Grade 6

Goals:

1. To be confident on whatever I am doing.

Until now, I could probably say that being confident was my biggest goal during this year. As some of you may know, I am in 6th grade which is the first year of middle school. As expected, lots of things changed from elementary school. There were lots of events, tests, and project. So of course, during the first of the year I was nervous and didn’t know what to do. Every day was over with studying (that later leads to the second goal). But as the time passes, I started to gain confidence, and I surely do know what to do to live as a successful middle school student.

Recently, we (obviously, our 6th grade) had an election for the middle school student council, and I was running for it. And do you know the result? A success (you know what it means). I think for this example, the confidence I gained throughout this year made it possible for me to work as a student council representative.

I have used confidence to succeed other things too, and I would like to also use this later on.

2. Time-management

OK, here… A big and an important word for a middle schooler. As I wrote on the last goal, ‘So of course, during the first of the year I was nervous and didn’t know what to do. Every day was over with studying (that later leads to the second goal).’, it leads to this time-managing. Don’t you think every day being over only with studying is same as having a boring life? Well, I think so. My parents also say the same thing too. So to escape out from that kind of lifestyle, I started to plan out for each day. Then I started to feel a day longer then it used to be. It seemed that I finishing my work earlier than before. Now I do have some free time to compose and play music, and to play with friends. I life is becoming to be more enjoyable.

3. Being organized, DON’T FORGET TO DO MY HOMEWORK!!!

Well, most of the time I complete my homework without forgetting to do it, but sometimes… Euh… I forget to do my homework. I know that this is really embarrassing, sorry. So, what I did to solve that embarrassing problem, I started using my student diary more than I used too. It was like a miracle when I felt the easiness of looking and remembering for my homework, by the existence of student diaries. After all, I have never forgotten to complete a homework.

Works I did during this year:

How To Solve A Complex Algebra Equation from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

This is tutorial is made by me in technology classes and teaches you about how to solve a complex algebra equation. The reason I chose this work to post on here is because, this was my first time to make a tutorial video.

My self-portrait drawn by me in art classes. Really, not so good. I think Shin did much better on this. But I am still proud of my work, so I decided to post on here.

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9/12/2010

Roald Dahl – Character Essay

By. Kazuki Charles Doi

Is Roald Dahl an effective storyteller?

Roald Dahl is such an amazing writer who creates fascinating books including profound and interesting characters which tell the reader how fun reading is. In James and the Giant Peach, James, who is the protagonist, is a smart boy and had a revolutionary change in his life by his impacts on the other characters. In terms of developing the image of the character, Roald Dahl played a really important role in using techniques like inserting subtle details in other characters’ speeches. Let’s explore Roald Dahl’s use of techniques and how he made it easy for us to have images of the characters.

James is a smart and obedient boy who had a revolutionary change in his life. In James and the Giant Peach, Dahl included many key action and feeling words. The story is briefly separated in four different parts. In the first part, it says “… James Henry Trotter had a happy life. He lived peacefully… children for him to play… perfect life for a small boy.” (p7). That indicates that he was a bright happy boy. In the second part, his parents got eaten by the angry rhinoceros from the zoo and soon, he was sent to his horrible aunts’ house. He was enslaved and had a very hard time, but he bore them and listened to his aunts’ instructions. From that, we can see that he was very obedient and patient. A good example of how he was slaved by those two ugly aunts is “‘What is the matter with you?’ … James began to cry … ‘Stop that immediately and get on with your work…”. During his journey in the giant peach, he played an important role solving many problems. This shows he was clever. The Old- Green- Grasshopper which is one of the insects said, “I don’t know what to do without you… so clever… we are saved again” (p68~69) to him and this helps convincing readers that James is clever. The long journey in the peach ended, and they became famous and known by everyone in the world for its peculiarity. So, as in the beginning, he again became a bright happy boy.

In the story, James had a big impact on the insects and the people in USA. First, the insects were very selfish and always thinking about themselves and when there was a problem, they didn’t even try to solve it out by their selves. For example, there is “‘I’m hungry!’ … staring hard at James.” (p41). But gradually, day-to-day, through this adventure, from James’ guidance, the insects and James started to show teamwork. For example, when the sharks try to eat the peach, they worked as a team to solve that problem. They successfully solved that problem and proved that they could work well to the reader. Actually, this shows how James made impacts on the readers according to the last sentence. After a long period of time, they landed in New York, USA with the giant peach. The people in the city were surprised of such a peculiar thing happening right then. James introduced the insects up on the peach. Then somehow, the people down there seemed to become kind of familiar with the insects and James. As a result, luckily James and the insects were welcomed to USA and permitted to live there. I think during James’ introduction of the insects, people got up with the new idea that peculiar things can happen. The fact about James and the insects spread fast and at last, almost all people around the world knew about it. So actually, James affected the whole wide world.

Roald Dahl uses other characters’ speeches to show in your mind how character is treated like or considered like. First, as I explained before, James was a happy boy and over-protected. I think the over-protected conditions continued so long that for him, this blessed life is regular. Then he went to his ugly aunts’ house. Those “… selfish and lazy and cruel…” (p7~8) aunts who “… right from the beginning they started beating poor James…” (p8) always called James “‘you disgusting little beast’ or ‘you filthy nuisance’ or ‘ you miserable creature’” (p8). This shows that the two ugly aunts thought that James is miserable and ugly, so as a result they treated him like a slave. After he got in the peach he met with the insects who were really nice to James. Also he showed his cleverness to the insects. From that, insects started to show respect to James since they thought that James was intelligent. I think for James, this life with the insects was regular like the first part when he lived with his parents. After the long peach journey, James and the insects became famous for its peculiarity of flying the sky with a peach. In this part, there is no particular speech showing that they are famous, but Dahl directly says that they are famous (“And inside the famous house there lived a famous person- JAMES HENRY TROTTER himself.” (p154)). Like this example, Dahl sometimes uses descriptive languages to explain the character but, not as often as Dahl uses other characters’ speech for the explanation. As an entire image of the development of James, it seems like that James got more brave and successful in that he does not give up things easily when he is stuck.

James was described clearly, thoughtfully and effectively by Roald Dahl through the use of other characters’ speeches. Readers were able to understand and imagine the characters, which shows that James is clever and obedient. Also they were able to understand character’s changes from kind and mentally weak to brave and mentally strong. Roald Dahl was a fabulous writer in genre of comedy who creates interesting characters.

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This is a character essay about Roald Dahl that I wrote in English classes. I did really well on this, and I thought it would be nice if I could show it to you.

Grade 8

My goals for this year were:

1. To reduce time spending on homework
2. To organize my schedule not just for school but also for personal occasions
3. To join a school sport team

 

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