Overview:
The main focus of this year was on the antebellum, civil war, reconstruction, and the great migration. The antebellum was a time period in which the Indians were removed from there land to make space for the slave and cotton trade. The civil war was the time period in which Lincoln was president, and did what he could to end slavery with the help of abolitionist. Reconstruction was the time period where the African Americans tried to prosper through the hardships of that time period. Finally the great migration was about how the blacks moved from the south to north to leave the hardships behind, and start a new life. For each of the units we used diffrent resources like 'Julius Caesar', 'Fredrick Douglass', 'Their eyes were watching god', 'The piano lesson', 'The warmth of other suns' and other articles.
My favorite Part of the whole school year has to be the great migration. It was my favorite because it was the unit that we spent most time on, and the unit that i understood most. The great migration unit was made up Excerpts from 'the warmth of other suns', 'The piano lesson' and a article responding to them both. The piano lesson in my opinion was the BEST book we read all year, because it was short but had alot of detail in the few pages it had. Unlike' Fredrick Douglass' and 'their eyes are watching god' which both were really long book that were somewhat boring, The piano lesson grasped my attention on the first page of the book.
My least favorite part of this class this year has to be when we did the civil war, It was my least favorite because i feel as if we did not spend enough time on the battles, all we did was split up in groups and work on one certain battle. I would have liked to get more into detail, with all the battles.
Introducing All Your Work:
The main focus of this year was on the antebellum, civil war, reconstruction, and the great migration. The antebellum was a time period in which the Indians were removed from there land to make space for the slave and cotton trade. The civil war was the time period in which Lincoln was president, and did what he could to end slavery with the help of abolitionist. Reconstruction was the time period where the African Americans tried to prosper through the hardships of that time period. Finally the great migration was about how the blacks moved from the south to north to leave the hardships behind, and start a new life. For each of the units we used diffrent resources like 'Julius Caesar', 'Fredrick Douglass', 'Their eyes were watching god', 'The piano lesson', 'The warmth of other suns' and other articles.
My favorite Part of the whole school year has to be the great migration. It was my favorite because it was the unit that we spent most time on, and the unit that i understood most. The great migration unit was made up Excerpts from 'the warmth of other suns', 'The piano lesson' and a article responding to them both. The piano lesson in my opinion was the BEST book we read all year, because it was short but had alot of detail in the few pages it had. Unlike' Fredrick Douglass' and 'their eyes are watching god' which both were really long book that were somewhat boring, The piano lesson grasped my attention on the first page of the book.
My least favorite part of this class this year has to be when we did the civil war, It was my least favorite because i feel as if we did not spend enough time on the battles, all we did was split up in groups and work on one certain battle. I would have liked to get more into detail, with all the battles.
Introducing All Your Work:
ESSAY: This part of my Portfolio was about the antebellum period, the economics of slavery to be specific. The economics of slavery was based on cotton, and the slave trade.
What i learned with doing this Essay, was how the United States of America worked, and just opened up my knowledge on how people were treated through out that time period. I enjoyed writing this essay, because it was a chance for me to put my opinion out there. What i needed to use for the essay was a article on Slavery and the economics of America. My challenge with this essay was putting my opinion together with the facts, I had a hard time making a opinion that actually went well with the sources i had. Grading my self on my paper i would give myself a 6 out of 10. I felt as if my ideas were unorganized and that i only had a couple of strong parts through out the whole paper.
What i learned with doing this Essay, was how the United States of America worked, and just opened up my knowledge on how people were treated through out that time period. I enjoyed writing this essay, because it was a chance for me to put my opinion out there. What i needed to use for the essay was a article on Slavery and the economics of America. My challenge with this essay was putting my opinion together with the facts, I had a hard time making a opinion that actually went well with the sources i had. Grading my self on my paper i would give myself a 6 out of 10. I felt as if my ideas were unorganized and that i only had a couple of strong parts through out the whole paper.
Poetry Out Loud: Poetry out loud unit was on of the more interesting units of the school year, It dealt with poetry(duh) and memorization, like a declamation. i picked the poems a dream with a dream, i too, and fire and ice. I resulted in doing I, too. After i declaimed it i realized it was really easy for me and that i should have challenged myself more. What would have made this unit more interesting is having more students involved, out of my whole class there was only one other person that declaimed their poem with all seriousness. If the class took it seriously it would have been a enjoyable activity to do class wide. I would grade my self a 6 out of 10 because my poem was to easy, and I could have picked a more challenging poem, But other than that I think my performance was nice.
Antebellum America: To be honest, i don't wanna say this unit was a waste of time but ... it kinda was. We spent to much time on the word antebellum, but i dont think we actually learned a lot about the time period. My piece on this unit was wack. But to my defense it really didnt catch my attention often, i can say truthfully that my favorite part about the antebellum unit was the slave and american economy and when we calculated how much each african american will be owed thanks to the work they did during the slavery time. Other than that most of the articles we had were okay.
