Formal Review of English 100

My reading and writing practices were not changed alot during English 100. When I would write papers before this class I usually made an outline, then my rough draft, then I would write my final draft. Which is the same process I used in this class. I think I have become a better writer because my papers are alot better structured now that I got help making an outline of where everything should go in my paper, even though there isnt just one correct way to do it, this helped me alot. The blog has made me try to write more thoroughly because when we write on here we have to look back and correct our mistakes becuase it doesn't correct them for us, and also we had to write 250 words every time so that made me think of more things I could write about or make something that I did write about more detailed. I liked having the blog in this reading and writing course because doing our homework on this is alot easier than having to print something off every time we have class, and it wasn't due until midnight of that day, so if we forgot to do something we could still get it done that day after class. The blog is similar to a journal because you can write anything you want, and feelings you have and then your teacher will respond to it. Which would be the same if we were to write a journal and then turn it in to our teacher.

Self Evaluation Task Three

My task three paper was about how I disagreed with Leon Botstein about how he thinks kids should graduate at age 16 and I think kids should not graduate at that age. The thesis of my paper was to show why kids should not graduate at age 16, that they need those two more years to fully get everything they needed to out of their high school career and make them prepared to start life as an adult. The main points I made in my paper were, kids might be starting puberty at younger ages but that does not mean they are maturing faster mentally. Kids are not ready to graduate at age 16. They will miss out on alot of things that the last two years of high school are needed for, and some things that are just enjoyable that I think every kid should get to experiance. The most helpful advice I recieved when we did peer evaluations would be that I need to start providing more detail in my writing and make there be a picture in the person reading my writings head. I wrote two drafts of this paper. I wrote my rough draft and then my final draft. I also made an outline before i started to write my rough draft. I think making an outline for this paper really helped me with the structure of my paper. I think I would of included more details and more factual evidence if I was to re-write this paper. I am most pleased with the argument I provide for this paper, I think i had alot of good reasons why kids shouldn't graduate at age 16.

(PAper start)

Savanna McClain

Ms. Chastain

English 100

12/6/10

Education and Learning

            When I was a kid, learning how to read and write was no big deal to me. I thought it was actually fun to be able to write down words that had meanings, and put words together to make sentences and stories. Every chance I got I would be writing in my diary or reading an interesting book. I wrote in my diary quite often. Although my handwriting wasn’t so great at that age, I still loved to write. When I was in second grade I started reading chapter books. My favorite author was Judy Blume. I liked her books because they were interesting to me as a kid, with a lot of detail and pictures. When I was in elementary school I loved to get homework. I liked the way it made me feel like an older kid who gets homework all the time. I started getting older and going to middle school. The older I got, the less and less I enjoyed reading and writing. In sixth grade I started this program at my new school called, reading counts. This program is on the computer and it is a test you have to take that is ten questions long, over the book you signed up with your English teacher. All the students would take a lexile level test before the year started to determine how many points the books we had to read would be. Each book in the library had a number in the inside top left corner that said how many points the books were worth. To pass your reading counts test you would have to get a seven out of ten or better.

            In the story, “The Lonely, Good Company of Books”, written by Richard Rodriguez, he tells us about how his parents only read when they had to. “For both my parents, however, reading was something done out of necessity and as quickly as possible” (232). His parents could both speak English and Spanish. They just didn’t see why people would spend so much time on reading books when they could be getting work done. He tells us that every chance he got he would try to read. He had private classes with the nun every day after school for almost six months to practice reading. He loved to read and he began to get better and better. His mother didn’t understand why he liked to read so much. “…Was so much reading even healthy for a boy?” (234). His mother didn’t think it was necessary for him to be reading books all the time when he could be helping her with chores around the house instead.

