Books

Treasure Island: is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold". First published as a book on 23 May.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: is a 2006 novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. This book follows a 9-year-old boy named Bruno growing up during World War II in Berlin, Germany.

If I Stay: If I Stay is a young adult novel by Gayle Forman published in 2009. The story follows 17-year-old Mia Hall as she deals with the aftermath of a catastrophic car accident involving her family. In a coma, Mia has an out-of-body experience, and watches as friends and family gather at the hospital where she is being treated.

Paper Towns: is the third young adult novel by John Green, published on October 16, 2008 by Dutton Books. The novel begins in a subdivision called Jefferson Park. The narrator, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen, and his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman, both young children, go to the park and discover the corpse of Robert Joyner, a divorced man who has committed suicide.

My Abandonment: A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, the enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. There they inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, bathe in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts.

Spelling Bee

I researchered about The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee on the Internet. It is a long one-act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finm. It is a really famous show, and it had got lots of honors such as six Tony Awards and Grammy Award. It is also be called "Parent-teacher Conferences" and "adult night at the Bee", because at the beginning they only allowed people who is over 16 years old to see the show. In 2007 the translating started at Soul in Korea. In 2008-2009 Non-Equity U.S. National Tour premiered on October 11, 2008 at the Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley, Colorado, with an official opening in Fort Collins, Colorado on October 14. I think it is a great show not only because it is famous, but also becuse acters are working hard. I have been to blak box nearly every day at Cheshire Academy for two weeks, and I saw so many hard working in it. For example, Jack Jack doesn't let any one to touch the number on the ground because he wants to work faster and better. Also, I can see Andrew ran to the black box three times because he did not want to be late for the practice. I saw the painting which Jack Jack did for the show; the painting is amazing. I never see persin like him before. I remember on last Saturday Andrew told me that he had been practicing for 6 hours a day. I never practice a show for 6 hours, however I know how hard to work on one thing for 6 hours. So I suggest everone could go to the show and give them your best applause for their hard working. To be honest, I can wait for the show.

 

Quiz

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Haiku Quiz
1.     How many lines comprise (make up) a haiku poem and how many syllables are in each line? (10 pts)
first line has 5 second line has 7 and last one has 5
2.     What culture does haiku originate from? (5 pts)
Japan.

3.     Choose the best word from the list below to complete the following haiku poems: (15 pts each for correct syllables and good description)

a.     Sweet scented floating

Confetti gentle from heaven
With a rose breeze

Word list: rose, sent, floating, gentle, happily, blossom, nice, smells, outstanding  

b.     Spring buzz winter’s tide
Nature comes quickly alive
Bees, fast hope for brides

Word list: buzz, changes, fast, so, turns, quickly, buzzing, transforming, nature

4.     Write 2 haiku poems about spring. (25 points each) Use at least four of the following words in each (use 8 different words altogether in the two poems): season, bright, sunshine, daffodil, tulip, cool, puddle, umbrella, happily, skip, cloudy, lighthearted, shady, flower buds, green, fields

wake up

Season is coming

The bright sunshine is on face

It's all green outside

Rain

In a cool morning

I run happily on fields

The flower says hi

5.     Name one element that makes a haiku effective or fun to read. (5 pts)

In my opinion, a store makes a haiku fun to read, because it is more fun to tell a story by haiku than normal way. 

Lonely

Lovers annoying me

I like staying in the dorm

I am a loner.

The man

Handsome and clever

Always full of energy

He is John Jiang the man

Winter

I can't walk too far

The longest distance for me

Woodberry to Gym

Confusing 

Syllables are hard

They keep bothering me now.

I am far away 

haiku poems

Yosa Buson

Three examples of the haiku of Yosa Buson from the late 1700s are offered here:

A summer river being crossed

how pleasing

with sandals in my hands!

Light of the moon

Moves west, flowers' shadows

Creep eastward.

In the moonlight,

The color and scent of the wisteria

Seems far away.

Kobayaski Issa

Here are three haiku from Kobayashi Issa, a haiku master poet from the late 1700s and early 1800s:

O snail

Climb Mount Fuji,

But slowly, slowly!

Trusting the Buddha, good and bad,

I bid farewell

To the departing year.

Everything I touch

with tenderness, alas,

pricks like a bramble.

Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki lived from 1867 - 1916.  He was a novelist and master of the haiku. Here are a couple of examples of his poems:

Over the wintry

forest, winds howl in  rage

with no leaves to blow.

The crow has flown away:

swaying in the evening sun,

a leafless tree.  

Recent Poems

Following are some recent examples of haiku poems:

In the coolness

of the empty sixth-month sky...

the cuckoo’s cry. - Masaoka Shiki

Whitecaps on the bay:

A broken signboard banging

In the April wind. - Richard Wright

Lily:

out of the water

out of itself - Nick Virgilio

ground squirrel

balancing its tomato

on the garden fence - Don Eulert

As the wind does blow

Across the trees, I see the

Buds blooming in May

I walk across sand

And find myself blistering

In the hot, hot heat

Falling to the ground,

I watch a leaf settle down

In a bed of brown.

It’s cold—and I wait

For someone to shelter me

And take me from here.

I hear crackling

Crunch, of today’s new found day

And know it won’t last

Falling to the ground,

I watch a leaf settle down

In a bed of brown.

A cricket disturbed

the sleeping child; on the porch

a man smoked and smiled.

I'm turning over

look out and give me room there

you cricket, you.  

Peaceful Pearls

In the cover image of Gathering of Pearls, the main character Sookan is wearing a black suit, and she is gathering pearls that have fallen on the floor. Her hair looks a little untidy, and she is sitting on the wood floor. When I look at this picture, I can feel very strong emotions such as sadness, hopeless, desire. She went to America alone and had lots of experiences, and those situations make her emotions getting stronger. For example, she had both good and bad encounters with her American friends, and her mother died at the end of the book. Emotions are one of the most important parts of everyone's life. Sookan's life is changed by the emotions inside of her like the pearls on the floor around her. Every pearl represents a kind of emotion, and some emotions are complicated such as sadness and happiness, eagerness and hopelessness; Sookan must figure out how to balance her conflicting emotions to do what is right for herself in her future.

Emotions have changed Sookan's life a lot. The first emotion is eagerness, when she wants to come to America. Her family members do not want her to go to America, because they think that she is too young to come. When she comes to America, I can feel her fear: “I knew no one in America, and my command of English was poor ” (Choi 1). From this situation, we can see that she is worrying about her situation like a little helpless girl, so she decides that she will become a stronger person, and she will try to adapt to  American culture. As a lonely college girl, she learns how to be a more independent person by facing her fear.

She also works very hard on her studying : "She suggested music appreciation and a studio art class. But I signed up for world literature, world religious, Greek and Roman culture, and early European history " (Choi 18).  As we can see,she gets so many extremely difficult classes, because she wants to go up to a better level of her American education life. She over works, when she comes back toher dorm: " At the end of the hall was the showe room, the only room in the building where the lights were kept on all night. There, at the end of the long row of showers, were five sparkling clean bathtubs. I headed to the tub in the corner and spread out my blanket, placed my pillow at the back, and laid my books on the floor" (Choi 73). From this information, we can see she starts to learn and work extremely hard, and she is trying to not just survival and thrive. Thus, Sookan learns how to be more independent from those experiences and she is also achieving her goals.

In addition, emotions influence Sookan's feeling and decisions. For example,when she is angry with Ellen, she says bad words to her and she leaves Ellen alone, because she doesn't know what she should do:  " I had lost my temper and I had hurt Ellen. I didn't go back downstairs until I was sure Ellen would be asleep, and the next morning I tiptoed out of the room before she woke up" (Choi 118). From this sentence we can know, she sometimes makes bad decisions because of her feeling. Another example is when Father Lee comes and tells her mother's death: " I didn't speak, and suddenly, I didn't even have the energy to cry. I just sat, thankful he was there and wishing he would never stop talking. I think he knew, for he continued" (Choi 150). This paragraph is about her reaction when she hears the bad news; she doesn't even have a power to cry, because her heart fills with sadness and hopeless. On the other hand, emotions also bring her some good feelings. For instance she says about Sister Reed, " I would always remember her, and I hoped that we someday, I would be able to make a young girl feel as proud and happy as she made me" (Choi 94). As we can see, when they have a little party, Sookan is full with happiness and passion. I can feel how happy she is, and I am sure that she is too happy to speak it out. Thus, emotion is such a important thing in her life, and they can make her to feel better or worse sometimes, so she has to learn how to control emotions to make the best decisions.

