Miranda's English Blog

Prompt Response:  I think that the word I find myself using the most right now is the word “niche.” Niche can function as a verb, noun, or even an adjective. The term basically refers to a concept or something that appeals to a small or specific group of people. I would say that the term “niche” has become a typical part of my everyday vocabulary as my friends use the term a lot around me, which I believe has influenced me to use the term more. I typically use the term whenever I am conversing with my friends or someone who I know really well, so I suppose the way that I incorporate this term into everyday conversations could reveal some of my less common interests or hobbies.  Summary and Reflection:  Today in class, we studied various uncommon vocabulary words that do not typically come up in conversations or writing pieces. By doing this, I was able to learn the definitions of several words and how they can be used in writing. The information that I obtained by learnin...

  Prompt Response: I think that so far everything that we have learned and put into practice has been going well for me. I find it fairly easy overall to create claims for different arguments and different situations. While I feel as though I am excelling at forming claims, I believe that it has been challenging for me to come up with the right evidence to support those claims. When creating claims, I find it relatively easy to think about various examples of evidence that I could potentially use to support the claims that I have created, however I struggle with ensuring that the evidence would both properly and directly support the evidence. Considering this, I think that I need to improve my ability to select proper evidence for certain situations and claims. Summary and Reflection:  In class on August 28th, we practiced writing an argumentative paragraph. This allowed me to practice the construction of a cohesive paragraph, as well as practice connecting my evidence back to...

Prompt Response:   One time I was discussing some gossip with my friend and he asked me where I had gotten my information from and how I was positive that what we were discussing was even true. I informed him of how I had come to hear about the information from another person, but also how I had spoken directly with the person whom we were discussing. Additionally, I presented my friend with some text messages between me and the person who we were talking about. At the time, the person was a friend of mine and we were trying to solve some drama and issues within the friend group. While I had originally thought that the evidence I presented was sufficient enough to solidify my claim, I now realize that the evidence didn’t fully connect back to my claim and that there was no reasoning or explanation to the evidence. As a result, the evidence didn’t fully make sense, and thus did not strongly support the claim that I had made. This signifies the importance of explaining evidence ...

  Prompt Response: I think out of class discussions, worksheet work, or hands-on activities I would prefer worksheet work. While I do find class discussions to be somewhat beneficial as I can hear my classmates’ opinions and ideas on various topics, I prefer to complete worksheet assignments that reflect the lesson that I was taught in class. I find it very helpful for me to have example questions or problems to solve on a worksheet after learning a certain issue, as I feel like those problem-solving questions allow me to test my knowledge and help ensure that I understand everything that I was taught. Although I do believe that worksheet work is more valuable to me, I do also appreciate participating in hands-on activities. I enjoy the experiences that I can gain and the first-hand knowledge that I can observe by participating in hands-on activities, however I still maintain that worksheet work is much more beneficial for me personally, as I feel like I can easily identify the top...

  Prompt Response: Something I will never understand is the way that school systems are set up. There are some classes that are taught in school that I definitely do believe should be required, such as an English class or any language class, and I do think that it is important for students to learn math, however I also believe that a lot of the math that is taught in school is not necessarily very important for success in the future. In my opinion this is true of many classes that are taught in school, including social studies classes. I think that schools should focus more on preparing their students for the future and providing classes that will teach them the skills that they will absolutely need in the future, such as a financial literacy class or a class about learning how to cook. I understand that some schools offer such classes as electives, however I believe they would be much more beneficial to students if they were taught as core classes that were required.  Summary...

  Prompt Response: One thing that makes me different from other people is that I don't usually procrastinate a lot. While I do not consider myself to be a really bad procrastinator, I do think I have gotten slightly worse over time about procrastinating my school work and other things that I try to avoid doing simply because I do not want to. However, when I was in elementary school and middle school, I almost never procrastinated. During that time, whenever I got home from school I would immediately get all of my homework done so that I could spend the rest of my time relaxing. Nowadays I procrastinate a little bit more than I used to, as I now have a lot more work and I typically do not have the energy to get all of it done as soon as I get home, yet I still think I keep my procrastination under more control than other people do. Summary and Reflection: In class today, we took a quiz. The quiz consisted of reading two different passages, and then answering some multiple choice qu...

  Prompt Response: I think that living in Atlanta has really made me get a better understanding of how grounded the city is in history, and it has also made me very appreciative of the diverse cultures within Atlanta. I love knowing that Atlanta is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and that the city has served as an epicenter of the American Civil Rights Movement, as it makes me feel really connected to history and I love that that has created a community centered around social justice and activism. I also enjoy knowing about the trends that Atlanta has set for the rest of the world, such as changing modern hip-hop culture and driving the production of trap music. Additionally, I feel like the diversity of Atlanta has really shaped the community found here in general as there are various cultures that are present and they really help to define and shape the community, as well as instill a sense of pride and expression for many people. Summary and Reflection: In class on Augu...

