Katherine's English 1 Blog

     "Sarah, how are you today?" Jordan asks while waiting for his friend Mike to finish checking out at Whole Foods.      "I'm doing well. Thank you, Jordan!" Sarah replies.      "Did you watch the LSU game last night?" Jordan asks, curiosity striking him.      "I did. I was very disappointed with LSU. I really thought they would beat Mississippi State," says Sarah in a matter-of-fact kind of way.      "Do you like LSU?" says Jordan.      "Of course I do! They are my favorite team," Sarah exclaims, thinking that maybe Jordan doesn't like them.      "Do you go to all the LSU home games?" Jordan asks.      "Every single one. Saturdays are made for football. I am really excited for the Syracuse game next weekend. Anyways, I've got to go. Maybe I'll see you at the game." Sarah replies, thinking about how great next Saturday was going to be.

               My classmates and I just turned in our first rough draft of our personal narratives. I actually did better than I thought I would have. The hardest part for me was getting ideas. I didn't know what I was going to write about because I couldn't think of anything really interesting and I couldn't find good significance. I thought about it for a while and made a few outlines,  and I finally picked the one I thought was best and most interesting.                In my personal narrative, I wanted to make sure I had enough vivid detail because Dr. D stressed that a lot in class. At first, it was really hard to think about all the small details, but once I started remembering them it got easier. I feel like vivid details are a very important part in my narrative because they set the scene for my story. They also allow the reader to imagine the story in their head.

Julia - Dear 13 Year Old Grace M - Reading Response

Dear 13-year-old, don't give up on things. This is one of my core values that my parent's and coaches have instilled in me throughout the years. My dad especially has taught me this. He has always told me that I shouldn't give half of my efforts when I'm doing something, but instead, I should give double by efforts at all the things that I do. He always told me that I have to work as hard as I can at whatever it is that I do. This is important to me because I have used this every day to make decisions in how I hard I work in school and sports. Every time I start a task, even the smallest one, I remind myself of my dad's important words of advice for never giving up and working as hard as you can on everything you do. I will always remember these words when I start anything.

               In Us and Them by David Sedaris the author uses figurative language to express ideas to the reader and asks questions to get the reader to think. The author expresses his ideas through figurative language such as irony. For example, when he is explaining that Mr. Tomkey doesn't believe in television he includes the fact that the narrator's mom and dad also don't like TV. The ironic part is that right after the narrator's parents say they don't believe in TV, they turn on the TV and start watching it. This shows that the parents aren't really against television.                The author also includes a lot of questions to get the readers thinking like they are the narrator. For example, the author includes this question that goes through the narrator's mind: "What must it be like to be so ignorant and alone? Could a normal person even imagine it?" This allows the reader to get into the narr...

Gregory - Eldest: Christopher Paolini's Problem Seryn - Hurricane Katrina

Gregory - Red Stick Rumble Katie - Concert

               September 11, a day of hardship and suffering, but also a day of bravery and heroism. On this day, terrorist's associated with the al-Qaeda extremist group took over four planes. Two of these planes targeted the World Trade Center's towers. One flew into the Pentagon and another in an open field in Pennsylvania. These attacks were meant to cause mass destruction and chaos on the American people. At this, they were successful in doing so. Over 3,000 people lost their lives this day due to these terror attacks.                Although this day was full of grief, brave men and women appeared and exemplified their courage to save hundreds of people's lives. This was displayed when one of the planes was hijacked. A number of passengers realized that they were not going to make it to an airport safely. So, they derived a plan to stop the terrorists. They overthrew the terrorists by attacking ...

               In The Help by Kathryn Stockett, I notice that the author formats her book in an interesting way and keeps the readers' attention by keeping some things unsaid. The author formats her book by chapters, but each chapter is either in Minny's voice or Aibileen's voice. These are two maids that have drastically contrasting personalities and views. I have seen this type of formatting before, but what makes it even more interesting is the fact that the author gives each character two chapters to explain their views. Normally, authors will have a different view point for each chapter.                The author also keeps the readers' attention by keeping some things in the characters' lives a secret. For example, Minny keeps bringing up that she did something unimaginable and unmentionable to Miss Hilly. The reader can tell that Minny has done something terrible and inappropriate, but the...