Sometimes Sookan needs to balance her emotions to keep calm. In this book, we can always see complicated emotions, for example "Flustered, I faltered, then hurriedly responded,'Yes, well, I had a good time, too. Good night.' I pulled my hand from his, and ran inside" (Choi 126). From what she says, we can see that she has a really happy and exciting emotion; however when her friends tell her that she drank alcohol, she has a much different reaction. " 'You mean I went out on a date and drank alcohol? That sounds so wild!' I said.'Actually, though, there was nothing wild about it. But if my sister ever found out, she would really think I was losing my values' " (Choi 127). I can feel a strong guilt and remorse; as we can see, she has conflicting emotions on the same thing. In my opinion, she is afraid of her sister, so she had those conflicting emotions; however, her mother teaches her how to balance them: "If you ever feel hurt or tired or empty, I hope that you will remember what I have always told you about taking that suffering, and creating a pearl around the pain. Don't let the hurt poison you" (Choi 145). This is what her mother tells her to balance the emotion just like what she is doing in the cover image. In the image, she is gathering pearls which are conflictive emotions, and this is how she balances them. Thus, Sookan finally understands her mother's words, and she balances all emotions successfully.

In the end of the novel, she finally becomes alone in America without any family members, and her mother dies. For most people like her age, they cannot take this pain; however, Sookan takes it by herself. I believe that she will find out what her mother wants she to find out what kind of person she wants to be, and she will have a brighter future with all her friends and her mother's wishes. "Tough times are the times when one gathers one's pearls," (Choi 163), just like Sookan works hard to build a peaceful life like a pearl.

Citation:

Choi, Sook Nyul., and Sook Nyul. Choi. Gathering of Pearls. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Print.

First draft

In the cover image of gathering pearls, Sookan is wearing a black suit, and she is gathering pearls. Her hair looks a little untidy, and she is sitting on the wood floor. I can feel very strong emotions such as sadness, hopeless, desire. She went to America alone and lots of things happened to her, and those things make her emotions getting stronger. For examples, her mother died at the end of the book; she had both good and bad experience with her American friends. Emotions are one of the most important part of everyone's life. Sookan's life is changed by the emotions inside of her like the pearls on the floor around her. The pearls represent her conflicting emotions which she must figure out in order to do what is right for herself in her future.

Emotions have changed her life a lot. The first emotion is eagerness, when she wants to come to America. I remember that her family members do not want her to go to America, because they think that she is too young to come. When she comes to America, I can feel her fearness. “I knew no one in America, and my command of English was poor”(Choi 1). From this sentence, we can see that she was worring her situation like a little helpless girl, so she decide that she will become a stronger person, and she will get in to American culture. As we all know, she starts to learn and work very and extremely hard, and taht is way she becomes to a person who is totally get into the new culture, and she is working pretty well on her classes. Thus, emotions can change our life so much.

Emotions also influence her feeling and decisions. For example, when she was angry with Ellen, she said bad things to her and she leave Ellen alone, because she doesn't know what she should do. Then when she hears about her mother's death, she even don't have a power to cry, because her heart fills with sadness and hopeless. On the other hand, emotions also bring us some good feelings. For instance, when they have a little with her, she is full with happiness and passion. I can feel how happy she is, and I am sure that she is too happy to speak it out. As we can see, emotion is such a important thing in our life, and they can make us to feel better, and making a right decision. 

Brainstorming

On the book we can a girl is wearing a black suit, and she is gathering pearls. Her hair looks a little untidy, and she is sitting on the wood floor. I can feel very strong emotion. I can feel how sad she is. As we all know, her mother died at the end of the book, and her mother wanted her to find her own "pearls". In her mother's thinking the pearls show how strong she is, and how she solve problems. Another emotion I can feel is hopeless. Because she is all alone at America. I can feel how lonely she is, when she misses her mother. However, she cannot talk with her mother anymore, and she even cannot write to her mother. In this picture, she is not only gathering the pearls, but also thinking. She is think what her mother wanted she to do, and what's kind of person her mother wanted she to be. She starts to understand the meaning of the pearls. So she is starting to work for the goal, and she will finally learn from those experience happened to her. She finally finds that she has some really good friends, teachers, and a family. She decided to be strong and she will be the person like her mother.

