Evan's Blog

The story I am doing a closer analysis on is "Californian" (232-234) by Jaoquin Miller. The plot of this story basically is about her point of view of coming to California. She is on a boat at sea on her way to California. It speaks of sails that spread and come from around the world. In this story the literary device that is thoroughly built is character. The character is speaking from her experience, so we can see what he has been through. The way she has been through long travels, and the experience of coming to a new land. It shows her character in this story, and i feel this is very important when it comes to this story. The next important thing is to speak of the theme of this story. The theme of this story is how traveling long distances can be treacherous, but it can shape who you are. She sees what its like in California during the Gold Rush. She can hear the thundering of pickaxes throughout the base of the mountain, and I feel this is a part that is a real characte...

Jaoquin Miller, "Californian" Pages 232 - 234. This story beings talking about the sea. There are sails that are spread coming from around the world. It hints that these boats are there for trade.  After travel it talks about coming to a beach.  It said the beach is not a place for mirthfulness. Mirthfulness is, " Full of gladness and merriment" In the distance the Sierras are a head, it paints the picture of it against a beautiful blue sky. Towards the Sierras miners are seen. There are sounds of thousands of pickaxes hitting rocks.  It speaks of the old men who are mighty, they call themselves the "forty-nine".

This was a very interesting, yet dull story, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I first want to talk about the literary devices I am going to use, that is mainly plot and setting. The plot of this story was very straight forward, yet very engaging. The story basically explained their trip to California in search of gold to become rich, it also highlighted the struggles of doing so. When they reached California, the initial place they were planning to pan for gold was all washed up, so they had to move to a place where they were constantly in fear of Native Americans hunting them down. Eventually they were out of this place, opened a shop, and were able to live a long life. The setting of this was in California during the Gold Rush. When reading this, you get an insight on what it was like being alive during this time from a first hand account. The theme of this, to me, is that life is never simple, you may go for a simple task, and have many hardships down the road. What I mean by this ...

Sarah Eleanor Royce  The time period of this is 1819-1891 which is in the middle of the Gold Rush. The story starts with Sarah and her family climbing two ridges at the summit.  During the night of their travels they "slept within a few yards of snow." It was very cold, their pans would freeze with water if it wasn't too close to a fire. After their travels they come to California, a place that Sarah completely loved at her first sight. When sleeping in California, there were a few nights where Native American men shot arrows at the men in their camp. One was injured. They eventually went to a place called Weaverville where they would be looking to mine gold. They originally went somewhere else, however, it was nearly picked clean. It goes on to talk about their business adventures, about looking for gold, and also opening a shop eventually. Interestingly enough, in some areas, there were Native Americans who were panning for gold in certain areas. It explains ...

The Article I chose to read: "Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow?" by Deborah Farmer Kris. This was a very interesting article I read, and I feel as though it has very valuable information. I find the point of elaborating the compliment very interesting. As the article stated, don't just say "Good Job" say "Good job sharing with your sister". This applies even to adults, even if it has a different effect. Some adults may hear you say "Good job" and feel as though you don't mean it, considering it sounds as if you were not paying attention. Yes, I feel confident about giving people feedback, I feel it is something I have greatly worked on in my life. I feel an important strategy I use when giving feedback is the sandwich method. The sandwich method is how you deliver the criticism, you can say a compliment followed by the criticism then follow it by another compliment. This is very important because it doesn...

Topic 3:  Choose one short story or novel excerpt. Write a piece in which you explore the following: In what ways could this story be considered an artifact of history?  What does this story teach us about history?  How does a story teach us about a time or place differently than a history book? Above is the topic I am choosing to dive deeper into. The key elements that are going to be necessary in making this project happen is finding a story that is obviously an artifact of history, and that has a proper plot point. The story I am going to be attempting is Romeo and Juliet. The reason I am choosing this is the story of history it holds, and how important it is to our history. This is a story that has been told in schools all over the world, and holds true today. It has one main theme, and that is that is history repeats itself, and there are always obstacles to overcome, however, we need to fight through them. 

"The Queen Of California" Las Sergas  de Esplandian pg 76-77 Previously California was known as an island on the right hand of the Indies, inhabited by women that resemble the Amazons. There was wildlife in this area that was not known to any other area before, it was new to them.  The amazon women fed these beasts with men that they would capture.  Christians came to try and convert them however they did not know what Christianity was. The leader of the Amazon women was curious to know of Christianity for she was passionate about all life. She explained how life was in the land known as California. 

Ah, yes, feedback. Feedback is something that is so powerful to people, it can be so constructive, and even somewhat destructive. What makes good feedback is delivery. It is important for us as human's that have the growth mindset to have feedback, however, it needs to be delivered right. There are several people who give out feedback very bluntly, and it can come off as rude. When someone receives feedback that comes off as rude, they tend to reject the feedback that can be very vital to there growth. When we give feedback in a kind, and well worded way, we can help the person grow because they become less defensive. I think it is important to explain why you are giving certain pieces of feedback, to help the person understand further why you are giving them this kind of feedback. If you give them feedback with no reasoning they may tend to not realize why you are giving them feedback. I think everyone needs feedback in their lives, it's how we can become better at many aspect...

Topic 1: p ick a subject: love, work, freedom, etc. Then choose two selections and discuss how that subject is discussed in those selections. Use literary devices to help frame your discussi on.   The reason I would choose this subject is because of the opportunity that writing this has. What I mean by this is they are very open subjects that speak volumes to me. Using literary devices I can most definitely meet the requirements for the posts when speaking about love, work, and freedom. To me, I feel they even all tie together which is why I feel a connection to it. I love love, I love work, and I love freedom, they are all things that I am passionate about and they really speak to me. Topic 2:  From a piece of fiction (short story, section of novel, or a play) choose a female character on whom to focus, and create a project that discusses some of the following questions:  What is the author’s attitude towards her? (how can you tell?) What is your attitude towa...

The story I read this week and decided to write a Literary Analysis on is Coyote Cooks His Daughter .   One powerful literary device that was used in this story was the use of Imagery. As I was reading this story I could vividly picture what was going on in this story. I think what helped with this was the use of repetition. The way they would repeat several words, like “his ears he twitch-twitch-twitched”. This could have easily been accomplished similarly if the words “he twitched his ear” were used, however, it wouldn’t create the same level of imagery. When you are forced to read a word several times, it really strikes in your head the image they are trying to convey. With all of the repeating words in this story you can easily understand and picture the story. In this story, I feel as though there are 2 underlying themes; sometimes you have to do drastic tasks in tough situations, and actions will have consequences. The most important theme I am going to talk about is action...

I feel as thought it is very important to have a personal course calendar for my assignments. Personally, I think it's best for me to work on the assignments due that day on that day. This is easier for me because it helps me have a small amount at a more frequent time. Sometimes it is difficult for me to have a lot of work in one day, I end up doing poorly on some assignments because I work too long. For reading I will make sure to do it all in one day, considering that would be a littler easier.

The technology we use in this class seems very useful and I am excited to get to learn everything we are learning. I am a little familiar with the technology we will be using. In this past week I have become familiar with Blogger and it doesn't seem complicated to use. I am also familiar with website publishing, I have created a few websites in the past, and helped my dad work on some as well. Honestly, I am not concerned with any of the technology in this class. I am excited to continue using blogger, I haven't worked with blogs before and it can seem like something that would be beneficial later on.