Final Reflection

This year in ELA I learned three things. Firstly, I learned that if you don't put your heart into the project that you are doing, it will make it boring to do. Most of the projects that we did this year we had the opportunity to pick what we wanted to do based on the project. The project that we were given the opportunity to do what we wanted to were the ones that I think were really fun to do. It gave us a time to show what we can do to the entire class. The second thing I learned was that, reading books that we should take the time to read books that we might not usually read. In our class we read the book The Giver this book wasn't really something that I would read but, as we kept on reading it really made me see how the book might not actually be as bad as I thought it would be. The last important thing that I learned was that, everything we were taught was to help us through high school. We learned how to annotate so when we have to write about it it will be easier to write, we learned about the TIQA format which helps us know the layout on what to include in the paragraph that will include text evidence. We learned that we need to manage our time wisely to get the important things done first than the others. There were so many things we learned that I know we will  use in high school.

Throughout the year we did a lot of projects, those projects personally taught me things. The project that really hit was the Butterfly Project. This project made us read a poem about a child that was in the Terzin concentration camp. The poems taught us that we should appreciate the life we have. The kids unfortunately had to live through some things that won't be eraseable. The Butterfly Project personally taught me that we should take advantage of the life we have and live life to the fullest.

The nicest thing someone in the ELA class has done for me is show me not to follow what everyone says disputes whta everyone says about that person. In the beginning of the year I didn't talk to person but when I saw that we had some classes together I started to realize that the person isn't what everyone says. To everyone the person might be a person that does bad things but that person taught me a lesson that I will not forget to carry with me in the future.

Everyone has different morals and beliefs. When people are different they all bring a variety of things which we can all learn from. We were all able to teach each other with our I Believe essay/speeches when we talked about the event that made us believe what we do. In my I Believe essay I talked about something that my friends didn't even know had happened to my family. When we first learned that we would be writing about an event in our lif that changed our belief I immediately thought about what had happened. At first I was nervous to what everyone's reaction would be but, I knew that I had to do this. I felt as if it was my responsibility to try to prevent this from happening to them because I don't want them to go through something like that.

I think that I made the biggest improvement in how to write a paper. When I was in first grade we learned about the hamburger method on how to write a papers when asked to answer a question with text evidence. I was never really good at remembering what goes when but, now this year we learned about the TIQA format it made more sense to me. The TIQA format is something that I will remember to use when in the future, specifically high school. Something that I accomplished this year is

There were many challenges throughout the years, well I think this one was for most of class. Trying to remember the vocabulary words and root words we had was a big challenge to everyone since we were all new to it. I think that the vocabulary tests kind of  reflected on how much time we actually studied for the test, well that was if we actually did study. Even though it was a challenge at first, I started to realize that the more time I spent studying the words the more it started to become easier. Yeah, at times I would get 2 or 3 wrong but at least I know that I tried my best.

The best piece of writing I think I did this year was my I Believe essay. I think that it was my best because it really showed everyone who I am since I never really talk in class. The event that I talked about in the essay was something that had just recently had happened to my family which taught all of us a lesson. It was something that I had never really done, but I knew I had to this because I don't want other families having to go through something like this when I myself know the emotional roller coaster we all went through in my family.

My favorite book that I read this year was Counting By 7s. This book was really relatable to me since Willow (the main character) and I both are really good in math and science. It was my first time reading the same book with a small group instead of it being the whole class. When it was Willow's first day in middle school it reminded me of when it my first day of elementary school. When it was my first day of elementary school I was dressed differently and I didn't know what to say since the only words I knew in English was "Hello" and "Bye". Willow in the book got mistaken to a custodian  and she didn't really know what to say since she was new. I found the book really relatable which is why Counting by 7s  is my favorite book.

For the students who will be in this class next year, I want to tell them to never give up. Yes, there are times were you just question what is the whole point of the project but, everything we do might connect to us in our personal life. As weird as it sounds many of the project were always aligned to what was happening in my "outside of school life".

I Believe

“Unexpected Surprises”

By: Lizbeth Urquizo

We see things on the news and are informed on how to prevent certain events from happen to us, yet we never seem to actually pay attention. So

me people learn that they need to pay attention to the advice they get while others are to ignorant to think that it would happen to them. I’m bringing this up because I was one of those people that didn’t think it would happen to them, I was ignorant.

It was May 13, 2017 when it happened. My mom, sister Maria and I were cleaning the house because we had planned a party since I had just recently done my Confirmation. At around 12:00 p.m in the afternoon we get a phone call. It wasn't just any phone call, it was from the electricity company. My mom confused, since none of us knew why they would call, answered the phone. Little did we all know that the phone call was going to be the start of the lesson we all learned.

When my mom answers the phone we were greeted with a voice. The voice belongs to a man, he says that he needs to speak to Catarino Urquizo, which is my dad. During that time my dad was at work, so my mom says that he is not there right now but, that she is his wife so they can tell her the reason on why they are calling. The man proceeded to my mom that my dad is behind some bills so, in 30 minutes someone from the company will go and disconnect the electricity. My mom, sister and I are surprised to hear this since we know how my dad has always been responsible since in the last 20 years of him living here in the United States he has never been late with bills. My mom asks if he wants my dad’s phone number so they can communicate with him. The man responds that instead he will give us a number so when my dad is available he can call that number so we can find a way to fix this. My mom calls my dad informing him of what had just happened. He says that when he gets home he will try to fix this since right now he is busy with work.

