Course Evaluation

         Overall I thought the course for American studies freshman class was very interesting. I really liked how it was actually about American history. I really liked how we did projects that connected to history, and to English. I also liked how the whole class was not just history or English, I liked how they were tied together. I enjoyed the projects that we did I liked how they were projects that were different, and allowed you to explore and use different resources. I also found that the class was very hard to follow, like if you missed one day you missed a lot, also it was a lot of different things and topics that we would talk about and learn in just one day. I also did enjoy that we had to do poetry recitations, but I would have preferred if we did them only twice a year instead of four times. I also wish that we would have done more projects that were in groups, or even in partners, but we would need more in class time to work on them. I feel like I learned a lot in this class, but that I could have learned a lot more, if we would have focused more on one topic at a time instead of skipping around, and doing several at one time. I am also very glad that we have learned how to write several different types or poems, and learned how to write sonnets. I believe that the class syllabus was very productive, with having to transition to high school from middle school.

Add a comment May 24, 2010

Book Critique

          I chose the book Goddess of the Night by Lynne Ewing. This book takes place in California. It is about a girl named Vanessa who is able to completely disappear. Her best friend also has a power, she is able to travel back in time. Her friend Catty and her have no clue why they have these powers. Vanessa was given a moon amulet when she was just a baby by a woman at the hospital, and Catty is adopted and has no memory of her life up to age six when she was adopted. But Catty’s mother told her that she had the exact moon amulet around her neck when Catty’s mother adopted her. I really liked this book because there were lots of adventures, throughout the whole book there was a mystery, and there was a lot of suspense.

          At the beginning of the book Vanessa was being followed while she was walking home at night. So her and Catty decided to go back to see who it was. When they don’t see who it was they decide it must have just been someone that likes Vanessa. Then when Catty mysteriously goes missing, the real adventures begin, including Vanessa discovering that her and catty are goddesses of the moon. Vanessa then has to try to stop the shadows, and save her best friend Catty. 

          The book was a mystery, because for the majority of it you did not know who was following Vanessa. Then when Catty went missing the reader had no way of knowing what had happened to her. When Vanessa finally was told that she was a goddess of the moon, and that she was the only one that could save Catty, as a reader I didn’t know what Vanessa would do. Towards the beginning of the book the main character also has a boyfriend, but because of her disappearing uncontrollably it is a mystery through the whole book if they will ever stay together, of break up.

          Finally there was a lot of suspense. In the book someone had broken into Vanessa’s room. No one knew who it was, and why they would go into her room. They never took anything they just simply turned over all of her clocks so they were facing down. Also it was also very suspense full when Vanessa went to save Catty, because the reader didn’t know if she would succeed, of if the shadows would over power her and Catty and take over.

          I really enjoyed this book, because there was never a time when it was boring, or when there was no adventure. Every page I turned held a new mystery, of adventure. It was full of excitement, and anticipation, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes romantic-fantasy’s. Ewing, Lynne.

Add a comment May 2, 2010