Lulu's English Blog

  Prompt: How confident do you feel about your ability to identify claims in a text? What was the easiest part of today's activity, and what did you find challenging? Explain how today's lesson helped you better understand the difference between a claim and other statements an author might make. Prompt Response:  After today in class, I feel pretty confident about being able to identify claims in a text. The easiest part of today's activity was identifying claims of fact because they stand out. The hardest part of today's activity was trying to identify claims that matched the subjects. This was difficult because I felt like some of the claims were out of order with the worksheet topics. Overall, today's lesson helped me better understand the difference between a claim and other statements an author might make because now I know what to look for in a claim. Summary:  Today in class we did an activity where we identified six claims from an article about three-year ba...

  Prompt: If you could change one rule at school, at home, or in society, what would it be? Using a claim of policy, make an argument for why that rule should change, using at least two reasons to support your claim. Prompt Response:  If I could change one rule at school, I would change the phone policy. Although I agree that phones should not be used during instructional time, it's unsafe to completely ban them throughout the entire school day. One solution to the phone ban would be only banning phones during instructional time, but allowing them during class transitions, lunch time, and when work is completed. This would allow students to still focus on their work without phones but eliminate the unsafety of having no access to your phone during other times. For example, if there was an emergency at school, a student would not be able to contact their parents because of the phone ban. This is why I think they should only be banned during educational time and not the entire d...

  Prompt: Think about a time when someone challenged your opinion or told you that you were wrong. What was the disagreement about, and how did you defend yourself? Did you change their mind, or did they change yours? Prompt Response:  A time when someone challenged my opinion was when I was talking to a guy about women's rights, and he said he’s against abortion and should only be used if necessary. I defended my stance that I think anyone should be able to get an abortion whenever they want no matter the reason because it's basic healthcare. I also said that a man should not have an opinion on a woman's body and rights because they are not the one affected by it. I didn't change this person's mind because they still felt uncomfortable by the idea of abortion due to their religion and them seeing it as killing innocent life. But they also did not change my mind because I firmly believe that abortion is a right that all women should have because it's basic healt...

  Prompt: Describe a time when someone’s words had a lasting impact on you.  Prompt Response:  A time when someone's words had a lasting impact on me was when my stepdad, Eric, told me he was proud of me and the young woman I was becoming. He said he saw a bright future for me, and that he knows I will do great things in life. This impacted me because in that moment I felt like I was truly seen for all my efforts, and I felt appreciated. Alongside this, my mom and dad usually don't tell me those things, so when Eric says those things, it feels extra special to me.  Summary:  Today in class I started brainstorming my poem and did my blog post. Reflection:  I found it difficult to decide a topic for my poem because there's so many things I could write about, so it's hard to choose one. I have a lot of personal experiences that I could write about, but since we are presenting our poems to the class, I want to choose something that I'm comfortable with sharing....

  Prompt: Today, you had the opportunity to express yourself through poetry. Reflect on your creative writing process. What did you find most enjoyable or challenging about turning your thoughts into a poem? Did this assignment change the way you think about poetry or creative writing? Explain your experience. Prompt Response:  I wasn't present in class today, so I'm unable to write about the assignment, so instead I will write about my experience creating poems in the past. I find it hard to express myself through poetry because I am not good with words, so I find writing to be challenging. I think it is hard to create poetry that sounds beautiful because I often feel like my words end up sounding confusing or ugly, but I still enjoy the challenge of writing, and every time I write something that I think is good, I feel very accomplished with myself.  Summary:  I was not present in class today. Reflection:  I was not present in class today.

  Prompt: Write about a moment when you had to step out of your comfort zone. Prompt Response:  A moment where I had to step out of my comfort zone was when driving from Georgia to South Carolina in June. At the time, I had only had my license for a few weeks, so driving across state lines was big for me. The reason I had to do this was because I was picking up a car for my brother from my Aunt's house, but he did not have his license yet, so I had to drive the car instead. My dad drove us to my Aunts house, where we stopped and said hi for a bit, and then they gave me the keys and we hit the road. My Dad had us take back roads instead of the highway since I was still a new driver, so the ride was two and a half hours. It ended up being a very smooth and chill road trip, but it definitely was a step outside of my comfort zone!  Summary:  Today in class we continued analyzing “Constantly Risking Absurdity” by Lawrence Feringhetti and did a worksheet on it. Reflection:...