2nd Quarter Reflection

I think that my biggest improvement has been in my writing. I feel that I have been doing better with the recent essays and write-ups I have done lately. I feel the To Kill a Mockingbird essay that I did was well written. I was proud of myself for accomplishing that. Along with that, I believe that my other write-ups this quarter have been really good as well.

An accomplishment from this quarter that I am proud of is what I've done in the To Kill a Mockingbird unit, especially the note-taking. Not saying that the To Kill a Mockingbird unit was hard,  but all the things that had to be accomplished wasn't exactly easy either. I am especially proud of all the note-taking I did while watching the movie. I like how I was able to fill up the chart with so many similarities and differences while I was watching the movie.

There hasn't been anything to hard about this quarter, but if I had to chose one I would say the most challenging part of 2nd quarter was when we had to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm not a big reader and I don't like to read, so having to read all of that wasn't fun. Along with that, I'm a slow reader so it took a while to read, especially because I had to keep stopping to make annotations and answering questions with quotes and interpretations. Besides that, there hasn't been anything that challenging that I've had to do in 2nd quarter.    

I think a strategy that has benefited me is the TIQA. Although I already used TIQA in my writing, learning what it was, and pf acting it has helped my writing skills. I think practicing this strategy has made it better and burned it even more in my mind so now I will be able to use that format easily without even think about it.

Although we haven't done many blogs this quarter, I would say that they have been pretty much the same since August. My blogs haven't necessarily been getting better and better, but the haven't been getting worse either. I feel they have been doing good, with pretty much the same quality as they were in August. 

Overall I am proud of how this quarter, and so far this year, has gone. I believe that I have been improving in lots of different skills. I also feel my work quality has been getting better over the quarter. I will try to  continue improving getting better throughout the rest if the school year, so that by third and fourth quarter, I will be in even better shake then I am now.

TKAM Juxtapose Blog

Writing Prompt: What do you think is the most important difference between the written and filmed version?

There are lots of differences between the To Kill a Mockingbird book and movie, but some are more important than others. A minor differences would be the fact that Dill stayed with Aunt Stephanie, instead of Aunt Rachel. This is minor because the aunt really has no importance on the book so changing the name of the aunt doesn't have a big effect in the movie. A major difference would be the fact that Jem found all of the items in the tree, instead of Scout finding the items. This is major because in the book, Scout was the first one to something in the tree, and she was the one to tell Jem what was going on. Also, it was a way for Boo to interact with the children, and in Jem finding all of the items, he's not interacting with them because Jem keeps the items to himself.

I think one of the most important differences between the film and the book is the lack of times the children had an interaction with Boo. The times the kids tried to make Boo come out in the movie were close together and the movie didn't include all of the different interactions with Boo. One thing that was missing in the movie was the laugh Scout heard when she bumped into the Radley's house while in the tire. I feel this was an important moment because it's when Scout was sure there was someone is the Radley's house watching the children. It was also the moment the readers got the idea that Boo was in that house, and he was interested in the kids.

          Another incident with Boo that never happened was when he put the blanket over Scout's shoulder's because it was cold and they were outside watching as their neighbors house burned down. I feel this was important because it was yet another time Boo connected with Scout, and showed that he was actually there, watching and looking out for the kids.

          One other important difference is that the movie didn't include Aunt Alexandra at all. This is important because it means that Scout, Jem, and Atticus never went to her house, and Francis never insulted Scout and calling her dad a "nigger lover". This also meant that Aunt Alexandra never came to stay with the Finch's and the whole scene with Alexandra's coffee group never happened.