IB Lit

Wow. Sometimes I'm glad cursive is a dying practice because boy is it not fun to decipher, especially in this case! My general first impressions are that the journal is disorganized and sloppy. Several things are crossed out or written in. It definitely looks like he was drafting something or trying to record ideas. Also there's a seal that keeps appearing on the pages. Not sure if Whitman added that or if that was added later from a library perhaps. I really liked looking at the sketches. For some reason, I find those more intimate than the words he wrote down. It seems like he was drawing portraits of himself. He seems to like talking about himself in his poems, why not draw himself? They got silly as I went through. There was also a picture of a harp, and a picture of a a skull-thing. The skull-thing seemed like it related to the civil war. It was impaled with a sword and it wore a colonial hat. I could make out most of the words, so no particular words stood out. It s

The phrase "American Dream" summons the image of an immigrant, riding on a boat in New York, looking up at the Statue of Liberty with $20 in their pocket, coming to America to make a ne w life for themselves.  I would describe the "American Dream" as the equal opportunity to achieve success regardless of background or upbringing.  One of my favorite musicals (partly because I love Leonard Bernstein), West Side Story, tells an immigrant narrative in New York.  One of the characters, Anita, sings the song, "America", along with other characters. The song describes the positive aspects of American life while also highlighting the hypocrisy of the "American Dream" because of anti-immigrant prejudice. The lyrics go: GIRLS Life is all right in America BOYS If you're all white in America GIRLS Here you are free and you have pride BOYS Long as you stay on your own side GIRLS Free to be anything you choose BOYS

Freebie :)

OMG I can't believe how many times I said "um" and "uh" Recording: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-QTgXjJ_TrrcGxuYUNWYm1yYlExLXV2UDFQX2xHT3JwVUZr Preparation: Grade: A-7 I think I showed good knowledge and understanding of the text, and I tried to cite specific evidence. B-7 I think I discussed structure a lot. I didn't discuss style much, though. C-4 I think I created a structure for my commentary, but I think I rambled a bit. D-3 I might be judging myself too harshly on this one, but the "um"s and "uh"s distracted me a lot. I also used a lot of "and so"s. I think looking at other examples will help clarify to me what this criterion is supposed to look like.

Initial Analysis It's odd that these four covers are for the same book. I get a very different vibe from each of them. I would not think they were about the same story. I'm likely to go research the backstory on all of these covers later, but for my examination I'll give my first impressions of them. The top right cover shows a teenage girl sitting in the grass with taller plants surrounding her. The only connection I really see with this cover is that the girl is Kathy and her face and and body language express reminiscence. I'm unsure about why the artist chose the setting. Perhaps nature creates a meditative environment to think. It could also be an Adam and Eve kind of vibe. Hailsham is "paradise." The top right cover shows a blurred child moving in the background. I think this cover draws a parallel to the recollection of memories. Our memories often become blurs to us. The bottom left has a boat on a lake. This has a darker tone. There is low lighting a

Nonny de la Peña: The future of news? Virtual reality https://www.ted.com/talks/nonny_de_la_pena_the_future_of_news_virtual_reality/transcript?language=en Nonny de la Pe ñ a, at the beginning of her talk, identified herself as a journalist who has worked in print, documentary, and broadcast. The mention of her background was a use of ethos, and it immediately gave her credibility to talk about the journalism industry because of her experience. She said her purpose of becoming a journalist was to inspire people through stories and make a difference. She argues in this talk that virtual reality can achieve that by increasing one's capacity for empathy. She provides three examples to support her argument. The speaker mainly relies on pathos in her examples.  In the first example, she started a project to document hunger. This project created an evocative scene of a diabetic man having a seizure while waiting in line at a food bank.  The speaker described the reactions to the scen