Individual Post-Current Events-Morgan Soto

A place that shares people’s circumstances is the “Love Lock Bridge.” This symbol of commitment begins when a couple falls in love, gets married or starts dating. The couple then buys a lock and key, writes their initials on it, lock it on the bridge, and throw the key in the water. Many people would visit the bridge with their lover to proclaim their love with the lock. People from around the world visit Paris for the bridge. It’s attraction has caused many people to buy locks.

It is believed to have originated in China. The tradition in China was thought to be after two got married to lock a lock on a fence or gate and throw away the keys. It symbolically means that they are locking their love forever. A lot of people go to the bridge to admire how many have fallen in love, or want to proclaim to their love. People also like to wonder how many years ago they were put there and how long they will be there. It helped people connect more emotionally than physically. It helped people understand what other people are experiencing.

Individual Post - Current Events - Tania Castillo

In the story "The Writing on the Wall"  it explains how the immigrants wrote on the walls to express their thoughts and feeling as a way to connect through time and distance, and today there is a movie theater in Palm Valley, Arizona. To elaborate, in the woman's bathroom throughout the stalls there are some anonymous teenage girls who go in the stalls to write out their problems in life that they have and they sometimes go in there to ask for some sort of help or to just express their feelings and thoughts. The thing is no one really knows who started all of this or when it had started. Personally I think that it has helped girls get through their problems in life because other girls go in and give them good advice and sometimes they write a little lecture to give them the positive and negative outcomes of their next move or on the previous person's advice.
Sometimes people go back in there to see if the anonymous person had worked out their problems in life or if they are still asking for help. I wouldn't say this would change the world but I would say that it will change they way these anonymous teenage girls who write on the girls bathroom stalls think about themselves  and the way they should view the world that they live in. There are three types of people when it comes down to this, there are the ones who spill out all there issues in life, there's the ones that help them out and write back, and then there are the ones who just decides to have nothing to deal with it and do their business.

Individual Post - Current Events - Jazmine Ramirez

In the text “The Writing on the Wall” it is saying that how many people have thoughts and feeling on are based on anything and the is places that will let people communicate in that way and today there are many ways of this happening. This can relate to a lot of people who were in middle school and used textbooks. You see where i’m going with this? I want you to think about how people would mess around or communicate in school. A lot of kids would write in the textbooks to where other people can see and write back. Kids would play around sending you page to page and in the end writing, “ I wasted your time, have a nice day :) !!”. Other examples of more communicating is maybe asking a question and people responding to that question and it just keeps going in circles.

    Many many kids follow this “method”. I'm not sure when it started but it was probably brought up out of curiosity. It is such an easy way of talking to people in class and many times I have done this.What brings people to reach out in this form is anything. There is questions asked and people really are some what interested in reading them and seeing what other people wrote. If you think to yourself you might have done the same thing! But in a way this is very commutative and is followed many people.

Individual Post - Current Events - Amy Whitler

People connect with others through social media, journals, art, and so on. One way people connect is through music. Man has always made music in some way through rhythms, beats, chords, and lyrics. Music can express emotion, teach history, comment on social issues. For example, currently there are many songs about the “black lives matter” movement. Artists can use music to express themselves as well as their opinions or experiences. It gives people a voice. Music can express individuality as well as a whole generation. A lot of music has been written about war, for example. Generally, people enjoy listening to music for entertainment but it can also be used to help express what they are going through. Overall, it helps people feel less alone.

Most people listen to music because it relaxes them but others might listen to the lyrics and really focus on what that artist was trying to point out. For example, the song “Roar” by Katy Perry was written to demonstrate how she was pushed around but then realized she shouldn’t allow that and made herself and her opinions be heard. This encourages others to feel the same way, strong and in control. She uses sound devices that help get her point across like “roar, louder, louder than a lion”(metaphor). The tone is sad in the beginning but then it turns inspiring and powerful. This song has become popular and kids that might be going through the same thing might listen to this song and feel less isolated knowing that someone else has had the same experience.

Music revolutionized human connection because it has become so popular and most everyone listens to music. Music has always been around but when technology was invented like the radio, it brought people together where it became a shared experience. Throughout time, music became more popular and more ways to share music was created. In some restaurants, people are allowed to sing their songs or any song that is important to them. This allows regular people that aren't in the music industry to communicate with others through music. Just like the blog written by Camille Dungy, others were able to put the poems to use.

Author's Style: Word Choice- The Writing on the Wall

• Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

In my own words, alliteration is using several words in a row that start with the same consonants.

Example~ Sally sells seashells on the seashore.

• Assonance: rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words.

In my own words, assonance is a repeating vowel sound in the middle of the words but all the words begin with a different letter.

Example~ “Men sell the wedding bells.”

• Consonance:  repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase.

