This project was a final project on the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  This project could be a movie, an exhibit, or a power point, which is what I did.  What was easy was finding the pictures for my power point. What was hard for me was finding quotes that fit my theme which was Prejudice, and then writing about those quotes.

                                                                                             TKM Theme

 

             During part one of To Kill a Mockingbird  Harper Lee, Jem and Scout mature greatly.  One example of this is they realize how Atticus is truly a gentleman by shooting the impaired dog only when he absolutely had to protect his family and the neighborhood.   They also start to listen to him more after they realize that he truly loves them and will do almost anything for them.   When Jem and Scout are practicing with their air rifles,  Atticus says,  “ I’d rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds.  Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(Pg. 90)  On the next page, the book says that Scout finds Jem in the backyard shooting at tin cans, not at blue jays. In that case, Jem had listened to what  Atticus wanted even though Atticus did not enforce it.  

                Another example is when Mrs. Dubose is giving Jem and Scout a philippic on how their family was getting worse and worse.  They learned a lesson from that experience that they never forgot. They learned that everybody has their own way of teaching. Also they learned that even though Mrs. Dubose seemed malicious and despicable she was trying to teach them a lesson in her own way.

            One last example of Jem and Scout growing up is when Atticus finds Scout behind a breastwork of  tire crates and baskets that she had constructed, and she is about to shoot Ms. Maudie.  This signifies maturing because when she was younger, she probably did not have had enough patience to build the whole thing.

          The purpose of this project was to have an audience for our work, to display our work, and reflect upon it.  I think I did well in explaining how I did the work and projects and how I felt about it.  The hard thing was the whole technology part. The technology was very hard for me.  Lots of times I could not put something onto this page that I needed to.  I learned how to control my "anger at technology" problems.  I learned that it does not help at all smacking your computer...in fact, it just makes it worse. 

      I had lots of fun with this project.  We read the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and choose a creative project to do.  If it was just an art project like I did we had to do a written part also.  In my case the written part is explaining how the art relates to the story.  I think I did well in representing the story in the piece of art I did.    I really had a hard time writing about my project and not just making the writing boring  like this represents this and so on.  I learned that it is really fun to do art sometimes for a project, that it doesn’t all have to be writing essays.


                                                                         A Christmas Carol

            My project is a picture of Scrooge and the three ghosts who come to haunt him and teach him good ways.  The first apparition  on the left is the ghost of Christmas Past. This ghost shows Scrooge his younger days, from when he was a small, abandoned boy to a few years from the present time in the story.  The second ghost is in the middle, Christmas Present.  He shows Scrooge how different people celebrate Christmas in different places.  Also he shows Scrooge how even in the most remote places people still honor Christmas.  The last ghost is Christmas Future.  He shows Scrooge what will happen if Scrooge doesn’t change.

            The ghost of Christmas Past is drawn in crayon.  The colors are bright to symbolize that Scrooge’s past was better than how he is in the present time of the book.  The ghost has a smiling face and is kind to Scrooge.  This ghost also shows Scrooge how and why he turned unkind,  How he was always left behind, morose and melancholy.

            The second ghost is the ghost of Christmas Present. This ghost is drawn in colored pencil.  He is made of bright, solid colors, but the colors are in darker shades.  This is because Scrooge’s life is darker and more dreary in the present of Scrooge’s life than in the past.

            The last ghost is the ghost of Christmas Future.  He represents what is to come and what will happen if Scrooge doesn’t change. What will happen is Scrooge’s death.  Almost nobody is sorrowful when Scrooge is dead. People even steal his things like bed curtains and sheets. This spectral figure is made of dark shady pencil. 

            In the middle of the three is Scrooge. Scrooge is mean on one side and jocund on the other to represent how he changes when he knows what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen.  For the first ghost and part of the second, he is still cruel and incredulous of the different ghosts of Christmas. For the other part of the second ghost, he begins to believe in Christmas and believes that he must change.  For the last ghost, he is completely changed.  He has gone from sordid and odious to benevolent and capacious of love and kindness.

This project was a photo story about my summer reading book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. In this project we choose pictures that represented the story.   I think I did well in figuring out which pictures to use and writing.   Working in a group was very difficult for me.  In my opinion my group did not work well together, we could not choose pictures and we wasted lots of time looking for good ones.  I learned that I personally work better alone so the grade depends on me alone and  if I get something done before I don’t have to wait. 


Unfortunately I could not upload this project onto this web page. 

        In this project we choose a poem that we thought was our best.  Next we had to choose pictures that represented the poem and choose a background for the glogster.   Then we had to analyze the poem and say what we did well in the poem, how we choose the poem, and what inspired us to write this poem.  I wrote this as a tribute to shadows who always stay with us.  I think I did well in finding good pictures and analyzing the poem. The hard part was figuring out how to fit everything on and get all the pictures.  I liked this project because it gave us a chance to choose our work and to work with technology.

  This project took me hours to do.  We had to read a certain passage from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and write our own version of it.  I think I did well in doing the same format as the passage in the book. The hard part about this project was just doing it.  It took me a very long time to just figure out what I was going to write.  I learned that lots of commas can be very artistic in writing but you still don’t want to put lots of commas in.



