Where Art Thou Macbeth?

     This past week in English we started the book, Macbeth. I have to say, by far, this has been my favorite Shakespeare play. Maybe that's because our teacher actually explains whats going on...I don't know just a guess. Our assignment for this week was to analyze 2 statements and relate them to Macbeth. Without further adue...
    The first statement I chose to analyze was: Ambition is a positive, desirable trait in a person. I definitely agree with this statement as long as the person keeps their ambition in control and doesn't let it take over them. In a normal person, ambition is what leads them to get up every day and do something special. In Macbeth's case, it went a little bit overboard. He really wanted to believe in the witches' prophecy of him becoming King. His ambition made him so determined to beat others out in the race for king, that to easily say it, he went on a killing rage. Not to good.
   The second statement I chose to analyze was If you are in a position of power, you are happy. I disagree with this statement completely because while giving power to some people makes them happy for a while, they eventually become unhappy and get power hungry for more, and more and more power. It's a never ending cycle of hunger. A cycle that the witches' prophesied  would end up making Banquo happier than Macbeth because he wouldn't be royal, his sons would be.

Reading Times *4/14*

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
4/8- Pages 1-30 (25 minutes)
4/9- Pages 31-60 (25 minutes)
4/10- Pages 61-90 (25 minutes)
4/11- Pages 91-120 (25 minutes)

Nervous Conditions Entree
4/8-Finish 8-10 quotes and bubbles (20 minutes)

Memoir #2 (Lit. Journ)
4/10-Write and Edit Paper (45 minutes)

Total Time: 165 minutes

Reading Times :)

Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
2/18-Pages 1-45 (30 minutes)
2/19 Pages 46-95 (35 minutes)

Alliegant by Veronica Roth
2/21-Pages 211-250 (30 minutes)
2/22-Pages 251-290 (35 minutes)
2/23-Pages 291-343 (30 minutes)

Working on my Final Research Paper:
2/19-Editing and Correcting Citations (30 minutes)
2/20-Revising and correcting word choice (20 minutes)

Total Time: 210 minutes

Our Love

*Symbolism
*Metaphor
*Diction

My love for you is as wide as Madea's Butt
and as large as Tyler Perry's women clothes.
Your love for me is equal to a short man
playing in the NBA.
Our love for each other is the love a nerd
has for a homecoming queen.
My love for you smells likes the cheap outlet perfume,
always at 50% off.
Your love for me is a whale's scream to its mother,
silent to most.
Our love for each other parrallels the intensity
the sun has for the moon.
My love for you burns like an albino
in the Texas Midsummer heat.
Our love for each other is never ending like the sun.

Reading Times 2/17

Alliegant by Veronica Roth

2/11-Pages 151-163 (10 minutes)

2/12-Pages 164-189 (20 minutes)

2/12-Pages 190-210 (15 minutes)

Magazine Article for Journalism

2/13-Outline and 1st Paragraph (20 Minutes)

2/14-2nd and 3rd Paragraphs (20 Minutes)

Investigative Journalism Article for Journalism

2/15-Middle Paragraphs and Revisiting 8th grade (topic) (40 minutes)

2/16-Revising and Closing and Opening Paragrahs (30 minutes)

Total Time:175 minutes

Counting Stars Analysis

Link to Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/onerepublic/countingstars.html

Name of Song: Counting Stars

Artist: One Republic

     I chose to analyze the song Counting Stars by One Republic because I feel it has a different meaning than what it appears to do, and I just really like the song. In the chorus we see a rhyme scene of ABCDDD, and verse one has a scheme of AAAAABBBBBCDDDEE. In each section of the song the rhyme scene changes but it always has end-line rhymes and has at least two sets of repetition. In the chorus we also see a continuing theme of the "s/sh" sound which means it has sibilance.

     We see an example of a paradox in the bridge line , "Everything that kills me makes me feel alive". Another example of something in the figurative language category is diction, words chosen to make a certain effect. In the song it talks about things that were chosen based on their word choice. For instance when it says, "take that money watch it burn. Sing in the rivers the lessons I've learned." It doesn't make greed sound so bad, it actually makes it sound fun. We see this occur again in verse one when it says, "Baby I've been losing sleep dreaming about the things we could be." because you can't dream unless your sleeping, so we see another example of a paradox. In that we have so many paradoxes that you could say paradoxes in this song are also a symbol that in life people wish to copy the way poor people were able to get famous and get super rich.

Reading Times 2/10

Alliegant by Veronica Roth
2/4-Pages 61-80 (15 minutes)
2/5-Pages 81-100 (15 minutes)
2/6-Pages 101-134 (30 minutes)
2/7-Pages 135-150 (15 minutes)

2/3-2 ATD Posts (30 minutes)
2/4- 2 ATD Posts and Comments (30 minutes)

Total Time: 135 Minutes