Second Quarter Reflection

We have reached the end of 2nd Quarter...can you believe it?! Now take a moment to reflect on what you have learned so far. Some questions* to consider:

- Of the books you have read this quarter, which was your favorite? Why?
- *In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts? 
- *What is something you have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of?
- Where are you in your 40 Book Challenge? 
- *What has been the most challenging part of 2nd Quarter for you and what did/can you do to help overcome this?
- How have your blogs been progressing since August? 
- What strategies have benefited you? 
- What have you learned about the world? 
- How have your research skills improved?

Make sure to include a topic sentence and supporting details that fully support your main idea.

*Question must be addressed.

          In the second quarter made a lot of improvements and figured out my struggles. One of the many weaknsses I had was putting in my best meffort. Putting in my best effort was just something I didn't do because I was just oazy. This is a habit that I stopped when I just put my mind to it and prioritized it because this along with the many struggles became bad. Although it was one of the easiest ones to overcome. Putting my mind to things and focusing was the biggest strategies I used to help me out.

          Where I improved the most in the second quarter was in my test taking. Before I never studied and barely made it to a 3. This however, was a easier habit to break out of because this was something that wasn't to time consuming to learn how to do. During my vocab tests also I would kind of doze off adnd not focus on the test itself. This would really kill my train of thought. What I do now is focus on the test and only on the test to improve overall on my test scores. This was also the main focus throughout the 2nd quarter.

          Where I struggled the most in the second quarter was time management. This is the biggest struggle I've ever had academically because this has become a habit. Now that it has become a habit it has been harder to get out of doing. For example, when I get home I fall asleep and don't do any of my homework until 2 A.M which is really badl. How I can approve upon this is to basically create a schedule for myself and make sure everything is done. This will not only improve my time management but also will improve my grades. Overall, if I fix this up I can be the greatest student I can be in my eyes and hopefully it'll help me in life.

To Kill a Mockingbird Comparative Analysis

        In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Aunt Alexandra played a big part in it. In the movie however, she was never introduced or talked about at all. The reason why I think this is the most important difference because Aunt Alexandra was the female influence Scout "needed". A lot of the decisions that the kids made that Aunt Alexandra led to doing never ended up happening. For example, Scout never learned about the history of Maycomb and her family's history. In the book Aunt Alexandra talked about how much different it was then compared to now. This guided Scout throughout the book to be a better and more mature person. In the movie Scout never clearly developed this trait but it would've been better if they had that influence on her.

        Another detail that was left out in the movie that was in the book was most of the interactions with Boo Radley. Like when Scout, Jem and Dill went outside to play and ended up at the Radley house was not in the book at all which shows interaction but the book didn't. Also in the book Jem lost his pants when escaping the Radley house. However, Jem grabbed his pants for himself. In the book Jem just left his pants there and coincidentally it came back to him tied to the fence. The last interaction that occurred in the movie and not in the book was when Boo killed Bob. After he killed Bob in the book he went into his house and never came back. In the movie Boo was inside the Finch's house hiding after he helped out Jem and Scout. The only interaction that happened in both was when Boo pet Jem.

        The purpose for having different versions of a story is to have different points of view and to look at it another way. What I mean by this is that the different will change the view point and make you think more. If you think more about what you are doing you will develop a better understanding. Even if the versions are different there will most likely be a similarity that you can look at and think questions in your head. For instance, if you look at the movie TKAM and then the book they are different but have similarities but which one is better? That is the thing that I thought about the whole time I was watching the movie. I also think it depends on which one you look at first. If you read the book first you will think the movie was not as good as the book because of the left out details. Then vise versa if you watched the movie first.

          

Character Relationships

         The two characters I chose are Atticus and Aunt Alexadra. These characters as the book goes on play bigger roles in Scout's life. For instance, Aunt Alexadra is suppose to act as a feminine influence on Scout. "We decided that it would be best for you to have a feminine influence." Also what Aunt Alexadra does for Scout and Jem is that she teaches them about the past of the Finch's. Onto the next person who is Atticus. Atticus has a major role in this book in my opinion. His role is Scout's father. This is probably one of the characters that has a crucial role but isn't the main character. He has basically raised Scout exactly how he wanted, just like him. Which isn't really too good because Scout is a girl but is a tomboy.

