A Period Vocabulary/Pattern Sentences

1A/abortive: Ms. Schieffelin took on the herculean task of attempting to simultaneously feed the twins blueberries; however, her abortive attempts resulted in blueberries staining their hair, pajamas, and dog.

1B/supercilious: Ms. Schieffelin thought she caught a supercilious glance from her daughter, Julia, when she tried to feed the twins Spam, for her daughter was not too young to show disdain for such cheap, disgusting food.

1C/fractious: One might think that Julia and Eli are fractious children; they actually are quite loving kids; they just like grabbing any other part of the other twin, which often results in unintentional pinches, punches, and pummels.

1/levity (Cassie): Some students listened to the lecture; others acted with levity by watching Netflix during class.
3/wan (Sasha):  The junior came to school with a wan look on his face: he stayed up very late the night before studying for his AP tests.
4/languid (Amanda): The boy was languid, idiotic, babyish; he had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
7/complacency (Meredith):Daisy's reaction to Gatsby's house--her cries of amazement, her exaggeration, her wonder--left Gatsby with a feeling of complacency.
7A/denizen (Adam): Cthulu--a monstrous denizen of the ocean--is said to have the power to end the world.
8/vacuous (Mike): When we could not come up with any ideas, when we earned a bad grade on the project, it was clear that we were vacuous.
9/florid (Sam): Her expression had changed and her face was florid with embarrassment, florid with grief.
9A/commensurate (Abby): An honors grade in history class will be commensurate to exemplary test grades, exemplary understanding of material and exemplary participation.
11/dilatory (Ariba): Mr. Johnson, the dilatory director, took three hours to assign parts for the play.
11A/ineffable (Peyton):
8/meretricious (Alec): If you are flaunting fake jewelry, if you are tastelessly dressed, if your shoes are gaudy, then your outfit is meretricious.
9/orgastic (Manisha): Gatsby hoped for an orgastic future, a future with the love of his life, a future with Daisy.
9A/truculent (Emilie): The pack of dogs were very truculent, very eager and very aggressive.

D Period Vocabulary/Pattern Sentences

1/levity: Ms. Schieffelin approached the conversation about her twins' misbehavior at day care with a certain degree of levity, which the director of the day care didn't appreciate; Julia and Eli had introduced the other children to particular vulgarities heard around their home, and Ms. Schieffelin's lack of seriousness in the conversation frustrated the director.

1A/abortive: Ms. Schieffelin took on the herculean task of attempting to simultaneously feed the twins blueberries; however, her abortive attempts resulted in blueberries staining their hair, pajamas, and dog.

1B/supercilious: Ms. Schieffelin thought she caught a supercilious glance from her daughter, Julia, when she tried to feed the twins Spam, for her daughter was not too young to show disdain for such cheap, disgusting food.

1C/fractious: One might think that Julia and Eli are fractious children; they actually are quite loving kids; they just like grabbing any other part of the other twin, which often results in unintentional pinches, punches, and pummels.

3/wan: Ms. Schieffelin returned from March break with a wan complexion: She had spent most of the cold, rainy days inside, caring for two seven month old babies.

4/languid (Emma): Despite the ballerina's usual expertise, her movements were languid, sloppy, unenjoyable to watch.
7/complacency (Vivian): Filled with complacency, the man had no desire to improve upon himself-- his job, his role as a father, his personality--and thus he died penniless, estranged from his children, and, by everyone he knew, was proclaimed an asshole.
7A/denizen (Carolyn): Mr. Smith, a now penniless man, spent the rest of his life as a denizen of the abandoned house at the end of the street.
8/vacuous (Bonnie): Because he sits quietly through the discussion, because he doesn't raise his hand in class, Larry may appear vacuous to some.
9/florid (Emily):
9A/commensurate (James): Bill's small loyalty bonus at retirement wasn't commensurate with the years he put into the company, wasn't commensurate with the energy it took him to get all of his work done, wasn't commensurate with the sacrifices he had to make to keep his job for so long.

11/dilatory (Grace): While setting up my birthday party - it was supposed to be a surprise - my father gave me dilatory errands to keep me away from the house.

11A/ineffable (Jack Antico):

8/meretricious (Jack Barry): When she said I was pretty, when she told me I was perfect, I couldn't tell her I was in fact meretricious.
9/orgastic (Chloe):  The orgastic stock market held the dreams of many men who yearned for money in their pockets--the money that gave them life and provided their sustenance.
9A/truculent (Shelby): Their rivarly could have been truculent but turned out to be very calm, very simple, very quiet.