#2 on Refections on Reading and Writing

Douglass' efforts to learn were amazing in my opinion. I think it is very awesome that he didn't want to be a "stupid" slave like all the rest of his kind of people. I think that Douglass was very independent and he didn't want to be a slave for life so he started trying to learn a little at a time. He was so exited any chance he got to pick up a newspaper or a book and start to read. Although Douglass' masters didnt want him to learn to read or write and when they would see him with a book or newspaper they would immediatly take it away from him, he still proceeded to try to learn more behind their back. Douglass would do anything he could to learn more about reading and writing. He wanted to learn new words every chance he got. When I was younger, starting in kindergarten, I loved learning new words and loved reading books. I loved to write. I would sit in class and write notes to all my friends and when we had assignments to write new words I always went over and above the requirements. Everyday we had a new word we would learn. We would learn the definition of the word and the spelling of it. At the end of the week we would have to make sentences using each word we learned that week. Me and Douglass are similar becuase he enjoyed learning and writing just like I did when I was younger.

Past Experiances with Reading and Writing

When I was in second grade I started writing more and more words in class. I loved to sit there and write notes to my friends or make cards for someones birthday. I loved to read as well I could read all day and all night. I was only in second grade though so the books I read were short and had alot of pictures. When I was that young all I did was stay home so I always read. I kept a journal for a long time when i was younger and I wrote everyday, almost. As I got older i started to not like reading and writing as much. I always wanted to go to my friends house or play video games with my brother instead of reading. When i was in sixth grade i moved to Smithville. This school was alot different than the one i used to go to. My old one was a lot bigger and a lot more people. They had this program called reading counts. This was a program where we took a test to see what our lexile level was at reading, and then we got a number of how many points the book we read had to be. My lexile level in 6th grade was 10. In high school we had to do it as well except depending on the class you were in the number of points were different. It got all the way up to 18 points each semester we had to do. After you read the book you have to take a test on the computer over the book to see if you really read it. The tests were ten questions. If you got 7 or more right you passed. I think this is why I dont like to read as much as i used to.

(the only way i can save my paper is on here) :)

Savanna McClain

Ms. Chastain

English 100

11/12/10

Task Three Paper

            When I finally turned 16 years old I got my license and thought I was so cool I could drive on my own now! I hated waking up every day bright and early to go to school. I hated school in general and I could not wait to graduate so I could sleep in and do whatever I wanted. At age 16, I was not nearly mature enough to graduate high school and become an adult with responsibilities. My parents paid for everything I had. I had no idea what I would have to do when I became an adult and lived on my own. In the story “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” by Leon Botstein, he explains how kids are maturing at earlier ages in this generation and how it would be a good idea to get rid of secondary education and have kids graduating high school at age 16 instead of 18. He also focuses on the topic of how too much time is spent wasted in high school or middle school, when the kids could be learning valuable information , such as how to be an adult and how to live on your own.

            In Botstein’s essay he tells us the facts about how kids are hitting puberty at younger ages then they used to. He tells us that therefore, kids are maturing faster as well. I disagree with Botstein’s ideas here. I don’t believe children are maturing faster because look at all the violence and crimes you see in the world today, a lot of it is dumb kids who don’t even have a clue as to what something could do to their future when they are doing it. For example, kids doing drugs at younger ages, and having sex at younger ages, they need to grow up and learn what is wrong and right before they become adults and raise a kid of their own, when they have no idea how to raise a kid. Girls are becoming pregnant at much younger ages than they used to and they don’t know how to care for a baby, so most times we see the grandmother of the baby taking care of that child and the mother going out and being a “kid”.  “At 16, young Americans are prepared to be taken seriously and to develop the motivations and interests that will serve them well in adult life” (207). I agree that at age 16 kids are being prepared to become adults, meaning they are just learning what things are going to be like and what responsibilities they might have as an adult. They are still learning that and haven’t become fully aware yet what obstacles or tasks they might face in their future.

            When you are 16 years old, you really aren’t focused on anything besides your friends, what you are going to do this coming weekend, or how your hair looks that day. Children need all four years of high school so they can learn more about the real world and becoming an adult and have two more years in high school to prepare for the years ahead of them. High school gives you many opportunities that some kids may not have because they are unable to go to high school for some reason. For instance, Prom was the most fun part of my high school career, besides volleyball, and Friday night football games. I am glad I got the opportunity to do such things in high school and a kid would be missing out on so many things if they graduated at 16 rather than 18. I think every kid should get to experience the things I got to experience in high school.