In my own words, consonance is the same sounds at the end of a word.

Example~ cheer, beer, sent, went

• Mood:  a literary element that gives off certain feelings or vibes to readers through words and descriptions.

In my own words, the mood is how the story makes you feel personally after reading the story.

Example~ loneliness, unfulfilled, depressed, jubilant.

• Tone:  an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience through the choice of words.  The tone can be formal, informal, serious, comical, sarcastic, sad, and cheerful or any other attitudes.

In my own words, the tone is how the writer addresses the story which influences how the reader will comprehend it.

Example~ scared, anxious, tired, positive or negative



Examples of Sound Devices from the Story:

• An example of alliteration is shown in the story when it says,” “The Chinese immigrants, in particular, raised with a tradition of public poetry, composed carefully crafted verses that drew on Classical traditions, forms, and allusions.” or  “Scholars are researching the poems, and people and poets like me, who need to believe in the power of poetry to speak beyond the here and now, can stand in front of those walls and understand the power of poetry; to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.”

• An example of assonance is showing in paragraph 3 when it says, “Feeding on the wind and sleeping on dew, I tasted hardships.”

• An example of consonance in the story is when it says, “Likely separated from friends and family by thousands of miles and piles of bureaucracy, these writings turned to the ancient tradition of public poetry to reconstruct their sense of self.”

• The mood of the story is emotional and sympathetic.The use of sound devices helps influence how the reader feels after reading the story. It really highlights the difficulties of immigrating to America. For example, the quote used for the example of assonance focuses on the challenges immigrants would be facing. While I was reading the story, I felt so bad for the immigrants. It also makes me emotional to know that I have a place to live everyday with my family and friends.

• The tone of this story is very serious. The author has a strong opinion on the hardships of immigration so she shows no signs of silliness. The use of sound devices helps with the tone of the story as well. The example of consonance that I pulled from the story showed how being “miles and piles” from your family and friends was no laughing matter. 

Analyze Craft and Structure - The Writing on the Wall

Dungy states her central idea in paragraph 16 when she says, “Scholars are researching the poems, and people and poets like me, who need to believe in the power of poetry to speak beyond the here and now, can stand in front of those walls and understand the power of poetry; to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.” I think that the author is explaining how people were able to connect their experiences through poetry. Immigrants were treated poorly but in particular, the Chinese. They used poetry to express how they were feeling. Other immigrants read these poems that were etched on the wall and were able to relate to their feelings as well. Lonely, weary, lost.  Later on in history, people who discovered this art worked on translating it. Translators were able to help others that didn’t go through the experience of immigration connect and understand. The author tells the reader how poetry is powerful and helps “calm” other immigrants, “communicate” with people today, help people “commiserate,” and “conserve” this sacred, memorable art.

Supporting Detail Examples:

Statistic:

“Someone walked through the detention center and recognized the language, recognized the poems, the hundreds of poems that documented the lives of nearly 175,000 people.” This makes the reader realize how many immigrants wrote poems expressing their loneliness and sadness. They wrote these poems to share their experience with other immigrants. They didn’t know this at the time, but they were helping people today connect with their feelings.

Reasoning:

“Likely separated from friends and family by thousands of miles and piles of bureaucracy , these writers turned to the ancient tradition of public poetry to reconstruct their sense of self.” The author doesn’t know that writers turned to public poetry to reconstruct their sense of self for sure, but she can assume that they did. I understand how this shapes the central idea. Due to the stress of traveling and being away from home, immigrants turned to poetry for comfort.  

Description:

“The air on the is by turns foggy and cool and salty and warm. There are moss roses and fragrant stands of eucalyptus. You might call it beautiful, but you are a detainee, not a vacationer, and you are very far from any place that you could call home.” This quote from the story, The Writing on the Wall, helps develop the central idea of the story by explaining how the outside of America seemed inviting and perfect but on the inside, it is crucial and lonely. Immigrants were “detainees” and it would be a hard adjustment. I can see how immigrants would turn to poetry to release their emotions.

Facts:

“The Chinese immigrants, in particular, raised with a tradition of public poetry, composed carefully crafted verses that drew on Classical traditions, forms, and allusions.” Chinese immigrants engraved their poems on the wall, due to their mixed emotions on their experience. This was their escape, which contributes to the central idea. The Chinese immigrants, in particular, must have used poetry to comfort them since it was a tradition at their home. This art was preserved, and if it had not been, then no one to this day would understand the conditions immigrants were in.

Essential Question - Rules of the Game - Tania Castillo

Some American rules that waverly's family adopts to is when you are curious about something you are supposed to go and find it out by your self because if you were to go and ask someone your self then they will just say that they don't know when they really know the answer. Mrs.Jong is willing to adopt to them because that's like the only way you can fit-in in America. To support this in the text it says ""every time people come out from foreign country, must know rules. You not know, judge say, too bad,go back. They not telling you why so you can use their way go forward. They say don't know why, you find out yourself. But they knowing all the time. Better you take it,find out why yourself.""


