Antonin English Blog

 Prompt Response: Food helps individuals understand who they are especially when being judged or unsure on where they are culturally by connecting them to their roots or heritage, providing comfort, and fostering community. It helps them reaffirm their beliefs in who they are culturally and what they want out of it. One example from Fish Cheeks is when Amy says "It wasn't until many year later – long after I had gotten over my crush on Robert – that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu".  Summary: Today in class we answered some discussion questions over the Ted Talk video and short story (Fish Cheeks) by Amy Tan.  Reflection: Today I learned that people can have three cultural identities due to their experiences and where they've been. This impacted me by making me feel a sense of clarity looking at it because it helped me learn when I feel conflicted with who I am whether I'm truly American or Indian. In the f...

 Prompt Response: The choice to serve leftover Chinese food is significant in "Lunch" is because it shows on how much things change from the loss of a family member not only in other aspects but in cultural too with little care to try to cook again because it might bring up some memory's of that dead person. The author could have made a more culturally meaningful choice for her grandmother by trying to make the cultural foods that her grandmother once made to somewhat help her grandmother with the grief and pain she's having. This is supported when she says " It was a boisterous time of day, with everyone talking across rooms, reaching for food, and laughing". A  time when I could have done something more and meaningful for another person was appreciating them for who they are more often then making it all about myself. Summary: Today in class we read over a cultural essay called "Lunch" and answered 10 multiple choice questions on it.  Reflection:...

 Prompt Response: One time that I realized that my perception of a particular food was based on my stereotype was when I was with my American friends and we had Biryani together and they didn't like on how spicy it is and said it was a hard pass despite on how good it tasted to me, my main belief on why it was so good was because of my parents feeding it to me all the time when I was little or Indian foods in general.  Summary: Today in class we switched from a poster to a PowerPoint for our Food Culture that we are basing on.  Reflection: Today I learned that despite not believing I had connections to the foods that I put in my presentation, after asking my mom she infact did feed me it and told me my reaction for it when I was little and back in India. This impacted me by making me feel astonished over the fact that I had particular reactions such as crying or straight up barfing up the food after I ate it. In the future I will use this when working on my Food Presentat...

 Prompt Response: The New Orleans episode of Street Food: USA shows that food represents more than just something people eat by showing on how it connects to different aspects of that person's life tying to who they are and they're history with that food/dish ultimately defining your character and who you are.  Summary: Today in class we watched the new Orleans episode of Street Food: USA and answered a few questions about it.  Reflection: Today I learned that cultural connection to food is not about just history or legacy, it also ties into your own identity and experiences. This impacted me by making me a fondness to that reason since I can relate to it and it allows me a deeper understanding on why food can have cultural connections. In the future I will use this to help me create a better explanation for cultural connections on my Food Poster about India. 

 Prompt Response: As we continued our discussion about culture and food, although I didn't get picked on for the ones I did have I still believe that one dish that is a "must-have" as a representation of our culture is Biryani because it is usually made almost everywhere on important occasions whether it is holiday's or specially wedding's since it ties to our historical background and bringing the community close together over just generally good food.  Summary: Today in class we started to work on our Cultural Food Poster's about the country we're from and its culture.  Reflection: Today I learned that American culture is separated by which direction of the United States you're from. This impacted me by making me feel surprised because I generally didn't think that American culture would be separated in different areas unlike other countries where it IS separated. In the future I will use this to help me create my Food Poster by influencing what ...

 Prompt Response: A meaningful memory to me connected to Briyani was when I was celebrating my birthday and one of my favorite Indian dishes was Briyani which helped me feel more happy during that day because it shaped me to feel more connected back to my homeland rather than apart from it.  Summary: Today in class we read over a poem and wrote about the connections foods have in their meaning in our culture.  Reflection: Today I learned that foods can be tied to symbolism in culture. This impacted me by making me feel dumbfounded because it's not as if I hadn't heard of that saying before but for it to be tied to culture despite foods having similarities can come off as shocking. In the future when I discuss about culture I will use this knowledge to help me talk about it. 

 Prompt Response: The writing process of (brainstorming, drafting, revising, proofreading, and finalizing) shaped the strength of my final essay by making it as strong as possible as I proof read and corrected myself multiple times in order to get the version that used the maximum amount of effort quite well which caused me to refine it further than I thought I could. I learned that my strengths come in the fact I can choose good evidence while another strength in learning on how to do better comes in doing my explanation in focusing on one idea rather than multiple which is a good problem to have.  Summary: Today in class we finalized the essay we've been working on last week and this week.  Reflection: Today I learned that explanations are usually used to emphasize on one idea rather than multiple when it comes to explaining. This impacted me by making me feel a sense of clarity from the way I used to do it making it easier on my thinking process. In the future I will u...

 Prompt Response: Drafting an essential step in the writing process rather than going straight to a final version because it gives you a sense of what to expect and what you're going to write about rather than going head first and getting a worse score because you didn't have any idea on what you were going to write about in your body paragraphs. From my experience of drafting an essay, it helped me improve not only in my introductory but also in my commentary skills by making me rethink it over and over until I've finally got a decent explanation for my paragraph.  Summary: Today in class we worked on drafting our essay on our prompts for the memoir Wild.  Reflection: I learned today that when doing your explanation a key tip when doing so for an argumentative essay is to explain how the evidence connects to your claim foremost before adding the spices (interpretation) to the sentences. This impacted me by making me feel confused because even though it's simple on pape...

