Sunday, June 21, 2009
Advice column
Okay, here is some advice for the new 8th graders, make sure you do a whole lot of reading and writing during the summer in order to better themselves as both readers and writers. And then as the semester goes on, you'll be much better than you once where and prepared for anything that those state tests throw at you. Also, make sure you keep yourselves in check because one wrong move can get you excluded from senior activities (known from experience haha). And pretty much that's it for now. So we bid you adieu.............. Au revoir, a bientot!!^_^
Saturday, June 20, 2009
our essential QUESTION is...........
This year we have worked a lot of different questions that were asked through out history. Such as what are my rights? why did people come to America at the turn of the century? Why do w
e fight? Should the government be responsible for it's citizen's well being? and etc. Out of all of these questions, together we both chose Why did immigrant's come to America at the turn of the century?. We chose this essential question because it's the most interesting and, we have worked on this question longer than any other so we was able to get more into this topic.
At the beginning of the year we didn't really know that much of why immigrants came to America until we learned that it was for a better opportunity in life. For example, there were a lot of Irish coming to America because of the Irish potato famine. Many immigrants came to America either because their homelands were extremely bad or because there was some sort of disease. but once these immigrants came to America, the natives weren't too happy about it. The natives felt that the immigrants were taking away from there opportunity.So the immigrants were giving less than 8hrs to work,they were treated unfairly, and there living conditions weren't so well as what they thought it would be. So even though immigrants coming to America didn't benefit them that much,we as a class came to a conclusion that it helped America out america become more diverse and there is more opportunities for the in coming immigrants(interesting right).
e fight? Should the government be responsible for it's citizen's well being? and etc. Out of all of these questions, together we both chose Why did immigrant's come to America at the turn of the century?. We chose this essential question because it's the most interesting and, we have worked on this question longer than any other so we was able to get more into this topic.At the beginning of the year we didn't really know that much of why immigrants came to America until we learned that it was for a better opportunity in life. For example, there were a lot of Irish coming to America because of the Irish potato famine. Many immigrants came to America either because their homelands were extremely bad or because there was some sort of disease. but once these immigrants came to America, the natives weren't too happy about it. The natives felt that the immigrants were taking away from there opportunity.So the immigrants were giving less than 8hrs to work,they were treated unfairly, and there living conditions weren't so well as what they thought it would be. So even though immigrants coming to America didn't benefit them that much,we as a class came to a conclusion that it helped America out america become more diverse and there is more opportunities for the in coming immigrants(interesting right).
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The writing mind of Aicha
So during the summer what I mostly did was write poetry. At first when I was still in elementary school, I used to hate writing poetry but I liked reading it though. I never used to get the concept of it. But as the years passed, time went by and I grew older, I just started writing out of the blue. (well no really out of the blue, it just happened.For example 1 day it was a gloomy rainy day. And the clouds were all dark and gray. I was sitting by the window, watching as the rain pours out of the sky. Then an idea triggered in my head, so I quickly ran to look for a pen and paper and once that pen touched the paper, it started gliding across the paper like there was no tomorrow.
