English Benchmark Overview

My assignment for the English Quarter 1 Benchmark was to write a persuasive essay explaining why or why not an entry from The Freedom Writers Diary should be allowed in schools for students to read. Leading up to our final essay, we had to complete four pieces. The first piece was to create a spiral including events that occurred in our chosen entry and how the writer of the entry reacted. The second piece was to look through the entry and find specific examples and quotes from what was written that supported our answer to why or why not the entry should be read. The third piece was to create a form of web including the ideas for our essays. Finally, the fourth piece was to create the rough draft.

Julia Boyer

Red

English Benchmark-Q1

Johniera McClain

English Benchmark

For this benchmark we had to write a 5 paragraph essay supporting

a diary entry from the “Freedom Writers Diary” and why it should

be taught and allowed to be read in schools. That was the

assignment.

For our Q1 Benchmark for English we were assigned to write an essay. This essay would be based around a certain diary entry in the Freedom Writers Diary. We read this book in English class and at home. The book was divided into diary entries for each of the Freedom Writers. The benchmark was to be submitted on Moodle as well as on paper. We had about a week to do it. We helped ourselves by producing graphs and finding examples and quotes of why we support the argument.This essay had to support the question, "Why should this diary entry stay in the book."

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

Cirque Du Freak

This is one of my favorite books. It puts a twist on the way people look at vampires and Darren Shan really brings it to life by speaking like a teenager going through this rough time. I always want to read these books and I hate having to stop. Reading this book keeps me entertained and I’m always surprised. I love reading the introduction to the book. Darren Shan is still the character and he’s telling us about his love of spiders and it made the whole book seem all the more real. I found myself forgetting that I was just reading a fiction book and this man was nowhere near my age. If it weren’t for this collection I would hate reading, but Darren Shan makes me see the fun in reading and the imagination it brings is fantastic. The first chapter gives me plenty of time for laughs before the action when I’m clinging to my book. I would recommend this to all horror fans because it’s a way of life you never expected. Sometimes you laugh until tears come to your eyes, other times your crying because the character goes through real problems in his own horror story.

There are many different productions of Hamlet, no one can count how many. "What would real killers think about this? What would they see that we can't?" A man went to a jail and watched the men grow through the play. Men were inspired, half black and half white cast. They made it through the play, and this is the last production of Act 5. The men could not read as well as the kids in SLA, but the men were very talented. Agnes, the director, and her side kick, an inmate, are proud. They were nervous and didn't think they could make it through act 5 well. Jack Hitt says "I didn't think I would learn anything new, I've seen Hamlet many times... after I saw this play, I realized that I didn't know anything about Hamlet." A man of first degree assault  plays Hamlet. Hamlet was played by 4 people, Agnes did it so that everyone could get a chance to speak. All men that were in the play were troubled with horrid pasts. "If you were to walk past us on the track, you would hear old english dile speech." In a level 4, high security prison, the education level is no higher then high school. After Agnes cast the roll of Hamlets best friend, given to a man big hutch, in jail for 120 years."Jail is based on whales, killer whales, blue whales, minnows. I'm a blue whale, I can eat the killer whales, the guppies, the minnows, and the other blue whales." Guys have seen him act out Hamlet, where he brings out a whole new character that no one has ever seen. "Horatio is a chump." Big Hutch doesn't understand why Hamlet is taking so long to kill someone, "just do it!" he says. He believes that Hamlet is mental. If you're strong enough to believe it's a ghost, then your strong enough to believe what that ghost tells you. Hutch compares the prison yard to the men in the play. Big Hutch spoke for about 6 minutes of the podcast, relating things to life, comparing things to prison, putting down the characters personalities. 2 months after Jack's visit with Hutch, he revisits the rehearsal. Agnes had local professors to come in and speak and has the characters write essays on their people. The men have advanced so much, that they began to put "umph" and emphasis on the lines. Men would read and laugh, re-read, and then laugh again. Timmy Lance? plays Osrick, Hamlets friend and a "gay" King groupie. Alot of the cast doesn't like discussing their crimes, but they loved talking about how they got to know their character. Timmy watched different productions of Hamlet and got to really bond with Osrick. Their are gay prisoners, in and out of the closet... but then you have the straight ones that don't have sex at all. "Putting on a play in prison is different, there is always a last minute accident like when a Hamlet was assaulted and had to be placed in solitary for protection." says Jack. Agnes is alot like Mr. Chase and Ms. Weinraub, often stopping in the middle to make sure the men understand what they are reading. The prisoners have finally been exposed to something that they thought they would never see, and they are rather surprised about how they were. When the men return to rehearsal, it's just like our drama class with exercises to begin. Prison is humiliating, says one of the prisoners. "They don't make you feel human, but then we come to practice and feel like we should've been here for a while. It keeps us sane." All of the men had a reason and explanation for why they were in the play,  especially one man whos wife referred him to acting. "I've always wanted to be a con, and I've always wanted to be liked, but in my neighborhood it was better to be bad then to be like I was, a church guy. I had to act big, bad, and tough to make it by. When I went home at night, I would be scared to death because of the things I'd say to some of the men I knew." Laertes was originally played by an Amish pedophile, but then James stepped in and really gave a lasting impression... even Big Hutch was impacted. James was proud of himself, and couldn't believe that he was able to remember so many lines. Compliments came rolling in, people would say "you should continue this" and as James said, "it was one of the best feelings ever, almost as great as the day my daughter was born. If I apply my self, I can do pretty much whatever I want. It was like I was placed into a whole new world." Many of the men said that you could relate this play to the true life of a criminal. Criminals are cowards, and no one can change that. James replied, "I am Laertes, I am, I am." Jack watched the prisoners rehearse the final scene of Hamlet. Danny Waller took a mans life, and he felt that he was talking to him through death, that he wanted him to know what he put him through. He plays Claudius, and feels as though he can really relate to him. Hearing these men rehearse and go over the lines is impacting me because it is coming from a criminals point of view. I could not believe how moving this podcast was, I honestly didn't think that I'd be this interested in it, but I feel as though I'm addicted. I give props to Agnes, for being an amazing director and giving these men the thought that they could be someone. How these men go from a third grade to a high school reading level in a matter of a few months is amazing. Agnes was moved by Hamlet, and was inspired to have these men