Kenyah's English 10 ePorfolio

By: Kenyah and Diamond

Night John Rewriting the end

I looked at the word in front of me but couldn’t figure out how to say it.

M I S S I S S I P P I

I knew the letters but I couldn’t figure out what they said when together. Ever since John started teaching bigger words I’ve been have some real trouble read ‘em. “Mih, Mih sih sih pee.” I said trying to sound the word out. I looked over to John for help but he just looked back at me waiting for me to finish. “Mississippi?” I asked reading the words all together this time. John smiled at me real wide, like his face might break in half by the size of his grin. “Good job, Sarny.” John told me. “What is a Mississippi?” I asked. John is always teaching new words and new things I ain’t never did heard before. John smiled less happy as he said, “it’s where you live.” I was still confused. “I live on Waller’s land.” I told him. He smiled again “no, I mean Mississippi is the state you live in.” He replied. “Oh, well than what’s a state?” I asked. “That’s a lesson for another day.” John told me as he put our writing boards away. I looked around; there were only a few of us going to school. Everyone was still busy working. I looked up at the night sky; it was dark but not as dark as it was earlier. “ I should get going.” I said standing up. “Okay, let me help you get back.” John said as he moved towards me. “That’s okay, I can do it myself.” I told John. “Make sure nobody sees you walking back.” John warned me. As I turned to leave I remembered I had brought John something tonight. “John?” I asked. “Yes, Sarny?” He asked me real tired like. “I brought these for yah.” I said as I pulled some tobacco leaves from my dress and handed them to him. He smiled real kind as he toke them from me. “Thank you, Sarny.” John told me. With that said and done I turned back around and began to run quick back home before anyone could wake up and realize I was gone.

Quarter 1 Reflection: In quarter 1 from my teacher I learned a lot about essay writing. But, to be most honest I feel that I could have done a better job as a student and in focusing. I love reading and writing so much I want to be a writer when I'm older, but I just hate writing essays. I find essays to be boring and time consuming so I tend to do poorly on writing them because I don't care enough to try. Though my teacher spent a large amount of time on essay writing it didn't all go to deaf ears and I did learn some new things. Even so I am positive there was nothing that could have been to make me more interested in the topics we covered. I wish we could have covered more on fictional writing, poetry, and plays; fictional writing being my favorite. I wish we could skipped essays all together but I know that was not possible. I also sadly know in the future I will have to write essays again. I also don't like how the stories of our choice have to be the genre of the teacher's choice but mainly because I feel like that takes away from my freedom to pick as I please and because I personally don't favor the genre's I was told to read. From myself I learned a lot about time management and about doing work independently. I am not looking forward to or dreading quarter 2 because I have a feeling it will be most like quarter 1 and I see no point in spending time dreading something that I can not avoid.

Quarter 2 Teacher's Choice: In the second quarter of the school year my teacher picked the book 'The House on Mango Street' by Sandra Cisneros to read. For 'The House on Mango Street' book I partnered with another student for a project. Together we created a poster showing a main theme of the novel. The theme we chose was the power of language. Our poster demonstrate our understanding of the novel by showing both the theme and examples from the story that support the theme. Our poster can be seen below.

Quarter 2 My Choice: For the student choice book I could read any book I wanted as long as it was a comedy. The book I decided to read was 'Zombies vs. Unicorns' edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. The book was a series of short stories about either zombies or unicorns in order to show case which is better than the other. This book was funny because of the reasoning the authors had for why their side was better than the other as well as the word choice used. For the book Icreated movie trialer which can be seen below.

Quarter 2 Reflection: During quarter 2 our class ran differently than back in quarter 1. One of the largest differences was that in second quarter we worked more independently and it was more of our job to get to work done. A pro to this was that I could pace myself as I please but this was also a con. I found that was the new found freedom of pacing myself and being more independent that I would often procrastinate and waste time. One thing that stayed the say was that we were able to work in class on our independent projects. Overall I would have say the way the classroom ran still worked although different because I still got my work done. Compared to my other classes for example my math class where everyone works on the same assignment rat the same time along with the teacher I prefer the classroom operation in my English class. I don’t like working at the pace of other people, I tend to get annoyed because I don’t like being rushed or held back.

In quarter 2 I learned a lot about the structure of an expanded 5-paragraph essay as well as how to properly pace myself. The most meaningful assignment we did in my opinion was the comedy animoto. I enjoy working on and creating the comedy animoto because I worked with my family. The members of my family were actors in my trailer and it was funny watching them preform their lines as I directed. I gained the most from working on our ‘Nightjohn’ literary analysis essay because I gained a new appreciation for essay writing. Before I truly dreaded essays and having to write them and while working on my literary analysis essay I found that yes I still don’t enjoy writing essay but I don’t hate writing them anymore. Though if given the choice I still wish we could have skipped writing essay. For quarter 3 I’m looking forward to reading our classic books mostly because I don’t read classics often so I’m excited to read something different and new. My quarter 3 goal is highly unlikely but I want to stop procrastinating.

Fall semester