Animal Farm Project Paper

We did the theme, Revisions of the Past. For this we decided to do the seven commandments and how the pigs changed them all to benefit themselves. We used Megan’s animals for the actual ones and for some of the revised ones. The past is the original commandments, when they were first thought of. We used Megan’s animals to show what each commandment was about. Then we looked through the book to find how the pigs changed the commandments to make sure that they were the higher animals of the farm. I video taped the clips and also edited them, and I spent like two hours everyday working on it. I spent about 6 hours on it all together maybe more. Then we spent about 4 hours on the Saturday after we got the assignment to shoot the clips of the commandments. We had a general idea of what we were doing, and then we changed our minds sometimes on where we would do the scene and how we would do it like with the animals. We got most of the filming, just about all of it, the I added a few clips to where I thought we needed it. I thought it turned out pretty well, on our computer it didn’t look that good, but on the sheet screen it looked pretty good and the music went well even though I had no idea what it was. We all contributed to the video equally. If we can make another short movie, I think I would do it because we had fun shooting the video for it.

Animal Farm Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ocOZE3pUc

Poetry Out Loud Performance

My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun, by William Shakespeare, performed by Allison Strong. Allison did a good job at picking a difficult poem to memorize. She needs to work on not moving her head as much and her hands a little less. I could tell she understood this poem, but she didn't say it so that I would get it. She did well on voice and articulation. You could understand her and she didn't mumble into the microphone or trip over herself in the words. There was no song rhythem. She had good physical presence. She looked confident and looked at the audience the whole time instead of looking at the gound.

I didn't really understand the poem. She's discribing her mistress and how she has bad breath and no color in her checks. Then she calls her a goddess. I don't understand if when she is talking about her in the beginning if it is a good thing or a bad thing. The performer did well at understanding it. but she didn't really tell it so that the audience would understand it.

Mockingbird Motif

The mockingbird motif is repeated throughout the book. It only comes up at least 3 or 4 times. This motif helped me understand what motif is more by actually saying it's a sin to kill a mockingbird which is the book title. Then the times after that I understood that it was the motif because it refered to some of the characters as innocent and fragile like a mockingbird and it also said that it would be like killing a mockingbird. Mockingbirds are fragile and innocent they don't harm anyone and just sing to everyone.

The mockingbird motif that reccurs throughout the book is about people that are fragile and inoccent to other people. Scout calls Boo Radley a mockingbird because he is fragile and doesn't do harm to anybody until he kills Bob Ewell. Scout tries to walk in his shoes by thinking about how he could stay in his house for so many years and not come out. Tom is compared to a mockingbird also. He was innocent in the trial, but back then nobody would put a black man's voice over a white man's voice no matter how bad they think the black man is innocent. This is like the theme justice vs. injustice. The injust part is when Tom is convicted for something he didn't do.

Life Lessons

My parents have always told me to be honest, nice, and finish all of your school work. They usually say to finish my homework because they say that it will pay off in the long run, and that it will help me with other things in life that may have the same situation. Also I would put off projects until either a couple days before the due date or the night and morning of. I don't do this anymore because I learned the hard way kind of that it doesn't work out so good. It's better to get something done early and wait a couple of days to turn it in then to finish it all the night of and spend all night working on it.

I always finish my homework when I get home, so I know I have finished it and I can just relax, but after I finish my chores. Then I don't have to worry about anything until the next day. They always tell me to be honest, which I am, it's better to be honest then to lie because if you lie then the guilt is stuck on you and you feel really bad, I know I would. I am nice to almost everyone, there are those few people, but very little that just bother me until I crack. It's nice to be honest and nice because people will trust you and respect you for who you are and if you lie, that all goes away.

Best Friend

My best friend is so nice. She is there whenever someone needs her. She is very considerate and caring of others. She's funny and very happy. She is just a go lucky girl. She knows how to have fun on a rainy day. She is up for almost everything. She is really good at volleyball, and very athletic. When, I need help in Latin and she gets the assignment, she's willing to help me even if she is kind of busy.

