Portfolio

​Short Reflection:

 

1.      What I think the portfolio says about me as a 9^th grade English student is that I was a dedicated student trying my best to do all my work and making a effort to turn it in on time. When everyone see’s my work I expect them to be able to see everything I have accomplished and am proud because I made it through the year with a effort and determination to try my best and past 9^th grade English class.

 

2.      My strengths in English from my point of view were to be able to do the Benchmarks and projects and do a good job. I also had a lot of improvement since the beginning of the year, when I look back to all my old work and the work I did at the end of the school year I can see the difference and how much I improved on using grammar, words, and punctuation. But not only that I have learned how to use words and learned new words that I never knew. My weakness I would say is to be able to turn everything in on time, and I would try my best to work on this. I have gotten good grades but every time I turn it in late I get points deducted which affects me in many ways.

 

3.    My experience that I had making this portfolio was very challenging. I learned new ways to put things and how much work I have accomplished even though it feels like I didn’t do that much. I am proud to be able to do half of the things I do but to complete all of them makes me feel like I accomplish something important. I had issues because I had things to complete and some things I needed to tune up a little so in order to do that I came and had people read it for me and tell me what was wrong so I was able to do the tune ups and make it better than it was. It was good to go back into the past work, once you go back into the old stuff you can really tell a lot about yourself. And you can see how much you accomplished.

 

4.    Lastly the piece I was most proud of must have been my story about my brother bout a memory that we had. I think this because even though I did pretty well on it my teacher also told me that I was the most improved. Because I would listen to her and the things she would tell me to help me and it was pretty helpful because it bring my grade up a lot and I got a better grade than I thought I would get. And this story was a true story that came from the heart, so it was hard for me to get it out my chest so I was proud I had enough strength to come out with this story and tell everyone bout this long lost memory.

​Juan Rivera

5-24-11

Macbeth Analysis

For this project we chose 10 quotes in macbeth enable to prove our thesis on one of the characters.

Thesis Statement: In the beginning of the story Lady Macbeth was a crude and mean woman who worked along side her husband, but at the end of the story she distanced herself from him because she felt guilty about what they had done.

 

            In Act: 1 Scene: 5 Lines: 64-65 Macbeth goes up to a Lady Macbeth to tell her that King Duncan is coming for dinner. This is when Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth “Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”. What I think this means is that to be close to the king but aim for the target when the time comes. She believes that the easiest way to get all of the goods that the witches told her is by killing the king and anyone in the way to take his spot as king.

 

            In Act: 1 Scene: 3 Lines: 71-72 Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth to not worry about anything that she is going to handle everything. In this quote Lady Macbeth says “To alter favor ever is to fear leave all the rest to me”. What she means when she says this quote is that she thinks that when you change favor from one thing to the next might not be the best move someone cane make cause the thing that the person has might be the best but when they try to change it them it might mess up. Like when she started to change in the story she started to talk her sleep because she was feeling guilty so because of this she committed suicide.

 

            In Act: 1 Scene: 5 Line 39-43 Lady Macbeth Is aside wanting to change. She wants to change cause she doesn’t want to be a bad person anymore she wants to do good not bad. In this quote she says “ Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe of direct cruelty ”. What she is trying to say is that she wants to be known not as lady that takes orders from someone special who has a word in everything. She wants to have power like men did in those days.

 

            In Act: 1 Scene: 5 Line: 42-46 Lady Macbeth has is aside and she thinking wanting the spirits to give her everything she wants that would make her powerful. This is when Lady Macbeth says “Make thick my blood; Stop up th’access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visiting’s of nature shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between the, effect and it”. What she means is that she wants her blood to be thick so that no one can break her so easily and she can be unstoppable and crude.

 

            In Act: 1 Scene: 5 Line: 46-49 Lady Macbeth is still aside begging the spirits many things so that she can become powerful and not be a regular women who does house chores all day. This is when Lady Macbeth says, “Come to my women’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, wherever in your sightless substances you wait on nature’s mischief. What Lady Macbeth is trying to say is that she wants to be filled with evil instead of what fills her in other words she wants to be evil and powerful not full of innocents and love. This shows that she wants to be evil and full of hatred.

