Essay #1

Nolan B.

9/14/10

Mr. Salsich

English 9

Summer Ending, School Starting

1) Summer is an important part of every kids life, most of them it's their favorite part, but school comes right after it, something not as liked by kids. 2) Summer is full of fun and then school is serious, almost making a perfect row of events. 3) Summer would almost be boring without knowing school is after it because you want to have as much fun as you can before school starts. 4) Summer and school together take up a huge part of a kids life.

TS: The song "Summers Almost Gone" by the Doors reminds me most of summer coming to a halt and school starting. SD: It's pretty obvious from the title of the song that it's about summer ending and reminds me of it ending in a couple ways. CM: The music of the song is depressing just like you being depressed summer is gone, making you sad, wishing you still had time to play, hoping you could have your summer all over again (Long Sentence w/ multiple participle phrases). CM: It is also a very slow song, almost representing you because you are now tired from all the activities from the summer, and you walk around sluggishly like you did too much to handle. SD: School starting also comes to mind after listening to this song. CM: The lyrics, "Morning found us calmly unaware" hugely reminds me of school because your almost never prepared to begin school after those many mornings of sleeping in. CM: "We had some good times, but they're gone" lyrics revive my memories of school beginning because we do many fun things during summer, but they disappear when schools starts, making us become more serious. CS: "Summers Almost Gone" is the perfect song to represent when summer ends, but new adventures with school starting.

TS: It was tough to think of a movie connecting both to summer ending and school starting, but after thinking for a bit, I thought the movie "Sunshine" fit the best. SD: The end of the summer is connected in many ways to this movie. CM: In the movie, the sun is dying, just like at the end of summer the sun almost seems as if it's dying since we see the sun less and less, almost like it is withering away. CM: They also try to save the sun and stop it from going out in the movie, and we don't want the summers end just like we wouldn't want the sun to die. SD: This movie can be connected to school starting too. CM: The earth in the movie is very dark since the sun is getting less bright, less fiery, and less noticeable, which connects to school because each of our worlds get less bright during school since we're usually stuck inside doing homework (parallelism). CM: The earth is very cold and snowy too in "Sunshine", similar to how it gets a little while after school begins. CS: The movie wasn't directed to summer ending and school starting whatsoever, but I was able to make a connection anyways.

1) Summer is nothing without school right after it and school is also nothing without summer. 2) School would be endless without summer trailing after it, but kids need there fun time. 3) Summer is definitely really short if compared to school, but its the perfect amount of time for a break even though the day of summers end and school start, is one of the most dreaded days for kids each year. 4) Summer and school complement each other very well.

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Self-Assessment

1) I'm still working on trying to combine short and long sentence together into my essays. Right now I feel like I don't have enough of either in this essay.

2) I really like my special effects in this essay. I think they really made it way more interesting and added a lot to the essay.

3) My concluding sentences probably aren't as strong as they should be, but I do think they wrap up each paragraph well.

4) I would give myself a C+.