Writing Reflection

My writing, from the beginning of the year, has defiantly improved. Since the start of my 7th grade writing career, Ms. Capelli has made it very easy to grow into a better writer. When faced with problems, our class could always conference with her, and then in the future Ms. Capelli always looked for it in our writing to see if we improved. This "system" allowed, at least for me, and if not the whole class to help improve my writing. As the year goes into its 2nd half, I hope to become an even better writer than what I have grown to now.  

Reflection

Even though this last month was very short for school days due to the holiday break, there are still some things to reflect about. In late November, I started a new book, the graveyard book. I have never read scary books before but I thought how bad can it be? Its just writing on a page. This new thinking now opens up lots of more books for me to read as I finish books. Picking books will now be much different because I will no longer be running away from the scary novels. I think that this is going to maybe make my reading life much better because I love to explore the new hypothetical worlds these authors create.

Super SmartNote

Passage: "Once they had a working technical prototype, the next stage was to work out the UI. 'We usually start with brainstorming and paper prototyping,' they write, 'Only after that do we start using Photoshop.'"

This article titled How Pixle Created Its Clever Cut-and-Fold Papercraft App ‘Foldify’ by Tim Maly from Wired Magazine really caught my attention because I was interested on how apps are developed. This particular passage was very interesting to me. The process of how this team even started was very cool. They would first sit down and brainstorm for a long time before even opening a computer. This app is used on the iPad to create print-outs that you fold to create a 3 dimensional paper fold. In this passage the developers are talking about the UI (or user interface.) This is what the app is going to look like. For example the buttons. They had to decide what the "theme" of the app was going to be before they started designing it.

SSN

  I an currently reading The Graveyard Book. I am not very far into the book but very quickly any reader can pick up on Neil Gailmans's writing style. This story has a lot of setting changes. When introducing a new setting Neil literally puts the reading in the scene by using the word "you". "You could see the abandoned funeral chapel, iron doors padlocked, ivy on the sides of the spire, a small tree growing out of the guttering at roof level." (12.)  Gailman goes on paragraph by paragraph starting with you and then describing the scene. I took a smartnote here because I had never seen this style of writing before. This, for me, was a great way to visualize the setting and also reveled a new perspective on introducing a setting in a text. 

A Changed Pet or Person?

Passage:  “ Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.  Her early leaf’s a flower: But only so an hour. Then subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. … ‘Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it then i'm gettin’, though.’ ”
(77- 78)

This poem is said by ponyboy to Johnny in chapter 4. This is when Johnny and Ponyboy had woken early and decided to watch the sun rise. S.E Hinton picked this for many reasons. The poem relates to the characters as well as the tone of the story. If you pick the poem apart, it has a deeper meaning. The title is “Natures first green is gold.”  Gold in that phrase has another meaning though apart from the obvious shiny metal gold is in reality. Gold is the underling good in people, and to continue down the poem. Robert Frost is using the change of the seasons by starting with birth and explaining how life can be as short as a sunrise to convey and relate to peoples everyday lives.

But besides what the passages general meaning in the context of all life, S.E Hinton specifically took Frost’s words into her text. To relate something as broad as the changes of life and the world to a character in a book must have been a very hard connection to make. I am almost sure that one day S.E Hinton did not just have a light bulb just go off and The Outsiders was born. Hinton related the change of Johnny to the course of life. Johnny changed his approach to everything. Instead of letting someone else in the gang handle something for him, when he ran away Johnny was forced to live life on his own and stop being treated as the pet. Little Johnny-Cakes ran away as the pet and returned as a brave greaser who had saved Ponyboy. Change is a big part of life; Robert Frost and S.E Hinton displayed this well together.

Reflection

My goal for quarter 1 was to take more smart notes and be more aware of my thinking while reading. I semi accomplished my goal. I feel more aware of my thinking but I'm not taking as much smart notes. To fix this I am starting a book just for smart notes and one just to read. This will more or less force me to take more smart notes. When I do take smart notes they are mostly predictions. Or inferences that really are predictions. My goal from quarter one is going to stay up as a goal but in my head I have semi accomplished my first goal and I am using my smart notes to better understand my smart note book. I think these goals will defiantly better help me in my readings.

Outsiders Reflection

In chapter 2 of The Outsiders  by S.E Hinton The character Johnny is described as the gangs pet. As I approached this it confused me. Johnny is a human being, and in no way shape or form represents a house pet. But maybe this is a symbol for something else... In class it was stated that “pet” was a metaphor in being that Johnny was treated as a pet in the gang. Still confused a reader might ask you don’t honestly pet him and tell him he’s a good boy. So what? What does Johnny as a pet represent? Well most characters have wants and fears. Hinton does a great job relating almost every character trait to the characters wants and fears. Think about pets lives ... They wake up  eat, lay down, eat, sleep. Thats their day every day. Pets don’t have responsibilities. The owner does. In this case Johnny is the pet and the gang are the owner. So if you’re the owner and the pet bites you do you bite back? Short answer, no. In chapter 2  Johnny says “ ‘Leave her alone, Dally.’ ‘Huh?’ Dally was taken off guard.” (Pg. 24) Dally is one of the toughest in the group. Nobody really messed with him like that. Especially Johnny. Going back to the metaphor, most house pets don’t “act out”. And Dally showed that if they do you don’t do anything back. Their pets, their stupid. But when its comes to this book, stupid is a strong word. In The Outsiders theres book stupid and street stupid. The difference? Knowing how to act when your around other gangs and dealing with fights in alleys. School stupid is book smarts, your grades in school. Stupid in the context of The Outsiders is a very general word. But then arose another question. Why does a gang even have a pet? The greasers certainly don't need a pet. So why have one? I guess they don’t talk about him as one. While reading the whole book a reader always has to consider that all of the thoughts are from Ponyboys perspective. These are a few things I observed from reading chapters 2 & 3 of The Outsiders.