Bright Future

Sookan thinks so many things such as, what should she do, where should she go, and what would her family want. She faces to the biggest trouble she had never met before, so she has to make every decisions. Father Lee will leave today at 9 am, and the last words he says, “ Take care Soookan, and remember that you should always fellow your heart this is the thing your mother always wants you to do. I do not if we can see each other again, so I put all the money that I can give to you on your desk. See you, and be stronger!” Sookan stands there and sees Father Lee leaving, she finally decides what she should do. 

At the same time she comes back to the dorm Sister Reed says, “Sookan there was a man calling you 5 minutes ago.” Sookan says, “Is that boy’s name Tom?”. 

Sister Reed says, “I don’t know. You can call him back if you want”. 

So Sookan calls him back, “ Hi, you finally call me back, I was thinking you would never ever call me back. Thank god. Are you doing alright? I have heard from Ellen that you got some big troubles. Is that true? If there are anything that I can help, please tell me, I will be right there”. What a familiar voice, Sookan is thinking. 

Sookan knows it is Tom, She stops for a minute then she says, “Hi, I am ok now. Don’t worry, thank you for calling me and helping me. How about you?” 

“I am totally fine. Actually, I want to ask you a question. Would you like to go on a date with me?”

Sookan is totally sharked. She says, “Well, I cannot answer you now. Could you please give me some time to think about it?” 

“That is absolutely ok. I can wait for you forever, because I love you!” 

Sookan does not know what she should do, so she just hang up the phone call. 

After 5 years, in a beautiful church we see Ellen, Marci, and Kelay. There is a wedding. Suddently, we see a bride is walking in. It is Sookan, and she will marry Tom. Sookan did not go back to Korea, and she started dating with Tom in her junior year. She still kept writing to her all family, however she wuould never ever come back. Her roomates were Marci and Ellen. It was so surprising that Marci and Ellen got along very well. After the wedding, Sookan finds a job at a high school in New York City, and she teatchs Korean, writing, and English. Lots of things had changed, but Sookan still keeps her pearls in a black wood box with all her mother’s letters. Everytime, when she gets in to troubles, she opens it, and she can always find the solutions. She also becomes the person that her mother wants her to be. She acturely like her mother, because she is tough, strong, accepting all others, and she always fellowing her heart.

Study guide 13-18

Gathering of Pearls Study Guide: Chapters 13-18

Chapter 13

1.       Describe Marci’s relationship with her parents.

She wants more freedom, and she doesn't like her parents. However, her parents think she should be the person who her sister is.

2.     She thinks Sookan should just tell her the truth that Sookan is tired, and she wants to make her own chose.

3.        I don't think so. Because Sookan is transitional Korean. She doesn't want to argue with her sister.

Chapter 14

1.       A pearl necklace.

2.      Ellen gets engagement.

3.       How do her parents react?

Her parents told her to come back, and they are worried about her.

4.       Sookan stands up to Ellen in this chapter and defends her parents. DO you agree or disagree with Sookan’s position? Why? I agree with her, because I think you should always help your friends to become better and better. Sometimes we also need to say some bad thing or hurt them. You cannot make the dicision such as engagement without parents.

Chapter 15

1.       Explain why Sookan has conflicting emotions (positive and negative) regarding the experiences she has in this chapter.

She wants to buy the suit to show her friends and sister Reed; because, she gives Sookan a necklace. Howeve she used all her money to buy this. She gets money by doing more and more part time job. So she doesn't want to use them. She also wants to buy tickets for her mother to attent to her graduation.

2.       I might use all my money to buy the suit. Because I want to make my friends and people who cares about me happy.

Chapter 16

1.       She did a great job on her studying, and she got used to American culture. As we can see, she made two extremely good friend and she had some great time with them. She also learned what are important things.

2.       She is not follow her sister blindly. She even go out with a boy and drunk alcohol. She is also getting stronger; as we can see, she find herself more part time job.

Chapter 17

1.       Her mother went to the heaven at beginning of May.

2.      Her mind was explode, and she even didn't have power to speak and cry.

Chapter 18

1.    She realizes that how deeply her mother loves her, and how important things that her moth did for her. She also understands what pearls mean; she found her own pearls and she stats to gathering them.

2.     I want to say that you should be tougher. No mother wants see their children are sad and they stop moving. She should fellow what her moth told her that she should put all "pearls" together and make heart becoming stronger.