My Poem

My poem of choice was 'The Road Not Taken' By: Robert Frost. I chose this poem for quite a few reasons. Three of the reasons being, because Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets, I can relate to it very well, and the impressive wording.

To start, I have always been a great fan of Robert Frosts work. Many of my favorite poems are written by him, but what I like about him is that he doesn't really have a pattern of writing. He writes about different subjects that all relate to different aspects of life. Because of all the more in depth meaning that he expresses it pulls me in to want to read more about it. His style of writing is very descriptive and has fantastic imagery detail weaved into it.

Another reason why I can thoroughly enjoy this poem is because I can simply relate to the bigger meaning that is portrayed within the piece. For example, I think that the poem talks about the decisions in life and which on is the right decision. And I have always had to deal with tough decisions that children really should not have to worry about. But nevertheless, the past is the past and in comparison to that he goes on to say 'I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference'. When he says this he basically is saying that the decisions in life that you make will change your life dramatically in the future.

Finally, the wording in this poem was very impressive and awe inspiring. I enjoy poetry more when it has a neutral amount of complexity in the word choice department. As this poem does have in my opinion. For example, when Frost writes 'In leaves no step had trodden black' which I find a little bit complex but not too much to where your having to look up every other word in the dictionary.

To sum it all up, 'The Road Not Taken' By: Robert Frost is and always will be one of my favorite poems of all time. And that has made all the difference!

5 part extra credit

I have realized that the five part paragraphs are easily misunderstood but when you think about the order you are supposed to write in it becomes not so vague. I have figured out that the best way to write a five part paragraph correctly is to be in the right order at all times and to make sure every aspect has a full foundation to the topic sentence. In my five part paragraph these were the two heaviest pieces that I missed and now I know for this time to write everything with firm connections and making everything orderly and labeling the stanzas or pages the informatyion came from.

Poetry Out Loud

1. Broken Promises by. David kirby
2.Invitation to Love by. Paul Lawrence Dunbar
3. Fern Hill by. Dylan Thomas
4.Candles by. Carl Dennis & The Road Not Taken by. Robert Frost

Part Two:
My most favored of the five poems would have to be the 'Invitation to love' By: Paul Lawrence Dunbar and The Road Not Taken by. Robert Frost because of the emotion and setting of the poems and the poems phrased the setting easily enough to understand what the poem is about but what I have noticed about the poems that I take interest too is that they are compared to aspects bigger than what they appear.

The poem that I enjoyed the least was 'Fern Hill' by. Dylan Thomas because it did not have the content of the requirements that I stated about the poems that I took interest in above and I also know that the 'Fern Hill' poem was very long and drug out.

If I were to choose between the the poems at hand I would choose 'The road not taken' because it is the most thoughtful in my opinion and it is just enough compared to the bigger lesson of the story and it has vocabulary that roll off the tongue like water off of a ducks back.

My personal connection to poems is deeper than I could ever explain in words. Now, obviously there are probably words out there that I could explain this feeling I get when I process the emotion in my brain but I have realized that I do not know of any such words yet and will be anxious to learn them in the future.

Part Three:

The easiest two criteria would have to be the memorization and the accuracy but the other two performance and expression would be the most difficult but I will just have to practice them.

Part Four:

I believe this is a successful performance because the projection and emotion is easily seen to the audience from the person speaking and you could tell that the speaker knew what they were talking about because there is no way that a performance could be fa ken in emotion from understanding.

Part Five:

I think that the poetry out loud competition will be a great yet nerve raking experience for me because it combines two of my favorite things literature and competitive instinct. I am pretty excited to see what will happen and whether I will win or not and hopefully I will do well in the competition.

Extra Credit

I have about three key elements that are most important to me that I have learned. Now, the most important would be the discussions, and how to put your ideas in your mind out to other people to understand and agree or disagree to. I have obviously realized that there almost always be someone who disagrees hence the ongoing politics. This aspect has been my absolute favorite part of honors english because I not only get a different point of view on the topic but I also get to put my thoughts out for other people to hear my point of view.

Also, the decoding the prompt pieces have helped me pull apart poems and pros to realize parts that I probably wouldn't see otherwise. Defining what I actually have to understand about the section before I even write about it helps me get a better feel for the meaning of the morsel. But I would have to say considering what needs to be addressed and deciding how best to respond to the prompt would be the finest part of the decoding the prompt section. I believe this is true because I get to learn about new vocabulary words to configure how to explain what the author is trying to protray.

