Category Archives: Grade 10

Remember to Make Things Clear…

Grade 10, Language and Literature G10

In life, the majority of people normally in some way experienced the time when someone misunderstood one’s intentions or information on their actions and leads to major attitude differences as a consequence. I’m not an exception either.

In my earlier childhood, I had once got in trouble because of teacher misunderstanding my facial expressions. The teacher was giving me a command to follow while I was giving him a little smile which he became more aggressive after that. The command was to copy down all the school rules on paper as I disrupted the class to answer questions for my classmates, which I felt very innocent about it. I was giving the teacher a little smile since I feel it very innocent about it and hope to be asked about the reasons for it, but the teacher, however, misunderstood it.

He assumed that I was being disrespectful to an adult as I smile back while he was talking, and even asked a faculty from the school to verify the fact that in Chinese culture student should not be smiling when teachers are speaking in a serious tone. In the end, I still didn’t get the chance to express my thoughts or even the intention of that innocent smile, which after that I had clearly remembered the importance of making the right expression in order to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding from people. Misunderstanding tends to make enormous differences in attitude by misinterpreting one’s intentions.

Do You Smile Too Much? by Minda Zetlin via inc.com / CC BY-NC-SA

The power of misunderstanding can be also shown in the story The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. David Lacks misunderstood the intention of John Hopkins and signed the autopsy permission form of Henrietta Lacks.

“The doctors asked again about the autopsy. They said they wanted to run tests that might help his children someday.”(90) 

David’s misunderstanding and the influence from John Hopkins had hugely impact on the further investigation of Henrietta’s body and most importantly public the discovery of Hela cells which the Lacks family turns out being dissatisfied about that.

Moreover, in the story, Skloot was on the trip with Deborah attempting to find the mysterious sickness of the members of the Lacks family. The first vivid conflict became to show up as Deborah misunderstood about the smile from Skloot’s facial expression.

“I smiled. Not because I thought it was funny, but because I thought it was sweet that she was protective of her sister”(283)

“You’re lying!” Who are you working for?”(283) 

Deborah misunderstood Skloot’s smile and suspect that she was working for John Hopkins which in another way see her as a betrayer. However, this conflict as Deborah was aiming to test the limit of Skloot temper.

Thunder fans burn Kevin Durant’s jersey by Jacob DeLaughter via foxsport.com  /

CC BY-NC-SA

Similar cases also happened in today’s sports world. People tend to misunderstand the players that have been traded to another team. They turn from love to hate instantly. They tend to forget players’ former contributions to the team and criticized their leaving as a betrayal. However, as some people said, “It is still a business.”

 

Citation:

  • Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Broadway Books, 2010.

Foils… in The Crucible

Grade 10, Language and Literature G10

In the literature world, the word “foil” is commonly used on a character that demonstrates its performance that has completely contrast with another character in the story. Generally speaking, foils can also be referring to the protagonist and antagonist, which the protagonist will mainly behave in a heroic appearance as the antagonist contrast with it and act in opposite behaviors aim to negatively influence the actions of the protagonist.

In the play The Crucible, foils can be applied to the character’s relationship between Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor while both of them fall deeply into John Proctor’s heart. Abigail Williams is one of the significant characters that largely impacts the story trend from the beginning to the end. She is a servant served in John Proctor’s house, nevertheless, gains some impractical authority from the witchcraft event and starting to use it as a power to tell lies and influence lots of people just by her untruthful saying. On the other hand, Elizabeth Proctor behaves as a moral and known for being an honest woman in the story. She was the wife of John Proctor but was being accused of witchcraft. She was afraid to lose him due to different kinds of suspicions of having an affair beyond her.

Abigail has been jealous of the love between Elizabeth and John Proctor for time to tome and was caught having an affair with John Proctor. She desires to initiate revenge on Elizabeth once she was being fired and was driven away from John Proctor’s house by Elizabeth. They are contradicting since Act 1 of the play when Abigail complained about Elizabeth to John Proctor as she said:

“She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! “(Miller, 22)

Moreover, the conflict between Abigail and Elizabeth can be seen in Act 2 when Elizabeth realize the power of Abigail can possibly take over her place from John which she carefully clarifies to John:

“It is her dearest hope, John, I know it…There be a certain danger in calling such a name — I am no Goody Good… She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit… She thinks to take my place, John.”(Miller 58)

