Yr 9 English Evaluation

- The part that I enjoyed about Yr 9 English was the writing parts in the book because I like writing. I liked taking tests that you cannot prepare for as it tested me on my knowledge that I could not prepare for. I liked the concept of advertising and Shakespeare as I had done it before and it was interesting. I liked reading TWTWB as it was a book that related towards our generation and the characters were about our age.

- I disliked doing speeches in front of everyone especially the first speech that we did in term 1. The concept was very confusing and no one got over C+ as no one was really on task. Also, I like writing stories but the task, that we did that was writing a horror story, and it had too many regulations and rues and things to follow

- I was good in writing essays and tests such as the QCATS. I liked that because it was easy and I got a good grade (A-) and the concept was very easy such as advertising and arguments. I don’t mind writing essays as they are simple and easy to write and the QCATS was a test that you couldn’t be overly prepared for.

- I found presenting speeches and getting it straight to the point and in the time limit difficult as I have a need to blab on when doing a speech and talk about it as much as I can so I can cover all the topics but then it becomes too long.. I need to talk slower and more eye contact when doing my speech and I way to do it is to practice more and just get the whole speech memorised.

- The areas that I need to improve on for next year are proofreading and being able to cut down and not drabble on. Straight to the point! And being able to have good eye contact. I feel like the people are staring at me when I do speeches and it makes me feel self conscious. I also like to drabble on as I have said before, as I have a need to blab on when doing a speech and talk about it as much as I can so I can cover all the topics but then, it becomes too long.

- The goal that I have for improvement for next year is my proofreading skills. Mrs Pignier said that everyone needed to improve on their proofreading skills as no one did a really good job on their feature article task. Since people think that everything is right when they write something because they wrote it and it looks right, most of the time, they can not see the little things as they are not observant. I have to teach myself this skill, not to lose even the littlest of things.

- This year, I leant how to present a speech well in front of others and how to practice so I wouldn’t be nervous in front of everyone and how to not be nervous in tests or etc. The way to not be nervous was just to practice more and just get the whole speech memorised. Also, the way to do be ready for tests was to revise every single thing you had done over the year. I know it sounds really stupid, but it really works.

Yr 9 English Evaluation

Examine Assessment task for the year. Write an evaluation on the following:

- What did you enjoy about Yr 9 English? (Books, texts, and concepts)
- What did you dislike?
- What were you good at in terms of assessments? (Your strengths)
- Challenges? (What did you find difficult?)
- What were the areas that you need to improve on? (And focus more effort on improving for next year)
- Goals for improvement for next year?
- What did you learn this year? What things do you remember? (look at your assessments to help you)

Monologue

How could this be? My cousin is innocent! How dare that stupid guy blame it on my cousin? He should burn and die in a hole. I can’t believe that he, the one that she trusted, did this to her! I trusted you and you do this to her? I will kill you the next time I see you, I swear! Curse you; I curse you that you will find no more happiness and no women will love you. You will not be loved by anyone, not even your own friends until you say sorry to my cousin and tell everyone that she is innocent. How dare you mock my family? It is not like your family is any better. Actually, I am right to say that your family is lower than us and that they should feel honoured to even be within our presence. You are lower than scum! You are trash and do not deserve to live. Are you an idiot? How dare you inferior human beings do this to her? Are you literally insane and out of your mind? Our reputation is now ruined. She is innocent but just saying so what, if she is not a virgin? Does it really matter? It’s not like this is the 17th century where being chaste was a very important aspect. Is he a complete fool? It’s not like anyone else really cares except for my poor Alice. She is distraught! She trusted him and loved him like no one else and this is how he returns the love? He is a disgrace, may be it is a good thing that he had canceled the wedding! I refuse to have him as my cousin-in-law! You have done something very shameful and will regret that you even decided to speak up of this lie.

Character Response

Benedick is the character that I have chosen that can relate to me the most in the play. He is a witty and sarcastic character. He has a ‘war of wits’ going on with Beatrice. He is a well-respected soldier that follows Don Pedro, also called Prince. He is very popular especially with the women, but he claims that he will never fall in love or marry anyone. He swears that if he does he will kill himself and humiliate himself. Of course, he didn’t know at first that the one he had been looking for was actually Beatrice. The character that he is often associated is Beatrice. This may be because they are always having a war of wits and is always trying to make each other look bad. Also, because of this close relationship, they begin to feel affections towards each other.