            I started working at an oil changing place when I was 16 years old and I could finally drive.  Most kids don’t want to work at 16, they want their parents to pay for everything for them, because they are still kids. At 16 you don’t want to grow up yet, you don’t want to have to pay your own cell phone bill or car insurance. Too often we see people pressuring kids into growing up faster and becoming adults sooner. I think if we didn’t pressure so many kids into growing up there would be a lot less low self-esteem, less crime and violence. Everyone else got to be a kid for 18 years, so why can’t kids be kids now days? We need to let them live their lives before everything starts becoming harder and more stressful for them, because the real world isn’t easy.

            To be an adult means to have responsibilities, professionalism, good work ethics, be able to take care of yourself, and be able to handle things the right way in times of trouble. You are going to have responsibilities such as, taking care of your kid if you have one, feeding yourself, paying your cell phone bill, light bill, gas bill, car insurance, and so much more. When you become an adult you need to have good work ethics because the economy is very rough, and it is very hard for people to find a decent job. Besides, if you don’t have a good work ethic then it would be nearly impossible for you to get a job because everyone is fighting for a good job. When you are an adult, you handle things a lot differently than you do when you are a 16 years old. For example, if someone was to hit your car and you are 16 and you just got this new car, you would most likely respond the wrong way and cuss someone out and yell at them. Whereas if you were an adult and this situation happened then the right thing to do would be to act calmly and collectively and gather the persons’ insurance information and then get on with your day. A 16 year olds brain works differently than an adult’s brain works. There are some very smart 16 year old kids out there but I still think they need the extra two years of high school until they are 18 years old to graduate. In my junior and senior year of high school I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know as a 16 year old. “Most thoughtful young people suffer the high school environment in silence and in their junior and senior years mark time waiting for college to begin” (206). This is because kids choose not to get involved with their school and choose not to do anything so they want to leave and go to college as soon as they can. This quote is the opposite for me, I didn’t want to leave yet and become an adult, and I didn’t want college to start because I knew it was going to be a lot harder than high school and a lot more work I would have to do.

            “We should entirely abandon the concept of the middle school and junior high school” (206). My middle school was sixth grade through eighth grade. If schools were to get rid of middle school altogether kids would be more likely to not succeed in my opinion. I don’t think it is a good idea at all because if you are going straight from elementary school to being in a school with all older kids, high school, then you are going to be shy and be in silence a lot more. You would be less likely to get involved with sports and such things.  

            I have changed a lot personally since I was 16 years old, to now, when I am 18 years old. I have matured a lot since I was 16 and I have learned so many things that you have to be prepared for in the adult world. I believe that I am still probably not ready to live on my own and pay all of my bills, but that just goes to show that I was a lot less ready to become an adult at age 16. I think Botstein has a few good examples as to why kids should graduate at 16 but overall, they should stay in high school until age 18 and then they can become adults and decide how they are going to live the rest of their lives.

Savanna McClain

Ms. Chastain

English 100

11/12/10

Works Cited Page

Botstein, Leon. "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood." Introduction to College Writing. Boston: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2010: 205-208. Print

Task Three Refection

I have chosen to do my task three assignment on "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood" by Leon Botstein. I think that this is in some ways a good thing but in real life in my opinion this would not be good for our society at all. In Botsteins essay I feel as if he is just trying to make kids grow up faster. He wants to have kids graduate high school at age 16, and cancel out the whole middle school process. I think that having kids in graduating at age 16 wouldn't be a good thing because there are older people at college that are more mature and came to college to get away from the high school drama. I also think that if the u.s. got rid of middle school and had kids graduating and becoming adults at age 16 there would be alot more violence and crime. At age 16, I know I was definitely not mature enough to be thrown out into the world and go to college and get a job and start providing for myself and making my own decisions. Age 18 is a good age to become an adult in my opinion. Botstein says that high school has cliques and groups of people based on what they look like or how good at sports they are, but that is everywhere you go, there will always be certain people that get along with eachother and not so well with other people. I used to be a freshman in highschool and all I wanted was to get out of there and be in the real world. As high school went on I began to have more and more fun as I got involved with things, like sports. If I would of graduated at age 16 I wouldn't of got to experiance things that high school lets you expericance, like prom and football games for example.

