Category Archives: English 11

The Crucible: Peer Pressure – Infographic

English 11

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How have you personally connected to, “The Crucible?”

After reading “The Crucible,” I was able to connect with many of the themes and lessons in the play. Over the course of the last few years of my life, I have experienced several of the different hardships represented in the play such as peer pressure, dishonesty, and religion. Since beginning high school, peer pressure and dishonesty are problems that I have encountered many times and have unfortunately become very familiar with dealing with. Although it may be difficult to remain truthful and resist pressure from my peers, I try my best to stick to my morals. However, I can easily relate to the feeling of wanting to be accepted by all and blindly following the actions of others because I behaved similarly not to long ago in middle school. Back then if someone higher up on the social ladder had asked me to do something, I would not hesitate to fulfill their request, not worrying about the consequences that might come from my actions. Another central theme that I personally connected to is the characters devoutness to God. I have grown up in the church and having been raised in a very religious family, I have basically been a Christian my entire life. My experiences certainly made it easier for me to understand and relate to many of the characters in the play because following any religion causes people to have to make sacrifices and I understand how difficult it can be to follow religious guidelines. The main focus for the majority of the characters in the play is to try to maintain their reputation and in doing so, they lie and cheat and judge one another. Although this play was written many years ago, I believe many of the themes in “The Crucible” are still relevant today and affect many different parts of my life.

How and why have you responded to, “The Crucible” in a personal, creative, and critical way?

For my project, I decided to use an infographic to show how I related the theme of peer pressure in the novel, to it’s relevance today. I chose to do an infographic because it allowed me to create a visual project that I was able to design and layout in the way that I wanted it. Throughout the process of creating my project, I was able to reflect and find connections to some of the different lessons and themes in the play and I critically selected which theme I thought was most relevant in the book and today. I creatively came up with an interesting form of presentation and used images and text to creatively explain the theme that I chose. I was also able to use my critical and creative thinking while choosing the examples that I wanted to use from the play, as there were many options to choose from, I had to select the one that I thought best represented the theme of peer pressure.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Ballad

English 11

The ballad, The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald, written by Gordon Lightfoot, explores the central themes of both loss and environment. This poem tells the story of the sailors that died in the tragic wreck, during an unexpected storm, on Lake Superior. Unfortunetly, 29 men lost their lives in the wreck, leaving their families behind. The author demonstrates the theme of loss through the misfortune of the sailors and the impact it had on their families. After the wreck, all that was left was their leagacy, “And all that remains is the faces and the names/ Of the wives and the sons and the daughters” (Lightfoot 39-40). Their faces and names will forever be remembered as the brave men who barred the great waves that caused the unexpected shipwreck. The sailors were not prepared for the weather that they were going to have to endure, and once they had realized the severity of the storm, it was to late: “The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound/And a wave broke over the railing/And every man knew, as the captain did too,/T’was the witch of November come stealin'” (Lightfoot 17-20). The storm that the sailors faced, is comparable to one of a hurricane. The ballad is warning us to prepared for any situation, as the unexpected is not as unlikely as we may believe. We have to remember that weather and the environement that we are in can be unpredictable and is constantly changing. We must learn from the mistakes of others, even when it may seem that all hope is lost. Their sacrifice will inspire others to be prepared for anything and to continue fighting until the end.

Grammar Talks – Parentheses & Brackets

English 11

Grammar Rule & Examples:

For our Grammar Talks presentation, we chose parentheses and brackets as our grammar rule. The first thing that I learned was how to distinguish parentheses from brackets: parentheses are round brackets ( ) and brackets are the squared version of parentheses [ ]. Parentheses are similar to commas as they can expand on an afterthought or an explanation, they can add more information to a sentence and they can be used as interrupters in a sentence which can change the style of writing. When using parentheses, you could also remove the words in the parentheses and the point of the sentence would still get across. An example of a sentence using parentheses is: “Toby Ford (last year’s team captain) is expected to win most valuable player.” The information inside of the parentheses is information that otherwise would not have been included. Brackets can be used to clarify, to correct or to further explain what was intended by the original speaker. An example using brackets to clarify information is “She [Angelina Jolie] is a very kind person.” This is a perfect example of how to use brackets because the reader may not have known what “She” was referring to, allowing the original speaker to further explain their intents by adding useful information into the brackets. When using periods with parentheses or brackets, the period almost always goes at the end of the sentence on the outside of the parentheses or brackets. However, the period could go on the inside of the parentheses if the entire clause is in the parentheses. “I ate all of the pickles in the jar. (They were quite delicious.)” I also learned that parentheses and brackets can be used together in a sentence. The square brackets can be used inside the parentheses to indicate something dependent to the dependent clause. However, parentheses and brackets can never be used interchangeably.

References:

https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/parens.asp

Straus, Jane, and GrammarBook. “Parentheses and Brackets.” GrammarBook.com | Your #1 Source for Grammar and Punctuation, Jane Straus/GrammarBook, www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/parens.asp.

https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/brackets-and-parentheses/

“Brackets and Parentheses | English Grammar.” EF Blog, EF Education First Ltd.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/punctuation/parentheses-and-brackets

Oxford University Press. “Parentheses and Brackets ( ) [ ] | Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/punctuation/parentheses-and-brackets.

https://www.dictionary.com/e/parentheses/

Dictionary.com. “What Are The ( ) { } [ ] And ⟨ ⟩?” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, 21 Aug. 2018, www.dictionary.com/e/parentheses/.

 

Technology Paragraph

English 11

Do you think we are too reliant on technology?

Over the past few years, technology has grown in ways that we never could have imagined and because of these ongoing developments, our society has been forced to adapt to this new way of living. We have learned to become almost completely dependent on the technology that surrounds us and soon enough, machines will most likely be doing everything for us. We have become so reliant on technology that “42% of teenage girls and 39-45% of teenage boys say that they get anxious when they do not have access to their phones.” However, this issue is not only affecting our generation, but also the generations that have come before us. Parents today depend on technology to entertain their children; doctors rely on it to aid in medical procedures and thousands of jobs are being replaced by machines that are supposedly more efficient and intelligent than any human. It is sad to think that the average age for a child to receive a cellphone is 10 years old. Giving a child a phone at such a young age is not going to benefit them in the future. It is instead teaching them that hours spent on social media and video games is acceptable and even normal or healthy. Technology has become a tool that most people could not live without. If the reliance continues to advance in the direction that it is going, we should be worried about the next generations ability to thrive.