- “…Then is courtesy a turncoat. But is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted, and I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly, I love none.” (I, i, 118-120)
- “…With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord, not with love. Prove that ever I more blood with love than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker’s pen and hang me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of blind Cupid.” (I. i, 236-241)
- “… Ha! ‘Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.’ There’s a double meaning in that. ‘I took no more pains for those thanks than you took pains to thank me. ‘That’s as much as to say, ‘Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks.’ If I do not take pity of her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture. (III, i, 244-250)
- “…Signor Leonato, let the friar advise you, and though you know my inwardness and love is very much unto the prince and Claudio, Yet, by mine honour, I will deal with this secretly and justly as your soul should with your body.” (IV, i, 244-249)

I believe that I can relate to this character the most because I am a witty and a sarcastic person. I like to pay people out;;; and joke around all the time. Though, sometimes just like Benedick, I get myself into trouble because of it. Both Benedick and I can not think straight to the point or go wit the flow. We always try to think out of the box and not literally and try to twist the meaning to make it into something new. I am not good with relationships at first, as I am shy at first and do not talk as much. Though, after I know that person more, I become more talkative and as if I’ve known them more many years even if it is only our third time meeting. I am really good with friends once I get to know that person. Benedick tries to help others when they need so and s fooled easily. I am hoodwinked very easily but I am the King of convincing. If I wasn’t a student, I could be a successful fraud. Okay, no that’s too over exaggerating. I try to help as much as I can but sometimes, it may be too difficult to handle by myself. This is when I invite my friends to help me and in the end, the issue is solved.

Much Ado About Nothing Blog Activity

1) Which character do you most relate to the most in the play? In your response you must refer to the following:
- Name and describe the character you have chosen
- Choose a minimum of 4 quotes from the play which demonstrate their personality, qualities, or characteristics
- Name which character they interact with the most in the play and explain their relationships
- Explain and justify why you relate to this character the most in the play
- Include at least one photo of your character

2) Dramatic Monologue. Write the conversation you’d have with yourself if the following happened:
- At your cousin’s wedding, her prospective (soon-to-be) husband accuses her of being disloyal and refuses to marry her. She faints, he leaves. Your family is dishonoured. How do you feel? What will you do?

My Wide Reading Novel (Angels and Demons)

Okay… I know it is pretty old now but I still haven’t finished reading this book yet.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Published by Simon & Schuster

Angels & Demons is a 2000 bestselling mystery-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published by Pocket Books. It revolves around the quest of fictional Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon to uncover the mysteries of a secret society called the Illuminati and to unravel a plot to annihilate Vatican City using destructive antimatter. The book uses the idea of a historical conflict between science and religion, particularly that between the Illuminati and the Roman Catholic Church.

The novel introduces the character Robert Langdon, who is also the protagonist of Brown's subsequent 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code. It also shares many stylistic elements with its sequel, such as conspiracies of secret societies, a single-day time frame, and the Catholic Church. Ancient history, architecture, and symbolism are also heavily referenced throughout the book. A film adaptation was released on May 15, 2009, though it was set after the events of The Da Vinci Code film, which had been released in 2006.

I know that nearly everyone has read the book or at least gone to see the movie. The genre could be anything even to horror because of some of the scenes that appear through out the movie. It has many twists that some wouldn’t even think about and interesting plots and characters that I am sure many would enjoy. It is very good and I am confident to say that others will enjoy it too if they haven’t yet read it or even seen it. I would rate it 9 out of 10 and I strongly recommend this novel to others.

My Speech on Protest Poetry

This is my speech that I did. I'm not sure if this is the right version. It was based on the song ‘Black or White’ by Michael Jackson and the poem ‘White Things’ by Anne Spencer.