What does a college degree mean to me and to american society?

It is alot of hard work to get a college degree. Sometimes people get theirs in two years and some people it takes 7 years to get the degree they set out to get. A college degree to me, means that you have been to college and taken the courses you needed to in order for you to better yourself in the feild you were learing in. To have a college degree doesn't necesarily mean you are smarter or better than anyone else, it simply means you went to school further than a person with a high school degree. In some cases, yes people with a college degree are usually smarter than a person who just has their high school diploma. In the work force having a college degree is a very big deal. If you were to apply for a job as an assistant manager, for example, and you have a college degree, and the other person that applied for the job also only has their high school diploma, you are way more likely to get the job. Not all of it is based on whether or not you have a degree because the other person could know alot more about the feild they are trying to get into even though they dont have a college degree. They could also present themselves better than you do and they could end up getting the job. I think having a college degree is definently something you would need if you are trying to make alot of money or get a good job, and keep that job.

Botstein's Writing response

In my opinion Botstein is writing to the leaders of the education feilds and the government. I believe this because he is trying to inform them that students need a whole new way of learning. That students need to get rid of the whole high school program and make it into something somewhat different. I think he is also talking to the american people because we are the ones who have to go to high school or elementry school. We are the ones who have to do the education and go onto college. He tells us that we should get rid of high school and have kids graduate at the age of 16 because kids are maturing alot faster these days and they need to graduate earlier for this reason. Also he says that kids should start elementry school at four years old and it should end in the sixth grade. After sixth grade he says it should then go to seventh grade and have four years of secondary education. I think this could be effective and also it couldnt be effective for different reasons. I think that if kids graduated at the afe of 16 alot more kids wouldn't go to college unless they lowered the age limit to work at places. In could be effective because there would be less kids dropping out because they would get their schooling done faster so they could either go to college or get a full time job and save up money.

Question #1 for "Where College Fails Us"

I am in my first semester of college at Missouri Western State University. I am going to college because I want to grow up and get a very good job so I can live in a nice home and have a family someday. I am going to college right out of high school because I feel that if I dont do that then I will never end up going and/or finishing it. I want to get a degree in elementry education to become a kindergarden teacher for right now. Im not sure if thats what I really want to be for sure yet, it might still change. I think there is alot of hard work put into college. At first I thought my classes weren't very hard after all, but now as the time goes by and I learn more and more things its getting harder to stay on task and to keep up with the class expectations.
Going to college is alot of money and alot of time you have to spend, either here, or at home doing homework, or either working so that you can pay for your college. I think that in the long run college will be worth all the hard work and long nights doing homework. By the time I graduate I will hopefully get the job that I went to school for and earn the money I expected. These days, the economy is so bad it is extremely difficult to get a job expecially if you dont have any kind of education. Also with a college degree you can make alot more money doing the same job as someone else who doesnt have a college degree.

Task 2 Self Evaluation

The thesis for my task two paper was that it is alot easier to get a good job making the money you want to earn if you go to college the tradtional way right out of high school, unlike my dad did. This paper was an interview I gave to my dad about his education growing up and how he went about his schooling. The main points I make in my paper would be; the crappy jobs my dad had to work at before he started doing his schooling, the amount of money my dad made in those jobs, the job he currently works, the schooling he is going through, him dropping out of high school, going back to school years later at 40 years old, and him fulfilling his goals. The most helpful advice I recieved from my peer evaluation was that I needed to have more details and to take out one whole paragraph that I didn't need. The most helpful information I recieved in class was when my teacher helped me make an outline and figure out where I needed to put my information and how to organize it all.
I wrote two drafts of this paper, one rough draft and one final draft. I wrote both of these on the computer in microsoft word. I also wrote an outline for this paper before I wrote my rough draft. I wrote my rough draft straight from my outline. I wrote my final draft from my rough draft. I would make this paper more effectively by sitting down after I received my rough draft and write down the changes I would make instead of just trying to change them as I go. I am most pleased with the length of my paper, I didnt expect it to end up more than two pages.

Writers Response to "Becoming Educated"

I think that my early expectations for my college classes were that it wasn't going to be that hard at all. I thought I was taking easy classes this semester and I would be flying by in them. Most of my classes are really not that difficult I dont think, but they are just time consuming. I learned that my classes are getting more difficult the longer I am in them and the more things I have to learn. My math class expecially because we have to take a test every so many topics we learn and the more we learn the more we have to know. Also in math everything builds off the things you already know so you have to know the stuff you already learned to move on. My online class is very time consuming because I have to watch videos and sometimes they are longer than an hour.
I also kind of expected my teachers to be very leneant on things, which for the most part they are, but I just expected it to be more free since I am in college now. Also another thing I did not expect was all of the things that are online to be online. In all of my classes I do things online. My other three classes are actually based online. I have a computer class that takes the internet to use and nothing else. Also my math class is online and nothing else. I think that college is for the most part what I expected it to be, and I do expect it to get harder as the time goes by.

Interview

I conducted my interview. My interview was with my dad and his past education and what is education is now. I dont have any questions that still remain after I finished the interview. My interview went very well I thought. Every question that I asked lead to another question and that gave me alot more information that way. I started with open ended questions like, who are you and did you graduate high school. Things like that. I conducted my interview at my house in my living room. I learned some things that I didnt already know about my father. I also learned that when you conduct an interview, when you ask one question another question can be brought out from that one.
I am going to make an outline with my information I collected to make my paper more organized. I will have to transition my interview into a paper by doing that. Some concerns that I have for this paper would be that there isn't enough information for me to write two and a half pages. I also think it might be kind of hard for me to put it into paragraph form, all the information I have. I will have to overcome these things by making an outline with alot of information. I will have to write down what will  be in each paragraph. I also think it might be somewhat hard for me to find out a thesis for my paper. I will read carefully over my information and find out the main point of my paper and my outline to find my thesis.

5 Questions *

There are a lot of questions i could possibly ask. First I would  need to find out the basics about the person. One question I would ask would be who are you? I would need to ask that question because if I didn't then the person reading my essay/interview would never know who I was talking about. I would ask them where they went to high school and if they graduated high school. I think that would be an important question to ask because If the reader didnt know that either then that would be a big piece missing from the point im trying to make. Another question I would ask the person I am interviewing would be when did they first go back to college? Where did they go? What made them want to go back? These are all important things the reader would need to know because, that gives information about their schooling and the facts. Where they have gone to school in the past is important information because there could be reasons why they might not of graduated or did graduate or went to a certain school. An important question that I listed above would be what made them want to go back. I think the answer to this question is very important also because if you stopped going then started going again years later or a period of time later, I think it would be interesting to know why you decided after that time to go back to school.

Response to #1 of Reflection and Writing

I think the cuentos in Cofer's memoir are particually womens stories becuase the men might think differently about what the womens stories are saying. The men wouldn't want to hear that they are stealing womens hearts and then leaving. I think that there is always two sides of the story and the part the women were telling is different from the one the men would tell. I think the equvilent of the womens stories in this to mens stories would be the guys talking about the women and that they just needed to go make their fortune and make money so they could come back and start a life with the girl they want to marry. Also i think that the men would say when they left to go make their fortune they found someone else so that would be a reason they wouldnt come back. I think that the person who would tell the stories on the mens part would be a great grandfather or grandfather because the grandmother is telling the stories on the womens side. The elders in the family know more about everything, and about the past of their culture and background so they would be more likely to tell the cuentos.