       

Abigail Williams by Weebly via CC BY-SA 2.0 // ‘Crucible’ Character Study: Elizabeth Proctor by ThoughtCo. via CC BY-SA 2.0

In addition, I came up with a movie that has also related to the term”foils” and the movie is named “Black Panther”. In the movie, T’Challa is acting as the protagonist, he is the main character which ruled the nation called Wakanda after his father died in the incident in a United Nation building. On the other hand, the antagonist of the movie named Erik Kilmonger decided to return to Wakanda and overthrow the power of T’Challa. Foils can be seen between these two characters since they both contrast with each other just to win the throne of the country no matter the consequences are.

‘Black Panther’ by New Times via  CC BY-SA 2.0

Citation:

  • Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play In Four Acts. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.
  • “SparkNotes: The Crucible .” SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/quotes/character/elizabeth-proctor/.

The Taste Of Apple Novel Study

Grade 10, Language and Literature G10, ,

Image and Image TIEA

 

In this unit, we have accomplished a TIEA that portray the relationship (tension) between the novel “The Taste Of Apples” and the image that we took in the society. The unit reflection is also included below the TIEA.

 

In the story “The Fish”, Huang Chun-ming uses the distinctive thinking between grandfather and grandson to portray tension between generations and to convey the idea of tension between generations in the story “The Fish”. As the children (which represent the younger generation) are contributing their childhood time on playing basketball, the adult (which represent the older generation) is more in favor of spending his time on the phone. As the image shown above, a man is sitting at the side of the basketball court and is not engaging in sports kind event while the kids are enjoying their childhood on outdoor activity, basketball. As Ah-cang is explaining about how he had got a bonito but in disappointment, the fish dropped on the way back to his home. His grandpa said,‘“I know you’re not lying to your grandpa. You’ve never lied to me. It’s only that the fish fell on the road,” he said in a comforting tone.’ ‘“No! You don’t believe me! You think I am lying…”Now Ah-cang was sobbing’(9). Huang uses the conversation between grandson and grandfather to illustrate how generation thinks differently in many ways. In the story, Ah-cang was explaining about how he loses the fish and express his emotions to his grandfather. His grandfather does show his disappointment on the loss of the fish but has changed from unsetting to comforting, however, Ah-cang doesn’t think it that way and feel that his grandfather is not being supportive and still feel heartbroken about the events. They began to create tension by not knowing what each other actually meant and did not really think from the perspective of each other. In the image, it shows that the adult sitting at the side isn’t participating in the events with the children. It shows how different generation appreciate different things and shows tension by not being a good example and not showing any motivation for the next generation of how outdoor activities can benefit people’s life. Both the story and the image are trying to portray tension between generations but in different kind of things. The theme of the story conveys to the image by showing how different generation views things in different perspective and decide to participate in different kinds of things.

TTOA Reflection

 

Letter to Congresswoman (State: Maine ; From: Henry, Darren, Emily)

Grade 10, US History, ,

Dear Congresswoman Chellie Pingree,

Hi. I hope this letter finds you well. Our names are Darren, Henry, and Emily, and we are high school students from Parkland, Florida, and in light of the recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, we have some suggestions regarding the issue of gun control, and measures/solutions we would like to see put in place to either decrease gun-related homicides or increase gun regulation. The time for restrictions on gun ownership is long overdue. We’ve already experienced way too many mass shootings of innocent civilians, including children and adults alike. How many more of these tragedies must happen before our representatives in Washington do something about it? Because of these reasons and the US Government’s incapability to effectively regulate gun ownership, we propose the following:

  • Ban on any military typed assault weapons
  • Ban on any armor piercing ammunition and rounds
  • Sticken mandatory background checks when applying for a firearm license
  • Expand funding for mental health programs

First of all, a complete ban on any military typed assault weapons would significantly lower the rate of mass shootings. These assault weapons include semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 (which continuously appears at the deadliest mass shootings) and fully automatic firearms such as the M4 and UZIs. The firearms stated above and much more assault rifles make it extremely easy to for a random killer with the wrong motives to effectively bring about these mass shootings, as these guns usually have a high rate of fire and hold a great amount of ammunition. In addition to the ban on assault rifles, we would also like to see a ban on armor-piercing ammunition implemented. This special ammunition for assault rifles and snipers allows the criminals in possession of these to easily take out a cop or soldier with a bulletproof vest and other protective gear. This makes it much more dangerous for law enforcements and therefore decreases the safety guaranteed to the citizens of the United States. We are positive that these two bans would lower the rate of mass shootings, as we observe from past laws. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), or the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, was a ten-year ban on all assault rifles starting from 1994 and expires at 2004. In 2004, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence examined the impact of the Assault Weapons Ban, and stated that the use of assault weapons in crime have decreased a stunning 45%, and proves to be extremely effective.

