English

To conclude reading The Odyssey, I wrote an essay about the traits of heroes, diving into the concepts of fate and free will,  time, and xenia.

Bird by Bird is a powerful memoir I enjoyed reading this year. In it, Anne Lamott sneaks in writing advice while narrating stories from her life. This book taught me that writing starts from the writer, and not the pen. Below are my notes for each chapter we read.

I did a quick 'reaserch and report' on one of the main topics in this book: the Poor Laws in England. Below are my notes and short response.

I cannot begin to express my love for this book. The Anthropocene Reviewed, a memoir by John Green,  opened my eyes to the world of memoir. To conclude reading this book, I wrote my own memoir, inspired by The Anthropocene Reviewed. 

The Marriage Portrait is a powerful and evocative text about the lives of women in Renaissance Florence. Below are my notes on the book.

After reading El Cid, I wrote an essay on the characteristics or traits of a hero.

After having read The Inferno, I wrote my own iteration of the story. My task was to write a short description of a journey with Dante. I had lots of fun describing the different parts of Florence and describing how Dante might have reacted to the modern world. 

Throughout the school year, I worked on many reaserch and report projects on various topics. Some of these were later used in my Anthropocene Reviewed essay. These projects taught me to research, condense information on a topic, and write a short summary with cited sources. What was most challenging in this project was the time limit, which Ms. Schmidt set to half an hour. As someone who often spends a long time perfecting my writing, this project taught me to work quickly and effectively.

Weekly Word was a slideshow in which I presented a new word I learned in any of my classes/outside of school. I had lots of fun creating a fun way to present my words each week.

Below is my vocabulary spreadsheet for 8th grade, and in the second sheet, I created some words using prefixes I learned at the start of the year.

After reading Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, I made a short presentation on the Alhambra. I also enjoyed selecting photos of the palace, since I had the opportunity of visiting it this year. 

To commemorate my middle-school experience, I wrote a speech that I later recited to my parents.