Melody Monday #17

Technically found this on monday, but hey who keeps track anyways? These past few weeks have been downers and I needed something uplifting. SO here is a song by J-Cole. I don't usually listen to this music, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to this type of music. ENJOY PLEASE.

I, JURY

ERICA M: The strength of her essay was powerful and made mine seem like a little ant. She uses excellent literary techniques to capture the essence of Bernard in Brave New World. Erica not only gives examples but she clearly elaborates and it shows her comprehension on understanding Brave New World.

JACOB H: I really admired that he wrote about Lenina because I was going to write about her but then I did not know exactly what to write. So he gave me a good understanding of her importance in Brave New World. He used many great vocabulary words and I really actually am liking reading about the different perspectives of other students.

COLTER K: Colter's essays are honestly one of my favorite things to read. I have known him since I can remember and he's always been one of those people who are very eloquent when they create essays. This essay, he was actually very straight forward to the point but straight forward in a way that it flows and is not choppy and out of place. Overall, Colter is one of those writers I look to for suggestions.

ELI E: His essay got to the point of comparing I just felt that he could have elaborated more. Though honestly, it was a good essay and he did a good job on comparing reality to "fiction"

DANNY L: He chose a very interesting topic about writing about the objects in Brave New World. Although he did not elaborate very much on his points, he at least address elements in the book that people may have been confused on.

OVERALL, I think everyone did a great job. I enjoy peer editing because I get to see the different perspectives my peers provide that I do not originally see. That is one thing that I am bad at is getting perspective. But it's okay.

This is definitely my Essay...

Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole.  Do not merely summarize the plot.

         To conform to society means to restrain the brain from extending its full potential growth of knowledge and experience. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, society is meant to be restrained and restricted from unleashing the true natural wonders of the mind to gain an order of unity. In didactic terms, unity is beneficial and can accomplish things because “together we stand, divided we fall”. But in ideal terms, the more unity there is, the more entropy is caused. The idea of having less entropy has left Bernard Marx in a rut. Marx, which alludes to a German philosopher, lives in a dystopian community where the caste system separates and predetermines the fates of all individuals. Through his eyes, readers are able to understand the corruption of being an individual and the sheer consequences acted upon people because of what they naturally are.

            Aldous Huxley presents readers a world full of controversial topics of today. Having polygamous relationships and being sexually active at young ages is a social norm. But what is even more odd is the fact of having parents, which is slurred as an unspeakable word. Lenina Crowne, another character, is criticized for her monogamous relationship with a guy named Henry, which in today’s society would be socially acceptable. Lenina is then talked “sense” into by her friend Franny and says to go out and enjoy the gifts given by other men. This indirectly infatuates her mind that what Lenina is doing is morally wrong. Huxley’s purpose of doing so is to create a contrast between a worlds that is currently making history to a world that could be the next history. Huxley wrote about theories that were fifty years ahead of his time. With him portraying his theories through caste systems, soma, mass production and etcetera, a dystopian community is not far from what history could become.

            Though, not everyone is easily influenced by their predetermined faiths. Bernard confronts an elder about what he is experiencing and how he thinks it’s a fluke in the system. This corrollates to how even in a uniformed society such as the government in the United States, not everyone is going to agree on terms on what high officials determine. Even though there was a great gap between the time periods of now and the future setting of this novel, what Huxley predicted is on the verge of becoming reality.

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Watch your fellow classmates participate in a parody video of four well known songs to our generation. This video was created out of pure fun and intended for entertainment as well as a possible $1,000 AVID scholarship. Enjoy!

I AM HERE

YES.
I
AM.
USING.
THIS.
COURSE.
PRODUCTIVELY.
I have actually started my senior project before he assigned the senior project. I have several projects running through my mind. One of them is the typical scrapbook/video of all my high school years through pictures/videos. The difference though is that when I was a sophomore I started an album where I took a picture everyday and ever since have not stopped. I am now on my third 365 day album. The first one was to record for fun, my second one was about focusing on doing kind things and experiencing new things (which was semi-successful in a way where I almost was too busy to even think or record these things) and now my senior ish album is dealing with new adventures to experience before I go to college and my journey there (similar to the first one but I have more of a purpose). My other senior project deals with me interviewing seniors to give advice to younger classmen, interviewing them about best advice, and things they want to do before they graduate. I also want to capture the best and worst moments of high school and such. I don't know how I can do that but it's possible. I also want to record these experiences seniors want to have. I could also split this idea up into two parts. My other idea was to have a blog with a collaboration with my friend Erica to focus on things and we can do vlogs every week or so. You know what I might just do that. Okay. Next idea is since we are all working on passing the AP exams, why don't we connect with other classrooms around the world and see how they are studying. From this we could probably meet new people and such. And lastly, (or so I think) I have been working on a  collaborative project since last semester. SHHH. That's how big of a deal it is. Collaboration is key for all of this and taking your learning into your own hands is also great, we can learn by networking and interacting with the folks all around. My big question was actually does life happen by fate or by chance and I am actually still trying to figure it out but I might have a gist of what could be the right answer.

(PICTURES WILL BE INSERTED SOON)


I have less than four months. I CAN DO IT!!

Brave New World

Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling

to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place,

between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile

can become “a potent, even enriching” experience.

Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether

that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you

analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience

illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable

literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot.

My plan would first be to develop a list that displays the main characters of brave new world and from there differentiate which character has more experience relating to the AP topic. I would organize it in such a way that the there would be 2-4 body paragraphs. The first paragraph would be to describe and compare the alienation. The second paragraph would be to explain the benefits and didactics of the alienation. The third paragraph would be analyzing the whole process and what the "higher" meaning is. I would then start to write and continue until i get writers block.

