POETRY OUT LOUD: MY POEM.

        I scrolled and scrolled through all of the poems, clicking almost every other one to read. None, stuck with me and None I connected with. I was staring at the screen for almost an hour and still.. nothing. I decided to give up that night, and try again the next day. But, this day was the day that the group poems were being read in the class. When the group read the poem, "The Road Not Taken", everything seemed to connect to me instantly. I connected with the poem and I knew that it was the poem that I'd wanted to recite for the competition. Robert Frost is a very famous author, which is kind of odd for me to do considering I like things out of the ordinary and things that people haven't ever heard of before.
        Robert Frost was writing down his thoughts about having to make a very difficult decision in his life and no knowing which to chose. I know that I can't relate to this exactly, but there have been times when I've had to make a hard decision; just not one that was life changing. Taking his time is something that he did a lot of. Studying which choice to pick because he know he couldn't chose both, which I can relate to with many different reasons. I'm going to use my voice to show when things are good and when things aren't. I'm going to try my best to show that there're two different path right in the room I'm standing in while still reciting my poem.

EXTRA CREDIT - ONE DAY ONLY.

        As I review, my old post about 5-part pargraph, I'm also glancing over at my new 5-part paragraph and making sure to have everything that I got critiqued on last time. The number one thing that I had that was needed the most out of the whole class was to embedded quotes, which I have checked off. I don't think that I did as good of a job this time since I didn't have a whole book of material to use and only a little poem to work with now. On the other hand, I had a large problem of using those stupid, past tense words. I've grown to realize that while you're typing, make sure that all your words are in the present and make them happen "now". I actually, just proof read mine again and made sure that I caught all my errors that I had which were slim to none since I was thinking about changing the words while I was typing my paragraph this time. Also, including the plot summary was an issue of mine that I had in the first go-around. An easy way to clear this part up in your commentary is to not think literal always but to also think out of the picture while writing. When I think more literal, it comes to it where I just start restating what the text said in the first place which is what I'm trying to avoid.

POETRY OUT LOUD.

        PART ONE:
The poem that I picked that begin with a 'J' because it's the first letter of my name is "John Lennon" by Mary Jo Salter.
The poem that I picked that starts with 'F' since it's the third letter of my last name is "Four Portraits of Fire" by Lorna Dee Cervantes.
The poem that my friend Maddie suggested to me was "Romance" by Claude McKay
I recommended her the poem called "First Poem for You" by Kim Addonizio.
The other two poems that I picked out for myself to read were "Traveling Through the Dark" by William E. Stratford and "Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand
        PART TWO:
Out of the all these different poems I enjoyed almost all of them besides "Romance" and "John Lennon". I enjoy poem that you can easily relate to and these two weren't them. I'm not that all of a romantic type since I'm still kind of young, which if you read the poem you would understand. I don't listen to John Lennon's music all that much so they were just words that didn't really mean anything to me. I enjoyed the rest of them because they were all well written and I enjoyed trying to figure out the meanings for each of them. I am most interested in reading about "Four Potraits of Fire" because it hooked onto me. I like how it's actually broken up into four distinct parts. I also enjoy the way that everything flows together.
        PART THREE:
Two things that'll be hard for me are first having a good physical presence because I have a good posture usually, but having to look out at the judges and the audience isn't really my thing. I usually end up staring off at the ground or at the wall or something. Also, the Dramatic Appropriateness because I'm not the best at talking with my hands or with my body unless I'm having to physically point at something or someone. Two things that should be easiest for me first include Voice and Articulation because I'm usually a reader that has a low mumbling voice that nobody ever understands, but I have a loud enough voice for people all over the room to hear it but it still won't sound like yelling. I'm not quite the sing-song type of person so if there were rhyming it'd be easy for me not to make it sound like a song. Also, I think that Evidence of Understanding would be easy for me because once I get into the work, such as studying it for homework, I will find out what it means for sure before I'm going to have to read it because otherwise I wouldn't even understand what I was saying.
        PART FOUR:
I chose "Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams. William Farley has a great stage presence. He gives just enough pause between each line and he's looking throughout the entire audience during his entire recitation. Also, I chose "I Am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Madison Niermeyer understands what her poem is about because she gives her dramatic-ness whenever it's needed. She isn't overdoing it at all. Also, she's looking at most of the people in the audience which is a very good thing.
        PART FIVE:
Now for my summary. I think that the competition isn't going to be that nerve-racking because we're only doing it in front of our class which takes off a lot of the pressure since we already know everyone in our class. I think that I'll do alright actually since I'm not that great of talking in front of large groups. I mean, I don't that I'll do the best but that's okay, at least I will be trying. I, as I stated earlier, will be memorizing the poem 'Four Portraits of Fire" by Lorna Dee Cervantes. I chose it because it intrigues me. I think that the website is very easy navigated and there is enough information on there so that there won't be a reason for you not to do good on this project thing.

