Category Archives: Humanities
Creative Narrative Assignment
We just finished out unit on Africans in New York. We wrote a two paragraph piece about the people in the biography we were assigned. I wrote about Belinda Lucas, an enslaved woman who managed to buy her freedom. We had to bold the facts we put in, and italicize the key terms. I learned that a slave could buy freedom from their master, and I also learned that slaves could go to certain schools. I think I have made a small amount of progress with putting detail into my work, but it is not much of a difference. Something I learned about myself is that I actually prefer taking a test rather than writing a short creative writing piece. I think tests take less time, but these assignments are really interesting experiences. I did my writing in a letter form, and here it is.
Dear Harriet,
It has now been many, many years since I was taken to Antigua. No matter how long I am here, I will always miss Africa. The sun on my face, the wind in my hair, and the sweet smell of freedom have been replaced by cold, dreary streets, and forced labor for the white people. My former master recently passed on, so I was auctioned off again. It was hot and stuffy in that little room where the auction was held, and it was very dim. I could hardly see the people bidding, and I felt like I would melt into a puddle if it got any hotter. It seemed to go on for hours, and there were four others there who were being sold. One man tried very hard to buy me, and when he could not afford to bid higher, he said that I wasn’t worth twenty pounds anyway. My new master, a lawyer named Livingston, is not quite as bad as the old, though he is not exactly kind to me. He treats me as if I were lower than him, but he is never cruel, never strikes me, and never raises his voice in anger. Madam acts the same, and I am more often in her company than his. The house is relatively grand, but the stone floors are freezing, and the nights are always chilly. I live in the attic, and it is quite drafty up there. I expected to hate it, but the cool breeze reminds me a little bit of home. But we didn’t have schools back home, so I do have some reason to not run away. I have just begun attending a place called the Clarkson School, which teaches me to read and write better. It is fairly small, but it is warm and cozy inside. It feels like a safe community, and it provides me with chances to talk to other enslaved people who wish to be educated. Once I finish there, I will buy my freedom. I will leave this place, and go to live elsewhere with my husband. I feel I have been enslaved too long, and I must get out of here! I hope you are well, for I have heard of sickness in Charleston, and some recent unfriendly weather. I am sorry to say that my young daughter has also recently passed. She was very sick, and try as we might, we could not save her. It is a shame that she had to die so young, and I am determined to live far longer than she. I hope that no other young people will have to die like that. Perhaps we are simply worked too hard, I do not know.
When I was with my old master, I worked in the cotton fields. He owned a small farm outside the wall, a bowery, and I was expected to work the fields from dawn to dusk, with barely a moment’s rest. He did not grow fruit or vegetables, but cotton. When the harvest came, the other enslaved people and I would slow down, work less quickly. We wanted to make a point. He was not a harsh master, but Madam was cruel. She treated us like chattel, and expected us to have harvested every scrap of cotton in the field by the day’s end. She was very strict and business-oriented. I do not know why she treated us that way, but we decided not to work to her standards. We slowed progress, we ‘misplaced’ certain items, and some of us even ran away, just for the harvest. I never ran away myself, but many left and then returned just after the harvest.
Now that I am working in the city, my skills with plants are no longer needed. Livingston and his wife are strict, but they are not cruel. They treat me well, or about as well as a slave can be treated. Now, I clean, cook, and sew. Madam requires my services as a maid, and Livingston would have me cook for the family. I was surprised to learn that I am not a bad cook, though I have not had much practice. Even though it is not too bad here, I still feel as though the city is not my place. I miss the smell of the fields, and the way the breeze would blow around us. The city is far too loud for me. Everyone is so noisy, and I feel like I will be swept away by the crowds. I am considering moving to Charleston once I am free, in the hopes that it will be more peaceful. Perhaps I shall see there.
Until we meet again,
Belinda Lucas.
HUMANITIES!
This is my Giver essay. I am proud of it because I think I made a good argument. I think I did pretty well, and I like how it turned out. I think I really got my point across.
Here is my 10th note card about colonial gender roles. I’m proud of this because I got a lot in here. I think I had some good questions and inferences, and I think I did a better analysis than I usually have.
Here is my 2nd chapter writing from M13C. I am proud of this because I think I described the things well. I also think I wrote this well and had a good analysis. I am also proud of this because I got a fairly good grade.
In Humanities, I have been trying to extend my analysis. I think it’s working. Humanities has been really fun!
SHABANEWS!
We have been working on a project called Shabanews! We were tasked making a video and a piece of writing. Without further ado, here’s our writing and video. Sorry I can’t get the pictures in here.
Breaking News in the world of fashion! We are here to talk about the new trends Pakistani clothes! We will interview Phulan and her parents Mr. Abassi and Mrs. Abassi. Then, we will interview their other daughter about her ideas about her husband’s to-be clothes. There was so much drama! Someone cries, and the idea of culture keeps being brought up! What is that about? Get all of it here first at the Fashion Police. The video below is worth watching. We can give you the latest updates, and show you all the new trends! Fashion Police brings you everything you need. This Pakistani clothing can be sold to you at the store on Bleeker or online. It’s the new trend! We are the Fashion Police. Brought to you by Glukinshbeel Cereal.
