2nd Quarter Reflection Blog

Prompt: 

- In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts?

- What has been the most challenging part of 2nd Quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?

- What is something you have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of? 

          I think that I made my biggest improvement for English Lanuage Arts in comprehending what I read.  When I would read books, I would have to read the same thing over a couple of times becuase I didn't really understand what was happening the first time I read it. Reading To Kill A Mockingbird really helped me with this. When I began reading To Kill A Mockingbird I still had to read things over a couple times, but that lessened as I got deeper into the book. Having the questions and quotes on each chapter played a major role in that becuase it would make me work harder in understanding what was happening. 

          The most challenging part of 2nd Quarter for me was time management. This quarter I had a lot of things to do both inside and outside of school. In the beggining it was chaotic because I would never find the time to do anything. I would waste time trying to do multiple things at the same time, instead of focusing on getting one thing done in a faster manner. I started realizing that if I did put my mind to something, focused on it, and tried my best, I could get it done with quality and within a good amount of time. Once I started doing this time management stopped being a major challenge. 

          Something that I have accomplished since the new year that I am proud of is the overall progress I have made in the To Kill A Mockingbird unit. I really enjoyed reading this book, mainly because I had been wanting to read it for long time. This unit helped me a lot with my comprehension, annotating, and analyzing skills. The quote questions really helped with my comprehension becuase it would help sum up what happened. The annotations I took developed a lot as we got farther in the book. The essay we wrote helped me understand what it means to analyze something and I really learned a lot through writing it. 

TKAM Juxtaposition

          I think that the most important difference between the written and filmed version of To Kill A Mockingbird, was the fact that Boo Radley wasn't developed throughout the movie as much as it was in the book. In the book, the children slowly start to find gifts in the knot-hole of the tree. It was Scout who found the gum first, and then later both kids found the rest of the gifts together. The finding of the gifts were spread out and were pleasant moments. The finding of the gifts in the movie however, were short and not as pleasant. In the movie it was only Jem that found the gifts and he kept them hidden from Scout. The movie also only showed one scene where the gift-finding took place. 

          The movie also left out other moments involving Boo Radley that were crucial to the plot. One of them was when Scout, Jem, and Dill tried to give a note to Boo Radley. This was an important moment of the plot because it showed the first attempt of an interaction with Boo Radley. It is also important because it wasn't an attempt too subtle or too forthright. Without it, the first interaction in the movie, to me, felt as if it came on too strong. Another moment that the movie left out was when Scout and Jem were outside one of the coldest nights in Maycomb. There was a fire at Miss Maudie's house in the middle of the night, and Jem and Scout were told to go wait in front of the Radley house for Atticus. Once the fire was out Scout and Jem returned home with a blanket. Scout was confused about where it had came from. Atticus stated, “‘Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you’” (72). This was important because it showed that Boo Radley actually did exist and was not a myth. It also showed that he wasn't the infamous Boo Radley they had thought he was. It showed that he cared for the children. 

          The purpose of having different versions of a story is so that one could see the importance of an event. The movie left out scenes that happened in the book. In the book it mentions that the children got guns for Christmas, and that was when the famous quote; “‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’” P.90 came up. In the movie the children never got guns, but the famous quote still came up. The movie just left out a detail which was that the children got guns. This implies that those scenes weren't as important for the movie as it was in the book.