Plaster Sculpture
This is a visual piece that Sophie made in Media during her second semester. She was told to make an organic sculpture, that didn't really resemble anything in particular. To make this sculpture, Sophie made a 2:1 mixture of dry plaster to water and poured the mixture into a plastic bag to solidify. She held her hand at the base of the plastic bag, so the plaster ended up solidifying around her fingers creating an easier shape to carve. After the mixture partially solidified, she spent a few weeks carving the sculpture with forks, spoon, and knives. Then she mixed a base and and sanded that and the sculpture, finishing the piece.
This essay was written in Humanities. Sophie and her class read Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, for the World War II Unit. Than they wrote essays based on what they thought Vonnegut was trying to tell the reader by writing about Billy's experiences on Tralfamadore. It was the first essay that Sophie wrote in Humanities during her sophomore year. The essays that she wrote in her Freshman year of high school, did not meet her or her teacher's expectations. Because of this, Sophie chose to seek extra help for structuring and analyzing the topic of her essay. Her grades were higher on this essay, than any of the ones that she wrote her freshman year.
This is the final essay that Sophie wrote in Humanities her sophomore year. The class read Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, for their unit on the colonization of Africa. The prompt that Sophie chose was, “What is the ‘darkness’ in Heart of Darkness?” Sophie spent time developing an answer to the question that made sense as well as analyzing the text to prove her answer. She did very well and showed a big improvement to her Slaughterhouse Five essay from the beginning of the year.
Reflection
Sophie has had a great year at FMHS. She has improved monumentally in Humanities and Writing. She learned how write a good, solid essay which is a skill she will need to get into colleges, and will also use during college. She got involved in an organization, Arts-in-Parts which she is excited to continue working with. She is also very excited for her junior year. Eleventh graders at FMHS are allowed to choose their own classed, and Sophie has picked things that she is very excited to learn about. She is also planning to take a college-level creative writing course at a CUNY school through College Now.
Sophie has had a great year at FMHS. She has improved monumentally in Humanities and Writing. She learned how write a good, solid essay which is a skill she will need to get into colleges, and will also use during college. She got involved in an organization, Arts-in-Parts which she is excited to continue working with. She is also very excited for her junior year. Eleventh graders at FMHS are allowed to choose their own classed, and Sophie has picked things that she is very excited to learn about. She is also planning to take a college-level creative writing course at a CUNY school through College Now.