          The differences that Atticus and Aunt Alexadra are not really hard to notice. For starters they influence scout in different ways. Atticus is raising her as he wants her to be and Aunt Alexadra is raising her the way she wants her to be. Aunt Alexadra doesn't like the fact that she is a tomboy so she is over there house know to act as the feminine influence which Scout already has which is Calpurnia. Another difference that they have is that Aunt Alexadra gives a life lesson before it happens and Atticus kinds of let's it happen then he gives out the life lesson. I'm not really sure what way is more effective.

            These two characters are thought of differently because of exactly how they are spoken of in the book. I to be honest dislike Aunt Alex with a deep passion just because of the way she is presented. However, she has her reasons for the way she is. Just like Atticus, he is a likable charter in the book because of the way he protects Tom Robinsonl. Although these characters are different they share similar qualities and the biggest one is that they say and are confident in what they believe in. 

TKAM Blog

           Throughout the book To Kill a Mocking Bird there was a lot of symbolism. The symbolism that was shown was that the book referred to certain people as 'Mocking birds'. The 'Mocking bird' in the book is the people who are treated different;y because of what other people say about them . They are harmed or hurt without doing so to others. They are misunderstood for who they truly are and are seen by the different shades people make them seem. However they are okay with their true color and stick to what they believe and ignore their differences with other so called 'Normal' people in this society.

            One of the Mocking birds in the book is Boo Radley. Boo is considered a 'Mocking bird' because he also never did anything to hurt anyone and always looked out for others. For instance, he gave Jem back his pants, gave the Finch's presents and saved Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell. He did so much good that wasn't needed. He never wanted to be patronized or wanted to be soaked with gratitude. This is what I feel is a true mocking bird. Someone who just does things from their heart for the greater good. Even I thought of  Boo as a bad person who was crazy and weird. This was based off of what Jem had heard. Once you fully know his character you'll then know he is a mocking bird. 

            The other mocking bird in the book is Tom Robinson. Tom is considered a 'Mocking bird' because he never did anything wrong. He was very truthful and didn't care about what people said about him. Tom was killed which was a sin. What I mean by sin is that it was a sin in the book to kill a mocking bird. Of course in this content is meant literal. Tom actually died by people who believed everything they heard. He was a mocking bird of which who was completely innocent and misunderstood throughout the book and his life. It is drop dead wrong to hurt someone who wouldn't do the same to others. Tom was a real mocking bird who never did anything wrong which made it a sin to kill him (a mocking bird).

             

TKAM Setting Blog

            When I first looked at this image I looked at the big dark spot on the image. I'm not really sure what this means or represents but I think I have a good idea. For starters, it is obviously something that wasn't suppose to be seen in this picture. It could be advertisement or a license plate. Which isn't something I really need to look closely into because it is just one thing I'll never know. The second thing I noticed is that there isn't many people outside but there is several cars outside. What I am inferring is that this is a religious town. Which would make sense in my opinion because the people are nicely dressed. I could be mistaken by their everyday attire but I have reasonable doubt.

           I know this picture was taken a while back because of multiple reasons. For one, the most obvious, the picture is in black and white. The second piece of evidence is the cars in the picture. All the cars look very similar and very old. I can also use my prior knowledge and know that the cars are older models. The third reason is the way the people are dressed. They are either going to church as a community or all in the towns main street, in their normal everyday clothing.

           I believe that this photo was taken because it shows how close everything was in a small town. Everything was accessible and close together because everyone new one another. This also shows how different it was back then compared to now. They left the windows down in the cars without fear of people taking it. That is some serious trust they had to have back then. Another reason this image was taken because it makes you think and possibly make a connection to the photo. For example, I made a ton of connections with this photo. I've seen a photo just like this in a scrap book in my house which made me think it was taken around the same time. This is a great image for many purposes.