Second of all, we bring forward the idea to stricken mandatory background checks on all gun owners. Over the past decade, more than half of all the mass shootings are performed with legally purchased firearms. For example, Nickolas Cruz, the individual identified as the shooter of our school’s mass shooting, legally purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February 2017 from a licensed gun store, and later used it in one of America’s bloodiest school shootings. These continuous shooting with legal guns are due to the loophole, which Donald Trump kept after Obama tried to shut it down, which allows people to obtain guns while undergoing mental health treatment. We propose that this loophole should be cut off completely and everyone requires a mandatory background check that especially focuses on the individual’s mental health, as most mass shooters have a record of previously identified mental illness or ongoing untreated mental issues. For example, the shooter stated above, Cruz had gone to a mental health clinic for treatment but hadn’t been there in more than a year, which he then left and proceeded to purchase assault rifles. This mental disorder and the easy access of guns allowed him to open fire at our school, hurting the lives of hundreds and traumatizing thousands, including us. According to The Guardian, 3/10 people who went on to commit high-profile mass shootings should have been barred by law from buying guns but got them anyway because of background check system failures. We also saw that you voted against the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, which authorizes veterans deemed mentally incompetent to buy firearms unless they are found by a judge to be dangerous to themselves or others. While you may have voted against this bill, it was ultimately passed. What the government is doing now is basically making the checks so passable that even those who are diagnosed to be mentally incompetent could own a firearm, as long as they are not “dangerous”, and this lead to nine out of ten of all mass shootings in the US. Who are you to say that one of these “mentally incompetent” veterans would not become a school shooter? Because of this, we strongly urge the US government to think upon this issue and implement stricter background checks, completely shielding these potentially dangerous people out of the gun market.

Finally, we propose that the government should expand funding for mental health programs, a point that former President Obama also brought forward. Instead of just impeding these mentally incompetent individuals from buying a gun, why not further help them by providing the suitable health care that they require? If the deserved healthcare programs and treatments were not provided, it is likely that these people would still obtain a firearm through secondary sources or illegally. To fully stop this problem, we have to dig from its root and help lower the number of people with mental issues, which would then lead to a decline in numbers of mass shooting performed by such individuals.

With all due respect, the current gun control laws of the US and of each individual states are clearly not even close to being enough, with 154 mass shootings just happening this year. We have got to take a stand in the fight for gun control, and with your help, we hope to see the proposed measures to be implemented and lower the rate of gun homicides and especially mash shootings that are destroying countless of innocent American families each day, as we speak. We really hope you would put our proposals into consideration. Thanks for your time.

 

Sincerely,

Darren Chao, Emily Wu, and Henry Sha

Animal Testing Should Be Banned to Avoid Unnecessary Harming to Animals

Grade 10, Language and Literature G10, , , ,

Speech Summative

Throughout this unit, we are supposed to get a better understanding of ethos, pathos, and logos. We each give a short speech about the topics especially global issues that include ethos, pathos, and logos in the speech, to try to do a more persuasive speech by using these rhetoric devices to let audiences to pay attention or even take actions on this specific issue.

 

 

Speech Unit Reflection

 

Think Like a Supreme Court Justice!

Grade 10, US History

 

I think people should have the rights to bear arms and own ownership of guns since the Second Amendment stated that every US citizens have the rights to bear arms even when the citizen is not in part of the militia. The provisions of the D.C. law have violated the right of the Second Amendment specifically in the event of Heller. For instance, it has violated the Constitutional Value “RIGHTS” which rights are powers and privileges granted to people either by an agreement among themselves and by law. In conclusion, I think individuals do have the right to own guns when they are not in the militia which this statement has been accomplished in the second amendment and should not be infringed or violated by any other rules or rulers.

 

citation: https://personalliberty.com/support-2nd-amendment-rallies-set-april-14-across-country/