Self Evaluation

Self-Evaluation

What is the thesis for your paper? Moving to Smithville was a good thing even though i didn't want to at the time

List the main points you make in your paper. Made Lifelong Friends, Moved into a nicer and bigger house, gained self-esteem and courage.

What was the most helpful advice you received from your peer evaluation? Putting more detail into the paper.

What was the most helpful information you received in class for your paper? The grammer mistakes.

How many drafts of this paper do you think you wrote and how/when did you write them? For example, did you compose at the keyboard, did you write lots of notes to yourself, did you pre-write or outline, did you write in small chunks of time or sit down and produce an entire draft at one sitting? I wrote at the key-board and i had only one rough draft then i made a final draft from that.

What would you do differently with this paper to make it more effectively, or what did you try to do that you just don’t think you got a good handle on? I think i should of made an outline and then wrote from that, with alot of detail

What are most pleased with about this paper? I think in the end it turned out good, and i had alot more detail than i did in the rough draft and i think i made everything flow better also.

Response to "Sister Flower's"

A memorable Childhood Experiance.


I remember a time in my childhood when my mom(Teresa),dad(Jim),brother(Levi),great grandmother(grandma), and I, drove all the way to Canada. We were driving there because we were going camping up there with our new camper. The drive took forever. We even had to stop and sleep for a while because it was over 24 hours of driving. We stopped at least 10 times if not more to get food or go to the restroom. I had so much fun on our trip.
My mom sat in the passenger seat while my dad drove. Me, my grandma, and Levi sat in the back seat. At the beginning i sat in the middle of the back and Levi and my grandma sat beside me. Me and my brother started arguing so my grandma had to sit between us. Levi is only 2 years older than me so we argued alot when we were younger. I was about 10 and he was about 12 when we took this trip.The most memorable experiance from this trip was when we were driving around one evening and my dad decided to turn and try to take a short cut. We got extremely lost, in a forest. It started to get darker outside and my dad was freaking out. My brother turned on the video camera without my dad knowing it was on and started recording my dad from the back seat. My dad would say things like "Guys im really startin to get scared", and "Its not funny there is bears out here". It was so funny everyone in the truck was laughing.

Booker's Essay

Booker's essay is an interview about her grandmother. Her grandmothers schooling and what she did at school. IT is connected to task two because we have to give an interview to someone and find out about their past with education, and in Booker's essay we learn about her grandmother through an interview she gave her. I think i need to ask questions that can be answered in deatail and have more than one word answers. An open ended question is a question that isnt just a one word answer.

I need to ask questions like where did you go to school? why did you drop out? how did you get your high school diploma? where do you go to school now? why did you decide to go back to school?

Task Two Interests

I am Thinking about writing about my dad for task two.

He is interesting to write about because he dropped out of high school, went back got his high school diploma, then he went to college...stopped and then now is going back.

I would ask why he dropped out. why he wanted to go back to college. Where his college is. Why he chose that college.

I think i might not be able to get enough information to write two and a half pages.

Question #1 "On Becoming a Chicano"

My racial identity is caucasian. I think that this identity is slowly becoming the minority right now and that is kind of scary to me personally. When I walk into a room that is full of black people or mexicans I feel somewhat intimidated. Me being a white girl, older black men always say something to me. Mexicans also do too. If i were to go to an all mexican or all black school, I would probably be very scared and intimidated. I have walked in down town Kansas City by myself and guys would holler inapropriate guestures at me, and so I started walking faster. I am a red head also and my mom always told me older mexicans like those red heads. So I would be at a gas station or something and they would whistle. It really creeps me out.

My experiences are somewhat similar to Rodriguez because when he went in a room with all white people he felt over powered too. He was the minority and everyone looked at him weird. Also he couldn't even speak english when he first went so it was probably alot harder for him to try to enter the white or "gringo" culture after being a Chicano for so long. I think that it is less likely now days for people to feel excluded because of their race, but it still does happen sometimes. I also think that it is alot different because Rodriguez is a guy so we dont share all of the same experiences. Rodriguez's are more based on his english speaking abilities and just his race basically. Mine experiences are mostly because I am a female, not just because I am a white female, although that is a big part of it.

