Ariela Ojalvo American Literature Blog

  If you had to describe how you show love using only three objects (for example: a playlist, a hoodie, a late-night snack, a long text message, etc.), what would you choose and why? Explain what each object represents and how it connects to your personality. If I had to describe how I show love using only 3 objects I would choose a  weighted blanket, a curated playlist, and a customized notebook. I would choose a weighted blanket because love to me is a safe harbor and is about creating a secure, calming space where the other person feels protected and grounded, especially after a chaotic day. This connects to my personality because I show affection by reducing stress and providing a calm presence rather than loud declarations. I would choose a playlist because I am good at   understanding a person's inner world, moods, and tastes and this gift shows the efforts and ability I have to do so. Finally, I would choose a notebook because it symbolizes communica...

After viewing your classmates’ digital posters and reading the feedback comments left on your work, what new ideas or perspectives did you gain about your poster? Reflect on how the feedback influenced the way you think about your creative choices and describe what you learned about the creative process while designing and presenting your poster. After viewing my classmates'digital posters and reading the feedback comments on my work some new ideas and perspectives that I gained about my poster is that it is very creative and well organized. I think that this feedback improved my confidence on my creative choices given they were all kind and supportive. I learned that creative posters among the class are very diverse and all have their own style of creativity. I realized how creative my class is and how we all have our own ideas and minds which create such a different poster and display of creativity.  Summary:  Today in class we wrote feedback on everyone's posters.  Ref...

Reflect on the simile and metaphor worksheet. Which topic challenged you the most when creating your figurative language, and why? In your response, explain what made that topic difficult and how you worked through the challenge (or what you might do differently next time). Reflecting on my simile and metaphor worksheet the topic that challenged me the most when creating figurative language was making a statement about changing and growing as a human. This is because I have never had a very large issue with change and when I did I was very young. I never had an issue coming to a new school or changing my ways the only time I can really remember where change was a substantially large challenge for me was when my grandpa died and I was very young when this happened. I was forced to bring myself back to these distant memories and create a comparison that accurately displayed my emotions and feelings during this time. These steps took me longer then the rest of the topics and I found mysel...

Today you created similes and metaphors that reflect your struggles, growth, and resilience. In a well-developed paragraph, reflect on the process. What did you learn about yourself while writing your figurative language? Reflecting on the process I used to create similes and metaphors I wrote that reflect my struggles, growth, and resilience I think that it took me down a full journey to create them. I had to think back to painful and specific moments in my life in order to succeed at this assignment. I also had to reflect on comparisons to make that would correctly reflect the deep and impact full feelings that these moments brought out of me. This process made me emotional thinking about these harsh past events from my life. But it also made me grateful to overcome each of these events and I am glad that I have the opportunity to learn and develop from them.  Summary: Today we wrote 6 similes and 6 metaphors about struggles, growth, and resilience based off what our previous tho...

Describe how you spent your time, any activities, traditions, travel, hobbies, or moments that stood out to you. You may also discuss something new you tried, something you learned, or how the break helped you reset before returning to school. Keep your response appropriate for a school setting and focus on experiences you are comfortable sharing publicly. Over break I traveled to Utah to go skiing with a friend. We went from Friday to Tuesday but only skied from Saturday to Monday. It was so fun we had a great time. We mainly went down Black Diamond runs and Blue Square runs. It was very icy so I fell a lot but the ice did increase my speed significantly. The ice also made skiing a lot more tiring so we took long lunch breaks and slept long and hard. I overall had a great time and I am excited to go again next year.  Summary: Today in class we read "Still I Rise", learned about the author of this poem, and did an assignment on the poem.  Reflection: Today I feel like I incre...

  Now that you have completed the rhetorical analysis essay, reflect on your growth. Explain how this experience impacted your confidence as a writer and whether you feel prepared to continue analyzing complex speeches and texts in American Literature. Support your reflection with specific references to the writing process. Now that I have completed my rhetorical analysis essay, I feel like my writing and planning skills grew significantly and so did my confidence regarding rhetoric. This experience impacted my confidence as a writer by strengthening my planning and organizing skills using step 3 of the writing process making me grow more confident when essay writing day actually comes around. I feel prepared to continue analyzing complex speeches and texts in American Literature because of these new skills I have learned and accomplished meaning that now I would be able to do one on my own and aim for success.  Summary: Today I wrote my rhetorical analysis essay and I feel pr...