 

            In Act: 1 Scene: 5 Lines: 49-53 Lady Macbeth is aside once again and she is still asking favors from the spirits to become more powerful in her life so she could have a word in the things going on. The quote that Lady Macbeth says is “Come thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven pep through the blanket of the dark to cry HOLD HOLD”. The meaning of this quote is that she thinks that the blade that they use to kill Duncan is a blade not to see the wound or heaven it is for Duncan to die and never return again.

           

            In Act: 1 Scene: 7 Line: 55-58 Lady Macbeth tries to man handle Macbeth with her words and with her sexual touches and feelings. This is when Lady Macbeth says “ How tender tis to love the babe that milks me; I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this”. What she means in this quote is that if she would have made a promise and said she would have done it even if she loved the person or thing she would have done it if she had sworn it.

 

            In Act: 2 Scene: 2 Line: 67-68 Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth that he did a good thing in order to become a king or ruler just play if off and act like it never happened and that you are not guilty. This is when Lady Macbeth says, “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white”. What she means by this quote is that she is in the mix with him but she is not letting it get the best of her. This shows that she already had this planned out in her head.

 

            In Act: 5 Scene: 1 Line: 61-63 Lady Macbeth is sleep in her castle because she feels guilty about convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan while he was in his sleep. In This quote Lady Macbeth says, “Wash you hands, put on your nightgown, and look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Duncan’s Buried. He cannot come out on grave” What she means is that she telling Macbeth to stop being worried and scared about being caught for the killing of Duncan.

 

            In Act: 5 Scene: 1 Line: 65-67 Lady Macbeth is sleep walking thinking about what her and Macbeth did to Duncan feeling guilty. In this quote Lady Macbeth says, “To bed, to bed; there’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, and give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone”. What she is trying to say in this quote is that whatever they did cannot be put back so they have to face the consequences. This showing that she is lighting up and thinks that it enough no more has to be done. Also she is feeling guilty for what her and Macbeth had done and for that she kills herself so they won’t find out what her and Macbeth had done.

 

Conclusion:

 

My conclusion is that Lady Macbeth was all mean and stuff in the beginning of the story but then as she started to do things that was getting to her she wanted to be the nice and innocent one and didn’t want to get caught so she committed suicide and killed herself.

For english 9 we did 2 independent reading assignments on 2 books we read outside of school.

 

         The title of the story I read was Treasure Island written by Robert Louis Stevenson. This story was named to be the first adventure stories written specifically for adolescents without an obvious emphasis on teaching morals. This story was later on made into a movie, T.V show, and also into Audio and radio. In the movie Treasure Island Orson Welles played as Long John Silver in the film.

         In this story the narrator for most of this book is Jim Hawkins, he is

          About 15 years old, he is the son of a innkeeper near Bristol, which is located in

         England. Even though he is young he wants to go out hunting for treasures just

         like all the other pirates. This man named Billy Bones who is known for a scar on

         cheek  pays to stay at the Jim’s inn for a while and tells the Jim to keep a

         for a man that has one leg missing. But then one day as Billy takes a walk

         he returns and is confronted by a so called man named Black Dog. They have a

         very deep and harmful conversation which ends in blood and pain, but

         apparently Billy has a stroke during the battle and dies in the middle of the

         kitchen room.

                   When Billy dies Jim and his mother make a plan to attempt to find

         The treasure that he was hiding, but then when they find the key around his

         Neck and open the chest they find only gold. But as they are going through the

chest they hear foot steps and voices outside the inn so they head out and on

there way running Jim’s mother faints. When she faints he drags her under a

bridge, which they hide. But then he gets interested and pokes his head out and

can see men going into the inn and becoming mad and irritated that Billy was

dead. So the one thing that was going through Jim’s head is that they don’t

want Billy or the chest, they are going for something much more bigger. But

what ?