Lit Sixxxxxxx

Simile: literary technique to describe things in comparison using like or as
soliloquy: a speech given by one character to oneself
spiritual: a higher or “other” feeling giving that goes beyond  ones senses
speaker: who is telling the text, who is auditing the story
stereotype: a label or category given to a person based on common trends that may or may not be relevant to race and preference.
stream of consciousness: Performative utterance. A way of writing without a filter about what is going on in one’s mind.
structure: how the story is set up.
style: the technique to how an author writes
subordination: to place in a lower rank
surrealism: create potential of the unconscious mind
suspension of disbelief: human interest and truth blended into truth
symbol: something that refers to a bigger meaning
synesthesia: a senses impression
synecdoche: part is made to represent a whole
syntax: how a sentence is written to create a deeper meaning
theme: what is a common occurring subject that comes up
thesis: a sentence or two that describes the summarizes the selection
tone: the voice in which an author is writing in.
tongue in cheek: not meaning what is written
tragedy: dramatic type of event that shocks both audience and characters in story
understatement: stating something that doesn’t add up to the full potential of a subject
vernacular: the spoken language
voice: who is speaking and what are they trying to say
zeitgeist: spirit or mood of a period through beliefs and ideas

Some resources?

connection to classrooms around the world

Classrooms to outside world

HAFTA/ WANNA

Explain similarities/differences you see between your life during high school and life after high school.  Is there a significant difference?  Will people somehow magically transform the day after graduation, or will they take their current habits of mind/word/deed into their next set of daily activities?  How do you balance the things you want to do and the things you have to do, and what are your expectations of yourself and the world around you as you move on?

Similarities, you're making little fetus (metaphorically) choose a path that will determine a good majority of their life. Girls that are barely moving onto high school or not even in high school yet are already committing to college? I may be a bit biased because I am a soccer girl but I have been doing club since I was in grade school and honestly I do not think I would have ever imagined wanting to play in college. Playing in college would be such a huge commitment and honestly ALOT of things can change in four years especially for these girls. Maybe it's an injury, maybe they want to be free and do what they please or maybe they don't "love" the game anymore. By love I meant they aren't playing the sport for themselves anymore but for others. Which is a very frustrating line that many athletes walk sometimes. 

Anyways similarities between my life and after high school is that I am still not going to know for sure how my life will end up but that I should pursue my passions and feed my hunger for knowledge. Yeah. NO YOU WILL NOT MAGICALLY TURN HOT, OR MAGICALLY BECOME TALENTED, THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS "MAGIC" unless you're Harry Potter, or from Hogwarts, then your something special. Everything is just an illusion to our minds and eyes. I can't really think right now, I'm going to come back to this post and elaborate.

Melody Monday #16

Taking it back to some nostalgic times. Just had my senior night tonight and it was such a weird experience. The night before we had such a lovely pasta party singing old songs. SO here is a list of some of those songs.

Jesse McCartney- Beautiful Soul

Jonas Brothers - Love Bug

Cheetah Girls- Cheetah Sisters

The Nose

1. What does Ivan Yakovlevich do for a living? 
He is a barber. 2. What does Ivan find in a loaf of bread? 
He finds... A NOSE!3. How does his wife respond to Ivan's discovery? 
She is upset and accuses him of a this awful crime of cutting off someones nose.4. What does Ivan set out to accomplish? 
He wants to get rid of the nose but keeps running into people he knows.5. When Ivan tosses the "package" in the river, for a brief moment he is happy; then he is arrested. What does this scene suggest about the role of happiness in Ivan's life/community/society? 
Happiness meant giving up a freedom. 6. Where does the title object belong, and how does it finally get there?
The nose belongs to Collegiate Assessor Kovalev. It gets to him by the police returning it to him.

Lit Terms 5

Parallelism: using elements in sentences that are grammatically similar or identical in structure, sound, meaning, or meter. This technique adds symmetry, effectiveness and balance to the written piece.

Parody: The definition of a parody is an imitation of something, particularly literature or a film, that is meant to make fun of it.

Pathos: Pathos is defined as a feeling of sympathy or sorrow.

Pedantry: is an excessive attention to the rules or paying strong attention to the minor points of learning.

Personification: is giving human characteristics to non-living things or ideas.

Plot: a marked off area that is intended for a specific use.

Poignant: is something that has a strong effect on emotions or the senses, especially smell.

point of view: is a way in which a person looks at the world or the angle from which a specific situation should be viewed.

Postmodernism: is a movement that focuses on the reality of the individual, denies statements that claim to be true for all people and is often expressed in a pared-down style in arts, literature and culture.

Prose: regular written or spoken language that is not poetry.

Protagonist: is defined as the main character of a story.

Pun: a pun is a joke making a play on words.

Purpose: a purpose is a goal or intention

Realism: a representation of how things really are, or being practical and facing facts

Refrain: a refrain is the part of a song or poem that is repeated.

Requiem: a song, chant or poem for someone who died.

Resolution: resolution is a plan for something to be done

Restatement: to state or affirm again or in a new way

Rhetoric: the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.

rhetorical question: a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply,

rising action: a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

Romanticism: the Romantic style or in literature and adherence to its principles.

Satire: the use of sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding, folly, etc.

Scansion: the metrical analysis of verse. The usual marks for scansion are ˘ for a short or unaccented ¯ or · for a long or accented syllable, ^ for a rest, | for a foot division, and ‖ for a caesura or pause.

Setting: the locale or period in which the action of a novel, play, film, etc., takes place: