Immigration Project Reflection

I had two literature circles books this round. The first one in the series was called Circuit. The second one was called Breaking Through. I really liked the books. I thought they were intriguing and I liked the plot. I was happy with them because I liked how the books were written because I got a really cool feeling knowing that they were true stories. I really liked the perspective, that of a young boy growing up as an illegal immigrant all over California. I thought it was really interesting and very gripping. Also, I learned a lot from this book. I learned how difficult it was for young children to be illegal immigrants, and that Francisco (the main character) had a pretty hard life as a child. I think everything we did was perfect, and I wouldn't add anything, or change anything about the process. I really liked blogging. I thought it was a great way to express how we feel. I didn't really think that the meetings with your group were getting the full amount of thought from everyone. I think blogging made everyone really think about what quote they were choosing, and they had to dig deep for their answers. I didn't have any problems whatsoever. I thought the blogging system was very good. Also, I thought it was really interesting how my group members saw the book in such a different way than I. There was one quote that someone in my group took way differently than myself. I thought it meant one thing, and he thought it meant something totally different.
For my painting, I decided to make a new book cover because I thought I could make it better than what the author to did. I just thought the real book cover was sort of boring, considering it was merely a picture of the author when he was younger. I think I really made a connection because my art piece has total relevance to the novel. The cover is all about what happens in the books, and what parts stood out to me. I feel that my painting turned out pretty well, but now as well as I had hoped. I think it was just hard for me to paint such detail with the brush I had. All the pictures inside the at the top were extremely difficult to paint, and I didn't have as much time as I would have liked, so the final outcome wasn't as good as I had hoped. I think if I had a little more time, and I had a smaller brush with a bigger variety of colors, then it would've been a lot better. That being said, I think in the future, I'm going to make sure that I have all that is needed to finish a final product, or any product for that matter.
I didn't think that interviewing someone would be that scary or anything. I thought my interview went really, really well. My interviewee was fantastic, she was very kind and so willing to help me with anything I needed. The interviewing itself was really easy. I was merely asking questions to somebody. Interviewing her made me realize that immigration wasn't a horrendous and awful time for everyone. My immigrant didn't have a bad time at all. I learned that she came here to be a flight attendant for American Airlines, she had to leave her family behind, and that living in New York with a low salary was really hard. I made a scrapbook for my immigrant as my final product, and it felt really good to make her something with my own hands. Making something for someone else gives you a certain feeling that's really good, but it's different than just buying someone something. You feel good while making it because you want to make this person something heart-felt and something they'll remember.