1st Quarter Reflection

Wow, so the first quarter of the school year will be over tomorrow! It's a bit exciting to think that I'm already a fourth through the school year. It's been a very eventful and fast paced beginning of the year. Despite starting school half way through the first quarter and switching both my math and ELA classes, I've learned a lot. 

I've only been in Ms. Larsons for about two weeks but have learned so much already. So far I've read two books for my 40 book challenge. I've read 'Gone' and 'Hunger', which are the first two books in the 'Gone' series. I am currently reading the amazing book 'Pet Semetary' by Stephen King. I've read these books since first entering this class, which I believe is pretty extraordinary. I plan on reading much more besides just fiction stories, I plan on expanding my horizons and reading more poetry and non-fiction. Besides reading and enjoying a lot of different and interesting titles, I've also learned a lot about writing. 

As of late I have written a narrative essay. While writing this essay I've gained a lot of new knowledge that I had previously not been aware of. I've gained the ability to properly revise and correct grammatical, plot, and structural errors. Amongst these abilities I've also just become a better writer in general, I've become better at creating images through my writing as well. Which is a very important key element to have in story writing and story telling. Along the lines of writing are blogs. So far I do not have the ability to tell if my blogging skills have increased as this is only my second blog post ever. Although right now I will say that there is always room for improvement in this area and all areas. Over this school year I will continue to build up this skill and hopefully by my second quarter reflection blog I can say that I have improved since the beginning of this school year. 

Informational and research skills, so far I have actually gotten better at this as well. I can now more easily identify key roles in a story or informational text than in previous school years. I have gained the ability to easily annotate and find useful information. This is extremely helpful because it has helped me be able to easily understand writing and be able to explain it.

In conclusion, this quarter has been very successful for me. I've advanced my comprehension and resource skills, my writing and revision skills have gotten better. I feel that this has been a very successful quarter despite how short it's been. I hope I am this successful in quarters yet to come.

Pet Semetary (Part I)

I am currently reading the book Pet Semetary by the legendary author Stephen King. I have finished the pages 1-213 so far which is Part 1 of the book.

If I got to create a playlist for the first part of this book the songs I would include the following.

1-'Say Something (I'm Giving Up On You)' by A Great Big World. I would include this song on page 60 during the scene where our main character Louis Creed is at work while his patient Victor Pascow is lying on the ground dying. I chose this song because it's a sort of morbid yet hopeful song which relates to the scene because it's a morbid scene of someone dying while Louis is trying to remain hopeful that the man stays alive. The songs chorus is an accurate representation of what Louis was feeling while trying to keep Victor Pascow alive and trying to remain hopeful about the situation.

2-'Sarcasm' by Get Scared. I would include this song on pages 111-125. This is the scene where Louis and Jud go to the Pet Semetary to bury Louis's dead cat Winston Churchhill. I would choose this because it is a more serious song that mentions death quite a bit but also the rythm and the instruments in the song is very strong and the vocals are very rough for part of the song while the rest is in unclean/Screamo vocals and it makes your adrenaline rush and makes you want to run around and jump and in this scene in the book Louis and Jud are running through the forest and scaling hills and have their adrenaline rushing so I feel that it fits the mood of the scene very well.

3-'Caraphernelia' by Pierce The Veil. I would include this song on pages 192-195. This is because this is the scene where Rachel tells Louis about her sister Zelda, who died of Spinal Meningitis at a young age. She speaks about how she cannot forget her and how she looked. She explains that Zelda's death is embedded in her mind and how it changed her. In this song the chorus is 'What If I Can't Forget You? I'll Burn Your Name Into My Throat. I'll Be The Fire That'll Catch You.' Which reminds me of Rachel's explanation of how the memories of her sister are forever in her mind. The line 'I'll Be The Fire That'll Catch You' seems to first in to where Rachel believes that she aided her sisters death, I believe this because a fire is something deadly and Rachel saw herself as sort of deadly and this represents Rachel and the fire that's catching her sister. Another line in the song is 'Baby, Honestly It's Harder Breathing Next To You, I Shake.' Which resembles the feelings that Rachel had whenever she would have to see or take care of her sister. She would say that she would have trouble breathing while looking at her at shake at her touch. Lastly, Rachel said that she will always remember how horrible he sister looked and acted and the word 'Caraphernelia' means when someone leaves and they leave things behind. When Zelda died she left Rachel with all these horrible memories.

4-'Can't Buy Me Love' by The Beatles. I would include this song on page 162. This is because when we learn from Louis about his Father-In-Law. We learn that his Father-In-Law tries to use his wealth to try and buy the love of his daughter and grandchildren by buying them things instead of actually showing them love. Louis states that his Father-In-Law's earth won't change how he feels about him and that he won't accept his money in replace of showing actual care for his family. When Louis says this he basically says that the man cannot buy Louis's love. This is about not being able to buy someone's love so the mentality of the song is the same as Louis's mentality and feelings for his wives father.

5- 'Welcome To The Black Parade' by My Chemical Romance. This song would be suited for pages 50-51. This is because this is a song about understanding and being acquainted with death. On those pages we hear about how Louis was exposed to the death of a family member who was very dear and clos to him at a young age and how at first he didn't understand it but had to become acquainted with the sorrows of death. The writer of the song and Louis have the same feelings about death, they both do not understand it and dislike it in the beginning but become more acquainted with it after time passes and begin to feel indifferent to it and find it normal and natural and not at all terrifying. The mood and mentality of the song matches Louis's mentality very well. 

Links to songs-

1. 'Say Something' by A Great Big World- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BmErRm-vApI

2. 'Sarcasm' by Get Scared- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9QW4AMa5E

3. 'Caraphernelia' by Pierce The Veil- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l3RPEtmgljE

4. 'Can't Buy Me Love' by The Beatles- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=524BS0thExg

5. 'Welcome To The Black Parade' by My Chemical Romance- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-q9q6zl3WIs