At the beginning of 8th grade,when I first found out that we had communication arts, I was real excited. Mainly because i knew that we'd be working on poetry, and man did I love poetry!! Having communication arts this year actually made a better writer in so many things especially poetry (which of course is my favorite subject in writing)
Also this year since we were working on essays, I learn how to make then better. Especially when using translation words and making your conclusion. At first I my writing with out translations was okay but no where near good ( you can say that again haha). Like at first, I didn't really know there to put the words at and I used to never have a conclusion in any of my essays and things like that. But after a while of using them I started getting the hang of it and eventually my writing got better! I mean I really think i'd improve ya know? (haha)
In sum, I learned that this whole experience with making conclusions and using translation words,I learned that
At the beginning of 8th grade,when I first found out that we had communication arts, I was real excited. Mainly because i knew that we'd be working on poetry, and man did I love poetry!! Having communication arts this year actually made a better writer in so many things especially poetry (which of course is my favorite subject in writing)
Also this year since we were working on essays, I learn how to make then better. Especially when using translation words and making your conclusion. At first I my writing with out translations was okay but no where near good ( you can say that again haha). Like at first, I didn't really know there to put the words at and I used to never have a conclusion in any of my essays and things like that. But after a while of using them I started getting the hang of it and eventually my writing got better! I mean I really think i'd improve ya know? (haha)
In sum, I learned that this whole experience with making conclusions and using translation words,I learned that
THE WRITING MIND OF SOLANGE
I remember during the summer time it was a month or two before the eighth grade started and I just began to write. I would write about anything my self or any thing I felt or observed.When I would ask my mom or summer camp instructor to read my writing they would always tell me that my writing is very good I just have to work on my punctuation. But when I would write my short stories or poems I wouldn't add any thing because my pen would just side across the paper thought after thought I didn't want to stop to check my punctuation or spelling because I was so into what I was writing. For eighth grade my humanities teachers name was Mr.locker he had us do some writing about a topic we were working on. And I thought that my reflection was awesome and there was nothing wrong but when I got my work back there was a lot of mistakes I made not in spelling but in missing punctuation.I knew I needed to work on my writing. It's just that I would get confused with the punctuation and where it belonged,this made me feel so stupid because entering the eighth grade I should know this and I can't use the long summer off from school as an excuse.
So for a long time writing was my favorite subject until I found out that we had to write reading journal every night. Now, even though writing is my favorite subject I like to write on my own time when I'm inspired or I'm feeling something, not when I'm scheduled to or expected to every night.Some people would ask me or say to me if you like to write so much why don't you like to do your journals.I would always say "I don't know that's just how I feel about it". I have been doing my reading journals and trying to keep up with them. Because I have do have a subject to write about that does make it easy but I guess I'm just lazy. Then like three months before the year was over Mr.locker said that we instead of writing a journal every night you can now just do three journals a week. Doing this was easy for me cause now I didn't have do write a journal every night I could now choose three days from Mon-Friday to write my journal.But this also made me lack on my writing because one night I wouldn't write and then the next night I would forget to,so I would stop for a while and then start and then stop again.But this would only go on until I'd find a good book.When I started lacking again I would try to make up journals so Mr.locker could grade it for that day but,then I'd have to keep on making up more and more and more.Until I was stable with my book choices.
In all I love to write as all you readers know but moving towards the end of the school year I grew less fond of writing.But I know that I need not complain about writing when I know I'm going to have to write way more, and this will be something i will work on.
So for a long time writing was my favorite subject until I found out that we had to write reading journal every night. Now, even though writing is my favorite subject I like to write on my own time when I'm inspired or I'm feeling something, not when I'm scheduled to or expected to every night.Some people would ask me or say to me if you like to write so much why don't you like to do your journals.I would always say "I don't know that's just how I feel about it". I have been doing my reading journals and trying to keep up with them. Because I have do have a subject to write about that does make it easy but I guess I'm just lazy. Then like three months before the year was over Mr.locker said that we instead of writing a journal every night you can now just do three journals a week. Doing this was easy for me cause now I didn't have do write a journal every night I could now choose three days from Mon-Friday to write my journal.But this also made me lack on my writing because one night I wouldn't write and then the next night I would forget to,so I would stop for a while and then start and then stop again.But this would only go on until I'd find a good book.When I started lacking again I would try to make up journals so Mr.locker could grade it for that day but,then I'd have to keep on making up more and more and more.Until I was stable with my book choices.
In all I love to write as all you readers know but moving towards the end of the school year I grew less fond of writing.But I know that I need not complain about writing when I know I'm going to have to write way more, and this will be something i will work on.
THE READING MIND OF AICHA
When I first entered the eighth grade, the first book i read was Hypnotized by Don Trembath.
It was my first and last tie ever reading n orca book. It took me about 1.5 days to read. Since it had about 108 and was a very tiny book. So it was extremely easy, so i gave the book a 5. At first when i saw the orca book I thought 'oh this book looks interesting.' but when I started rea
ding the book, the deeper in the story i got the more boring it was! And the ending was pretty obvious!! UGH!!!!! just by talking about it is making me frustrated!!!..................just kidding!! :) Anyways back to the story, so after that experience, I never picked up an orca book again!!