Look below for pictures of the clothes!
This is a Shalwar Kameez
This is a Jinnah Cap
This is a Chadr.
Here’s the video!
This project was really interesting. I think it was difficult, but it was fun, and I really liked it. We didn’t have very long, but we had enough time to put together this. Hope you like it!
Who The Heck Are You Process
In humanities, we have been working on a project called Who The Heck Are You. We have 5 steps in the process, and here’s how they went.
Step 1: The Letter
We picked someone we wanted to interview, and wrote a letter to them. This letter contained a formal invitation to interview the person, times when you could meet with your interviewee, your contact information, and a request for what times they would be available. We delivered our letters and waited to hear back. When our possible interviewees responded, we would begin the next step
Step 2: The Questions
We decided on 10 minimum questions that we would ask the person. We also made final arrangements about when we would meet for the big interview. When the time came, we moved on.
Step 3: The Interview
We met with our interviewees at some point, and asked them a series of questions. We wrote down the answers, and recorded the whole thing. I chose to interview my friend Armant because for a while it seemed like he was more than he looks, and I also knew proetty much nothing about him. Here are the questions I asked. Where are you from? Who’s in your family (parents, siblings, cousins)? Academic things you enjoy ( during IWP, reading, writing etc)? Places you want to go? Things you want to do before you’re too old? Favorite pastimes (weekends)? Favorite games (with family/friends)? Favorite movies (with family/friends)? Favorite foods? What do you want to be? Why do you want to be ___? The whole thing went pretty well, though we got interrupted with 4 questions to go. But we did that over email and managed to finish before the deadline.
Step 4: The Step 2 Document
We listened to our interview a lot, and wrote down the most interesting bits. We started planning what we would write.
Step 5: The Final Paper
We did a lot of work on these, and it took all of these steps to get here. We spent a lot of time writing, but just as much time editing and peer editing. Click here for my final paper.
Art and Artisans Guild!!!
On Wednesday during Big Time, we had our first guild meeting! I am in the Art & Artisans Guild, and we did some very fun things. We learned a bit about carving faces into the corners of blocks of Balsa Foam! It was very cool and fun, but my carving was really bad. We then broke out the flowers that Guild Master Jeremiah brought for us to draw. We sketched them once or twice with charcoal, and then showed our drawings. All of them were pretty good, but not quite as good as Jeremiah’s. We also found out that we are going to the Cloisters at 10:00 on Wednesday. I am excited because I will have only two classes since the afternoon is going to be Big Time, and that is when we gather with our guilds.
The Story Of The Stellar Parzival Essay
In the second quarter we worked on our Parzival Essays. We read the book Parzival by Katherine Paterson, and when we finished, we started to write. At the time, I was in the middle school play, Romeo and Juliet, so I was behind on my thesis. I mostly worked on it in class, and when I had time, I would try at home. When I saw that there was no way I would finish in time, I only tried harder because I am really, really stubborn sometimes. Then it was due, and I was just about ready to throw my chromebook at the wall. But then… Dave (my humanities teacher) called me over. He said that my essay was STELLAR! So, I named it The Stellar Parzival Essay. Here is the stellar Parzival essay.
The Stellar Parzival Essay
By Mabel Stafford
Parzival’s upbringing helped him become a good king because it taught him to be curious, thoughtful, and caring.
Without the way you were brought up, would you be the way you are now? The way you were brought up is the beginning of your life, the crucial foundation that helps steady what you build on it as you grow. In Parzival by Katherine Paterson, a naive boy who was raised in a forest takes on a quest which, without his upbringing, would be very hard to complete. Parzival’s upbringing helped him become a good king because it taught him to be curious, thoughtful, and caring.
How Parzival was raised helped him become a good king because it taught him to be curious. In chapter one, on page six Parzival asks “Who is God, Mother?” Parzival’s mother, (Queen Herzoloyde) kept life outside of the forest that they lived in a secret. She believed that she was doing her son a great service because she thought that she was sparing him from the fate of his father, who died seeking adventure in battle. But this only made Parzival thirst for knowledge, even though he used to be content in his ignorance. This is important because if Parzival were happy to know absolutely nothing about the way life was lead out of the woods, then he never would have gone to Arthur’s court, and he never would have began his quest! Not only did his upbringing teach him to be independent, it also taught him to be thoughtful.
Parzival’s upbringing helped him become a good king because it taught him to be thoughtful. In chapter one, on page five it says, “Indeed, for many days, whenever he heard the song of a lark, he burst into tears, remembering his thoughtless act.” Parzival’s thoughtlessness killed a lark, and Parzival was so repentant that he made sure he thought before he moved. This is significant because if this never happened, then Parzival would not have taken care to think before acting. Not only did his upbringing teach him to be thoughtful, it also taught him to be caring.
