Cohen

I got to a lot of the things that I love, write historical fiction, write creatively and add all of my previous knowledge.  This assignment however, showed a couple of things:  I need to edit and revise my work at least once and I need to focus on it more.  I think that I need to revise it more, because at one spot in the assignment, I forgot the period!  However, even though there were some bad points to my essay, there were also strong points to balance it out,: I added extra facts, keywords and connected to previous papers, assignments and books that we had red in class.  I think something that I could work on, was looking for punctuation better, I used too many commas.  I want to thank Suzanne for helping me with this paper, she helped me with the idea to make all out of flashbacks, and allowed me a little extra time, because what I was doing was a bit harder.

For this assignment, I was asked to write a five paragraph essay comparing three different time periods using one theme.  The time periods were things that we had learned about.  The Crucible was the first, McCarthyism was the second and modern day was the third.  I decided to write an extra paragraph about another book, Animal Farm.  The theme that I was writing about is scapegoating.  I picked this  because it happened and still happens a lot (and it would be an interesting topic to research).  From this essay I learned how to notice and see scapegoating in everyday life.

This Essay was one of the harder things that I wrote this year.  I spent about two weeks on it, editing and writing and making  sure it was good.  I know that all my hard work and focusing paid off.  I got very good grades on this essay and am proud of it.  However, two things that I could have improved on is the tense and how it sounds when the sentences are formed and commas (when, where and how to use them).  It was a lot of fun being able to research all of these different articles and twitter feeds and speeches for my modern era paragraph.  I also had lots of fun connecting Animal Farm to my essay for an extra credit paragraph.  Overall, I think that I did very well.

We spent one full day on peer editing.  My peer editor was Sam.  He helped me craft and edit my essay, so it made sense and sounded good.  However, my teacher, Suzanne Cohen, was my biggest helper throughout the essay.  When I was stuck or had trouble, I asked her for help, and she was always there for me.  Without her, my essay would not have been what it is.  Thank you Suzanne and Sam (and Ben) for my best essay yet.

For this assignment, I was asked to make a paragraph essay, comparing three different time periods using one theme.  The time periods were things that we had learned about.  The Crucible was the first, McCarthyism was the second and modern day was the third.  I decided to write an extra paragraph about another book,  Animal Farm.  The theme that I was writing about, is scapegoating.  I picked this theme, because it happened and still happens a lot (and it would be an interesting topic to research.  From this essay, I learned how to notice and see scapegoating in everyday life.

This is my Giver Essay.  It is a paper that we write, to show our point of view and how much we know about The Giver.  I am proud of this piece of work, because it shows that my knowledge and point of view, for The Giver.

This is an example of one of my M13C homework.  I am proud of this, because I did really well on this and showed that I payed attention to the reading.  From this homework, I learned all about Powhatans.

This is one of my best note cards.  I am proud of this note card, because I did this really well and got a high grade.  This note card will eventually help me write my paper, and I hope that the grade on my paper is similar to this grade.

It was very hard to choose which book was my favorite, my top three were:  The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and Jeffersons Sons by Kimberly B.B.

I love The Westing Game  for the mystery, strenuous intense adventures, the characters who would do anything to win the will, and the writing which will last through time and time again.

I love A Tree Grows In Brooklyn because it shows you how hard it was to live in the early 20th century.  It shows challenges from getting money & food, to deciding what job to get, to how to escape this group of  thugs.  It is an amazing novel of historical fiction that was written so well that you bask in they glory and cry with them.  Notes: they have to go out and sell scraps for coins, they have a money bank made of a can, they have no garnet for food in a day, their father only works every once in a while, the father is a singing waiter, mother cleans houses, children go to school and work stand up jobs.

The book Jeffersons Sons is a view of life in the eyes of the Hemings children.  Being the children of the slave Sally Hemings and the president Thomas Jefferson does not make it easy for them, for they are still slaves, and when they get free, they will have to change their name incase of disgrace.  The book appealed to me because I love history and this book is history based, but does not feel like a lecture.  You get to know the characters inside and out, their troubles, worries and feelings.