Ellie's English 1 Blog

United- Tanya  Personal Narrative- Zoe

"How was school today Ellie?" My mom asks as I get in the car. "Fine," I say tired as always. "Did anything happen today? Anything important?" She says as if she knows something. "Not really. Except I had a French test," I say distantly because my phone is distracting me. "Well, how did it go?" "It was alright, I studied so hard for it. I think I made an A," I say still distracted by my phone. "Good." We drive the rest of the car ride in silence because my mom has nothing to say, and I am too distracted to say anything. "Home already," I mumble to myself, not noticing how short one car ride could be. "What was that?" My mom asks. "Nothing," I say annoyed. "Ellie start your homework soon! You need to go to bed by 10:00," says my mom knowing by the time I finished homework and lollygagging on my phone, it will already be 11:00. "Mom but I am so tired, can't I

When I found out we were going to write personal narratives, I knew just what I was going to write. Happening was the most life-changing experience that has ever happened to me. I spent so much of my time trying to choose which words to place where. I wanted the people reading my narrative to understand the impact it had on my life.  The most difficult part of writing my narrative structuring it. I never know if I am correctly placing the paragraphs or if my sentences are complete. I also have struggled with comma usage. It would be amazing if my classmates could read my work and give me advice on my choice of words, I might have used too many descriptive words, and not enough literary devices. Writing my narrative has been kind of fun, to tell the truth, and I look forward to peer editing. 

Muskaan- Dear 10 Year Old's Ellie Sim- Mint Snowball

Mint Snowball had to be one of the most detailed pieces of writings I have ever read. That is why I was so intruiged when I started reading. Normally I dislike reading and annotating liturature, but I loved reading Mint Snowball because everytime I reread it I felt like I was in the shop tasting the snowball for the first time, over and over again. I really loved how the author used details about the snowball that she had never even come close to tasting. As I was reading I noticed that the only thing the author had left of her great grandfather was the snowball recipie, which was sold for hundreds of dollars, intead of passing it down the generations. I also love how the narrative ends with questions that will not be answered, and leaves you thinking.

When you are 7, you are not as worried about what people will think of you. When you get older though, thats a whole different story. When you are 7 you should be yourself, no matter how weird you are. My mom has always told me to be myself no matter what people because if you go through life being someone you are not, then you are not living life fully. I am now 14 years old and all of my friends say that I have "social anxiety" because when I get around people that I am not fully comftorable with I shutup. I do not what to say. High School has really changed me though. I can be myself, mt crazy self without worrying about what others think. I wish I had heard "to stay weird" when I was 7 because I might be so much more outgoing, than I am now.

Hurricane Katrina- Muskaan  With Malice; Digging Deeper

On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. New Orleans was at risk because its average elevation is 6 feet below sea level, surrounded by water, and had a few unreliable levees. Hurricane Katrina hit the morning of August 29th. The storm surge overwhelmed many drainage systems, by the end 80% of New Orleans was under some kind of water. After Katrina hit, many people helped out around New Orleans. For example a lot of people came and donated money from around the country to help fix New Orleans. Although it took days for people living outside of New Orleans to understand the severity of the hurricane, people soon became heelping out from all over. When Hurricane Katrina was all over, there were 2,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of people evacuated. Resource

The Hate U Give is about a 16 year old girl named Starr. Starr is and african american teen living in 21st century trying to protest aginst discrimination. Through out the book the author adds unexpected events. For example (this is not a spoiler), when Starr and Kahlil are driving home from a party one night they get stopped by a police officer. Kahlil moves a foot or so and the cop decides to shoot him, out of nowhere. Throughout the book, so far, there have been many incedents just like that to catch your attention and pull you in. This book pulls you into how Starr feels about everything that happened with Kahlil. She blames herself for losing touch with him. She also struggles with telling people that she witnessed Kahlils death, she was there. She does not want to tell people because she is scared people will hurt or harass her with questions. The book brings you deep into Starrs emotions throughout the journey. Angie Thomas really does an amazing job at pulling you into this b