Then came the first i ever abandoned. Which was called keeping you a secret by Julie Ann Peters. Hahaha! I'll have to admit that this book was challenging and pretty hard to understand ya know? (wow and said it was boring man I'm such a liar to myself haha. all in order to cover up the truth my friend) This book actually was my first challenging book. Some parts were clear, but the rest was hard to comprehend. So after i abandoned this book, I started on books that were for me like the types of books that seem to fit my taste in stories.
Like for instance, the book that I liked soo much at the beginning of the year was the book Tyrell by Coe Booth. This book tells about a
young teenage male, going through many struggles everyday of his life. He lives in a homeless shelter in the Bronx. His mother wants him to sell drugs and make money. But he doesn't since he knows he doesn't want to go where his father is...........which is................jail. He also doesn't want to get his little brother into selling drugs, so he keeps clean for both his brother and his girlfriend Novisha, but!! there's a surprised twist! So in order to know ya gonna have to read it! But on the serious side, this book really captured me because Tyrell is on a roll here, he's like changing. For example, before he didn't care about no one but he ended up opening out to people and helping them out. And i think that's very inspiring.
How I've changed as a reader is by at the beginning of the year, like i said in the beginning i would read orcas. But now in reading books like the twilight series, and books that talk about teen issues such as the book"starting with I." In conclusion i would like to congratulate myself on my growth in reading.
It was my first and last tie ever reading n orca book. It took me about 1.5 days to read. Since it had about 108 and was a very tiny book. So it was extremely easy, so i gave the book a 5. At first when i saw the orca book I thought 'oh this book looks interesting.' but when I started rea
ding the book, the deeper in the story i got the more boring it was! And the ending was pretty obvious!! UGH!!!!! just by talking about it is making me frustrated!!!..................just kidding!! :) Anyways back to the story, so after that experience, I never picked up an orca book again!!Then came the first i ever abandoned. Which was called keeping you a secret by Julie Ann Peters. Hahaha! I'll have to admit that this book was challenging and pretty hard to understand ya know? (wow and said it was boring man I'm such a liar to myself haha. all in order to cover up the truth my friend) This book actually was my first challenging book. Some parts were clear, but the rest was hard to comprehend. So after i abandoned this book, I started on books that were for me like the types of books that seem to fit my taste in stories.
Like for instance, the book that I liked soo much at the beginning of the year was the book Tyrell by Coe Booth. This book tells about a
young teenage male, going through many struggles everyday of his life. He lives in a homeless shelter in the Bronx. His mother wants him to sell drugs and make money. But he doesn't since he knows he doesn't want to go where his father is...........which is................jail. He also doesn't want to get his little brother into selling drugs, so he keeps clean for both his brother and his girlfriend Novisha, but!! there's a surprised twist! So in order to know ya gonna have to read it! But on the serious side, this book really captured me because Tyrell is on a roll here, he's like changing. For example, before he didn't care about no one but he ended up opening out to people and helping them out. And i think that's very inspiring.How I've changed as a reader is by at the beginning of the year, like i said in the beginning i would read orcas. But now in reading books like the twilight series, and books that talk about teen issues such as the book"starting with I." In conclusion i would like to congratulate myself on my growth in reading.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The READING Mind Of solange
In September when I entered the eighth grade I would pick books like AMBER BROWN.I thought that if I was to pick books with less pages I'll be able to reach fifty books quickly.But that was not the case Mr.locker would not let me count it as a book that i read.He would say "pick another book" or "no your not reading this book".I would try to argue back by saying that"I cant find one" or "I don't like this book",there was always an excuse with me.But I would just look at the cover of a book and if it looked boring I would just put the book back,but the book i would put back would be the same book Mr.locker would recommend to me and I'd like them.My first real book I rea
d was LOST AND FOUND,by Ann Schraff.This book had 133 pages when I saw this book and read the first 3-4 pages I was ready to put the book down but,Mr.locker said keep on reading and I did.I was done with this book in 3 days.After that I learned to be more opened to different genres and not just look at the cover of the book at week and a half but to read the inside.From now on I would read the first 15 pages of the book whether it is boring or not,because I noticed that the books I looked at and did not like would be the same book Mr.locker would give me to read and I'd be most interested in.After I learned how to be more opened to different authors and genres it was easy for me to pick out books I was on o roll reading books with 130 pages plus.