In addition, the five part paragraphs were also very helpful because I now know a different way of writing that I had never heard about and in my opinion, it beats writing an essay because it compares things in the piece rather than getting your opinion out there. Because it is nice to cha nge it up every once in a while. The vicinities that are all put together make a better organized paragraph, because otherwise the ideas can all run together and it doesn't make any sense. But I think that I like them because of the fact that you can use any part of the topic that you think you can write the best on. So in conclusion the disscussions, the TWIST, and the five part paragraph are the topics that have stuck in my head the best.

Lobsters Discussion

One aspect that I found quite interesting was that more often than not we always got so in depth of the conversations that we forgot to talk about the prompt. We always waited until the last minute to dicuss it so I found it pretty difficult to decode the prompt. But the people that did remember to change the subject to the prompt were the most common speakers. But the piece itself is very descriptive and full of imagery and there is plenty of comparisons between the lobsters and ourselves. So, to sum it all up our class was about a moderate grade for the discussion but the piece was quite extravagant.

Five Part Critique

With all the talk about five part paragraphs I have learned a series of things. Everything from begining to the very end. For example, when you write a topic sentence it should be able to connect to every supporting point in the paragraph. I saw a couple papers that were like this as well as my own. Another aspect that has to be correct is the order of the paragraphs. When you have an order to the paragraph it not only flows better but if you have the quotes in order from begining to end then it also looks nicer. But, one of the most important things to remember is to embed quotes because if you just put the quote wherever without embeding it then it is not going to make any sense at all to the person reading it or the people your reading it to.

Alot of properties to a "good paragraph" are just common sense like remembering to add the page number of which you got the quotes. But those mistakes were made. Also, when it comes to commentary (which in my opinion is the hardest part) you have to have your opinion but without stating 'I' or 'me'. Otherwise it immediately turns into a paragraph on your specific opinion. That is not the only way you can get the commentary incorrect though, if it has more of an explanation of the events that happen from that specific part of the book than it will be analysed as plot summary and not enough of your own ideas on the detail of the section. So, in my opinion these are some of the most important aspects to remember when writing a five part paragraph.

Informal vs. Formal

Last wednesday morning I arose and was getting adjusted for school when it was about 6:00am. Not until the time that I was walking out the door did I realize that I had left about an hour too early. Because you see I usually get a ride with one of my friends, and when I called her on the way to her house she had just started getting equipped for school and then informed me that I was early and she was not late because we were to start school an hour late on this day. Now, you would imagine to my suprise and discomfort to this realization. But still I then had about an hour to relax and watch television before I set out again to my friends house to go to school at then the correct time and manor.

Also during that week I performed during half-time at the football game that occured. When we walked out onto the tremendous one hundred yard field, I took in the voice of the capatin as she called out five, six, seven, eight. We all pivoted to face the crowd of what seemed to be thousands. Before I knew it I was running off the field and the performance had ended, subconsciously I had performed al by memory of the repetitive practice. Though I was extremely overwhelmed I had done it and I knew I did a great job.

*Extra Credit Blog*

The best writing assignment I did would definitely have to be poetry, in the 7th grade I had to write a poem about the experience of sledding down a big hill in Minnesota. But, I also had to write another on the same day that was about clownfish in science, both of the poems ended up being great but the sledding one was my favorite. I know for a fact that when I do well on a piece of writing I am confident about it. So, when my teacher had to read my paper out loud to my class I couldn't help but smile because I knew I did well. Not only did I know that I did well but so did my peers and my teacher and it affected my teacher in a different way, sure he was proud of me as I was but the other people in my class were all trying to write something better:). At the end of the day I was happy because what I wrote about was something that I love to do and I was able to express it in a way that everyone could understand. Hopefully it put a "movie" style description in their heads.

Outside Reading Book (absent)

So far, I am thoroughly enjoying the book 'Pride and Prejudice' by: Jane Austen. I think that a major reason why I like it so much already is because of how potent the character's attitudes are, and I haven't even read that much of the book yet. But, not only are the characters easy to read but the book in general is very easy to understand. The novel up to where I have read is about the mother of three girls wanting to marry them off to wealthy men. As the mother is focused on getting them all taken care of, the father is on the side throwing sarcastic phrases at the mother for being so up tight and serious all the time which makes the book seem nicer because it is not just all serious strict characters all the time. Since I have such a great idea of what the characters look and act like I figured that for my project I would do a poster for a visual aid and talk about it. Hopefully it goes well!

