Q4 Week 5 Comments

I commented on Hudson's blog.
https://huds0ngenglish.blogspot.com/2017/04/1-ambition-is-positive-desirable-trait.html?showComment=1493060272062#c1734166707419462374

I commented on Sarah's blog.
https://sarahcenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/04/2-if-you-are-in-position-of-power-you.html?showComment=1493060389334#c5642080115479595161

Hits and Misses

My hits in English would most likely be my blog posts and my Lord of the Flies literary analysis. All three of these assignments were fun to write and work on, and they didn't cause me much trouble. I'm not saying that it didn't take any effort because it definitely did, but I'm saying that working hard on these was beneficial to me. I feel like I grew most as a writer while making my literary analysis of Lord of the Flies. This analysis was difficult for me because I had never written this type of essay before, but I learned so much about this style of paper and I can use it to my advantage in the future. This lead to me feeling very proud of my successful paper. My blog posts were really fun to write because it gave me a chance to express myself in somewhat short paragraphs every week. The only blog posts that I wasn't completely proud of were my reading responses.

My first miss would have to be my reading response blogs. I felt like it was hard to recall the information that I had read the past week and draw a central point about it. Sometimes I wouldn't understand what was happening in the book or I would stop reading in the middle of a scene. This caused some difficulties for me. Another one of my misses would be poems. I liked how I could easily express myself, but it didn't come as easily to me as I thought it would. As I would write my poems, I wouldn't know what to write about and I wouldn't know exactly how to word it in a poetic type of writing. I also feel like I didn't learn as much from poems as I did with other projects because I didn't exactly know the guidelines of what I was supposed to write.

Anticipating the Next Book

I strongly disagree with the statement "If you are in a position of power, you are happy." There are many reasons that I don't believe this but a very prominent one is that it depends on the person. Some people would really like to be in a position of power with control over everything. In this case, I would agree with the statement. However, some people are too shy or afraid of this type of authority. They might want to work behind the scenes where they are happier. For example, I have a friend who absolutely hates being on stage. She likes to work behind the scene and help with the arrangements for the play. In a way, the actors have more power, but even if she has less power, she's happier. This statement makes it seem like power promises a certain emotion for everyone. I think this statement could be made more universal if it said that "If some people were in a position of power, they are happy."

I also highly disagree with the statement "Who we are--our essential character and temperament--is fixed and unchangeable." My reasoning for this is that our experiences can change who we are. We learn and grow as we age and it can be for better or worse. For example, when I was little I had a very shy personality. I didn't like to talk to lots of people or give presentations in front of the class. Now, I couldn't care less about having the fear of giving a presentation or talking to anyone. I think that maybe one or two things about ourselves is unchangeable like our kindness or rudeness, but most things aren't.

Comments Q4 Week 4

I commented on Sarah's blog.
https://sarahcenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/04/what-does-family-mean.html?showComment=1491849709703#c2603379002707031056

I commented on Hudson’s blog.

https://huds0ngenglish.blogspot.com/2017/04/writing-prompt-how-do-you-feel-about.html?showComment=1491849850928#c4812629030011796842

Purple Hibiscus

Throughout reading Purple Hibiscus, I have found that the material in the book is very challenging. However, it hasn't taken me a while to read this book. For example, I finished the book earlier than everyone else and it didn't take me much time. I think that this was a fast read for me for two reasons. For one, I didn't annotate the book like others did. I would make little notes in the book or underline significant events, which helped me comprehend the information better. The second reason being that I enjoyed reading this book and looked forward to having discussions about it. Even though I couldn't necessarily relate all that much to it, I found that I liked reading about this alternative lifestyle.

As I mentioned previously about how I make little notes while reading, I also stop at every page and make a mental note of what happened. I don't stay very long doing this or it would take forever to get through the chapter, but I take a couple seconds to process what event has just happened. I feel that this strategy has really helped me to not forget what is going on in this tough book. Also, whenever I begin to read after a couple of hours or days, I decide to reread the last page of the chapter I just finished. This also helps to keep me focused on exactly what is happening so that I follow how the family is dealing with life. Overall, I enjoy reading Purple Hibiscus and it hasn't been as challenging to read as I first thought.

Favorite Childhood Characters Barbie

When I was a child, I used to be obsessed with Barbies. Like most little girls or even some boys, I used to love dressing up the dolls or braiding their hair. I loved fashion and watching the same Barbie movies over and over again. However, there is more to this than just dressing up dolls for fun. This was my first look into feminism. In my early years, this was the first exposure I had into women working for her own money, women being able to be the stars of movies, and women being the heroes. For example, Barbie had so many jobs which teaches children that they can be whatever they want to be. Also, as I recall, in the Barbie films, the main character, and later hero was a girl, which is important for little girls to see.

As well as feminism, Barbie also incorporates diversity. I used to love how some of the Barbies had brown hair just like me and I would imagine that I was the Barbie. This may sound silly or irrelevant, but this shows that Barbie taught girls not to discriminate against any feature on the human body. For example, I owned any race of Barbie with any color hair, eyes, or skin. It didn't matter to me which Barbie I would play with because I liked the differences that they all had. However, as I am now looking back on the good inclusive qualities that Barbie introduced, I am realizing that there wasn't a diverse perspective on weight. All Barbies seemed to be the same small-waisted, chiseled-faced perfect reflection of how a girl's body should look. I hope that in the present day this will be fixed because it is important for girls to know that weight doesn't define who you are or how you should look.

Q4 Week 2 Comments

I commented on Sarah's blog.
https://sarahcenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/03/political-post-human-trafficking.html?showComment=1490707794707#c557969705611706961

I commented on Kaelyn's blog.
https://ksenglish1.blogspot.com/2017/03/political-article-gun-control.html?showComment=1490708014855#c3240965408146631651