Psychological Setting

In the beginning of chapter 6, there are words that describe the mood through setting and the actions of the beast from air- the dead parachuter.  There are words that describe the action going on at the time- a "battle fought at ten miles' height" and how, instead of saying something fell and landed on the island in a broken heap or what not, Golding says that "a sign came down from the world of grownups, as though there was no child awake to read it.  There was a sudden explosion and a corkscrew trail across the sky;then darkness again and stars" (95). which sets up the reader in a mood for something to land- suspension ans tension at what it's gonna be.  They are wondering what happened and the mood of the passage is destruction and ruin and how grownups are to blame for most of whats happening on the island.

Then, Golding goes on to describe the figure falling as having "dangling limbs" (95). and so when it is bowing in the breeze, looking alive, it isn't much of a shock from what the reader knows.  The mood is graceful almost because it moves with the wind but gets scarier and scarier when the wind picks up and when Samneric see it is is kind of understood why they would be so scared, but the way it looks like a beast is different from a human tangled up- like they are seeing the beast that is inside them mixed with their imagination and what they really see.

In chapter 8, when Jack is telling Ralph's lot where he is staying on the island and how they are invited- to switch groups, not just eat dinner, which isn't really implied until he talks about them wanting to join- Jack is described as "safe from shame or self- consciousness" (140). like when he was embarrassed by the others when  no one would join his group.  Then he has paint on his face in sort of a mask which gives him confidence because it is like a facade in which he can act braver and no one will know it's actually him.  The mood is comfortable and safe, but with an edge to it like something is going to happen.  Then when thunder strikes, which just adds to the creepy vibe already being put out, Jack wavers and is scared before he recovers which shows that he is still a little boy, no matter how grown up or beast- like he is trying to be.

Reading Reflection for 1st semester

Here's my list!!
most challenging:  Palace Walk

In Defense of Food
Lord of the Flies
All the short stories together would average out about here
literacy narrative
literary analysis
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
I think The Firm will end up about here
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Clockwork Prince
Heist Society
Mark of Athena
Nation
The Rhyming Season

Least Challenging: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks

 I think that over the course of the 1st semester I have kind of found out a little more about myself in interests such as reading.  My strengths in reading would definitely be in books that I choose or that people think I will like.  They usually tend to be right:)  Most of my summer reading is near the top of the list, mostly being that I wouldn't choose the book for myself and even if that was the case, I didn't end up liking them much at all.  That's just me though.  My definite interests in reading have been mostly in I guess the genre is teen fiction but not like Twilight- although I read those books and 2 out of the 4 I liked- but not like graphic novels or too much action or scary or creepy or way too sporty books.  I don't know a genre for that... Books about sports aren't bad, The Rhyming Season was about a basketball team, but I don't read them often- that was the only one.  Strengths in my reading are probably that I can understand most books I read and remember them, but sometimes, if I there's a time that I am just breezing through books, I get a little tired of reading and slow down but don't retain much of anything.  A weakness I think is that I read better at basketball games.  I don't know if its because of the noise or that I'm used to going, but I do.  I read better and understand more.  I still cheer on my brother though, even if I'm at a good point in my book...

I think a good goal for me for 2nd semester would be to read all the books on my reading list, which would include  Casual Vacancy, The Enchantress, Me Talk pretty some day, the new book in Infernal Devices series when it comes out in March- Clockwork Princess, maybe some of the other series by Cassandra Clare, and hopefully I can fit in a book from the library- they have gotten lots of good ones this year!

Ha ha in case you couldn't tell I like to read...<3

reading times

The Firm  by John Grisham
12/5  10 minutes, 7 pages
12/6 5 minutes, 3 pages
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
12/3 ch 6 and 7  45 minutes
12/4 ch 8  20 minutes
12/5 ch 9  15 minutes
12/6 ch 10  23 minutes
outside work on Literacy Analysis
45 minutes

                                                               Total: 163 minutes

Well LOTF was definitely interesting this week.  I feel like my Literacy Analysis has turned out OK so far and hope to improve at least a little more before it's completely due.  The Firm is so far a really good book but I haven't got that far into it so I'll just have to hope it turns out OK:)

reading times!