Using poems and songs are an effective way to get messages across as a vehicle for social protest. To support this statement, I will use the poem ‘White Things’ by Anne Spencer and the song ‘Black or White’ by Michael Jackson and they are both based on racism. Both of the poetries are based on the same subject how everyone should be treated the same not the ‘White’ over the ‘Blacks’. The song and the poem stress the equality rather than superiority.

The subject of the poem and the song are very alike. They are both about racism, Black vs. White. While the poem is about motives of freedom and questioning God, the song is about how everyone should be accepted whether they are Black or White. It is also about equality and it does not matter if you’re Black or White. The poem does not limit its reference in the first stanza to the dominance of white over black, it also includes red man among the ‘colourful things’, therefore, begins to develop more specific implications for American civilization.

One of the basic statements of the poem comes in the second line: "Black men are most men, but the white are free." The first stanza proposes through images of natural scenery that white men have raised a human hierarchy based on whiteness. Though at the end of the poem, it states that even though they are different on the outside, "the skull of a black man is white, not dull", which suggests the likeness of men. The white man has defied God and damned the majority of His creations. In his obsession with whiteness the white man is essence has demanded: "Man-maker, make white"; that is, that white things be the only things of worth in this world.

The song starts off as saying ‘yes, we’re one and the same’ stating that it does not matter as everyone ARE the same. In the fourth stanza, it says ‘they print my message in the Saturday Sun. I had to tell them I ain’t second to none.’ This meant he wanted to tell the public of what he thought about the racism. This leads to the next stanza ‘And I told them about equality and it’s true’ he HAD to tell them about equality and how race did not matter and he was not going to keep quiet about it. The rest of the song than repeats the phrase, ‘it don’t matter if you’re black or white’, to really get the message across to the audience and emphasise the moral of the song.

The purpose of both of the poetry is about how it does not matter on your race. The poem is about how the black want to be free from racism and the white are killing blacks because of their race. For the song, it is trying to convey the message that everyone should be treated equally and people should accept everyone for who they are, not based on their race.

The poet sounds very sad and disgusted of the way white people treat the blacks. They are angry that the Blacks were slaughtered just because of their colour. The poem follows a structural scheme. It moves from a quiet, positive tone to one of defiance and determination, climaxing in a powerful statement of its theme. "White Things" closely interweaves natural scenery with motifs of freedom and human frailties, even with religious overtones. The lyrics by itself sound very boring and just repetitive but with the music, it is very catchy so it is able to get the message across easily. The whole mood becomes different with music added to the lyrics. About half way through the song, the mood has an angry side to it. This is because he is fed up with people being so racist. This is shown by when Michael Jackson sings, ‘I am tired of this stuff, I am tired of this business…’ He is also determined to get the message across through his song.

The poet uses a rhyming scheme by using the end of certain words sounds such as ‘ight’ and uses stanzas. It also uses metaphors such as ‘white things are rare things’. It uses imagery of colors such as white, black, green, gold and red. The song writer uses repetition as well which helps it become catchy and uses rhyming of typical sounds such as white, right, tonight. Also, after listening to the melody, it becomes catchy as the chords are being repeated. Repetition and rhyming are very useful when writing poems and songs because the sound becomes ‘carved’ into the head which is effective especially for songs as people tend to sing along with songs if they know the lyrics to it. This is important for protesting as it becomes ‘stuck’ in the other’s heads.

The summary for both the poem and the song are the same. The poem is trying to convey that God does not see people from the outside but from who they really are on the inside, so why do white people have to go to the extent of killing blacks and why is race so important? Similarly, the song is trying to make people wary that no one should care if you are black or white because everyone is equal and no one is better than anyone else. It is trying to say that people should accept everyone for who they are.

So as people can now see, just by writing a poem or a song, it is easy to get a message across. A poem or a song has a lot of thought into it and it is not just a group of words that link to each other. There is a special message in it and this poem and song was based on racism and how white people should not look down on the blacks. Poems and songs are an effective way to get messages across as unlike just normal protesting and incoherent shouting that some do, it is far more effective to use a poem or a song to get the message, especially across the media. It is important to be able to say what you believe is right and not hide behind the crowd and do nothing about it. This is why protest poems and songs exist, to get your thoughts across to others and it is very important and useful.