Slavery Compare and Contrast: This was a short essay on a comparison of stories of a slave girl and the narrative of Fredrick Douglass. In order to complete this paper it was necessary to Read both the narrative of Fredrick Douglass and the stories of a slave girl. The difference between them would be that one: Fredrick is a male, and the slave girl is female and 2: The incidents in the stories of a slave girl did not happen to her specifically. I think that just briefly went threw the stories of a slave girl, it would have been different if we spent at least a class period just on that story instead of reading three in one period. I give my work a 4 out of 10 because i really did not try, on it.
Abolition: We wrote and learned about the different abolitionist that was around during the slave times. We learned on what made them so strong and such a respected figure, and what they did to get to were they were. The abolitionist we studied were Fredrick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Theodore weld. My favorite of these was William Lloyd Garrison because he had his own newspaper, and wrote his opinion with out caring what the white men thought. What I learned was how much dedication it took each of these abolitionist to achieve what they wanted; to end slavery. I give myself 8 out 10, because my work was good when it came to this part.
Civil War: The civil war project was very enjoyable. Taking all the maps and drawing out the location of the battle and what writing descriptions on it. Doing this project i learned about a certain battles and what happened,what led to it, who fought in it, and how it ended. I specifically had to do the battle of Spotsylvania. It happened in Virginia and stuff. Overall i just learned, about the battles that took place in the civil war. I grade my work a 5 out of ten because in the beginning i actually tried when i had to the maps, but when i had to write the descriptions i had trouble doing so because i had no idea what i had to write.
Glory: Watching Glory was i think the best thing we could have done. Glory brought together everything we learned throught out the civil war unit. The quiz we took on it was a piece of pie, it was just writing a review and answering some questions. I learned about the 51st regiment and a couple of other things while watching glory. Glory, i think, was the like cherry on top of the sunday because everything about the civil war; like the battles- was included in that movie. being able to see it visually made understand it more and actully remeber why it happend. I give my work a 8 Out of ten because my review was okay not great. I jumped all over the place but i did do good on answering the questions about the movie.
Essay on Reconstruction: This essay was a huge challenge. It was on the way African Americans were treated during the reconstruction period, we used resources like Their eyes are watching god, and a couple of articles. I learned in doing this essay that African Americans were cheated of thier right to own land, so they went on and made their own town. It fascinated me how they Made something good out of such a bad experience they had. The result of the bad treatment of African Americans resulted in the town Eatonville. A town that was made for black people by black people. I also learned about 40 acres and a mule. It was a plan that was made to give freed slaves 40 acres and a mule so they can start their life, to bad that never got to be seen because immediately when they were to receive their land the plan got canceled. I grade my work a 9 out of 10 because i thought my essay was pretty good and i backed up all statements that i made regarding the reconstruction period.
EWG Eatonville: im not going to lie, if it wasnt for the discussions we had in class i would have completly failed. I as a reader do not pay attention to little things that apparently mean like a whole lot. so when it came to writing about eatonville i did not know what to say because i didnt pay attention to any of that. Doing the eatonville thing one: taught me that i should read more carefullly and pay attention to minute details and two: what was going on in EWG. my favorite question had to be What are the important things necessary to have a successful town? Describe the concrete things necessary? What is symbolic about the streetlamp?. i overall give myself a 6 out of ten, it would have been better if actually read the pages carefully and pulled out the important details that we were tested on -_-.
EWG TEA CAKE: i didnt like this writing assignment. It was 3 different questions, we had to pick two and answer them. The questions ranged from the views of Zora Neale hurston, Janie growing up, and the difference between tea cake and Joe starks. I wrote all three of them because i had to, it was late. I didnt learn anything from this writing assigment other than write papers on time or else youll have to write more. i dont think it was really useful in class, it just helped with knowing what was going on in Their eyes are watching god.
Response to art work: I loved doing this unit with the art work of Jacob Lawrence. it was a great to see how art can represent so many things by using just colors and shapes and lines. In jacob lawrences artwork for example he uses spiky lines to represent anger and fear, and he uses dark colors to represent sadness and other negative emotions, he uses smooth lines to represent happiness, and positivity. i grade my work a 10 out of 10 because i evaluated everything in the picture that i picked down to the cutlery that was on the table. It was a fun but learning activity, i think we should do activities like that more often.
Abolition: We wrote and learned about the different abolitionist that was around during the slave times. We learned on what made them so strong and such a respected figure, and what they did to get to were they were. The abolitionist we studied were Fredrick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Theodore weld. My favorite of these was William Lloyd Garrison because he had his own newspaper, and wrote his opinion with out caring what the white men thought. What I learned was how much dedication it took each of these abolitionist to achieve what they wanted; to end slavery. I give myself 8 out 10, because my work was good when it came to this part.