My favorite book of all time is 'Weeping Willow' by: Ruth White. Which also has characters that are easier to figure out. But even though this book is from a different time period, the mothers in both books want the best for their daughters. Even though they may disagree at some points they just want the best for them. Also, while reading both books I realized that I am getting so into them that whe I talk about it I say "movie" instead of book because it is so crystal clear for me to figure out the setting the characters (etc). But I will just have to see if my favorite book title changes when I finish this novel.

My Extended Theme

As I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' I realized that it got more and more interesting as it went along, because though it does not really grab you at the begining it is a book that is full of life lessons. This book first caught my curiousity when it said that it was based in the south because I lived in Texas for a while and know how the setting is down there. This book means alot to me in the way of knowing how to respect the way others are, the way they live (Boo Radley), dress (Scout), and most of all who they stand by (Atticus).

One of the massive lessons in this book is respect and not only is that a key point in my life but in the rest of my family member's lives too. Because like I said when I lived in Texas for a while I realized that they lived in high respect for everyone and not one person was treated differently. I know that it is not that way down there in the 1930's of course. I was born here and moved back and forth from here to there alot throughout the course of my childhood and there is a big difference between here and there. Not only the weather but the attitude and generosity of other people, I know alot of people use phrases like southern comfort and things like that to explain the south and don't get me wrong it's the truth but they are not just talking about food they are talking about the people. The folks in Texas will come right up to you and give you a hug when they just meet you or give you a helping hand whenever you need it. In the book after the trial was all done for Atticus received food from many people in town to thank him for doing the dirty work, that is the exact thing that I am so thoroughly trying to explain.

When Scout says that she would go walk into town with Jem all the tim by herself because it was that close it brought back memories. I used to walk into town all of the time with my older half sisters and cross the railroad tracks to got to the gas station for candy or anything. Everything down in the south seems to be close together I lived in a 2mi long 2mi wide town and almost everyone there was family and if they were'nt related to me they were close enough to be family. The church that I attended in the south was also in walking distance as well as the park. To get the point across, everything that was in this book that related to the setting in the southern area I could relate to besides the racism because like I said before the people down there are just too respectful for all that non-sense.

My Boo Radley

When I had just turned four I wondered, who is this person that comes and goes from the end of our driveway? As I woke up in the morning some days I would look out the window at this car go by and a man would get out and put papers in a box held up by a stick on the end of the driveway. I did not want to ask anyone about the figure because I was so afraid of him. At that age I was really unaware of how harmless he was, so all I could really do is wonder and be intimidated and terrified of him.This may be something that alot of kids probably already knew at that age but this is the only thing that I could think of in my childhood that was at all similiar to this prompt.

Similar to Scout's experiences, I would always run to the end of the driveway when he had gone and check to see what he had left me I would consistently get papers, ads, magazines, and bills and I was so confused as to why he was giving these things to me. This went on for a couple of weeks, but like scout my Boo Radley left things for me, I was unsure of him, and in a big way I was intimidated by him. There were a couple times though that my mom would go out to the end of the road and he would just hand her the mail and at that point I thought of my mom as a brave person. When my mom came inside sometimes she would be upset, not too much to throw something but not too little to not notice she would be looking at a page and shaking her head in a negative way (bills) and I didn't find that one out until later on.

At the end of the story Scout finds out that Boo is really in fact harmless when he saves her. In fact, I was saved by my mailman when I got angry with my mom one day and decided to pack up my little suitcase that had a rugrat(dill) on it and walk to the end of our street and when I went out to walk into the road a car was coming and the mailman stopped it and told me to watch out. Bythis time my mom was running down the end of the street and I was mortified so
I clung to my mom as she thanked him and she told me to thank him, so I did and immediately felt a rush of relief. From that day on I was never startled by him ever again, and I started meeting him at the edge of the driveway for our mail.

My Intro.

Obviously, I love writing and English related subjects. I believe that the reason why I enjoy writing and reading is beause it's an exciting way to express yourself even if it's just you opinion on a book, article, or poem. I've always been someone to write poems when I have the time or figure out what words sound right with each other. But also, I think that one of my favorite pieces of writing is the vocabulary that can be used nicely in the future work that I create. Because I'm constantly using a thesaurus.

Now, the actual education factor of writing is crucial. English is absolutely going to help me in the long run because as of right now I want to be a writer, I have huge goals when it comes to being successful in this department of education. For example, I want to go to Princeton when I graduate and have writing continue in my life for a long time after I finish school. And I know what all of the people that are reading this are thinking "what?", but yes I know what I want to do because this is something that I seriously enjoy.