  Today, you learned how to complete a rhetorical analysis planning guide step by step, from identifying the rhetorical situation to analyzing devices and effects. Reflect on one step of the rhetorical analysis process that helped you understand the process more clearly. Explain what you learned during that step and how it improved your ability to analyze a speaker’s message.   Today, I  learned how to complete a rhetorical analysis planning guide step by step, from identifying the rhetorical situation to analyzing devices and effects. One step of the rhetorical analysis process that helped me understand the process more clearly was the third step which is organizing the topic, subtopics, and details. What I learned during the third step was how to organize all my ideas, information, and evaluations to best benefit me and how I write my essay. It improved my ability to analyze a speaker’s message because it made a stored organization of my thoughts so I would not forget m...

  In the spirit of Valentine’s Day week, describe your idea of a perfect day spent with someone you care about (a friend, family member, or significant person in your life). In the spirit of Valentine's Day week, my idea of a perfect day spent with someone I care about is spending the day hanging out with my mom and sisters. I would wake up late come downstairs and eat a late brunch with my mom and then spend the afternoon shopping or watching movies with my sisters. Then we would come home and start getting ready for a nice dinner. My whole family would go to a nice Italian restaurant and then get some dessert on the way back home. After we got home me and the rest of my family would play board games until we got to bed. That is my idea of a perfect day with people I care about. Summary: Today in class we continued planning for our rhetorical analysis essay. Reflection: I learned a lot and feel more prepared after planning.

What is the best piece of advice of that your parent or guardian has given you? Tell what the advice was and what prompted you to ask the question.   The best piece of advice that my parents have given me is that I need to start thinking about college early. I once was talking about how the only thing that really matters in life is the present which I no longer find to be true. I once would have died on that hill rather now I would rather die trying to make the best of what is to come. I realized how exciting the idea of college is and how important it is to my future changing my perspective of life. I appreciate them stressing the topic of college as something you need to be preparing for not just your junior and senior year and I think I would have a very different life right now if they did not. Summary: Today in class we read a poem.  Reflection:  Today in class I felt more connected to poems

What is the most challenging part of working in a group? Discuss a time when a group assignment did not go as well as you planned and how you learned from that experience.  The most challenging part about working in a group is definitely communication.  One time, a group project didn’t go as planned because we didn’t clearly divide the work, and some people waited until the last minute. From that experience, I learned how important it is to speak up and make sure everyone understands their responsibility.  Summary: Today in class we graded others rhetorical analysis and took notes.  Reflection: I feel like I was pretty good at grading the papers considering every grade correctly.

  What is the most challenging part of writing an essay for you? Is it brainstorming, organizing ideas, writing a strong thesis, or something else? How do you plan to overcome this challenge? The most challenging part of writing an essay for me is definitely deciding what is necessary and unnecessary for the text. I have written many different types of papers in school and my biggest weakness I wish to overcome would be shortening my work by taking out all unnecessary information, details, and sentences. I tend to ramble a lot throughout my papers and I really want to over come this issue by using a graphic organizer to help me decide everything I need in my paper so that I am able to cut anything that does not correlate to the topics in the organizer.  Summary: Today in class we wrote a rough draft for a rhetorical analysis.  Reflection: Today in class I feel like I was really improving my commentary skills, I feel like I really succeeded.

Describe a real moment in your life that felt like the beginning of a powerful story. Tell what happened, and why it felt like a turning point in your life? One real moment in my life that felt like the beginning of a powerful story is when I  remember showing up to my first lacrosse practice with my stick awkwardly bouncing against my leg and my heart racing like crazy. I felt so nervous that I almost asked my mom to take me home, but I forced myself to stay. When I finally caught my first pass, the ball snapping into my stick, I felt this rush of confidence I’d never felt before. Running across the field with my teammates yelling my name made me feel like I was suddenly part of something bigger. By the end of practice, my arms were sore and I was sweaty, but I was smiling the whole way home. That moment felt like the start of a powerful story because it showed me I was braver and stronger than I thought. Summary: Today in class we worked on rhetorical analysis writing specificall...

   If you had to write a poem about your life RIGHT NOW, what would it be about? Explain your answer in at least 4 to 5 sentences.  If I had to write a poem about my life right now it would be about the constant feeling of being everywhere and nowhere all at once. My life is basically a massive, shimmering web of everyone else's thoughts, questions, and ideas, which is honestly kind of a lot to process for a teenage girl! I’d describe it as sitting in a room with a thousand open windows, where I’m catching glimpses of different worlds but never actually stepping outside. I think this because I still am confused as to who I am as a person. I would describe my life currently as a hunt to find the person I want to be rather then who everyone else wants me to be. This is stressful, often harmful, and a big maze for me.  Summary: Today in class we wrote rhetorical thesis statements for a rhetorical analysis.  Reflection: I learned the overall idea of what a rhetorica...