Poetry Reflection 3-25-15

Prompt:  Based on our study of poetry, please take the time now to reflect and respond to what you have learned.

Date:  3-25-15

          Poetry does have a significant effect on my life, because of how it makes me think of every day events.  After having to analyze line after line for all kinds of poems, and having to rack my mind for new ideas to include in my lines, I have a natural instinct to think harder about almost everything.  Also, there's been poetry constructed about practically every aspect of life, so poems with different word choice and point of view has really changed my perspective on many topics.  Speaking of word choice, I feel that poetry has really opened my mind up to new vocabulary and diction.  Authors have included all kinds of words in their works of poetry, whose meanings I discovered with context clues.  Now I can incorporate them into my own writing and speech.

          I feel that the majority of people in this world, especially students and previous students, have had some sort of connection, or relationship to poetry.  Some people might not like or appreciate poetry as much as others, but in my opinion, everyone's affected by poetry in a positive way at some point.  I'm confident about this theory, because of how I think of my experiences with poetry.  Honestly, poetry isn't exactly on my favorite subject list.  However, I've taken a lot away from all the lessons we've been given, and event though it might be boring to me, I've gotten a lot of good out of poetry.  Therefore, I feel that several other students have had similar relationships with poetry, and other topics.

          We've gone through this discussion before, and I definitely do think the life or experiences of a poet affect their writing style.  Our class has discussed the example of Edgar Allan Poe, and I also like to use the example of myself.  Due to my interest and love towards sports, I've realized that many of my poems reflected back or were about sports.  Depending on the author's general lifestyle, and whether or not it was more negative or positive.  I really think it would be easier for someone to write about something that they've experienced and what their more open to.  Can't you see how it wouldn't be to easy for someone to write about a really negative life and experience, if they've grown up with everything great?  That's how I think the life of a poet changes their poetry.

Nonsense Poem (The Flumpittyunctious Feeling) 3-25-15

Found Poem (The Lady)

"The Lady"

the lady

good-looking

and nice too

her lips

the lady smiled

pigtails swung against her cheeks

the shy smile

I know the picture was kind of blurry, but my poem was basically the description of a character.  I had trouble finding a poem throughout this assigned page, but after I skimmed over it for about the fourth time, it hit me.  I pieced together some descriptive words about a girl, and decided I wanted to make the poem about love.  This topic was pretty easy, once I had it engrained in my mind to look for words relating to the subject.  I found it to be harder to find words if you don't exactly know what you're looking for.

2 Voice Poem (Trash)

Spine-Poetry (Earth is a Wonderful Place) 3-19-15

Date:  3-19-15

Commented on:  Jeremiah T., Bianey C., and Evie C.

          The basic meaning of my poem, is that we should take advantage of the beautiful world we live in.  Nature, landmarks, animals, sights to see, all are represented by "Beautiful Creatures", "Wonders of the World", "Places of a Lifetime", and "The World's Most Beautiful Places."  I mentioned how our world can be described as close to heaven, because of its beauty.  We should feel lucky to have a place like Earth to live.

Thinglink Interactive Poetry (Where I'm From) 3-19-15

3rd Quarter Reflection 3-13-15

Prompt:  Take a moment to reflect on what you've learned and your improvements throughout the third quarter.

Date:  3-13-15

          Throughout the entire school year, I've learned and improved so much.  I know I still have a quarter to go, but I'm proud of how far I've come.  In all my classes, I know I've learned a ton about history, current events, grammar, and all kinds of interesting information, but most of all, I learned a lot about myself.

          So far this quarter, I've read a plethora of books.  Although I have to say, my most favorite was "Trash."  I really loved it, because you can come home at night, after a really long day of school, and read.  Especially because it was a particularly quick read, and you don't have to rack your mind on the content.  However, there's still a great story of friendship within it.

          In my opinion, the biggest improvement within my curriculum, is my vocabulary expansion or diction.  Before this class, I would use words like upset, or disappointed, but now I'm using words like distressed, and melancholy.  It makes you feel and sound a lot smarter.  Word choice can really develop your reputation, and how people think of you.  In my opinion, it's an extremely skill important in life.

          One thing that I accomplished since the new year, is applying and becoming accepted to NJHS (National Juniors Honors Society.)  The main reason that I'm so excited about it, is because I don't think I would make it, if I hadn't improved so much over the course of this year.  I hope to strive and do really well when it comes to helping our community in this program.

          To me, the most challenging part of the third quarter, was time management.  This is another skill that is really important to have in life.  Almost every week, I was up at 10:00 pm on Thursday nights, completing blogs, AOW's, and other homework, because I had put it off the whole week.  That's definitely one thing I hope to improve on to finish of my 7th grade year.

Bio-Poem for a Literary Character (Trash) 3-12-15

Date:  3-12-15

Prompt:  Based off of your current novel, this week you will be creating a bio-poem for your literary character/person.

Commented on:  Omar R., Joseph H., and Saul G.

Raphael

Skinny, dirty, quick-thinking, deceptive

A character in Andy Mulligan's story

Lover of Gardo, his cousins, his aunt, and money

Who notices anything worth selling, searching police officers, and the answer to a life changing mystery

Who feels frightened, threatened, and nervous

Who learns that practically everything revolves around money

Who used to think he couldn't solve a giant mystery with only a couple friends to help, against the whole police force, but now knows it might be possible

Major character in "Trash"

A book that preaches a life lesson of friendship, and courage

Extended Metaphor Poem (The Shot... Taken) 3-12-15

Choice:  Taking the shot

Inciting Incident:  Choosing to pass the ball, or take the game winning shot

Consequences:  Missing the shot and losing the game, winning the game for my team, recognition (good or bad).

The Shot... Taken

Five seconds on the clock that day:

Shoot, or pass

I wanted that shot, I wanted to be the hero

I didn’t want to lose the game for our team

I was open, I could decide our team’s fate, there and then

Then again, so could the player 10 feet away

Time ticking away, so little time

I had to decide

Then and there, I decided, I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away

That day, I didn’t pass

Not out of selfishness, but because I wanted to be held accountable

Which ever way it went, I wanted to take the risk

I rose, flicked my wrist, and extended

The ball soared through the air

Time slowed down

The decision was made

There were then zero seconds on the clock that day

The decision to shoot, or pass the opportunity our of my hands

I chose to shoot that day

And that, made all the difference

How do you feel about what you're reading? (Trash) 3-5-15

Prompt:  How do you feel about what you're reading?

Date:  3-5-15

          I'm not very far into this book at all, maybe 20 pages from the beginning.  However, I can tell that this is going to be one of those books where it ends up completed within a couple of days.  It isn't too complicated of a book, and I definitely feel that I'm going to be addicted and sucked in to this book.  A peer of mine who has read the book, did agree with my theory of addiction.  He said he finished it very quickly.

          I'll give you the setting and characters of the book, just in case you haven't read it.  I'm pretty sure the story's based in the future, but I'm not completely positive.  Raphael is a boy who lives in a junkyard.  He doesn't have a mother or father, so he lives in a box with his best friend Gardo.  His aunt and cousins live in the junkyard too, along with several other families.  They scavenge and dig around for items to sell.  I don't want to give too much away, so lets just say one day, Raphael found something that changed his life forever.

          In the future, I will likely be posting another blog about this book that will give more detail, considering I'll have read much more.  However, because I can tell this book is going to be an easy read and fun, I encourage anyone reading this blog to read as well.