In class writing

" The secret of an opal's color lies not in its substance but in its absences." 

We all know opal is beautiful, but opal is rare and hard to find. Thus, it is expensive. Some people even spend their whole life on looking for opal. The rarer it is, the more beautiful it is. People like it more. 

Ashmol thought his sister was crazy and he never believed Poppy and Dingan were real before, but after Poppy and Dingan were lost, he changed. He even went to Old Sid's mine to look for Poppy and Dingan or organized a funeral for them. After Kellyanne died, he and the people in the town realized his sister were right. He thought Poppy and Dingan were real. At last, all the people in this town had an imaginary friend. Ashmol did not think her sister were crazy any more. He loved her, and he even did not believe she was died. He realized how " opal" was beautiful. 

In this story, Ashmol's father was almost crazy about opal, he cared opal more than his family. After he was charged as a ratter, he had more time to stay with his family. He felt how warm his family was. He was back to his family, and he loved them. He also understood the ' opal's real beautiful colors'.  

Change--Personality

Change—Personality

Actually, lots of people have a imaginary friends. They may be not real and invisible for others, so people always put the wrong construction on what they see. However, imaginary friends are important to themselves. Poppy and Dingan is a story about imaginary friends of a little girl named Kellyanne, and it is written by Ben Rice. I like this book not only because it has a rich content, but also because it reflect personalities. It is not just a simple story of a mad girl, we can know more from this book.  

First, as I said this is not a simple story. What does this mean? We can see all the people’s personality through two imaginary friends. Actually, this book is about a change, the change before Kellyanne’s father lost her friends and after he lost her friends. We can see everyone’s personality from this change. Her missing friends even changed her whole family or whole town. 

For example, before she lost her imaginary friends, Ashmol never believed Poppy and Dingan were real, he even was aggressive to them. “ I walked over to where Poppy was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Poppy was a figment of her imagining.” ( Page 3. Rice, Ben. Poppy and Dingan. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print.) After Kellyanne was ill, he changed a lot. He even went to Old Sid’s mine and went down the claim at midnight to look for Poppy and Dingan. He complained about himself, he also thought the thing which he was doing was a stupid thing on his way to the mine. The book said: “ When I was half the way out to Wyoming I stopped and asked myself what the hell I was doing going looking in the middle of the night for two dead people who didn't exist. ” ( Page 51. Rice, Ben. Poppy and Dingan. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print.) In my opinion, he still did not believe Poppy and Dingan were real, but he did these things. He loved his family and his sister, he could try his best to let his sister get better and cheer his parents up. Loving his family is one of his biggest personality. The author did not say this clearly in words, but he did wrote these details to express his personality. I like this method. In general, several details are stronger than one “ love” sentence. 

Also, this change influenced other people. Before Kellyanne’s dad lost Poppy and Dingan, people treated Kellyanne’s father normally or even liked him. However, after he lost Poppy and Dingan and was pointed as a ratter or a thief, people changed their attitudes. They did not believe him anymore, some of them even burned his tense, even though he was clean. People did not think of their past relationships, they wanted to kick Williamsons out of this town and protect their own mines. These are negative personalities from this book. 

At last, I should say I love this book. I’ve never seen a fiction that talks about imaginary friends, this is interesting. Also, I love the rich content in this book. The most interesting thing is the author expressed the personalities by writing this story of imaginary friends or change. 

Quiz

1. I think street is about silence and cheating. She wanted to say when people had some troubles, they should face them, not escape. Silence can not help. In third stanza, she wrote the people who were silent. They cannot solve any problems. Thus, " the sky which sews and sews, tirelessly sewing" 

In the last stanza, she wrote: " They sleep twice, once for the one who is gone,once for themselves. They dream thickly, dream double, they wake from a dream into another one, they walk the short streets calling out names, and then they answer. " People who slept completely are the people who did not face the troubles. They were cheating to themselves. 

2. There are 8 lines and 5 sentences in stanza 4. 

3. She wrote "overhead loud grackles are claiming their trees and the sky which sews and sews, tirelessly sewing ". The grackles who are claiming are the people who speak out what they want to say. However, their voices are too small. People can only hear it in quiet evenings. Some silent people stand here, they want to speak, but they do not. 

4. In the last stanza, the author wrote two kinds of people. One slept, but then refreshed. This means somebody who were silent before, but then woke up. Another is still sleeping. This means somebody who did not want to speak. She wanted to say people should speak what they want to say, do not keep silence anymore. 