Jasmine does the minimum, but a little more than it, I think she could go to higher classes if she wanted to. She could pull through with it. I love hanging out with her because she is just a nice girl, funny, and very happy. She is also an ambivert, she likes hanging around people, but some days, very rarley, she likes to stay home and just get comfortable on the couch and watch movies.

Early Memories

I remember about 6 or 7 years ago, when the dog that was with my family even before I was born died. Luke, was an english setter and was about 8 when I was born. For three years he was my sibling, until I actually got one. Then there was three of us. We did everything together. Our family would take him on all of the vacations we would go on, because most of them allowed dogs. He was a rambunctious guy always running around and chasing things when we went down to the Oregon Coast. He would always eat the dead seagulls that washed onto the shore, it was gross. My mom and dad sometimes had to run after him because he would chase a flying seagull across the beach. But as he got older he got more slow and didn't do as much as he did. He would just lay on the beach instead of chasing things across it.
When he was 15 or 16 we started to notice that he had a large bump on the side of his hip. I can't remember what it was, but we brought him into the vet. They had to cut it, I think, then he had to wear one of those cones on his head for like 2 weeks or so. It was kind of funny watching him eat his food with the cone completly over the bowl, but sad also. I can't remember what happened exactly, but it was in August 6 or 7 years ago and Luke was 16. I was taking a nap alone and not knowing what was going on around me. Luke had gone over to one of our neighbors house and stayed there for a while. My dad and sister went to go look for him and found him laying in the woods close to their house. My dad had to carry him back and while he was barrying him in the woods my sister cried in my moms arms. Then I woke up and my parents and my sister sat me down at the table and told me what happened. I cried for I don't know how long, and realized that I would never see him again. I lost my best friend that day and I would never get him back.

Rebecca: Imagery

I am reading Rebecca and it is not good. I thought it sounded good, but it really isn't barely at all. I think the literary element that is most used in the book is imagery. Some people might think it is motif and I can see where they are getting that, but I think it is imagery more. The author uses imagery to describe in alot of detail the scenery that the main character is looking at or around her (it never said what her name was). The author explains the scenery in such detail, that it's almost like you are the girl and you are where she is. The author explains the way she is looking at something and how it makes her feel and why she feels that way. It also is really easy to imagine, because you have the exact detail. Like when the character is going to Manderly for the first time, the author describes the rhodedendrons on the wall and the way that the drive curved and curved, but then finally was straight. It kind of made you feel the same way as the character, which was awwed by the flowers and how there was so many of them.

Outside Reading

I am reading Rebecca. So far the book is good and I hope it stays that way, throughout the whole book. I wanted to read this book because it sounded good. I read the first chapter and it was very descriptive about her dream. This book is not hard to get into because the first chapter grabs you, the fact that it is her dream and its very descriptive.
I think the major literary element of this book will be imagery because there is a lot of it so far and not alot of irony or a shift in point of view. It could change though there can be alot of irony or point of view change in the rest of the book.
The author wrote the book in this way probably because there is alot of stuff she is doing and it needs to be very descriptive. It also makes the book more interesting because you can imagen what is going on in that part.
The tone for the part that I have read is probably dramaticly nostalgic because she wants to go back to the past, so she can live in her old house, and she is homesick. The dramatic part about it is that she is very emotional about her old house and is very sad that she is not living there anymore.

Writing About Reading

When a new book doesn't capture my fancination, I usually give it a couple chapters before I actualy stop reading it. If it confuses me I read it again to try to understand what the page is talking about. Sometimes if I don't get it at all i ask someone. And if they don't understand it either then I either keep reading and see if it starts to make sense. Or if after a couple of chapters I really don't understand it then I stop reading it.
If a quiet place in the house isn't available to me, I usually go outside on our deck and sit or lie down in a chair. I sometimes can read if the place that I want to read is a little loud, but if the page that I am reading is not catching my interest then I get off task and forget what is on the page and forget whats happening.
I normally read fiction because they are more interesting to me than non-fiction books. Non-fiction books just bore me. Fiction books with action are my favorite, they really make me stay focused because if I get distracted then you forget what is going on.