  Prompt Response: The most creative thing that I have ever made was a "plant watcher" for my 9th grade biology class. During that time, we had been assigned a project which we could do individually or with a partner, where we had to create something that we could fill up with soil and plant a seed in, all while watching the seed grow each day. I did this project with a partner, and we used two rectangular pieces of clear plastic and dozens of popsicle sticks to construct our enclosure. The clear plastic allowed us to observe and analyze the growth of the seed that we planted every few days, which was essential to our assignment. Additionally, we constructed the enclosure so that the top or bottom could be removed, however when one side was removed the other remained in place, to ensure that no soil or water would leak out. Summary and Reflection: In class today we learned about the acronym SPACECAT and how it can be used. We learned how to use this acronym to analyze and ann...

  Prompt Response: A time where I felt completely lost was when I had four AP exams to take last year and I was not sure what would be the best way to study efficiently for all four exams in a timely manner. Previously, I had only ever taken one AP exam, so at the time I did not have a very sturdy study schedule. While I did score a 5 on the first ever AP exam that I took my freshman year, I did not believe that the study method I used that year would work as well studying for 4 separate AP exams my sophomore year. Eventually I found a study method that worked best for me, however it took time for me to find a rthym and study effectively for all of my exams. I think what I should have done was first find all of the resources I was going to utilize to study for each of my four AP exams, and then create a study schedule for which days and for how long I would study for each exam. Summary and Reflection: Today in class, we constructed several claims of value based on various topics we...

  Prompt Response: When I was very young, I believed that teachers and all of the adults that work at school would live in the school building and sleep there. At that age, I myself was not in school yet, so I did not have any idea about what school was actually like in real life. I imagined that every adult in a school building would be assigned their own room with their own items, including a bed or a couch to sleep on. I also believed that teachers and the rest of the staff would have movie nights during some nights of the school week, and on the weekends too. However, I also thought that teachers were not expected to be at school on the weekends, yet they would still go back to the school building to go to sleep as that is where I thought that they lived all the time. Summary and Reflection: Today in class, we learned about what claims are, and the 3 categories that claims fit into. I personally learned that claims cannot be a simple statement of fact, but they have to be debat...

Prompt Response: An argument that I wish I could have handled differently was a disagreement I had with my mom about whether or not I should have been able to go out with my friends one night, despite not having cleaned my room and the rest of the house. I ended up not being able to hang out with my friends that night as I had argued with my mom and I had become a bit frustrated with her. My goal at the time was to convince my mom to allow me to leave the house and socialize with my friends, however I was unsuccessful. I think that something I should have done differently in order to have won the argument is that I should have listened to some of the things my mom had to say and let her "score some of the points" in the argument, that way I would have been letting her feel like she was winning, when in reality I was taking control of the argument. I could have done this by admitting that I could have kept my room a little bit more organized, and I could have asked for any ti...

Prompt Response: One time in my APUSH class, me and my classmates were having a debate over which foods would fit into the category of a sandwich, salad, or a soup. During the debate, me and my friend were debating over whether pasta would fit into the category of a soup or a salad. I was attempting to persuade my friend that of all 3 of the categories we were given, pasta should go into the category of salad. I used logos in my attempt to persuade my friend, as I explained that pasta cannot be a sandwich, as it does not have the formation of a sandwich, however it can also not be a soup as the ratio of sauce compared to the pasta noodles would have to be much higher. I would say that in my case using logos was the most effective way to appeal to my friend, as it would have been difficult for me to attempt to appeal to them through ethos or pathos. Summary and Reflection:  In class on August 11th, we practiced identifying whether a certain argument was using ethos, pathos, or logo...

Prompt Response: As I grow older and face new experiences, I think I will have to debate the issue of balancing my time wisely. I believe I will mainly be debating this issue with my family members, as my mom is always checking on me about my school work and trying to ensure that I am getting all of my work done properly and in a timely manner. This is an issue that is commonly debated in my family because both me and my brother struggle with time management and staying on task, and as a result there are some issues related to school that I have disagreed with my mother on. For example, I wanted to take more than 5 AP classes my junior year, however my mother was concerned that I would struggle with the amount of rigor in those classes as I have a difficult time with organization and getting my work done quickly. Ultimately, I ended up choosing 5 AP classes to take for my junior year, however I think that my problem of with time management and organization will likely be debated once ...

 There are various goals for this year that I hope to achieve, and that I will work toward achieving. The main goal that I am going to focus on the most is to get A's in all of my classes this year, so that I can maintain and boost my GPA. My second goal is to join more clubs and participate in other extracurricular activities so that I can figure out what my interests are and spend quality time contributing to my community through things like volunteer work. Finally, the third goal that I wish to achieve this year is to get a really good SAT score so that I don't have to worry or stress out about having to take the SAT multiple other times, and so that I only need to take the SAT a minimal amount of times.