Samantha DeSantis

P.3
Reflections on Learning
9-12-16
Today I spent my time catching up on reading my outside reading book so I could put
down more time for my reading log. I was able to read for the whole period because I already
finished and turned in my letter of introduction. This was good for me because sometimes its
hard for me to read outside of class because of my busy schedule, and the english class
environment is quiet and nice to read in.
9-20-16
Today we started the class by getting a new seating chart and we created skits with our
new table mates about ethos, logos, and pathos. It was fun and it helped to break the ice with
the new people around us.
9-22-16
We started todays class by reading for fifteen minutes and then started writing our
annotated bibliographies for our senior projects. It was hard to cite some of the websites I
found. For the last hour of class we read A Change of Heart About ANimals, which in my
opinion was a bit disorganized and lacked support for many of the claims. We split up the
paragraphs and found the thesis and main ideas.
9-23-16
Absent
9-26-16
Today in class we finished working on questions about the text that we started working
on on Friday. I worked on paragraph seven questions explaining why the text should or
shouldn't sound more scientific. Then we discussed our answers with the class.
9-29-16
Class started with 15 minutes of silent reading and then we went on to starting our
Senior Project Research papers. We also talked about two articles that we read in our readers
and discussed with our groups.
9-30-16
Absent- looked on haiku to find that in class we read another article in the readers and
started a writing task based on the animal bill of rights article.
10-4-16
The class began with a discussion on socrative about thesis statements for our animal
bill of rights essay. Then we moved on to outlining and starting a rough draft. The outline ms

Frederick gave us is very helpful and gives good examples and ideas. I am worried that I am a
bit behind because I havent yet read the article but I think I will be able to catch up.
10-13-16
Todays class started with preparing to talk to Ms. Frederick about our grades and
reading for 20 minutes. After that we wrote for another twenty minutes on the book that we are
currently reading. I wrote as the character Celia writing to Marco, the one she will in the future
have a magical duel at the night circus because of her fathers bet. Finally we deconstructed
the new Unit 3 standards.
10-17-16
Today was a productive day of senior project research paper peer editing. I felt that it
gave me a good perspective on what others were writing and also how to correct my own paper
for the final submission as well. I finished two peer edits today and gave good helpful feedback.
10-20-16
The class started out with 30 minutes of either reading or working on senior project
research papers, that are due this Friday. I chose to work on my paper and got a good amount
of editing done. Then we went on to further discuss Hamlets soliloquy within the class and
within our groups on a google document.
10-21-16
Todays lesson was a continuation of Hamlets soliloquy, followed by a class discussion
and a charting of the text worksheet. For the last half of class I worked on editing the final draft
of my senior project paper so that it is completely ready to be turned in tonight by midnight. I
also started working on surveying, The Essential Man.
10-24-16
Reading The Essential Man - was a good discussion and we used nice and effective
methods of editing the text.
10-25-16
Todays class was another discussion of The Essential Man and his outlook on life. I
believe that his take on life is the opposite of Hamlets. He tries to find the good about what has
happened and wants to be happy and content with whatever life is given.
10-27-16
Today we finished working on the Essential Man and started reading What is a Life
Worth. I really enjoyed reading The Essential Man because it was a very powerful text about
different ways to look at life. The new text seems more informational about what a life is literally
worth money-wise.

10-28-16

I was absent from class today because I was out of town for my uncles medical school
graduation, but on Haiku it says that in class they calculated what their lives are worth in terms
of money.
10-31-16
HALLOWEEN!! Today we finished working on our multiple texts assignment and started
talking about a speech we are going to give. Kaya and I are going to give a speech together
about the charity Water.org. Giving everybody clean water means a lot to us especially
considering Kaya has donated to this charity before and has already done a lot of research on it.
11-1-16
I am very tired from being out last night and i think many students would agree with me.
We spent the whole class working on our speeches.
11-28-16
Today is the first day back from break and we started the class with filling out our reading
logs and then moving on to summarizing chapters 4-10 of Into the Wild on Learning Log #5 as
well as on a shared document with our table groups discussing the ethos, logos, and pathos.
11-29-16
Todays class started with a class discussion on our ethos, logos and pathos documents
from yesterday. I think that the answers that my group and I worked on were pretty much on
point. We also started reading chapters 11-15.
12-1-16
Today we discussed chapters 11-15 and the wrote a quick write about Chris
McCandless. I am extremely tired because the past two nights I have gone to bed at 12 and not
been able to sleep very well, so for me todays class was a bit of a struggle to write decently. I
wrote about how Chris is somewhat careless about his family and friends feeling but he may
have just felt like this was something he had to do at the time.
12-2-16
It was interesting to find out the real scientific reason that Chris McCandless died. I think
that to a certain extent, it is his own fault that he wasnt able to live a longer life, because of his
inexperience, but it also could have happened to even the most experienced hiker. The
unfortunate part was that his body was just too weak to defend itself from the poison and
therefor he died because of it.

12-5-16

Today we answered more questions with our table groups about what we thought of
Chris McCandless. We decided that he probably knew what he was getting himself into and
knew that with his inexperience he probably wouldnt live as long as he would in his life as Chris
instead of Alex. Although he knew this, we believe that he enjoyed his life and had no regrets
about it.
12-6-16
We have been continuing our discussion on Chris McCandless and his death.
12-8-16
At the beginning of class we had 30 minutes to either read, work on our final, or our Into
the Wild notebooks. I came to class about 20 minutes late because I was having problems with
my car this morning. After this Ms. Frederick discussed the essay prompts for Into the Wild
which will be due next week and then we spent the rest of class working on our essay drafts and
thesis statements.
12-9-16
Today was a good class because we were given the whole period to work on drafting our
essays. The draft is due on Monday which Im a little nervous about because I have so much
work to do this weekend and very little time. I have so many dance shows coming up with the
school show this weekend, and then the moorpark show on wednesday, and then my studios
production of the nutcracker next weekend, and then finals!! So excited for winter break and no
stress.
12-13-16
Its Tuesday. I was absent yesterday because i wasnt feeling well enough to go to
school, plus I had to finish work for school. I am somewhat stressed with all the work I have to
do, and also nervous for The Nutcracker this weekend. I think that I will do well as long as I get
enough sleep the night before and have fun with it! I can not function today either because I am
still sick and had rehearsal until 11 o'clock last night.