Third Quarter Goals Reflection

My goals for third quarter is to get a 3.0 or higher. I have been trying to do all of my work in class and at home. I have been participating in class. What I need to do differently is not to get distracted and to stay on task. If I meet my goal, I would would give myself a hug and give Ms. Priester a kiss on the cheeck.

Poetry Experience Paragraph

I like poetry because it is like going into the writer’s mind. It expresses their feelings and it describes their personality. In poetry, you can speak your own mind and express yourself on paper. It is another language to learn and understand because sometimes the things that are said or written mean something else. To be honest, I have rapped with my brother-in-law and my housemates. I have written poetry for. The last time I written one was about 3-4 days ago. When I write my poetry, I like to listen to music while I’m writing. Music is another form of poetry. Music inspires me to write my own material. I want to see if I can improve my poetry in my lyrics.

Symbolism and Allegory Unit Reflection

I learned, within a couple of weeks, how symbolism can be a meaningful object. For example, a wedding ring can represent the vows between married couples. The way I learned symbolism is by reading "Through the Tunnel". I also learned about allegory by reading "Notes in a Bottle". My favorite assignment is the blog post about Foster Youth Initiation because I literally wrote about my initiation. I put my all in my work. At first, I didn’t know very much about allegory, but with a little learning I got the point. I gained more knowledge about literature and all of the puzzles in it.

"Animal Farm" Allegory Graphic Organizer

Animal Farm to the Real World

In the story "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, the war between the animals and the humans has allegorical meaning. For example, when the animals attacked Mr. Jones when he walked in the barn. It represents the time when the U.S. went to war with Britain to earn their freedom. The animals wanted to get rid of the humans and run the farm their way. The U.S. wanted to depart from British rule, so they fought to get their independence. The U.S. also went with a constitutional government than to be governed by monarchy. Additionally, when the animals started to say, "Two legs bad, four legs good"as a way to indicate that they run the farm. That can represent the segregation in South Carolina the white folks and the black folks. The animals are basically saying that having four legs is better than having two, also being an animal is better than being human beings. Same thing with segregation in South Carolina, white people thought that they were better than the colored people. Even though most stories about animals are written for children, they can have similarity events that happened in our world, but just stated in a different way.

Symbolim in "Through the Tunnel"

Here is the link to my Symbolism Poster.

“Through the Tunnel” Foster Youth Initiation

Even though they don’t have to swim through a tunnel like Jerry in “Through the Tunnel” by Doris Lessing, foster youth are initiated into the foster care system. As a foster youth, I know I was initiated when I went through the stages of loneliness, anger, and depression. The reason I felt lonely was because I was taken away from the people I loved and felt secured around. A minute later I felt anger because it wasn't my fault that I wasn't taken away from family, but it was them. They were the reason why I'm not with them today. Going through depression was the worst. I would feel like there is no reason to care or respect anybody in general. As a result of this initiation, I learned how to be strong and very responsible (when I feel like it).

“Through the Tunnel” Prove Yourself Paragraph

The day that I had to prove myself was when Beth, the Residential Director, had a meeting with both my house parents and my social workes including me. She told me that I had the potential to be a leader in my house. I looked at her like she said something out of the ordinary. I heard the same thing from other people and I always blew it off. But when she said it, I felt like my heart stopped. I started thinking about what she said. She told me that the middle school kids in my house look up to me and I may not see, but it's true. So ever since then I try to set a good example around the house especially around the youngsters. I felt good knowing that I can be a good role model to somebody.