PARAGRAPH.

        Within' the past two weeks or so and it's still on going, we've been reading our five-part paragraphs about TKAM. I have indeed already read mine. While others read, we get to critique each others paragraphs based from the checklists we're given. The critique is both positive and negative. So, for me I thought there was a number of things that the class can work on as a whole. The number one thing though has got to be embedding those quotes. I'm almost positive that over half the class did that wrong. It's not that hard to do, as long as you know what you're doing. I just don't think that people were paying attention close enough to how they were suppose to do it. Another big issue that had also has to do with the quotes but it's when you cite the quote you aren't suppose to include 'pg.' before the actual number which many people did. I think that if we can just get these two skills down, all the papers will seem A LOT better. Oh, and I have one more thing to add. There was a lot of past tense words used in the paragraphs which shouldn't have been there, including mine. Which as long as you proof read your paragraph enough times I think that most people will be able to catch there mistakes next time.
        So now for my paper. I know that I had many things wrong with my paper, but I think that I did a pretty good job though for my first time ever writing a paragraph and having it have to be so strict and precise. The main thing that I saw and many others probably also saw was my lack of commentary and having little bits and pieces of plot summary. I think that I should have spent a little more time writing what I really thought about the quotes and not just summarizing what they meant during the section that the quote was in in the book. I'll be very sure to try and clean that up next time. Also, I found that as I stated above, I had a lot of simple proof reading mistakes which I can be sure to catch next time I'm writing another five-part paragraph.

DICTION.

        Now that I finally thought about it, I don't think I've done anything fun this past week at all. It's been quite a bore actually. The best part of my week I think was on Monday evenin' when my grandma took me to Brewery City for dinner. It was mighty tasty. I'll try and describe my whole Monday experience out to you though. So, it started off by going to a boring day of school like usual, nothin' special. After, my mom took me over to my grandmas house so I could mow her lawn like the perfect little grandson that I am. The truth is, I only do it because she gives me ten bucks a week; but that's besides the point. Then she came home for work in her nice, shiny ride and we went out to dinner. Oh wait, I could I leave out the part about me runnin' on the treadmill that she got for about a half hour. I enjoy running quite a bit actually, it releases all that stress.
        Okay, so now I think that it's time to start talking about that tasty dinner that I had. Mmm, I can almost remember it now. We got to the restaurant, and we walked inside of the tasty parlor with that enjoyable taste of pizza driftin' in the air. The nice hostess who I'd say was maybe seventeen or so, sat us down in a clean both away from the only other people in this place! They didn't bother me at all though, they were very old and didn't seem like they were in very happy moods anyways. We sat there for less than a minute before this waitress came to take our order, she was very pretty I might add. I told her "Can I please have a pepsi and a medium pepperoni pizza, I'm very hungry tonight." She told me that I was "a growing boy who needs all this delicious pizza in order to grow up all handsome." I thought it was quite a remark. That's about all I gotta' say for dinner, the food came out fast and they did a dandy job at cookin' it all up.

EXTRA CREDIT.

        Okay, so here I go. So I know that I'm not the greatest writer in the world but that doesn't matter. I haven't been all that proud of any of my writing because I know that I'm still in someway just a beginner as a writer because I still have a lot more that I can learn and so much time to do it. But, if I had to chose just one piece of writing, I'd probably have to chose my paragraph that I wrote on Global Warming in eighth grade. I got the highest score in the class and I felt very proud of myself. In my essay, I felt connected to it and mostly the entire topic. It was at least two pages long that I can remember. I talked about all the many different ways that we can do to help our environment such as riding bikes, and not to litter. Something else, that I thought I won everyone over was using the whole guilt trip thing and talking about how there are many different arctic animals going extinct each year because people are being selfish and careless and not caring about their environment because they didn't think that they were going to live long enough for it to die. I don't think that I could write another essay this good again because it was during a stage when I just loved to write. Everything sounded so sophisticated and it flowed together very nicely. This is my best essay, that I've written.

OUTSIDE READING NOVEL.