Civil War: The civil war project was very enjoyable. Taking all the maps and drawing out the location of the battle and what writing descriptions on it. Doing this project i learned about a certain battles and what happened,what led to it, who fought in it, and how it ended. I specifically had to do the battle of Spotsylvania. It happened in Virginia and stuff. Overall i just learned, about the battles that took place in the civil war. I grade my work a 5 out of ten because in the beginning i actually tried when i had to the maps, but when i had to write the descriptions i had trouble doing so because i had no idea what i had to write.
Glory: Watching Glory was i think the best thing we could have done. Glory brought together everything we learned throught out the civil war unit. The quiz we took on it was a piece of pie, it was just writing a review and answering some questions. I learned about the 51st regiment and a couple of other things while watching glory. Glory, i think, was the like cherry on top of the sunday because everything about the civil war; like the battles- was included in that movie. being able to see it visually made understand it more and actully remeber why it happend. I give my work a 8 Out of ten because my review was okay not great. I jumped all over the place but i did do good on answering the questions about the movie.
Essay on Reconstruction: This essay was a huge challenge. It was on the way African Americans were treated during the reconstruction period, we used resources like Their eyes are watching god, and a couple of articles. I learned in doing this essay that African Americans were cheated of thier right to own land, so they went on and made their own town. It fascinated me how they Made something good out of such a bad experience they had. The result of the bad treatment of African Americans resulted in the town Eatonville. A town that was made for black people by black people. I also learned about 40 acres and a mule. It was a plan that was made to give freed slaves 40 acres and a mule so they can start their life, to bad that never got to be seen because immediately when they were to receive their land the plan got canceled. I grade my work a 9 out of 10 because i thought my essay was pretty good and i backed up all statements that i made regarding the reconstruction period.
EWG Eatonville: im not going to lie, if it wasnt for the discussions we had in class i would have completly failed. I as a reader do not pay attention to little things that apparently mean like a whole lot. so when it came to writing about eatonville i did not know what to say because i didnt pay attention to any of that. Doing the eatonville thing one: taught me that i should read more carefullly and pay attention to minute details and two: what was going on in EWG. my favorite question had to be What are the important things necessary to have a successful town? Describe the concrete things necessary? What is symbolic about the streetlamp?. i overall give myself a 6 out of ten, it would have been better if actually read the pages carefully and pulled out the important details that we were tested on -_-.
EWG TEA CAKE: i didnt like this writing assignment. It was 3 different questions, we had to pick two and answer them. The questions ranged from the views of Zora Neale hurston, Janie growing up, and the difference between tea cake and Joe starks. I wrote all three of them because i had to, it was late. I didnt learn anything from this writing assigment other than write papers on time or else youll have to write more. i dont think it was really useful in class, it just helped with knowing what was going on in Their eyes are watching god.
Response to art work: I loved doing this unit with the art work of Jacob Lawrence. it was a great to see how art can represent so many things by using just colors and shapes and lines. In jacob lawrences artwork for example he uses spiky lines to represent anger and fear, and he uses dark colors to represent sadness and other negative emotions, he uses smooth lines to represent happiness, and positivity. i grade my work a 10 out of 10 because i evaluated everything in the picture that i picked down to the cutlery that was on the table. It was a fun but learning activity, i think we should do activities like that more often.
The Piano Lesson: This book was GREAT! it was such a short book but filled with so much. With this book we just did a couple of things, like read out loud the play and connect the theme of the play with the great migration. That was the hardest part of the piano lesson. everything is hidden in the play, meaning i had to read in between the lines, and infer a couple of things here and there in order to see how the characters truly were. I grade my work a 9 out of ten because the end of my newly written play, was greatt but thats just my opinion :)
Response on Kim McLarin: This article was worth reading because it showed a different point of view on the great migration. Majority of all the things we read was on how good the great migration was, on how good it was to move from the south to north. With this article i learned another view of the great migration, which changed my thoughts a little. At first i agreed the great migration was something really good that happend, but after reading this article i thought about it twice because it made alot of sense what she was arguing. I give my self a 5 out of ten because i didnt argue my thesis well making it a weak argument against her paper.
Term paper on Great Migration: the unit of the great migration came all together with this term paper. It was made up of the different articles, and 8 different citations. i honestly didn't like writing this paper, there was to many things that had be put in together in one 750 word paper. There was 6 different objects we could have used and having all those options made me loss my train of thought and my voice. Overall i give myself a 3 out of 10 because i didn't try, i did but i was confused on what we had to write, i wouldn't have a stable idea for more than 2 paragraphs. if there was more preparation and less articles it would have been a piece of cake.