5. There are 3 stanzas and 3 sentences in this poem. 

6. I think it means the author have lived in America for a long time. She is familiar to American culture. She is an Arab, and she loves Arab, but others regard her as an American more. 

7. Hidden also described some little things, but the author wanted to express a big principle by writing this poem. Hidden told us the pain of silence. If we want to say something, we must say it. People never understand, unless we tell them. Also, in other Nye's poems, she used this method. For example, she talked about street and some other little things in the poem, street. She wanted people to speak what they want to say. 

8. In this poem, the fuel is Arab culture. She is an Arab, but most people only thought she was an American. Arab culture is really important to her. If she do not speak out, she will lose this cultural identity. In the poem, she said: " If you tuck the name of a loved one under your tongue too long without speaking it it becomes blood sigh." It means if she does not say she was a Arab, people will think she is an American all the time. 

Two months' journey

Goals

Olivia Cao

Here are my three goals: 

1. Be active in class

2. Get an A from this course

3. Read books everyday

Time goes by rapidly, I even thought I just arrived few days. Two months passed, I learned a lot of things in this class. I remembered what goals I wrote down in the beginning of this class. I think I made a big progress, but it is not enough.  

First of all, I want to talk about my progress. I think I made a progress. I am more active in the class than before. I never spoke in the class before, but now I feel free to ask or answer the questions in the class, even if I still do not speak often. Also, I made progress in reading books. I read books very often now. I almost fall in love with reading. I have already read two books, except Persepolis. 

Second, I want to talk about what I did in this marking period. I read Persepolis, and had many analyzations about this book. For example, I wrote two essays about what Persepolis and the character in this book. Also, I have already worked on Nye's poems for few days, and I read many Nye's poems. We discussed about the poems and watched videos about Nye. I feel good by doing these things. Language is still a big problem for me. To solve this problem, I recite vocabulary everyday. Obviously, I made a big progress. At least I can express what I mean clearly. With the progress in vocabulary, I can speak in public more, and I am trying to be more active in this class. Also, reading books makes me feel relaxed. Besides the books I must read, I read some more interesting books. 

Third, I should work on using some better words, I do not want to use " very" all the time. Also, I should be more active in class. I am not active enough, even if I made a progress. Thus, I will try my best to behave well in the class. I also have three goals for next marking period. First, as I said, I want be more active in the class. Second, I should recite vocabulary everyday. Third, I hope I can go.over the things I learned everyday. Also, I want a good grade in this whole class. 

At last, I want to do something different in the upcoming marking period. On the one hand, I will try my best to use advanced words in my paper. I just recited vocabulary in the past two months, but I still use some simple words to write, such as very, good. I do not like these words, so I will use more advanced words. On the other hand, I will be more focus on blog post. I got bad grades on blog post, so I will be focus on my blog post. 

In conclusion, I like this class, I learned a lot of things and I will be more hardworking in the next period. 

In class writing

1. I think skin means Arab culture or religion, because the author said: " But skin felt it was never seen, never known as a land on the map", culture and religion cannot be seen, but they exist everywhere. " Skin had hope, that's what skin does. ", it means culture or religion can spread hope to people who believe it, that is its job. "Heals over the scared place, makes a road. "This sentense means people need hope to get out of troubles. If people don't have hope, they will be desperate. Then they want to give up, and they won't heal over the scared place or make a road. Also, culture build the road or city, they base on culture.

2. In my opinion, skin symbolizes Arab culture or religion.

4. I think "love" means her love for her grandma and her grandma's love for her. This sentense shows that the author miss and love her grandmother so much. Even if she moved to America, she still cares about Palestine and her grandmother. That's why the author said " breath in two countries".

Poem

See,
Sky is blacker.
I wish,
terrorists stop.
Tell me,
When can we see flowers again?

Summary

Summary of my grandmother in the stars

In this poem, the author shows the deep love between she and her grandmother, and tells us who is her grandmother. The poem makes me feel peaceful. 

First of all, her grandmother and the author loved each other so much, and this love would be in the author's heart, she would never forget it. When she miss her grandmother, she has memories of them. Even if her grandmother died, she still has memories. 

Second, this poem shows what kind of person her grandmother is. Her grandmother is a normal peasant who lived in a small village. She was poor, but she was hardworking and very happy. Thus, she had "shrugged feet" and "moth-eaten scarves" 

Third, I felt very peaceful when I was reading this poem. The author used very beautiful words to describe her grandmother, because she wants to show us a gentle, kind old woman. Also, she uses soft and gentle tone to stress she miss her grandmother so much. 

At last, I want to say I love this poem, because I am touched by the deep love between them and the beautiful words or gentle tone.