  In came the  King with a crown, and went to the cluttered table, and made space for himself, and wrote love notes until he had fifty-one head-aches.  In came the page,  with a gold and blue bean-bag hat.  In came the three princesses, flouncing and laughable.  In came seven young men in old army coats.  In came the servants and the maids bowing politely.  In came the butler with a bloodstained apron and his wife, the cook.  In came the Baron all with his special friend, the archery master.  In came the small boy who had had his wings clipped after following around his Mistresses girl.  In came the poor boy who’s master did not pay him enough.  They all came in, one after another, some slowly, some quickly, some quietly, some hurrying, some waiting;  They all came, in anyhow and everyhow.

                           This poem is an ode.  I did not have to write it but I did and it came out really well.  An ode is usually a poem about something we overlook or forget-about.  I think I did well in making my poem flow and in describing how shadow are always with us.  From when I wrote the poem on I have begun to acknowledge the simple things in life like shadows.

Ode to My Shadow

By Mila Rich

You follow wherever I go

You follow me over hill and dale

Over mountain over plain.

When I swim you glide

Along the sandy bottom

You follow in bright sun

And dark corridors

 

Sometimes you are right behind

Sometimes to the side

But always you are there

Following or leading me along

Guiding me by the land

Leading me through pain and sorrow

Through joy and delight

You lead me

 

You and I best friend forever

Skipping together on sunny days

Cuddling up on rainy days

You are always there when I call for help

Or comfort

 

Some days you are also feeling distressed,

And you are only a faint outline

But when you are content

You stand bold and proud

Nothing can beat you down

And yet

You are not haughty or arrogant

Just sweet and caring

 A friend who is always with me

Always around if I need you

 

 

I can tell you all of my secrets

Because you do not judge or be scornful

You just listen

You don’t get mad

Or upset if I don’t do well in school

You are benevolent and compassionate

You are the perfect person

 

 

 

 

 

We skip down sunny lanes

Through cobbled stone street

Over meadows filled with poppy’s

We walk along sandy river-banks

Talking arm-in-arm

 

 

You follow wherever I go

You follow me over hill and dale

Over mountain over plain

When I swim you glide

Along the sandy bottom

You follow in bright sun

And dark corridors.




 

 

 

 

          This project was an essay about what we think is important.  I think it is important to have hope.  I think I did well in telling about the time when I needed hope and describing how I felt at the time.  What was difficult was actually choosing the topic,  I have so many things that I think are important that it was very hard to choose.  I learned that to really make essays flow, you have to put feelings into them whether it’s about you or something else.

                                                                                            Hope

            Hope is one of the most important values to me and my life.   I am reminded of hope many times, in my school life and at home.  Hope is important to me because it tells  me to have faith in other people and in myself. Perseverance and hope are almost the same in that  you have to have hope to persevere and press on to the finish.

 I was in sixth grade, and I had a experience where I needed hope to keep going and not give up on my grades. I shudder as my teacher starts handing back the quizzes. I pick mine up, and I slowly turn it around, My stomach falls into a pit. There are little marks in red all over the paper. D.  I take a deep breath, trying to keep myself from crying. This is the third in a series of low marks, and next week there is a test.  I take as long as possible packing my backpack because I know the progress report will have beaten me home, and my parents will be waiting to bombard me with disappointment in their voices.  I am right.

When my mom picks me up she gives me a lecture about how I need to get my grade up or I will fail out of math. Words rain down on me like raindrops, words are flaming fireballs that burn up my hope, and words like so many hammers slowly chip away at my bravery and turn me into a coward who tells excuses and lies.  I tell  her about the test in one week, and she totally freaks out. She goes on and on and when we get home my dad starts on me also. I promise I will study so I do.

 I study every single night for a week. I go over all of the quizzes, marking and redoing the sections that I got wrong.  I wake up the morning of the test, and I am so nervous I can hardly eat my cereal. But finally I had a tiny spark of hope that maybe just maybe I would get lucky. I complete my test, and then check it over about a million times until I finally had to hand it in.  I do not fall asleep till late that night. The next day I sit shuddering in  chair as my teacher hands back my test. Slowly I pick it up. A. 

I can’t believe it I actually did well. That day I jump like a kangaroo, skip  as high as a sky scraper, and smile wide enough to fit the whole world in my mouth. When I tell my parents  they are as proud as if I had just won a championship swimming event. Also I was proud of myself. I had kept hope and kept faith through till the end and taa-daa! I actually did well. 

     This poem is a sonnet I wrote when I was thinking about storms and sunken ships. I think I did well in following the iambic pentameter formula for the poem.   I had trouble with the fact that I there could only be ten syllables in each line.  I learned that it’s different writing the poem than just having the idea for the poem in my head


  The Sunk Ship

By Mila

 

Lightning flashed across the very stormy sky

Rain beat upon the deck of the brave ship

One poor poor sailor fell and broke his hip

People yelled and urged their family to fly

Torrential rain beat down upon the deck

Lightning struck and splintered the weakened mast

The wind howled and blew the ship awfully quickly fast

In a half an hour the ship was a wreck

 

Slowly the brave ship sunk beneath the waves

The hull cracked in two as the bold ship sunk

No one escaped not one person or child

Soon animals came out of their very dark caves

 this happened cause the captain was very drunk

the ignorant mayor had his nails filed