Blogger #9, Angela Dong, Period 5, 3/1/21, Day B

 Aim: How can the use of annotations aid in analyzing the figurative language, tone and conflict in “My Name,” by Sandra Ciseneros? 

Do Now:                

What does your name mean? If you don’t know, look it up.  Do you feel any connection to this meaning?

My name, Angela, means “angel” or “messenger of god.” I don’t feel any connection to this meaning because I don’t feel like I was a messenger. I found out that many people’s names have meanings that point to the church, or have religious backgrounds. Their names have meanings like the messenger of God, the blessed one, or gift from god. Everyone in my class has names from different origins and mean different things like noble, happy family, or the moon.

Annotating--Purpose & Techniques

  We had a discussion on how to annotate text while reading.  Some of the techniques  Mrs. Peterson tells us are:

Chunking-summarizing, which is summarizing everything in a paragraph and only using only the main idea.

Common Themes or repetition of ideas-if you find something that repeats in the text, it may be the starting point of something

POV- the point of view--Someone could keep track of who’s POV it is and what she/he thinks to keep track of information. We can see if someone’s opinion changes or stays the same, either in history or a book.

  We also watched a youtube video about annotating. We learned reasons why we should annotate like it helps keep us engaged about the text, slows down our reading, and acts like a bookmark. The video also tells us what we could write when annotating like using question marks to mark any questions you have, circle characters that appear for the first time or a word that you don’t know, paraphrasing after we read a paragraph, 

 Here is the Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Mz4nwciWc

Team Discussion: 

Do you know why your parents chose your name? Who chose it? Were you named after a particular person? Why were you named after him or her?

When we were in breakout rooms, my teammates started sharing about their names. Kelley and Kelly’s names both means bright-headed and kind and their parents have different motives for changing it; Kelley was borned 2 days before christmas and her parents didn’t know what to name her so they named her that, while Kelly’s dad chose it for her because it was simple. As the class got back together, we talked about what each of our group members said about their teammates’ names. Some classmates talked about how their and their classmates' names became what they were because it was simple, while others talked about how their names were what their parents wanted them to be like.

After that, we were spirit reading and annotating “My Name”, the first chapter of a book called The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisnero. We then broke up into breakout rooms again to answer the following questions:

1. How does Esperanza describe her name using figurative language? Refer to your annotations and cite some examples from the text.  

Figurative language: Any use of language where the intended meaning differs from the actual literal meaning of the words themselves. There are many techniques which can rightly be called figurative language, including metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, verbal irony, and oxymoron. (Related: figure of speech).

Esperanza describes her name using figurative language by using similes and metaphors, comparing She says her name means sadness and waiting in Mexican, which are both negative. She further describes her name as a “muddy color” and the number 9, which means evil in some cases. She also describes how her name sounds, which is “as the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roofs of your mouths,” which sounds like a negative way of speaking.

2. What is Esperanza revealing to us about her feelings about herself, her life and her dreams for the future through the discussion of her name? 

1. How does she establish a conflict of identity? 

Esperanza is revealing to us about her feelings about herself by saying she inherited her name from her great-grandmother saying she doesn’t want to be someone like her great-grandmother even though she inherited her name and wants to be herself and do something. She establishes a conflict of identity by contrasting how she doesn’t want to live the life of her great-grandmother, who was looking out the window all of time and says she doesn't want to live like her. She also follows that up with wanting to change her name to something that truly shows her personality.

Lastly, we had to do an individual activity. We had to answer the following questions:

• What is your whole name?

• What does your name mean? Share what your name actually means and define what it means to you by using figurative language. 

• Are you named after someone? Who are they and how do you feel about them?

• What does your name remind you of?

• Does your name reflect who you are? 

• Do you wish you had a different name/have you ever wanted to change your name? 

My whole name is Angela Dong. My first name, Angela, means “messenger of God”. To me, in figurative language, it is like the angels in history and religion that told humans what god wants-a connection between two realms. I was not named after someone, but the name reminds me of all the angels that delivered their messenger and returned back to where they were. I don’t think it's a reflection of who I am because I don't really like talking too much and I don’t think I have the personality of an angel. I remember when I was younger I wanted to change my name, but I don’t remember which name. Now, I got used to being called Angela.

Reflection:

At the beginning of class, for the Do Now, we had to figure out what our names mean and tell them. It was pretty fun seeing and hearing everyone saying the meaning of their names and figuring out if their name’s meaning matches their personality. Next, we had to watch a video on annotating and see how to annotate, with Mrs. Peterson gave us some of her favorite tips. I admit, when I saw this topic, I thought it was going to be plain and boring, because I’ve always found annotation to be a pain, but now I think as long as it's not a 16-page essay, I could do it easier then before because I actually know what to do. After we finished telling others about our names and how they came to be, we worked on reading and answering the questions about a young girl that doesn’t want to be called her name. When looking at the entire lesson, I realized how important our names really are. They are our identity, and whenever we like it or not, they still represent us in some way. They make it known that it is us, and not someone else.