        Well, I'm sorry for being late but I had no computer to use. But hey, better late then never! Anyways, I'm reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and so far it's not that interesting of a book. I mean yeah, it's not a bad book or anything but there hasn't really been a big high point in the book where the character has a big problem or anything that Holden needs to solve. Holden does seem like a cool kid though, I mean, I would probably be friends with him. He likes to think of things to do right at the moment. When something annoys him, he deals with it right away. So far in the book, there has been a lot of characterization. I think that that'll be a large part in this book. There are many different small characters in the book that kind of just come and go where you can always write down the characterization of them.
        I'm going to compare this novel with the book Be More Chill, because the main character is very laid back and is very critical about most things. the two novels both also have very similar setting because they both kind of take place in big cities. At this point, I sort of want to paint a picture because I enjoy art and I think that'd it be fun and simple. Also, Meghann is wanting to do a movie in the downtown area which seems like it'd be kind of fun but just not very many options you could take with that.

EXTENDING MY PERSPECTIVE.

        To Kill A Mockingbird to me means that if someone is always nice and has an attitude that it's impossible to hate, then it's hating that person for an unexplainable reason. My friend Hailey, I would call a 'Mockingbird' because she has such a friendly personality that you just can't ever get mad at her. They always make you feel better. When life gives you a present(the mockingbird person), then savor the person and stay friends with them because they are such great people.
        To me the novel speaks to me in a way that it probably also reaches out to many other people. I think that it shows a large idea on people and what it shows about themselves. All of the racism and hate means a lot and tells you a lot about a person. You can really found out how a person acts and what their personality is like just from on racism comment that they say. Racism is a very hurtful thing, it is one person to dislike one person of a different race, but if you hate the whole race because of that one person or even for no reason, then that shows that the person is a rude person and doesn't care about anyone but themselves. Bully's bully because they have their own problems and they like to take out their anger on other people. In this case with all the racism, it is like a bully except that they are using their words and not actions. Also, learning. You can learn a lot of life lessons in this novel such as don't judge a book on it's cover. It is possible for someone to have really bad looks, and they can turn out to be one of the nicest people you've ever met. I want you to find this person, and watch them become one of your favorite friends that you've ever had.

MY BOO RADLEY.

          When I was between the ages between about seven and ten, I used to have a terrible fear that wouldn't ever leave me. So, I wasn't one of those kids who refused to watch scary movies, I actually enjoyed watching them! But watching them wasn't exactly the problem. I never got scared while watching them and I have still yet ever watched one that scared me. The part that I got scared about was after the movie; it always seemed that the scary character in the movie came to my life and haunted me.
          Whenever I watch scary movies, there always seem to be a big window around wherever I am. Also, I only ever watched them at night time because what doesn't set the mood better than a nice, dark night. Anyways, I always imagined that the character was going to pop-up out of the darkness and just appear there, staring, straight at me and no one else. I always tried to hide under the blanket, but everyone already knows that that never works. But hey, it was worth a try. When the movie gets over, I walk down the hall and always have to pass the biggest window in the whole house. Can you guess what always appeared in that window? If you actually guessed then you're probably right, it was the scary character from the movie. Up until I was around the age of ten I had this problem.
          Once I finally got old enough and finally realized that none of this could actually happen, I overcame my fear and figured out that it's all just a movie and that my mind was fooling me. Just like Scout Finch and her fear of Boo Radley, it was her mind that kept her believing all of those stories and other fearful things that she heard about Boo. She got herself tricked that everything actually happened until she came old enough and got the chance to meet Boo to realize that he isn't a bad guy at all. He just does things his own way.

INTRODUCTION.

        Well, I really enjoy writing. I usually only enjoy writing when I don't have to do it though. So, since I'm oh so dedicated to my school classes and grades, I will be posting long and very thoughtful entries on my blog. As of reading, I don't enjoy reading as much. If it's a book that I don't like at all, then I can maybe read about five minutes without wanting to kill myself, it just ends up taking forever. I'm such an awesome English student though. I will enlighten all of my online followers by having such elaborated work on my blog, it will just enlighten them. Just like that.
        I think that English class is to fully understand everything about anything you do. I takes a lot to be a writer and a reader. You have to fully wrap your head around everything you do with everything that English is. You have to understand the literature that you're reading, you have to be able to discuss it, and even answer questions about it in a way that makes complete sense.
        It takes four years of English to be a college bound student because to be in college you obviously have to be a very bright and intelligent person. If you don't understand all the literature you read and talk about in high school then you won't be able to understand mostly any part of college. A lot of college is reading, in every subject that you do. If you can't do that, then there isn't much you can do. For an occupation, I want to make a living in a nice, small town. I myself either want to be a business owner or a photographer. I think that running my own little store in a nice small town would be fun and there is a lot of math involved in that and probably also a ton of English that you need to read when you are studying about owning a business. Just do what you can, while you still have the time to do it.