Question #1 "How it feels to be colored me"

 Some labels that I give myself would be girly, clean, organized, loud, and happy. These things function in my day to day life because I show all of these things in my personal traits. I make sure I am clean and smelling good like a girl when I leave to go anywhere. My car has to be vacuumed at least once a few weeks and wiped down too, also with a black ice air freshener. That smell reminds me of my car anywhere I go. In my day to day life I am usually happy all the time, unless something is really bothering me. All of my friends and co-workers could tell you I am usually in a good mood or laughing about something.

I am somewhat like Hurston because when she listens to music it brings some memories back for her from when she would dance to the music when she was younger. Even though she is sitting in a room with a white person she can still remember who she is and what she likes to do. When I listen to music it brings back memories for me also. For example every time I hear the cupid shuffle song I think of me and a big group of friends getting on this huge truck and doing the cupid shuffle, because that is a good memory I have. Also I am like her because I don't have separate feelings between white people and colored people either. I think that everyone is equal and everyone should be treated equal.

Question #1 "Rite of Passage"

My great grandmother's name is Helen Swan. She is very important to me and to my family, especially my dad, she practically raised him. We used to go to her house every single day. That was also when we lived right down the street from her. She is a very gentle and caring person. My grandma let her daughter and great grandson move in with her when they didn't have a place to stay. She would always take me shopping or to the park. There is a park really close to her house called penguin park. That was my favorite place to go. My grandma has helped take care of me and my family. When we got sick and couldn't go to school, she was there to let us come to her house and make us soup. My grandma and I had fun together, before I grew up and we moved far away from her house.

My grandma could cook the best food ever. My brother and I used to ride our bikes to her house and she would always cook us lunch and give us a soda, then double stuff Oreos of course. She is very important to my family because she is eighty seven years old, which is the oldest living person in my family. Also because she is the most loving person always wanting to sit and talk to someone. She has much knowledge from being around so many years now. The only bad thing is she smokes like a chimney. Who would of thought? Smoked cigarettes her whole life and she is still up and going.

What im thinking of writing.

I am going to write about when i moved to Smithville in the 6th grade. I am choosing this to write about because it affected my life and me personally. It made me the person i am today. I had to leave my old town in North Kansas City with all my friends that i made since i was 2 years old to move 45 minutes away to Smithville. I used to live 5 minutes away from my grandmas and i could walk to their house, now i would not hardly ever see them. Also my best friend Leah lived right down the street from me and i would go to her house everyday, now we dont hardly talk.

 I am also going to write about the house i moved into, how it is so much different than my old house. My old house was 3 times smaller and in the middle of a neighborhood. Now I live in the middle of nowhere on ten acres with a ranch style home and a huge pool in the back yard. Another thing about me moving to Smithville in 6th grade is the friends i made. When i first moved here it took me a little while to make some friends so i gained weight. Then i made some great friends who i go to the same college now. The problems I think might arise when i write this paper are, not having enough to write about and probably the grammer and spelling. I anticipate to being a better writer and having help from my peers and teacher to make me a better writer so that I can have more knowledge.

Savannas Letter of Introduction

My writing and reading past is not very great at all. I never really have liked to read.  My past teachers in high school and in middle school have tought me alot but i never really liked to do it. I only read cause i had to. In middle school and in high school we had to read a book worth a certain amount of points and then take a test about it. It wasn't that hard but I usually just waited until the last minute to do it.

  Sometimes i liked to write, if it was something interesting that i was writing about.  If i was writing about a certain topic that i enjoyed then the paper was easier for me to write. I enjoy writing letters to people and stuff like that. I also like to write about my life and the things that are going on in my life. I usually have a hard time following a specific style of writing. I think i will enjoy my english class because you dont have to write a certain way, everyone writes different and that's okay.