Playing games among good competitors can get pretty competitive. In the Hunger Games for example. Every state had send two of their best fighters to go win against the other players of the other states. Today in class, we were split into two groups. Those two groups were also divided into three subgroups. Our teacher had set the object of the game that each subgroup would find words that would substitute the words "you", "the author", "shows/show", and even the word "says." 

Our group was assigned to find the most words that would replace "shows/show." Some of the words that we came up with were:

- Implies
- Demonstrates 
- displays
- Paints
- Draws 
- Portraits
- Emphasizes 
- Stresses 
- Tells 
- Focuses 
- Highlights 
- etc...

By the time ended, we realized we had a good list and that resulted as our team winning against the opponent team. After the activity, our task was to find an example of a literacy analysis essay that did not had the common words that I've said previously (the author, you, shows, say, etc.) My teacher made it even more complicated and told the class she didn't want repeats! When the rest of the students and I realized this, everyone started to run towards the computer lab. All I could picture was the scene of running scene from the Hunger Games. So from class today I understood a few things. One of them was that literacy analysis essays are hard to write if you don't include the words "you" or "the author" or even "say/says/shows" but they sound more professional. So lets keep that in mind when were asked to write an literacy analysis essay.

There's no better way to start of the last second semester I'll ever have from high school than to start it off right. So today in class, our teacher started talking about how we should write about literature. So I started to think about the AP exam that is coming up in May and got a little worried. I mean this test will either make or break your chances of outpting out english classes in college. So when my teacher started to give us the lecture of what things all of us should get really good at, It seemed very complex. She explained that the most you can write in the essays of the exam are essays from 5-8 paragraphs! After having that mini heart attack she assigned us an assignment that I believe should it should help with the issue of writing about literature. The objective was to select 12 literary works that we had read in class and write the summaries and a thesis to each of them. YIKES!

There are 2 major things we should always think of when we start off that essay. I mean ALWAYS. The first thing we have to remember is that we must summarize the story you decide to write about in no more or no less than 1- sentences. The other thing is to have a thesis. Every great essay has an excellent thesis that consists in being arguable, clear, concise, short, contains literature terms and does not something exist. Now with what I've told you, going back to that assignment that I mentioned before, writing the summaries and thesis should not be as hard right? Ummmm.... Just smile and nod your head. :)

Mid-terms are around the corner and what a best way to to get ready for it than practicing in class! Since to day I have taken three pretest that were to measure where I am in my analyzing skills, I can say they were not that bad. I must say that sometimes those questions can be the simplest thing and I just tend to over think the answer. So one tip, dont over think. That can get you killed in your exam. Those tests also gave me an idea of what to expect when i do take the final. Its really important to pay attention to the questions, I had to read them more than once. I think that my best chance to get those type of questions right are to re-read the story that I'll be tested on. The questions on those tests were some what challenging but that wont stop me. 

Recently I have been reading the stories of The Way To Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday and How Far She Went by Mary Hood. The assignment consist of making a timeline with the rest of the students in the class. We were to make a page which was split into two sides in which they would contain two different types of info. On the left side of the page we would have the summary of each story along with any interesting facts that helps the reader understand the story better. On the other side we were suppose to include the historic side of the story. For example if the story took place in the 1920s then my other side would consist of things that happen in the real world during the 1920s. From this assigment I learned many historic facts such as the attemped murder of Ronald Reagan during the 1980s which thats the same year frame for Mary Hood's,  How Far She Went. As far as for N. Scott Momaday's story I learned a little history about the Kiowa tribes. I found out that the Kiowa tribes were FORCED to settle in the South during the 1800s. Interesting? I think so.

In class today we read a very interesting story by Judith Ortiz Cofer, the story of "American History." Since week of mid-terms exams are almost here it, was good practice to analyze this story. Our task was to read the story once with the class with out any comments, then re-read it again but now taking notes by ourselves, and once we have read it twice than the whole class would have a discussion of what we caught from the story and express out different points of view. When it was time we were to make a list of what we did got from the story and what we missed. The story was about a Puerto Rican teen, experiencing the difficult time that every community suffered when President Kennedy had been shot. Through the story there are elements of literacy such as symbolism. For example When the protagonist goes to the door of the house of Eugene, the color of the door is "verde" spanish for green. The color green in the story symbolizes hope. Also, it expresses themes such as the discrimination towards minorities and their place in society. What I understood of this story was that it is a coming of age story, since the main character learns to accept herself through all her insecurities. This story really kept me on my toes.

The things I was able to identify:                                                            Things I forgot to identify:

This movie is about a very beautiful woman who returns to her home town after being away for a long time. The setting of the movie is in Eatonville, Florida around the 1920-30s. The main character once she has return the people in her town start talking about why she has come back looking very terrible. Soon after the theory of group think influences the audience on thinking she has been played by the man sh had run off with. Soon the audience realize that those comments where not to be the case. The story provides the viewer see examples of the external conflicts that the character has to over come in order to survive as well as motifs. One of the major motifs that this main character says repeatedly is "Im watching God."

When I think of parallelism, the first thing that comes to my mind is math and the concept of two line never touching each other. In English, parallelism is known as the balance of sentences with similar phrases who have the same structure. To many authors its a helpful tool that has improve their writing style when writing new pieces of work. The benefit of applying parallelism when one writes, the purpose is to make sentences easier to understand once read. Again, let me remind you that when I used to hear the word parallel in parallelism my mind was going a whole different direction. I think that is why one of the reasons why I couldn't understand the real concept of the word. As i look into more detail on how parallelism works i found it to be understandable. 

Lets take a look at some examples:
When you use parallelism sentences usually flow like this:
- He loves drawing, cleaning, and writing.
When you're not using parallelism, the sentences flow like this:
- He loves drawing, cleaning, and to read.

Now which one does it sound better and easier to understand??
Exactly.

So far we in class we have watched movies such as Emma, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Beloved, The Strange Case of Benjamin Franklin, Sleepy Hollow and many others for this second quater for the first semester. But the best one so far has been The Count Of Monte Cristo. This movie has many examples of irony, group think, symbolism, locus of control and the literacy element of hubris. This literacy element is defined as a character in a story who is very arrogant in which leads to his greatest down fall. This movie also expresses the difference between revange and vengance. But wait, aren't them the same thing? NO! Vengance is more of the need of injuring someone because certain harm has been done to you. While on the other hand, revenge is the act of punishing someone for a wrong doing. In my opinion, The Count Of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite literacy fiction movies.

Every person has different situations that they have experienced. But the most caring situation that the character of Queenie had to go through was to take in Benjamin when he was left by his father at the bottom of the steps of the nursing home. This story takes place in New Orleans during 1918, and as the story moves along we tend to see the odd features of the baby. It wasnt had enough that as a baby, Benjamin, had all the problems that a 78 year old man would have but he also was living his life while contradicting at the same time the laws of time. The character of Benjamin lives life like any other little kid yet he always knew he was different than the rest. Falling in love soon after with Daisy they persue their dream of being a family. A few years after, Benjamin decided the toughest decision of is life. This Movie bring symbolism such as the clock from the opening scene which symbolizes his life. One of the major themes in this movie is the love is timeless.