But then winter break came around(aw man) I started to trail of and be lazy.But I did read news papers and magazines.I just thought that I needed a break from reading so that's what I did.so for that week and a half I did just that.I didn't dumb down but my reading lacked a little because, when I came back to school I would get lazy and not read during independent reading time or fake a headache or just complain.And Mr.locker would just tell me that if I don't get reading up that my grade would drop,I did not want that so I did began to read again.And along with all the other interesting book
s I have read along came my favorite book of the whole eighth grade.THE BATTLES OF JERICHO BY,Sharon M.Draper.This book had me on every page.With this book I would re-read every page over and over just because,and also when independent reading time was over I would suck my teeth or get mad and not want to stop reading because I was so into this book.The battles of Jericho is a book that I feel and know any teen can relate to because,it deals with peer pressure,making hard decisions,family issues and also death.I would recommend this book to anyone because,in general this book is very interesting and realistically true.And my second favorite book is MONEY H
UNGRY by,Sharon G.Flake.This book was also a book that had me on every page,this book was about a young teen that did anything for money and to me this book was nothing i can relate to but it's just a very interesting book in general.
In all at the beginning of eighth grade I was a level x and now I'm a level z.I'm ready for the ninth grade reading expectations.I was a level x in the beginning of eighth grade and now I'm am a level z,not a big change because there's no other level but the books in high school will be harder.But I know that I'm a better reader now than I was in the entry of my eighth grade year.And I know this because with my cooperation and Mr.lockers help and pushing me I know I that I've become a better reader.I've grown from reading books two levels to low and complaining a bout the book and it's genre to,becoming a level z and being more open to books I'm not familiar with.
d was LOST AND FOUND,by Ann Schraff.This book had 133 pages when I saw this book and read the first 3-4 pages I was ready to put the book down but,Mr.locker said keep on reading and I did.I was done with this book in 3 days.After that I learned to be more opened to different genres and not just look at the cover of the book at week and a half but to read the inside.From now on I would read the first 15 pages of the book whether it is boring or not,because I noticed that the books I looked at and did not like would be the same book Mr.locker would give me to read and I'd be most interested in.After I learned how to be more opened to different authors and genres it was easy for me to pick out books I was on o roll reading books with 130 pages plus.But then winter break came around(aw man) I started to trail of and be lazy.But I did read news papers and magazines.I just thought that I needed a break from reading so that's what I did.so for that week and a half I did just that.I didn't dumb down but my reading lacked a little because, when I came back to school I would get lazy and not read during independent reading time or fake a headache or just complain.And Mr.locker would just tell me that if I don't get reading up that my grade would drop,I did not want that so I did began to read again.And along with all the other interesting book
s I have read along came my favorite book of the whole eighth grade.THE BATTLES OF JERICHO BY,Sharon M.Draper.This book had me on every page.With this book I would re-read every page over and over just because,and also when independent reading time was over I would suck my teeth or get mad and not want to stop reading because I was so into this book.The battles of Jericho is a book that I feel and know any teen can relate to because,it deals with peer pressure,making hard decisions,family issues and also death.I would recommend this book to anyone because,in general this book is very interesting and realistically true.And my second favorite book is MONEY H
UNGRY by,Sharon G.Flake.This book was also a book that had me on every page,this book was about a young teen that did anything for money and to me this book was nothing i can relate to but it's just a very interesting book in general.In all at the beginning of eighth grade I was a level x and now I'm a level z.I'm ready for the ninth grade reading expectations.I was a level x in the beginning of eighth grade and now I'm am a level z,not a big change because there's no other level but the books in high school will be harder.But I know that I'm a better reader now than I was in the entry of my eighth grade year.And I know this because with my cooperation and Mr.lockers help and pushing me I know I that I've become a better reader.I've grown from reading books two levels to low and complaining a bout the book and it's genre to,becoming a level z and being more open to books I'm not familiar with.
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