Michael's English Blog

Prompt Response:  If I had to describe how I show love using only three objects, I would choose a box of chocolates, my favorite book, and a custom playlist. These objects represent sweetness, knowledge, and my love for music. They also are related to things I like, like reading and sweets. Summary: We made a valentines poem  Reflection:  Making a valentines poem for my mom made me think about how much she means to me.

Prompt Response:  I would say that after writing this essay I feel significantly more confident about analyzing and broadly understanding texts that I read. In the future I think I will feel much more prepared than before due to being able to better articulate what I am thinking and better identifying tools used in writing. Specifically, formatting the thesis before writing the essay allows you to get a mental idea of what you will write about and how you will write about it which is very useful. Summary:  We wrote our essay today Reflection:  I enjoyed writing the essay and being able to write about something like that in such a way was a large learning experience.

Prompt Response:  The step that matters the most to my understanding is the initial analysis where you determine the authors purpose, claim, and context. This gives me a good understanding of what I am writing about and what I need to do in order to properly analyze it. The step teaches you on what to look for and focus on when you are reading a text and it helps you categorize the information Summary: We continued working on our rhetorical essay. Reflection:  The mind-map part of the essay was a good system to categorize your thinking.  

Prompt Response:  My perfect day spend with someone I care about would likely be something very relaxed and low-key. I wouldn't want to do something that involves a lot of movement or spending and would just be a casual and calm time. Some time to simply enjoy each others presence Summary: We started working on our essay Reflection:  The speech we read was fairly interesting and there is a lot of rhetorical techniques to pick up from it.

  Prompt Response:  One time not too long ago I was pretty stressed about college things and my next year of school and I was difficult to deal with. It was a lot of me not knowing what I wanted to do next year and also broad concerns about my future in college. I didn't really know who to talk to about this immediately as I am of course not talking to too many people that are out of college, but I could always ask my dad. Doing this he gave me a lot of information about his experience in college and senior year which gave me better insight into what I should do in  order to have a successful future. Summary: We went over a poem and analyzed the diction within it. Reflection:  The poem was enjoyable and the analysis of the word usage was insightful.  

  Prompt Response:  Working in a group can be really difficult sometimes due to people in a group almost never being willing to do similar amounts of work. This leads to the work seeming sloppy in some areas and broadly feeling disconnected section to section. One time in my ELA class in 9th grade we had a project that required work from everyone to do many different things, as it was a short skit. It ended up being not very good and that was largely due to conflicting and not being 1on1 with our work and progress. I learnt better ways to do group work and how to better facilitate an effective group work environment. Summary: We analyzed and cited quotes as examples of rhetoric in Barack Obama's Ted Kennedy eulogy Reflection:  I thought that the eulogy was very interesting and as it was a very well spoken speech, I was able to pick up techniques and systems for my own writing.

  Prompt Response:  The most challenging part of writing an essay for me is the process of starting it. It takes a lot for me to really get a blueprint going and an idea of what I want to write about and how to write it and so on. Once I can pass this roadblock, writing an essay is fairly trivial in the end for me. To overcome this challenge I need to figure out an effective way for myself to format a rough draft for an essay. Summary:  We graded random student rhetorical essays. Reflection:  I struggled to approach grading this and going strictly off the rubric and grading system. This difficulty helped me understand better how to write my own and make it according to the needs of this type of essay.

  Prompt Response:  I would say that the start of high school felt like the beginning of a powerful story. It was a time of great change for me, as the classes I were taking were much more rigorous and difficult than the classes I had taken before. It was also a time of change for me socially as through this time the people that I hung out with pretty majorly changed and it also evolved my character pretty heavily. Summary: We took our rhetoric sections and made them into a cohesive paragraph. Reflection: I am feeling very positive about rhetorical essays and I feel confident on the production and consuming of them.

  Prompt Response: If I had to write a poem about my life right now, it would be about my thoughts for my future. As we creep further and further through our high school careers, the concept of college and beyond is more and more relevant. It is not scary necessarily but high stress to think about and try to work out what you want to do. All in all it is something that is very heavy on the mind as of these last few months.   Summary: Took some notes on rhetoric and did the CommonLits that we missed Reflection:  The CommonLits that we did were very interesting and gave new outlooks on human interaction

  Prompt Response:  When I am in a mood that I am not satisfied with I usually have to do some hobby or thing that I can take comfort and joy in. Whether that may be something like listen to something specific or watch a certain show. Beyond that, I can usually take some solace within getting things done, such as homework or cleaning something. Summary: We had a Newsela that we completed in class Reflection:  The paper that we read was pretty interesting and I learned about something new.  

Prompt Response:  Whenever I have a project or some sort of assignment that heavily relies on some sort of creative subject or needs a certain design style or just needs to be personal and truly be made by me, it is definitely a process to be able to start on it. I usually have to look at the rubric for that assignment so I can understand within what parameters I am creating in. And then beyond that I will usually sketch out ideas and do research in order to inspire myself. My favorite project of mine is probably a biology presentation I made back in 9th grade and how stylish it was. Summary: We did a vocab paper    Reflection:  The vocab was useful and the writing that we read along side it was interesting.