Post #10 (For 12/17/2010)

1) I am most proud of my "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" in-class essay because I was able to write an essay about my favorite book, and I feel like I did a really good job answering my essential question for the inquiry project. I feel like I was able to summarize the book in a nice way without being too redundant. I think I've become better at structuring my essays.


2) I think I've become better at reading books that I am not so interested in. For example, for my inquiry project I had to read the Scarlet letter, and although it was really hard to continue reading, I knew I had to read it or else I wouldn't be able to write my in-class essay. I also got better at understanding books like these because I started looking up helping online instead of just trying to figure out the answers myself, going around in circles, and staying confused. 


3) I think I need to learn how to read more lengthy books without getting frustrated, especially ones with advanced vocabulary. I'm pretty good with vocabulary, but I think I need to expand my vocabulary a little more in order to prepare myself for college.

Post #8 (For 12/03/10)

This week we have been working on our inquiry project even further. At first we just read our books, but now we are going further into the project by analyzing them even further and adding annotations to prepare our abstracts and presentations. Aside from this, I also have to work on my honors part of the project, which means that I have an additional essay to write on a poem of my choice. This is kind of difficult for me, because I feel like there is not much that is able to be written about a poem. This is especially hard for me because my poem might mean something to me while to other people it might mean something else. I'm kinda scared that I will write an essay other people won't be able to understand because they won't think my interpretation of the poem is right. Hopefully I can write a decent essay by Tuesday.