innocence. Tom can represent these things as well. The motif of racism is used throughout the themes in the novel. One example is when Tim, the dog, has rabies the people disgrace against him. Atticus once again steps in to help, and kills the dog so the disease doesn't spread. The dog symbolizes how people are prejudice.

Life Lessons

Ever since I was little my parents always taught me to try my hardest. If I tried my hardest, they would be happy with me no matter what. They would remind me every time I did an assignment or a project, to install this in my head forever.

I am glad they taught me this becasue every single time I work on something, I try my hardest. My parents are always there for me, and encourage me to do well. But, if I work my hardest they are even more proud of me. Becasue I try my hardest, I succeed in school. This is very beneficial because every assignment counts, and I want to go to college.

My Best Friend

One of my best friends is Kayla, who goes to Timberline. I met her in sixth grade. She was new to my school, so I thought I would be nice and talk to her. Since then we have been really good friends. She has brown hair just like me. We both love to play basketball as well. We look alot alike and are always together, so people get us confused. (Especially our coach.) We do everything together, were practically sisters.

I would describe her as crazy, but not in a bad way. She is really fun to hang out with, and is never boring. We always think of something to do. She has an extrovert personality. She says alot of random things, but so do I. She doesn't care what others think of her. I admire her for this because that is a hard thing to do.

Earliest Childhood Memory: Disneyland

My earliest childhood memory was when I was 3. I went to Disneyland for the first time with my mom. (My dad had to stay home and work.) As soon as we arrived in California we went to my Aunts house, who lived in Aneheim. I was very excited to go to Disneyland because my two cousins were coming with me. As soon as we arrived, I wanted to go on every ride and eat all the cotton candy I could. The ride that most caught my attention was the spinning teacups.

Because I wanted to go on the spinning teacups really badly, we went to that ride first. I remeber standing in line with butterflies in my stomach. Finally, it was our turn. At the time my favorite color was purple, so I ran as fast as I could to the purple teacup with a flower on it so no one would take it. By this time I couldn't wait to spin. The ride started to move and with all my little might I spun the wheel as as fast as I could. I wasn't going as fast as I wanted, so my mom helped me and in my mind we were spinning at a lightning speed. Every time I go to Disneyland I will always remember the spinning teacups.

Treasure Island: Imagery

Robert Lois Stevenson uses alot of discriptive language in Treasure Island. Because of his discriptive language, it paints a picture in my head. I can see the image of the island and pirates. This helps me to stay focused on the book. Though the author uses alot of discriptive language, he also uses jargon. His discriptions of the book make me feel as if I am there and that I am listening to how people talked back then.
Imagery is important so the book can become lively. It makes you feel apart of the story as you read this book. The author used imagery well in the novel. The book was interesting because imagery was heavily used.

Outside Reading

I chose to read Treasure Island. At first when I chose the book it grabbed my attention. As I started to read it, it wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. Some parts of the book are hard to get into. They can be highly discriptive, and sometimes there isn't any action going on.

I haven't read the whole book yet, but so far the literary element that dominates the book is theme. Jim Hawkins sets out on an adventure. As he's on this adventure he is growing up and proving himself that he is a man. I am not sure if this is the dominate literary element.

The book was written in this manner because it gives the book its unique style. The theme is an interesting one so it makes me want to continue to read it. The word choice in the novel is exciting. I can picture in my head what the author is writting about because he is discriptive.

The main tone of the novel is zealous. Jim Hawkins is a genuine man. His adventures are involved and enthusiastic. At times the book can be fervent and pationate as well. I do belive that the tone shifts sometimes from chapter to chapter, but the main theme is zealous.

Reading

I am not a big fan of reading long discriptive books. Although I do enjoy books that I choose to read, I am not a big fan of reading. I started to read just before I started pre- school, and could understand what the books meant by kindergarden. I remember I loved to read all the time. My favorite books were the Ammelia Badelia series. As I got older I started to stray from reading all the time, but every once in a while if a book catches my eye I may start to read it.

Usually when I start a book I do not enjoy, I don't read it. Though while I read a book of my choice and come across a paragraph I don't understand, I will re-read it and underline the words I don't understand. From there I look up the underlined words and try to figure out what the author is writing about.

If the reading place I am in is full of distractions it is very hard to read and concentrate on the book. I feel like I missed something important, then I have to go back and re-read what I read. When the atmosphere gets to chaotic I will then move to a different, quiet, and peaceful place to read. I usually read my books just before I go to bed because its just me and my book in my quiet bedroom.

When I do read I usually chose fantasy books. The most recent book I chose to read was the twilight series. I enjoyed them very much. Another genre of books I enjoy reading are horror books such as Dracula, which I chose to read over the summer.

I read fiction because I love reading about magical places. Haha. They are fun books to read. Even though I know their not real, I think it would be cool if they were.