Speakers Forum Reflection

1. Why did you choose your piece, and are you happy with your selection?

I initially chose my piece because I was familiar with it by reading it in the first semester and I enjoyed the piece. I found that it was difficult to portray the emotions of the characters with the piece being in third person. 

2. What are you most proud of throughout this whole process?

I am most proud of becoming confident with my piece after practicing. It took a lot to make the piece in what I thought would be just right for the audience. 

3. Looking back to day one, what would you have done differently? 

I probably would have chosen a piece that was in first person. This way it would have been easier to show what the character was feeling, not only through tone of voice. Also, the dialogue in my piece was difficult to show each characters emotion. 

Speaker's Forum Reflection

1. Why did you choose your piece, and are you happy with your selection? 

I chose my piece because after watching the movie Gone Girl, I thought it would be fun to read from Amy's perspective. I am really happy with my selection, I like that it had both sad and funny parts.

2. What are you most proud of throughout this whole process? 

I am most proud of my actual reading. I do not enjoy public speaking and when i got up to the podium I was super nervous. However, I was able to read my piece with emotion through my nerves, which I am proud of.


3. Looking back to day one, what would you have done differently? 

Looking back i would definitely have practiced more. I think if i had practiced more then I would have been way less nervous. 

One of the weirdest games I've ever seen...

If you're looking to waste some time, check out this gem (circa 1990) for the NES. Do you guys even know what the original Nintendo was?

http://greatgatsbygame.com/

Speakers Forum Reflections

1. Why did you choose your piece, and are you happy with your selection? 

I chose a part of a chapter from A Sister to Honor  because I liked how powerful and passionate the story was and I am extremely happy with my choice. I have never read the book, but after hearing good reviews about it and finding my selection I am definitely going to read the whole book.

2. What are you most proud of throughout this whole process? 

I am most proud of my emotions and passion I showed throughout the whole piece. I am not a very good public speaker, but I felt when I went up in front of the class I was comfortable and prepared enough that I could read the story exactly how I had been practicing it.

3. Looking back to day one, what would you have done differently? 

Looking back, I would have practiced a little bit more to not stumble over as many words as I did and to look up from the paper more often to make eye contact.

Speakers Forum Reflection

1. Why did you choose your piece, and are you happy with your selection? 

I chose my piece because although it wasn't super funny or super sad, I liked the narrator and I thought that I would be successful in depicting her attitude and tone (Southern, Sassy). I also love the book and I thought the first chapter had a range of dialogue. 

2. What are you most proud of throughout this whole process? 

Before speaker's forum, I had never told a story to an audience and I was a little worried that my final presentation would differ from my practicing just because it was in front of a whole entire class on a podium. Fortunately, I was proud that I stayed consistent throughout the entire reading in my volume and southern narration. 

3. Looking back to day one, what would you have done differently? 

Looking back to day one, I think one thing I could have done differently in terms of choosing a piece is being more open minded and willing to read short stories or excerpts that I wouldn't necessarily think of reading initially. I also think that I could have better planned my pauses within the story to emphasize a line or scene. 

Speaker's Forum Reflection

Speaker’s Forum Reflection

1. I chose the Cliffs of Insanity scene from the Princess Bride mostly because this is when Vizzini says “Inconceivable” the most. I felt like this was one of the most memorable quotes in the whole story, despite Vizzini’s fairly minor role. The multitude of voices in the scene was another reason why I chose it. My sister and I are both fascinated by voice acting, so this was a fun opportunity for me to try it. Overall I was very satisfied with my piece, despite having to abridge so much of it.

2. I’m proudest of my performance in class. I didn’t go over time, which was my biggest concern, but I didn’t feel like I rushed it, especially when transitioning between voices.

3. I would have put more time in it so I could look up from my sheet more. I knew that I would have trouble speaking smoothly, especially with phrases like “Said the Sicilian” followed by “The Spaniard said” and practicing more would have helped me get used to this.

Speaker's Forum Reflection

1. Why did you choose your piece, and are you happy with your selection? 

I chose my piece because i liked the dry and dark humor, and the irony. I was happy with my selection, until I read my piece for the 34,927th time. After the 34,927th time I started to read it with less emotion and diction, and the words just mushed together, and I did not think it was funny.

2. What are you most proud of throughout this whole process? 

I am most proud of my final piece for the class, i did not feel rushed and I felt the class responded in just the way I needed them to, so that I could like my piece again. I thought I put in the work and it payed off.

3. Looking back to day one, what would you have done differently?

I would have tried to memorize most of it, so that i could look up from my paper more often. That way I would've made more eye contact and been able to connect more with my audience.