Friday, January 22, 2010

comma what

My father had left our house in the midst of a fight between Lindsey and my mother. My mother was trying to get Lindsey to go with her to the Y to swim. Without thinking, Lindsey had blared, "I'd rather die!" at the top of her lungs. My father watched as my mother froze, then burst, fleeing to their bedroom to wail behind the door. He quietly tucked his notebook in his jacket pocket, took the car keys off the hook by the back door, and snuck out.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Gossip

I think that if I triple filtered everything than my conversations would be less about other people and more about important things. I think that people choose to talk about other people because it makes them feel cool and special, like they are the one that figured this out and needs to tell everybody about it before somebody else does.

Monday, January 11, 2010

literary elements: TAKS PT 3


Satire- a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.
Irony- the use of words to express something other than the opposite of the literal meaning.
Analogy- inference that if two or more things agree with one another in some respects they will probably agree in others.
Foreshadowing- to represent, indicate, or typify beforehand.



Thursday, January 7, 2010

Figurative Language

Figurative- characterized by figures of speech.
Figure of Speech- form of expression used to convey meaning or heighten effect often by comparing or identifying one thing with another that has a meaning or connotation familiar to the reader or listener.
Imagery- figurative language
Trope- the use of a word or expression in a figurative sense.
They all are figures of speech.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Story Spinners: Option 1

As the old man approached my friends and me we noticed that he walked barefoot and looked like he hadn't taken a shower in weeks maybe even months. We immediately stopped what we were doing and ran back into the house. The old man stood outside and picked up the snacks our mothers had packed us. Our mothers had always told us to never talk to strangers but we decided that we had to go get our food back. We walked back out to the man and asked him what his name was and why he was stealing our food, his response was this "My name is David and I am homeless."
We had never met a homeless person before but this one seemed alright so we let him keep the snacks, than brought him out a glass of lemonade. My mother, when she left, had left me in charge of my little brother Travis, he was three years old and was deaf. We were talking to David about what it was like to be homeless whenever Travis walked outside and started trying talking to us. It sounded like he was speaking gibberish, and it was even worse because he was crying.
After I put Travis down to take a nap, we decided we wanted to try and help David get a home. So we went and got a flashlight from inside, and than went out to the garage and got our bicycles. As we rode around town trying to find a place where David could stay, we found an old, abandoned warehouse. We left our bikes outside and went to have a look around the warehouse. It had a bunch of old stuff in it and we decided that it would make a perfect place for David to stay and for us to hang out. We found an old mattress and set it up for David to sleep on than we found an old trampoline in one of the rooms upstairs. We ended up staying there the rest of the day just hanging out and having fun. At the end of the day we decided to lay out on top of the building and just watch the clouds float by but, the best thing about it was knowing that we found a place for David to live.