Parzival’s upbringing helped him become a good king because it taught him to be caring. In chapter one, on page five it says “Indeed, for many days, whenever he heard the song of a lark, he burst into tears, remembering his thoughtless act.” When Parzival realized that he had killed the bird, his heart grieved for it, and the result was a more caring Parzival. This was an essential part of becoming a well-loved monarch because if you cannot weep for the mistakes you made, and cannot care for those who serve you, then you will never be known as a kind, just sovereign. Without Parzival’s kind heart, he never would have become an excellent ruler.
The way Parzival was raised made quite an impact on his later self. Think back to when you were young. Did your upbringing make a foundation on which you could construct your future? One person could be raised in a way that will affect earth, and could change all our lives for better, or for worse. For example, if I were raised in a really terrible way, then I’d grow up to join ISIS or maybe start World War Three! However, if I were raised as a normal person who cared, I’d change the world for the better by finding a cure for cancer, or I’d put an end to poverty. The way you are brought up is the start of making a potential hero.
Ha ha ha. Try and beat that! :p
Ashokan Thesis Statements
The best part of the Ashokan trip was blacksmithing because #1: It was cool that we got to work the bellows, #2: We learned a lot about the art of metal working, #3: It was so fun that there are no pictures of me except when I was working at the forge, because I was SO happy and bouncy. All in all, it was TOTALLY worth missing free period ( also called open rec). Look how happy Jen is.
The worst part of the Ashokan trip was the canoeing because #1: My team hit every rock in the lake five times, #2: My friend totally deserted my team, and you can imagine that did not feel good,#3: It was SO insanely bad, that there are NO pictures of canoeing at all! Really! Just an empty, sad lake. Like this one.
What I’m Working On
This year in 6th grade, I am working on a lot of things. For example, my Beowulf project. We are reading a book called Beowulf, and it is about a man named Beowulf. He is a very out of proportion hero. He comes from the land of the Geats, (Sweden) to the land of the Danes, (Denmark) to free King Hrothgar from the monster Grendel. My project is that I have to draw King Hrothgar before and after Grendel comes. I spent three hours on it, just to finish the after Grendel picture. We also made a fact to fiction story. We wrote about something that actually happened to us over the summer, then we added some fiction to it. It was really fun. I am really happy that fast reading is a strength for me, because it means I can read Beowulf fast, but get all of it. Something I’m struggling with is that I really hate stopping my flow, (my reading) to take notes, or write a chapter summery. We have to do that to prove that we read the assigned chapter. We are currently studying the feudal chart, and church hierarchy in the middle ages. It is very interesting.
My Hero essay
This is the hero essay I wrote.
Mabel’s Hero Essay
By Mabel
A hero is someone who is kind, brave, intelligent, selfless, and inspiring. A true hero can make you try to be a better person. Heroes can be ancient like Ulysses, who fought at Troy, or modern, like Malala, who fought for female education in Afghanistan. Ulysses displayed stereotypical hero traits, while Malala was driven by determination to succeed, and displayed compassion, kindness, and an excellent sense of what is right, and what is wrong. Ulysses may have been brave, but Malala sacrificed herself so that women and girls in Afghanistan could have education.
While Ulysses did some heroic things, but in the end, they weren’t quite enough for him to qualify as a hero. Ulysses did things so bad that they overrode his good deeds, and he lacked some vital heroic qualities, such as compassion and kindness. Ulysses showed excessive pride when he blinded Polyphemus, and he said, “If anyone asks, it it not nobody, but Ulysses who has done this to you,” on page 26 in the Ulysses book. Ulysses was brave and clever, but he was not very kind. Therefore, he should not be remembered as a hero.
A good example of a hero would be someone like Malala. Someone who would risk themselves for others. She was brave, determined, and kind, and she almost sacrificed her life so girls could go to school in Afghanistan. She put herself in mortal peril for the benefit of others. I personally think that a person like Malala should definitely be a hero, because they would put their whole lives on hold so that others could have better lives, even if it meant risking their own life for a very small change.
Think about a world where people like Malala who stood up for education, and Pushpa Basnet who made a home and school for children in jail, were not there to help! The world would be a miserable fail. Heroes are supposed to change and help the world, and with no one changing and helping, the world would be a huge ball of misery! The world might even slide back into slavery and extreme racism! We wouldn’t want this for the world. A world as bad as 9/11. With death possibly just around the corner! I’d get to the other side of the world if that was the only way to escape a horrible earth. Without heros, this is what the earth would come to. We need people like Malala and Pushpa Basnet. We need people who can be brave, strong, kind, courageous, valiant, and most of all, someone who would risk their own lives to save our earth. We need to step up, and be those people!
This is the book we read first.
History Index Cards
In the picture below, the students are asked to put index cards into chronological order. To describe this, I would say that it was not super difficult, but it was not easy. There was much debating. That was about where what went. This was overall rather fun, and helps us understand a little more. When my group was doing it, we did not have many problems. Mostly talking it all out. We had a few minor mess ups, but we did pretty well. Though sometimes, we had to show our teammates why their idea made no sense. For example, we thought coal came after the Permian Extinction. We also thought that bony fish came after land animals. Silly us! But when we did correct each other, we did i nicely, of course. From doing this, I learned the order of events a little better. There was almost no supervision. We had to do it ourselves. I must say, we did pretty well. Everyone did.