 Prompt Response: When writing my essays the part that I struggle the most is the explanation/commentary because of how hard it is to use your evidence and connect it to the claim without providing a summary, a similarity to this is like trying to not make it vague and a well polished piece of art. I believe I'm strong in writing my thesis even though I had a few errors here and there because I have the right idea just wrong execution. One goal that I plan on improving my essay writing skills is to make better explanations and commentaries to the point I can do it in my sleep.  Summary: Today in class we discussed how to do an Introductory and Conclusion paragraph. After we did that we either went to collect more evidence for our claims or went to start on our draft essay.  Reflection: Today I learned that you shouldn't start out with a question in your introductory paragraph. This impacted me by making me feel surprised because back in my 2nd grade class my teacher thoug...

 Prompt Response: As we move towards the end of the semester, the top three college choices right now that I have in mind even though I'm not going to college are Harvard, MIT, and Georgia Tech. If you haven't seen the pattern the reason why I chose these three is because these college's are known for being advanced in the technology/engineering career department and will forward my chances of having a successful life or what I define a better life.  Summary: Today in class we wrote three claims and started picking out evidence for them.  Reflection: Today I learned that Cheryl's journey is not just about loss, but also her insecurity about herself as she moves about in her journey of the PCT. This impacted me by making me feel a sense of connection with Cheryl as she often embodies what a regular human is like unlike fictional characters who display unrealistic emotions and goals. In the future I will use this when writing my essay and discussing it to others. 

Prompt Response: During brainstorming one idea that stood out to me was the idea of her Wants/Needs during the journey because it is not only emphasized a lot into the book Wild, but it is also an all around way of going into many different aspects of themes and other things.  Summary: Today in class we used the brainstorming strategy to choose a topic, then create 5 subtopics that we can use in our argumentative essay.  Reflection: Today I learned that meaning is very variable. This impacted me by making me think philosophically on what meaning really is to a person and what it contains. In the future I will use this when writing my essay or rather on myself by analyzing what I go by.  

 Prompt Response: After completing the assignments on making college affordable and finding the best college fit, the one thing I learned that I did know about before was that often times many people who apply to college choose where they want to go based on their identity and culture rather than their career aspects. I think this information is important for seniors to understand because often times many people go into things without regard for themselves but for the benefits that they think they can get the most out of but end up being a bad decision for them. Which is why I believe it's an important piece of information to remind seniors that they don't have to try to fit in somewhere they don't like.  Summary: Today in class we read over two articles and answered some questions over them, while putting our analysis skills to the test.  Reflection: Today I learned from one article that the best way to get more kids or people ready for college is to put more into teache...

 Prompt Response: After reviewing and revising my literary argument paragraph, the changes I made were making my explanations tie to my claim more, restating or making my claim better, and making my explanations more concise from the way it was before.  Summary: Today in class we focused on revising our literary argument paragraphs and reflected on the feedback we got on it to correct our mistakes.  Reflection: Today I learned that an explanation needs to be simple and straightforward and clear on how it ties to the claim. This impacted me by making me feel a bit down because I thought I had done well when it came to my literary argument paragraph. In the future I will use this as an experience that will push me forward in writing better literary argument paragraph's 

 Prompt Response: After learning the authentic expectations for writing, I think that it is important for students to write their essays in their own words because it helps them improve even if they fail by getting feedback from their teachers considering it isn't over if you at least try even a little on assignments or tests. Another reason why it might be important is that more amazing literature exists there in the world because you never know what creative pieces might be used for later generations.  Summary: Today in class we learned how to do our explanations properly that ties the evidence to our claim. After that we watched two videos on the effect of A.I. on schools and universities and then answered 5 questions about them.  Reflection: Today I learned that A.I. can be used in a good way. This impacted me by making me feel a bit shocked as while it's not that the thought didn't occur in my head, I just didn't think it would be an effective way of learning. In t...

 Prompt Response: After creating a strong literary argument paragraph about Wild and whether discomfort is necessary for meaningful personal growth. The most challenging part about it was the explaining part for each of the evidences which I felt were quite weak in execution even if I had the idea in mind. When it came to creating my arguable claim it wasn't that hard, but it had difficulties in the way it was said, including the length of it being shorter than I imagined.  Summary: Today in class we looked at how to create a thesis and then worked on how to create a literary argument body paragraph.  Reflection: Today I learned that a thesis is often just one sentence divided into three parts, the topic, the argument, and then the three or vaguely said things we are going to argue. This impacted me by making me feel a bit confused at the Umbrella method that was mentioned of vaguely stating the different things that are going to be discussed since it wasn't easy, but it ...

 Prompt Response: My experiences with essay writing were often horrible or just straight up bad because of the fact of the lack of preparedness for them and also because I only know on how to create a normal essay instead of an outstanding one. The things I find most engaging when writing essays is most likely the thesis or introductory paragraph in the essay since it's roughly easy to do compared to the body paragraph and confusion. The thing I find often most challenging when writing each and every single essay that I've done up till now will always be the conclusion paragraph due to the fact that even though I know how to start it, the question is what do I include in it if I'm just restarting what I addressed in my body paragraph's or the ideas in my thesis. Another challenge or difficulty I face is my body paragraph's because usually it's one sentence addressing the idea, then your evidence, and then a sentence or three explaining how it connects to your cl...