My thoughts on English class. (Week 6)

     The first marking period was not what I was expecting. Coming into my Junior year, I thought it was going to be really hard. I thought it was going to be harder then any other year of school. I thought that I would need to work ten times harder then I already was. I knew English class wold be one of my harder subjects, because I am not a strong reader or writer. I have gotten by the past couple years by reading parts of the book, spark notes, and help from my friends. When I first stepped into this class, I knew that was not going to get me by this year. I had a goal that I would actually read the book, and take my time writing the papers, but that goal was broken with in the first two weeks. I tried to read the book, but I could not focus on the book, so I would do something else. Then I would rush to read the book and then I would not understand any of it. I would write my rough draft and final drafts a day or two before they were due, and i realized that will not get me the A that i want. I know if I want to pass this class with an A I need to start putting some more effort into my work. I know I can do better then what I am doing now, and I am going to work harder then I am now. My goal for the second marking period is to actually read the book, and fully understand it, and if I do not understand it then I will ask for help. My goal for my papers is to take more time writing them and not do them one or two days before they are due. Hopefully this will help me reach my over all goal for the class, to get an A.

Music Connection (week 5)

  
  Scout's father Atticus is a very loving guy, and could possibly be the definition of love. In the song You Are the Only Exception by Paramore, a girl's world revolves around hate, and then she finally finds love in someone. This is like Scout being in a world that is full of hate, and she finds love in her father, Atticus. During the time period when Scout is growing up, many people do not like people out side of their race. This causes a lot of violence that people do not need, especially little children like Scout. There are many lines in the song that I could relate to the book. One quote is "the only exception is you" relates to Scout and seeing that there is love in her father where she thought there was no love in the world. Then there is another quote, "and I'm my way to believing". This describes the way Atticus teaches his children. He is teaching them that there is love in the world, even though many people do not know what love is. He is teaching them to love others and themselves for who they are. When Atticus made Jem read to Mrs. Doubse for and extra week, he was trying to teach him to love even though someone did not know how to love.

Where do you see social injustice today? (week 4)

 
     There are many social injustices in the world today, and many people do not know about them. Even they people that do know about them are doing nothing to stop these injustices. The case of Emmitt Till was a tragedy. Emmitt Till was a black teenage boy who was dared to talk to a white women. The white woman's husband found out, kidnapped him, beat him and murdered him. This is juts like Tom Robinson's case. Tom did not do anything wrong, but they still murdered him. People who killed Emmitt and Tom just wanted an excuse to kill an African American. This was very wrong and should not  have happened. People saw it was wrong, but no one tried to stop the white people from murdering the African Americans. There is something that is going on in the world today that many people are not trying to stop. The genocide in Darfur is a growing problem, that barley no one knows about.The Janjaweed are sent by the government to kill many communities in Darfur. They have killed over 4,000 men, women, and children, while still killing hundreds of people a day and over 5,000 every month. They displace over 2,500,000 people. The Janjaweed use rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. This is very wrong and many people are doing nothing to stop this. Thousands of innocent Darfuians are dieing for no reason at all. People need to stand up and fight against this because no one can fight a war alone. Just like Tom's and Emmitt's cases. I am sure if more people stood up against the cases, they wound not have been murdered.

Brown v. Board: What insights does it provide the reader in a historical context to TKMB? (Week 3)

     Brown v. Board of Education was a supreme court case about an African American man wanting his daughter to go to a school around the corner instead of a school that is far away. He sues the Board of education to try to get his daughter to go to an all white school. In the end they created a law that did not allow schools to separate their students because of the color of their skin.This relates to the context of the book by letting the reader knows how African Americans were treated. This books is taking place in the time period when segregation was happening. Scout's father is a lawyer for African Americans, and is talked about a lot, negatively. Scout gets in trouble with a class mate because the class mate makes fun of her dad for helping African Americans. It is hard for Scout because she does not see anything wrong with helping African Americans. One night Jem, Scout, and couple of their friends mess around with the Radley house. Mr. Radley shots at the "intruders" and says that he thought they were African Americans breaking in to his house. This shows that he thought he had the right to shot because it was an African American, when really it was a bunch of little kids. It was hard for African Americans, but it was also hard for Scout to realize that people do not see people as equal people. This helps make most of the story, because then there would not be many issues between the Finch family and other people in their town.

Connections to Doubt: What role does gossip play in To Kill a Mockingbrid? (Week 2)

   
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, gossip plays a huge role. This boy who lives down the street is a very mysterious character, even though he is talked about a lot in the book. The boy, Boo Radley, was a trouble maker when he was younger, that is why his dad and his brother keep him in the house. His childhood was ruined by his abusive father and now he is not "normal" child. We also know that he was nice and polite as a young child, and that he was not crazy when he was younger. We basically do not know nothing more about him, everything else we think we know about him is the gossip. Other things that we hear about is that he eats cats, hes crazy, and many other things. Many people gossip about the unknown things about him, and this causes problems. Many of the things that people say about him are not true, and makes people think differently of him. 
     In the movie, Doubt, a priest starts talking about gossiping, and how it is bad. He gives an example of gossip being feathers in a pillow. If you cut open the pillow then the feathers will go everywhere, and you will not be able to retract all the feathers from that pillow, its is impossible. That is like the words of gossip. Once someone tells another person of gossip, they have no clue who that person will tell, and how far the will exaggerate on the story. This is a major issue in To Kill a Mockingbird. Many people gossip about Boo Radley and his family but many people do not know much about him.  This ruins how people think of him, could change there relationship with him. This is one of the plots to the story. The children, Scout and Jem, learn that should look at it from that persons perspective before judging them. That is a moral that everyone should learn. But since they do not learn that until later in the book, they do spread rumors. If they ever wanted to take the rumor back they could not. Rumors are like feathers in the wind, you can not collect all of them back. So all that the children said will never be able to be taken back, no matter how much they want to.
     Many people judge people just by what they hear of them, and that is not good. You should get to know them first and then judge them on what you know and not what you think might be true. For all you know the person who told you is making it up, just because the do not like them. When someone tells you something about a person you should ask where they heard it from, and if it is not directly from the person they are talking about then it would not be a good idea to believe them. Even then, it would be a good idea to ask the person if it is true. If you start rumors you should stop, they are very bad and should not be spread. If rumors were spread about you, you would not like it. Why start rumors about other people if you would not like rumors spread about you?

Who is Harper Lee? (Week 1)

     Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville Alabama. Her father was a lawyer, member of Alabama's legislature and owned part of a news paper, and her mother want mentally ill most of her life. She was the youngest of four. By protecting her best friend, Truman Capote, and being tougher then most boys, she was known as a tomboy. She found a passion for English in high school. She graduated high school in 1944, then went to an all girls college, then transferred to another college where she participated in her schools newspaper and became editor of a humor magazine. The school offered her a chance to attended the university's law school and she accepted, leaving behind her writing and editing. She went to Oxford University in England as an exchange student, and then went back to America and dropped out of school after one semester of law school. She then went to New York to accomplish her dream of being a writer. She struggled for several years, working at different jobs and befriending many people. One year her friend gave her the best gift anyone could give her, a chance to write full time. They would pay all expensive for her to live, so she quit her job and started writing. Her friends also helped her find an agent that got a publisher interested in her writing. Her only book, To Kill a Mocking Bird, was published in 1960 and won four awards. She spent most of her time helping her good friend Truman Capote, and never published her second book. She lives in New York, and tries to avoid anything to do with her book.
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/harper-lee/
http://www.biography.com/articles/Harper-Lee-9377021
http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-lee-harper.asp