Time goes by, specificity those 30 minutes go by. We still somehow have electricity. Don’t get wrong I was thankful that we still had the electricity but, I was mentally preparing myself to when our electricity is cut off. Two hours go by and we still have everything running. My dad arrives and immediately he asks where is that number that the guy had left. He calls and the guy answers they immediately talk into details on how my dad can fix this.

The man on the other side of the phone tells my dad a huge story on why the payments might not have been going through, and it sounds believable. In the end my dad had to buy prepaid cards. On thing everyone should know is that electricity companies don't accept prepaid cards. We ended up finding out that it was all fake, the phone call from the electricity company was fake, my dad being behind electricity bills was fake, it was all fake. We had just been tricked into giving about $1,000 to what we thought would save our electricity. My dad ended up filing a police report so it would raise an awareness that things like this were happening.

We never thought that it would happen to us. We heard about it on the news but never really paid attention. For a moment we were angry, angry because of how we missed the red flags, but we realized something. We realized that we would be okay, someone stealing money from us is better than one of us getting hurt.

I grew up with the motto expect the unexpected. I had never really thought about the meaning of it, now I do. “Expect the unexpected” means that we need to be aware and prepared of the unexpected surprise that will happen in life. That is why I believe in expecting the unexpected to happen so, when something does happen, it hopefully won’t hurt me as much as I anticipate it too.

Literature Circle/Non-Fiction Article blog

An essential question we had in our literature circle for the book Counting By 7s is, what effects is she (Willow) dealing with since she has been living with Pattie, Mia, and Quang-ha in Dell Duke's apartment? In the book so far I've seen that Willow tries not to not complain about anything because she feels like she is a burden. In the book it says, "But it's not her fault. I'm the problem."(Sloan, 213) This is an example of how Willow is saying that the things that are happening with Pattie, Mai, and Quang-ha having to move into Dell Duke's apartment is her fault. So far in the book Willow has come up with the idea to make a small little garden of sunflowers in the front of the apartment where they are now living. I think that she wants to do this so she can feel like she is actually doing something.

Gardening seems to be really present in the book from before the accident involving her parents to after. In the article "Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal?" it talks about how gardening is a type of therapy called horticultural. In the book gardening is a huge part of Willow's life from before the accident because she wants wear her gardening outfit on the first day of school so people can see that this is who she is. After the accident Willow changes and doesn't do the same things that she did before. 

There are similarities in the way that the article and book both show how gardening can help someone. In the article it says, "'They can see the parallel of the garden and relate it to their own lives,' he says. 'It provides ways to engage in conversation and life lessons.'" This quote is trying to say that most people that do this type of therapy will compare themselves to the garden. They might do this so  they can find something that is similar to themselves. In the book it says, "Right now I'm the sunflower. Termporary, but attaching myself to the ground underneath me. The garden is challenging me, as always, to see my own situation." This quote connects to the one in the article because this quote from the book is confirming that people, like Willow, do use a garden as therapy will see how they are the garden in a way.

Husted, Kristofor. “Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal?” NPR, NPR, 22 Feb. 2012, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/02/17/147050691/can-gardening-help-troubled-minds-heal. Accessed 11 May 2017. 

Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Counting by 7s. New York, Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013. 

Literature Circle blog

So far in the book Counting By 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan I have learned al lot about the main character   Willow. She is a 12 year old girl that is quite diffrerent from the rest. When reading the first things we learn about Willow is that she was adopted by Jimmy and Roberta Chance. As we read we read about how her parents die since they got in a car accident. Before it continues we get flashbacks to prior the accident. We learn about how Willow gets called down to the office to talk to the principal at her school in California because she was the only one that got a perfect score on a test. The test that she and other  students had to take was a state wide science test for the beginning of the school year. We are introduced to Mai and Qung-ha which are siblings when Willow goes down to the counselor's office for her mandatory check up that she has to do. 

Willow and I are similar in ways yet different in other ways. The first similarity between her and me is that we both are good with numbers. In the first few chapters of the book we get a glimps of how she knows how to manage numbers which was something that right off the bat I was able to make a connection with her. A difference though between the both of us is that Willow likes to use very big medical words. I on the other hand in a way struggle because English isn't my first language so when it comes to certain words I struggle to pronounce them correctly.one similarity that I was able to see was that Willow and I both like the subject science. 

There has been a change from Willow in the beginning of the book to half of the book. In the beginning Willow is very meticulous on the things that she does and makes surethat if she is going to be doing anything that it is just the way she wants it. Half way in the book after she is without her parents she stops caring about the things she use to. From time to time we see how Willow herself compares her self from before the accident to after. Willow starts to not care which causes her to flee the hospital after she gets stitches on her forehead because she fainted and hit her head which caused her to get a cut on her forehead.