How I've grown as a Writer

I feel like I’ve grown a lot on my writing skills. I believe this because today I had lots of papers handed back to me. I got all my reflections, Cornell notes, double-entry journals and some literature circle worksheets back. I’m so happy because I did pretty well in all of those things. There was some work I didn’t finish but in a way I tried to finish them.

I’ve enjoyed writing my blog. I like writing on it because people who use the internet and read our blogs can see we are really interested in doing our work and getting a good grade. I actually like writing. I’ve grown as a writer because I don’t make the same mistakes I use to make when I first started this class. I also know I’ve grown in my writing because I like to write more than I use to without thinking about it at all. Well one of the things I liked doing was the personal narrative with song lyrics. I liked doing this because we wrote about something about us and got to choose the song that we thought would best fit the narrative. I remember I wrote about when we had to leave our dad. It’s always a sad thing for me to think about or talk about but I’ve learned to live with it. The songs I choose were Daddy’s Lil’ Girl by Frankie J and Hurt by Christina Aguilera. Those two songs best fit my narrative because they explain how I sort of feel about that situation.

I also liked writing about the poems we liked. I liked Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, Love without Love by Luis Llorens Torres, and Tonight I can write… by Pablo Nureda. Those are my favorite poems in the book. Sadly I just wrote about two of them. I also liked writing the found poem. It was based on a newspaper article. We had to write a poem out of it. It was an interesting experience. I hadn’t realized that I had written a lot of reflections and Cornell notes and double-entry journals. I’m surprised at the fact that I wrote a lot of those things. I liked doing most of my essays because they have also helped me grow not only as a writer but as a person. I mean before I would have trouble expressing my feelings and talking about something because I wasn’t able to express myself as much as I wanted too, know I can’t find an easier way to express myself. I really enjoy writing. I also like doing the stream of consciousness because I write about what I’m thinking and it prevents me from having writer’s block.

One of the things that I know have helped me grow besides reading stories like Night, Farewell to Manzanar, The Bear, Sorry Right Number, is writing summaries about the stories, vocabulary words and acting a scene from the story. One of the saddest stories I can think of is Night. For me it is one of the saddest because it talks about their experience in concentration camps and what all the Jewish people went through during World War 2. I even remember that I did an essay on World War 2 and the beginning of World War 1. Well all of this has helped me as a writer because I can visualize, and have a better understanding of what goes on in the stories.

I also remember that at first I didn’t get the hang of doing the Los Angeles Times sighting. Now it’s like something I know how to do and kind of like doing because it helps me understand lots of things that are going on in the world. It’s also helped me grow by teaching me things I didn’t know about like how to site articles, how to focus on how they kept writing the article after they finished talking t the person or what ever the article was about. I liked doing that because it helps me think about sighting more work and not plagiarize the work.

Reflection on Luis J. Rodriguez

Well I went to go see his presentation. It was pretty interesting. I thought he was saying a lot of good things that made sense. I believe he is right because he went through that gang life experience. I think he is a really wise person because he didn't want that live for his kids which sadly was the future for his eldest son. It took him a couple of years to act like a real father with his first two kids. I think that's pretty sad because it shouldn't take a parent that long to realize that they have kids and that they are truly responsible for what ever happens to them.

I think that for him to have a deep connection with his son even though he is in prison says a lot about him. It says that he repented about what he did in the beginning of their lives but wants to change all of that. He wants to be there for them. He also wants to be more involved in there lives. I believe that he is a an amazing person because of everything he has done to help prevent gang or try to end gang warfare. He is a very smart person that made wrong decisions along the way for him to be the person he is today. He is an amazing writer believes any one of us can be what we want to be and supports us. I think he would be an amazing teacher if he ever thought of teaching. I also think that Luis J. Rodriguez can help prevent at least a 30% of dead of teens who get involved with drugs or gangs by telling them about his experience. He can tell them how his barrio ended turning their back on him because he wanted to end the violence around them.

Luis Rodriguez has a lot to teach people because he knows more than a person who hasn't been in gangs or drugs. He can be a great teacher for those who are thinking about joining gangs or are involved with drugs. I believe that if we truly tried hard we can prevent lots of things from happening. If we have a lot of people involved in helping to see that gangs aren't hte answer then alot of people wouldn'y join them at all. I learned a lot during the time we spent with Luis J. Rodriguez.