Alright, so I read:
date        time spent reading     pages      book
11/29       30 minutes                 33 pages   The Rhyming Season by Edward Averett
12/1        2 hours                       193 pages  The Rhyming Season by Edward Averett
12/2        35 minutes                  13 pages   Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Alright, well I'm going to talk some on The Rhyming Season since we are all reading LOTF.  This is about a girl and the basketball team at her school and how, ever since her brother died, her dad has been drinking and how, since the mill, the place where most all the men in town work, is closed down, how her team struggles.  And to top it all off their head coach leaves and their new coach is their once assistant coach- English teacher- Mr. Hobbs.  He is a strange fellow, and they now recite poetry at the foul line and name plays after famous characters and are nicknamed famous poets.  Of course no one did much about it at first because they were the girls team- not the guys team- they weren't as important so they could handle it.  When the poetry thing works, well people notice.  And then Brenda sees her dead brother, Benny, and I'm not going to say more because y'all will just have to read it.  The poetry in this book is quite good and it really relates to the characters they go with and the situations at hand. The moods in it are also quite shifting and, even if only from Brenda's point of view, gives you emotion from many characters.  A really good read, this book.

annotating focus for LOTF

I am annotating for psychological setting in LOTF and some things have stood out to me.  I started the  chart in the end of chapter 4 and wrote some but kind of dwindled at the end of chapter 5 because I couldn't put thoughts together very well. 
OK so here I go...
In chapter 4 it got really happy and in the mood children should be in when some of the kids were reenacting killing the pig, but the mood went down when they all stopped because Ralph was calling an assembly for later when he was going to tell them a speech he wanted people to listen to and wanted it to sound authoritative and powerful.
Then in chapter 5, Ralph was calm and unburdened by all goings on on the island when walking on his strip of beach to think and then he was brave and prepared for his speech but then was thinking on what a leader was- a true leader- and had all these "must be"'s and how they have to make decisions and have to be wise, but then came to realize, even though Piggy wasn't chief material, he could think and was wise.  Later on in his speech Ralph pointed out how lazy they all were saying how they would drink water from the stream that they put in coconut shells but ended up just drinking from the stream.  He got all hopeful saying how they could start over and be happy and then Jack stepped in and ruined it talking about the beast and how it's making everybody scared because they're sissies and cry-babies and they had to man up and deal with it.  This started a huge fight which made the tension rise a lot and at the end they- Ralph and Piggy- realized that grownups were who kept everybody in line at home but there were none here and it was going to be difficult without them.
The tension and bad or sad feelings have gone way up in these last 2 chapters, mainly chapter 5.

what we've learned in class

I remember pretty well all the stuff we have just leaned, like the literary elements and short stories and literacy things, but I could use some review on all the things we learned in the beginning of the year such as traits of writing and the process.
Also, some review on the uses of colon and semi colon would be helpful because I think I might still be using one of them in a wrong way, but am not sure...

reading over the break

 Heist Society by Ally Carter
11/20 20 minutes, 30 pages
11/21 85 minutes, 135 pages
11/22 115minutes, 126 pages
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
11/25 10 minutes, pages 76-79
11/26  50 minutes, pages 80-91

Well, we are all reading LOTF so I wont really go into that, plus I'm doing that other post on my reading focus, so I'll tell y'all about Heist Society.
Wow.  I really liked this book.  It was just enough action with the right amount of comedy and romance and it blended really well together.  I read it pretty fast, but that's mainly because I was at a basketball game, perfect place for me to read for some reason.  I can concentrate so much better amidst the noise and everything than I can in the quiet... hm...
This book was about a girl, Katerina, and how she pulled off a heist at an art museum and it did really well in describing the locations and pulling together facts later on in the book that I could actually remember and connect with rather than just flat out telling you which I found really interesting and cool.  So... yep:)