Poetry Out Loud

Part One: 
1. HAPPINESS
2.ECHO
3. Poor Angels
4. When you are old
5. I AM THE PEOPLE, THE MOB


Part Two:
I liked the poem i am the people, the mob alot, i thought it was really deep and dramatic. I didnt really like happiness, because the whole time i was Reading it i was thinking this reall¥ isnt what i think happiness is. If i had to chose one to read i think i would use i am the people, the mob, because i like the topic alot how an individual can be so easily lost in the croud. I personally connected with this poem because i have thought about that before, how you may be doing something important but nobody really reconizes that, and how its weird how you forget your memories, and things just kind of fade away "into the mob."


Part three:
I think dramatic appropriateness will be easy for me, because i wouldn't make a poem that isn't dramatic try to sound really dramatic. Also i think physical presense will be okay for me too, because i will try to be confident and look like i like the poem. I think the harder two would be Poem difficulty, because i know im not going to pick a long hard poem that i would have a really hard time memorizing. Also i might have some troubles with accuracy.

Part Four:
Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlemby Gregory Corso
I thought this was successful because the reader did a good job of reciting it, it seemed like he was just speaking what was on his mind, rather than reciting a poem.
The Man-Mothby Elizabeth Bishop
The way he talks just made what he was saying feel more intense. The way he moves around I'm sure had something to do with the poem, but I didn't understand the poem so I'm not positive.

Part Five:
I think poetry out loud is a pretty cool program, and I like how the whole school is taking part in it, so it isn't just like our class that has to do it, it is everybody. I think the competition is going to be hard, being judged by a smart librarian, and competing with people who are chosing really long, hard poems. The poem I am chosing is "Hope" is the thing with feathers. I really like it, it is short and sweet, but also very true with a lot of meaning in it.

Ps. This blog post is late

5 part paragraph

Reading over my blog post helped me make some last minute changes to my paragraph. After reading through it, I realized that I needed to make my topic sentence clearer so it would be able to fit better into my points. Also I tried using some better vocabulary, and I think all around it make my paper sound better put together. I think it was easier to use better vocabulary in my paragraph about “The Knife” than it was in To Kill a Mockingbird because I think “The Knife” had higher diction. And when talking about a piece that is using high diction, it just makes more sense to speak in higher diction (to a point). I also tried making my transitions smoother, so it was easier to flow from one topic to the next. Imbedding quotes was a little bit different because they had to be concrete, but they didn’t really have to be direct quotes, but I’m pretty sure I did those in the correct format even though it was different. I got a text saying there was an extra credit blog and to look at it, and I am really glad I did because I think it kept me from making the same mistakes on my new paragraph as I did on the first one.

Thanksgiving Extra Credit

I was thinking about what the most important thing I have learned so far was, and I have learned so much all around it was hard for me to pinpoint one thing. Then I found at an old book report that I had written last year and I read it over, and I found that my thesis really sucked, so my whole paper was actually pretty bad. I think that’s the most important thing I have learned so far, write a good thesis. Before this class, if a teacher asked me to write a thesis statement on something I would have no idea what it meant, to me it was "thesis = topic sentence?" which I guess isn’t that bad, but I have learned just how much more than a topic sentence a thesis is. Your thesis sets you up for you whole paper, so if your thesis is weak, then no matter how hard you try on the rest of your paper, it’s definitely not going to be as good as it could be. Although it still is really hard for me to write a good thesis, I now know what a good one looks like, and what a bad one looks like. I also know that thesis’s aren’t going to go away, probably going to need to write one in every paper I write from here on forever, so it’s going to be a good skill to have and I am really glad we are working on them now.

Lobsters

   

I think it was actually you Mrs. Gilman who brought up the Holocaust, and when you said that, it changed my whole perspective of the poem. The poem talks the whole time about these caged lobsters, who are just sitting in a cage awaiting their death. People walk by and stare at them, but nobody thinks about how cruel this process actually is. The lobsters just have to stay there in conditions they probably don’t like, with they're claws all tied up and everything.

When I first read the poem it was simply about lobsters in a grocery store, but if you go back in read it with the Holocaust in mind, it turns into a scary, very sad poem. The lobsters are doomed, they are going to die in that tank, or be taken to somebody’s home and killed there. Jewish people were taken to isolation camps and either died of starvation, or were suffocated in gas chambers. Suddenly, this poem has a way deeper meaning than just lobsters in a grocery store. The resemblance to the Holocaust is huge and I definitely think this poem was the author’s way of telling how he felt about that. It makes much more sense to why the author chose to use lobsters instead of any other animal.

5 part paragraph

In my class I thought most of the paragraphs were very well written. As a class, I think the transition sentences are what needed to be worked on the most. It was easy to not have a good transition or to skip that sentence all together. Most of the papers that were read, there was somebody saying "I think you could have used some stronger transitions." Also, sometimes commentary would turn a little bit into plot summary, so instead of giving your own opinions, people might be just restating what happened in the book. So as a class I think those are some things we could work on.

For my next paragraph I need to work on making sure everything is clear and nothing is confusing. My topic sentence lead people in one way but everything else went in a different way, so I think I need to make sure everything fits. I could also work on using better vocabulary, all my word choice was words I would use to talk, there were no words suggesting high diction, it was all very average. I could also make my transitions smoother, to help the paragraph flow more easily and have all the topics form together, but still be distinguishable.

Slaughterhouse-Five

I am reading Slaughterhouse-Five, and so far I am really confused. The book right now is skipping around from like past to present and its really hard to tell which is which. I do like the book though, I'm not that far into it yet, but I think it has a good story line I guess. This book deffently has a very unusual writing style. The whole first chapter is about the author actually writing the book, and he begins the actual story part by saying something like "this is how the story begins, and this is how the story ends." I just thought that was really different. This summer I read the book Sarahs Key, and that I think will be kind of similar. Sarahs Key was about a jewish family during WW2 and I think this book also has to do with WW2 also, but I'm not sure. Either way it is similar because it is different points of view at around the same time frame. I dont know what I want to do for my creative project for this book yet, but so far I am thinking I want to make a video. I would need to get farther into the book to decide more on it, but the video just seems like a cool idea to help with this project. I am actually excited to read more of this book, it has a really intriguing beginning and I am excited to see what the rest of the book is about!