         Towards the end of the story Jim is taken by Long John Silver to the

Treasure spot but they find out that someone else had been there. So the men of Long John Silver think that he set them up and they all turned against them. When this happened Dr. Livesey, Ben Gunn, and Abraham Gray emerge from the trees, their muskets smoking. They had saved the life of Long John Silver. He was glad to be saved but happier to find out that hey had took the treasure and took it to a cave where it was hid from everyone , and they were the only ones that knew where it was at. Then they all ended up splitting the gold and having a good meal together and live happy with the gold that they found.

         I have never been in a situation like this before or have ever heard someone or seen someone go through this before. I have also never done any of these things because it was a modern time when pirates were existing and they were the stories of treasures that were supposedly hidden on islands. I do not relate to this story in any way I think unless I go on a trip in search of something I would be the one to hide and take the trip slow cause I might not know what might be popping out. Also in one way I would be alike is the way I would help my partners that are in need or they are not in need. I would be the team player and not only care a bout me but about everyone that is on the trip with us cause I would know that not only am I putting my life on the line but they are also.

         I like this book a lot it was a action packed story, which they were intense moments, and there were moments where you can image what was going on in your head. This story was good by using imagery but it didn’t really teach a lesson at the end. This book was mostly about learning from your mistakes. My strengths for this book were that it was easy to read and he was sticking to one narrator or 2 not to a lot all at once. If I would try to change something about the story I would change that it should be more information and make more sense of setting cause a couple of time I got lost in where the characters are at during the time.

         I would recommend this book to anyone because it would be entertaining to people in many ways because of the action and the way it was written. So yes I would tell anyone to read this book on there spear time and  have fun enjoying it.

        

         

Every morning we got together as a class and wrote journal entries about the topic that the teacher chose.

 

​Journal 1: We write so that we can express our feelings and thoughts and release them into the outside world. Also we use writing on our spare time to write down thoughts and feelings. When you write it makes you feel much better and relaxed afterwards. When we write it feels like a heavy weight of stress and hatred leaves our body and we are able to continue with the day without having any problems with anyone or anything. The point of us writing is to get our mind straight and be stress free. People that tend to write a lot ted to become something in the near future. There is saying that if you write down some goals on a index card and carry it around with you it helps you remember why you are doing what you are doing cause at the end of all that stress and pain you can look back at the index card and say it was easy and it was a good idea to set your goal now and when you make it to where you want you can cross off all the goals you completed and take another index card and continue to write down more goals and you will get far in life.

 

Journal 2:            Some expectations put upon me by others are that people look up to me and expect me to d well in school and also do a good job on keeping up with my school work and grades. Also they expect me to be kind and helpful to other people that are strangers or not. My expectations are to do well in school and also try my best to treat others the same as other people. No they are not different in any ways but I have some that are different as my own expectation is for me to become something in life I think everyone has that to me.

 

Journal 3:            The thing that defines an adult is when they are mature and have learned the meaning of life. When they get a job and have children and are able to pay there own bills and pay for there own home. Also when a person is done their education and has become something in life. You find out if your grown up is when you start doing things like a grown up. Working, Kids, Bills everything that an adult does in order to live a life.

 

Journal 4:            When I exceeded expectations was when my parents thought I was not going to play for the basketball team. So I said you know just for saying that I am going to prove you all wrong. So when I went to try out for the team I gave it my all and came on the top and proved to them that I was good enough. Since that day they won’t dare to say anything cause they know I would give it my 110%. I like when people think I can’t do anything because it makes me feel good. Well sounds weird but I like it cause it makes me want to prove to them that I can do it no matter what they say. I like challenges because I would live up to the opportunity and show people how I can do things even if they think I can’t ever do it. I also had a time that some exceeded my expectations. It was my little sis. He had bad grades in her school and then at the end she made it to the end and passed the grade.