In addition, Waverly's family culture doesn't fit in with the American culture. What I mean by this is that in Waverly's family they have to eat all their food on their plate, but in American you can choose to eat all the food off of your plate. To support this statement in line 60 in the text is says"I said I couldn't finish my rice; my head didn't work right when my stomach was too full, I left the table with half finished bowls and nobody complained."this is showing that in her family they are supposed to finish everything on their plate/bowl.

Essential Question-Rules of the Game-Morgan Soto

One American rule adopted into Waverly's family is their age, since they are living in america they use “American age” which is one year behind what she is by the Chinese calendar: “...I was seven according to the American formula and eight by the Chinese calendar.”  Mrs.Jong is willing to allow this into her family because it doesn’t change the fact that Waverly is 8 to her family. Mrs.Jong has a “chang” which “is luck” she keeps it for special occasions when it’s needed, “It was her chang, a small tablet of red jade which held the sun’s fire.” They keep this in their family for luck and help during hard times. It’s a part of their culture and they haven’t taken it out because they still believe in it, and its powers. Waverly refers to it as this because you should never tell the secrets you learned. It's a game of attacks and surprises. You use the element of surprise to beat your opponents. Waverly likes the secrets because in her family it's hard to keep secrets.

Waverly acts like this to surprise her opponents and make them under estimate how well she plays. Waverly also acts like a child to make her opponents feel better and think she was just playing random moves which ended up with her winning. She is humble yet devious when it comes to chess, she knows how to get people to underestimate her skills. People feel truly American once they know they have a voice and speak up against what they believe is wrong. It explains how you must never share your secrets and have to lose some things to win/gain something. You’re also responsible for how you respond and act in certain situations you can either gain something or lose something.  

Rules of the Game - Analyzing Characters

     

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One conflict that Waverly and her mother face during the story is when her mother kept “showing her off” in public. Waverly’s mother gets offended and responds with immediate anger. In the story, Rules of the Game, it says, “‘Aii- ya. So shame be with mother?’ She grasped my hand even tighter and glared at me” (Tan). Waverly reacts the same as her mother but for a different reason. Waverly responded that way because she didn’t like her mother bragging about her achievements. She wanted to be seen as humble and not attention seeking. She didn’t want the label of being better or ranked higher than someone else. Her mother saw this situation as an insult. She thought Waverly was embarrassed by her  which confused her. She expressed her feelings through dissatisfaction and anger.

Another conflict is how Mrs.Jong doesn’t understand the game and tells Waverly how to win. Mrs.Jong focuses on losing less pieces. Waverly gets annoyed and tells her to learn how to play the game herself. She tells Waverly that she must listen to her in order to win. She tries to give helpful tips but Waverly keeps rejecting her mom’s wisdom.

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Throughout the story, Waverly learns to speak up. This really affects the outcome of her interactions. One day, Waverly speaks up and changes the situation. In the text it states “‘I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody i’m your daughter.’” (Waverly).  Instead of letting it slide by, she told her mother what she thought. Even though it didn’t turn out how she planned, everything would be different. By asking many questions she becomes interested in the game and why the rules are the way they are “Why can’t they move more steps?” This moves the story along and brings the story to the point where she learns more about the game.

Mrs.Jong had a whole other feeling on this situation. She misunderstood how Waverly was feeling and said, “Embarrassed you be my daughter?” This caused her and Waverly to get mad at the other. Mrs.Jong believes if something isn’t good enough for someone else it’s not good enough for her and her family; “She not want it,we not want it.” This shows how she tries to have a lot of pride but she has pride for many wrong reasons.

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Waverly and Mrs.Jong both learn different things.  Waverly grows by learning how to play chess. She progresses when she learns new strategies, which makes her a better chess player. She also grows in character because she gains her independence and voice. In the story, whenever her mother said something that she didn’t agree with, she always kept quiet but by the end of the story, she stood up to her mother.

Mrs. Jong changes slightly throughout the story because when Waverly first started to win her chess matches, her mother was satisfied but not impressed. Mrs. Jong focused on winning. Her exact words were, “Next time win more, lose less.” Waverly explained that you have to sometimes lose pieces in order to win. Her mother never seemed to be impressed but by the end, her mother was boasting about her.  

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Waverly and her mother’s conflict emphasizes that communication is a big part of their relationship. Waverly was mad and disappointed with her mom who was showing her off. Mrs.Jong was mad and disappointed with her daughter who didn’t want her abilities shown off. They didn’t communicate well and the results were many conflicts between them. As a human, Waverly finally expressed her feelings about her mother showing off Waverly’s abilities.

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