Welcome to 9th Grade
Freshman Year
A New Book In Your Life
Hello everyone and welcome to the 9th grade! I'm Mohamad Khalaifa and I am a former student of Mrs. Allen's Honors English 9 Class. 9th grade is the beginning of a journey! This is not your typical easy breezy year. Your GPA starts counting this year! Mrs. Allen's class will make the year so slow to be completely honest, but she is a fun person to be around. There are many projects, books to read, and assignments to do in her class! I know it sounds hard, but I know that all of you guys are capable of doing amazing in her class.
What will you do in Mrs. Allen's class?
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- Cold Sassy Tree
- Short Stories
- Speak
- Divergent
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Odyssey
- A Raisin in the Sun
- Poetry
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
This will be the first book you will read. It will be your summer assignment. This will be the introduction of your year. You will meet Francie Nolan who lives in Brooklyn. She comes from a very poor family and she is struggling due to all of the problems in her life such as her father dying or almost being raped. You will love this book and you will sympathize for Francie.
Cold Sassy Tree
This will be the second book you will read. You will read some of it in class, but will also have to read for homework. You will do a Twitter account for one of the characters. You will meet Will Tweedy who lives in the South. He comes from a very known family. He is struggling to get the girl of his dreams due to her being poor. He also has to deal with the fact that his grandpa remarried a couple of weeks after his grandmother's death.
Romeo and Juliet
This will be the first play that you will read. You will read all of it in class, but you will have to write a log in each scene in each act. You must also write a sentence using the vocabulary words given to you. You will meet Romeo who falls in love with Juliet, but they cannot be together due to their families' feud. Romeo and Juliet end up marrying, but Romeo gets banned from the kingdom. You will see their relationship fail.
The Odyssey
This will be your first epic that you will read in Mrs. Allen's class. You will read most of it in class and have to make trading cards with each character. You will meet Odysseus, who just got done fighting in The Trojan War. He will take all the credit for winning and Poseidon will make his journey home a long, dreadful, and cruel journey. All of his men end up dying and he must make it back home before his wife has to marry again.
Independent Reading
I really loved the independent reading part of the class. Instead of reading in class with other students, I got to read it by myself. I was able to go more in depth with the books. I was able to read it at my pace, choose my own book, and understand the book better. For example, you will read Dystopian, Historical, and Fiction. I picked to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I read it in one day because I did not have to wait for other classmates to finish their reading. I was able to understand the plot line better reading it by myself.
My Take On The Class
What was my favorite part?
I really liked the books that we read in Mrs. Allen's class. We read a variety of books that took place in the past, present, and even the future. You will get to see the lives of many people such as Will, Francie, and Odysseus as they struggle to succeed and find themselves a good life. My favorite book was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
What did I struggle with?/What was my least favorite part?
I really struggled with procrastination in her class. For almost all the projects, I did them a day or two before they were due. I would have to stay up till midnight to even two in the morning due to the amount of assignments in each project. I did not like The Odyssey. It was just too long and it was a mess of a story. It did not make sense.
Advice From One Student To Another
To be successful in English, you must read the books. It is very important that you do because you will not understand anything and in Mrs. Allen's class, she gives out pop quizzes to see if you are reading. Make sure you read! You must also do your work! You will do amazing if you do the work. If you do not do the work, it will hurt your grade. For example, an article of the week is ten points. These points add up and will affect your grade. Ask questions! Do not be scared to ask questions! If I did not understand something, I asked Mrs. Allen. She is more then welcome to help you out!
Ask Questions!
Do not be afraid to ask questions if you are confused!
Enjoy School!
Do all of your work, but do not forget to live life and enjoy the moments you have in school!
Do Not Procrasinate
Why wait and worry when you could just do it now?
Top 5 Ways To...
Get Your Assignments Done!
- Use your spare time during classes! You will have a class named Computer Application with Mrs. Whiting. She allows you to work on anything such as the essays or projects you will get from Mrs. Allen!
- Make a plan of what you will do! If you have a project with many assignments, find out the due date. You could work on each assignment every night, until you get it done!
- Do not procrastinate! As I said before, you will regret not working on the assignments until the last minute. If you do not procrastinate, you will be able to complete your assignments and projects with time to spare to go back and change it to make it even better.
- Get help if you are stuck! If you are stuck on an assignment or project, do not push it onto the side and not do it. Ask questions! You will be able to complete the assignment and not get a zero on it!
- Remember what you are working for! Doing your assignments will help your grade, help you excel in homework strategies, and you will be proud of yourself for doing good.
A Few Inspiring Quotes From Inspiring People!
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
The mind is everything. What you think you become. –Buddha