Kayley Nguyen

Dr. Cobos

ELA

December 11, 2017

Do you think the grandmother changes throughout the story? If not, why not? If so, why? Use evidence from the text to back up your opinion.

To me in the story the grandma changed a lot. In the beginning you can see that the grandma cleary didn’t want to go. She tried many things to convince her only son to take the kids to east Tennessee where she could visit some of her connections, “She wanted to visit some of her connections in the east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind.” Shortly after she shows Bailey a newspaper article that is talking about a criminal who escaped the Federal pen and was heading towards Florida. Grandma was then saying that she would never take her kids to a place like that while there is a criminal on the loose, he should be more broad and take the kids to east Tennessee. My question is, why didn't Bailey say anything about it?

I thought that it was really interesting to read that the grandmother would even try to talk to the kids and persuade them not go to Florida. Towards the middle of the story, the grandmother starts to realize that after their encounter with a man with a gun, “his face was as familiar to her as if she had known him au her life but she could not recall who he was”. After the misfit had told everyone to sit down in the same spot the grandma realized that he was the misfit “You’re the Misfit!”.  Right after the misfit told them that it would've been better if she had not recognized them. Going back to the beginning of the story the grandma didn’t want to go for other reasons but her argument was because the misfit was loose. Throughout the story you can tell that she is constantly asking questions and warning the family that the misfit is going to turn up. In the end the grandma is definitely right. She tried to convince the misfit that she knows he is a good person and that he really doesn't need to kill them. To me the grandma was also the bravest one, Bailey never really showed interest in what she was ever trying to tell him. Another thing is throughout the last six pages the story just goes on and on between them two about why he shouldn't kill them, until he finally did. Going back to my question about why did Bailey respond to anything even when his mother was right, he still didn't do much talking, the grandma did. She was the one who was trying to persuade the misfit to not kill them the entire time.

Kayley Nguyen

Dr. Cobos

ELA

October 29, 2017

What did you enjoy most about the interview process of the Oral History Project?

What advice would you give to future students doing the Oral History Project?

Throughout this whole project the things that I enjoyed most were seeing everyone really work together. There were many split groups that each had to schedule and give a interview. When I first heard about this project I was really worried that we wouldn’t be able to do it since none of us had never done this before. It was really not as hard as I imaged it to be because we had met with people who taught us how to properly give an interview . In our group we worked pretty well together on doing an equal amount of work and with helping each other. We were quite worried because our interview was really late so we didn't have as much time to type our transcription but even though it was really hard it was also really fun. When our groups had to join to make a collaborative project it was cool to see everyone's ideas join to be one. Our class made a website with each one of our interviews with an analysis and also a highlights page.

Some things to know that helped our group is having two electrical devices ready, charger, open ended questions, and patience. Our class was really stressed throughout this whole process and what really helped us is that we needed to be open minded with each others thoughts and opinions and we had to be really patient with each other. Our group learned how to work with each other and get it done but honestly if you don't work together as a group then it's going to be extremely hard to get your project done. Our group also really struggled with the videos because we didn't have enough storage to download every video and get it done on time so we just had to stay calm and trust each other, in the end we got what we needed done and our project came out really successful and informational.

Kayley Nguyen

Dr. Cobos

ELA

October 27, 2017

What led to Marjane's grandmother yelling at her? Was the yelling justified? Why or why not?

I chose this topic because I thought that there was a reasonable explanation behind why her grandma was yelling at her. From page 285-287 and 291 explains what happened and why her grandma acted the way she did. The story starts when Marjane wanting to get a makeover. After her makeover she saw the guardians and freaked out, since makeup was not really allowed her first thing was to completely blame it on the man that was right next to her as a distraction. On page 285 quotes “I had to distract them. I had to go see them before they saw me…. There’s a guy who said something indecent to me.” To me the first thing I thought was why would you do this, out of anything you could have done you chose this? Another thing is when looking at some of the pictures after the man was arrested she looked as if she knew she was guilty. I think that her grandma had the right to yell at Marjane because she told her grandma the story in a way that was not serious. Also I think what also made it worse was that Iran is already strict and she knows it, to put someone through that knowing the consequences are bad is just not acceptable. I also think that Marjane’s partner was a bad influence on her because like I was saying before on page 286-287 she looked as if she felt bad until she told him, he started laughing and then she became ok with what she did. The grandma did bring up a good point on page 291 when she brought up how her grandfather was arrested and locked up. “Have you forgotten who your grandfather was? He spent years of his life in prison for having defending some innocents”. I don’t think that Marjane understood how important that was to her grandma and to see your grandchild do something so awful is honestly heartbreaking.

Kayley Nguyen

ELA

Dr. Cobos

September 28, 2017

Why did Marjane's parents decide to send her to Europe? Do you think this was the right decision? Why or why not? (Harrison, Kim. "ELA 2015-2016")

Marjane's parents sent her away because she had problems in school like she got kicked out a lot and It was just not that safe for her to stay and be there. I think it was the right decisions because she didn’t really get along with everyone and just in general did not do well in school. Throughout the book she got into fights most of the time during school and from the pictures she looked like she just wasn't enjoying her life.

I think that it was a good decision because when she moved in with her moms friend for 10 days. Once she was there for while she was sent away again to a boarding school where she didn't have many friends. She seemed like she was happy when she moved rather than living in Iran where the war was going on. She soon made friends but all of her friends did bad things like drugs and other stuff. She also became interested in drugs and became a drug dealer so later on I do not think it was such a good idea sending her alone rather than being kept there in Iran.

Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
April 28, 2017

Choose one of the themes in the book that we identified and discussed in class (this should be in your notes) and decide which one you believe is the primary theme of The Great Gatsby. Explain why you think this is the primary theme and provide three pieces of textual evidence to support your position.

    I think that The American Dream had a theme of unreal hope and artificial happiness. In class the group that did the American Dream really caught my attention because the book didn’t talk about it often but their evidence made it all make sense. There was some parts of the book that made The American Dream sound like it wasn't a good thing. I also really like how the book was more descriptive on details when talking about the people who were more wealthy living the American Dream. In class we talked about the green light and how it is very important in the book because it also represented the American Dream, the book also quotes that Fitzgerald wrote, “Gatsby believes in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” If the green light was a symbol for The American Dream then why was Fitzgerald saything that The American Dream every year moved farther and farther away which made it less achievable even though Gatsby still believed in it. Fitzgerald also quoted “For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant.” I also really like this because Daisy was technically living the American Dream.
   

Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
April 22, 2017


What is the climax (turning point) of the novel? How do you I know? How is the central conflict addressed in the climax? Use textual evidence to back up your claims.

The climax in my opinion was when Gatsby was shot because it eliminated the love and conflict in the book. Also when Gatsby died there was no longer two guys for Daisy to choose between because the choice was made for her in a way. Another example is when Tom Buchanan’s mistress died then Tom didn't have somebody to cheat on Daisy with even though he could probably just find someone else in the city. Even if tom didn't have anyone to cheat with, there is still the conflict of who Daisy loves. Also I thought that the climax of the story usually happens during the middle of the book but to me all the other characteristic of a climax were met when Gatsby died. Also, after Gatsby died everyone started leaving and going off on their own. Everything seemed to calm down and separate after Gatsby died.

Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
March 7, 2017

For class, the group I was in read Othello. Othello is a tragedy, you can find information to back this up in the play because pretty much everyone in the play dies. The main characters in the story tend to get in arguments a lot especially Othello, Iago, Emilia, and Desdemona. In the play Iago and Othello kills their wives making themselves both look really bad. On the other hand, the one person that no one would really expect. Iago was the villain. Iago was the reason for his wife's death and he framed people. The whole play was really unexpected that any of this actually turned out the way that it did. 

Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
February 28, 2017

For my response to The Merchant of Venice I decided to write a poem. It was hard to come up with things at first to try to write about because there was so many things I could write about. I was also trying not to make this poem really long by describing every single detail on the book. I ended up writing about the most important parts,l or the parts that stood out most to me. I thought that it turned out pretty well, but I also thought that if I had more time I could've made it better. If I could've changed it, I would want to add more details on what I was talking about and being able to end it well off. I would also liked if it would rhyme better. I think that the rhyming was ok, in other spots not so much. Overall I really liked what I had chosen. Last year I wrote a poem for a creative response and I thought it was really fun, so I would try it again. I would definatly choose to do this again, I thought it was really fun to write and also it brings out the creative parts in you, to be able to put all your ideas to make a poem. 

Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
February 21, 2017

    In The Merchant of Venice, I liked the part with the three caskets. I thought it was interesting to read about and it. I dont think that was a smart way to find your future husband in my personal opinion. When i saw the she had put her picture in the lead casket, I was thinking that she was pretty intelligent by doing that. I also really liked all the scenes where Portia was dressed as a judge. I became really interested in this part of the play because I thought that it was a really smart idea to go spy on Bassanio. I think in this case it was a good idea to spy on her husband, because Bassanio and Portia had just become married and if she didn't do that she couldn't have ever found out about the ring. I also think it was written very well to fit into this play, and to add something this important was kind of like a plot twist.

Kayley Nguyen
ELA
Mrs. Harrison
February 10, 2017

As a modern audience, do you think that Shylock deserves the punishment that he receives? Why or why not? Also, how do you think an Elizabethan audience would have felt about this (would they have thought he deserves his punishment)? Why or why not?
   
In my opinion I think that Shylock deserved his punishment. His role in the play was a money lender, and back then it was common for Jewish people to lend money to others. In the book I understood why he was mad at Antonio for not paying him back because that is a lot of money. On the other hand when Shylock wanted to cut a pound of Antonio's flesh, that caught me off guard.

I liked how Portia played her part on how not to make herself noticeable by the other men in the room. In the video that we watched in class we saw that Portia told Shylock that if one drop of blood were to shed from the pound of flesh, he would die. This caused a bunch of stuff to happen with Shylock and Antonio and eventually Antonio punished Shylock. I think that Shylock deserved his punishment with losing all his money, but for him also to become a Christian? In class I saw that this was very traumatic towards Shylock which in those times that was a serious and humiliating thing.

I think that in the Elizabethan audience would have mixed opinions only because everyone's opinion is different depending how they are. Some people might think that it is ridiculous that Antonio got away with all that debt, and some people might think that Shylock was overreacting and deserved everything that happened to him.

Kayley Nguyen
Mrs. Harrison
ELA
February 6, 2017

1. On page 49 (Act 3, Scene 1) Shylock gives his speech that seems to be sympathetic to the plight of Jews ("I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?..."). Considering the rampant anti-Semitism in the play, why do you think Shakespeare would have included this speech? How does it change what we think of Shylock?

    I think that the speech that Shylock was saying was interesting. This made me think about those kind of days and how it was normal for people to treat Jews like this and how this kind of stuff was funny to people during that time. Personally I think that Shakespeare was adding this to show readers that even if they were good people then, time and history changes things. This quote made me think and visualize how people were treated then. I also think that now that the readers, being our class have seen history, have seen how people treat each other, we have a better understanding of how that was cruel. I also think that Shakespeare added this because it was normal back then for people to talk to each other like this so it wasn't a big deal for them.