Middle School Descriptive Writing

​Answering to the mispronunciation of my name was something I had adjusted to. Although it made me cringe on the inside, my exterior smiled and accepted the regurgitation of my name from the lips of all who called it. It wasn’t until High school, when I met the ROTC instructor Sgt. Pettis, that I gained the confidence to claim my rightful name. Sgt. Pettis wasn’t my instructor but a substitute in the absence of our usual study hall monitor. He began to call roll and expecting my name, which was next, my arm was already in motion to show I was present, “Tonja Madison” he said. Perplexed, I continued to extend my arm to answer roll call. When the bell rang to signal transition to our next class, I walked over to him and asked how he knew how to pronounce my name. This genius of a man told me he figured the J was there for a reason. I told him no one had ever said it correctly and I was used to being called Tonya. He said “Well get unused to it. There’s nothing wrong with you speaking up for yourself.” I left study hall that day with a new regard for not just my name but for life in general.

Going through middle school is no easy task for the ordinary teenager however when there are some very obvious differences between you and your classmates the process is even harder. This is exactly what Stefana had to deal with while in seventh/eight grade. Her classmates had easy to pronounce American names while Stefana was constantly being asked to stand up, pronounce her name, spell it and then would have her name be pronounced incorrectly by a handful of her teachers. This may not seem like a big deal but it gave Stefana a deep feeling of alienation from her American classmates. Since her name was difficult for her teachers and classmates to pronounce it led to shortened, unappealing nicknames such as “Staff” and “Petrify.” What made this even worse is that with a foreign name like “Stefana Peitrofesso” her classmates would be able to easily identify her foreign heritage which had a direct correlation to the low income job that her parents most likely had. Having a foreign name meant that you were easily identifiable as not as affluent because during this time period the parents of immigrants didn’t have as good jobs as the general population. All of this information was made available simply by someones first and last name because of

Someone’s name can put extreme cultural pressures on them. For example, Firoozeh Dumas writes in her essay that when she first moved to America using her Iranian name of Firoozeh people tended to avoid her. With her first name sounding foreign she writes that most avoided her because it seemed to make her “…’Unapproachable’…” (78). Others did not know how to properly pronounce her name and did not want to attempt to learn how to say her name

Though she admits that there has been a change in the society in the recent past where individuals are now more willing to learn and accept the ethnic names of others, there is still major social problems which affect people who use ethnic names. That other children had corrupted her name to something else may be indicative of a form of bullying, which has been proved to have disastrous effects on its victims in the long run. Rather than be a victim of social awkwardness, it would be easier to adopt a name which is not

“Mr. Josten, Mr. Josten!” yelled one of the eighth graders from my current math class in Crescent Middle School. I figured it would be another out of context question, as that was the norm for Andrew. Andrew had always seemed to be the one who tried his hardest, but could not focus on his schoolwork, or anything for that matter. I acknowledged his raised hand to hear, “what would happen if someone figured out how to pass things through time?” I figured since there was a small amount of time left in the class period, I could answer his question thoroughly since I majored in both math and science. “Well Andrew, if I had to guess I would say that someone would receive that object unexpectedly in a different time period. However, if someone creates

Now this brings me to problem number two: names and pronunciations of those names. Every single person in this class has witnessed a teacher or substitute completely and utterly butcher my name. It's ranged from shantanu. But what I find makes it even worse and humiliating is when your brown and have a white name, but due to you colour people still have trouble in saying it correctly. A common scenario would be this:

I’ve been here, in the middle of the Arizona desert, stranded for 15 days. If I don’t find water soon, this might be the last you’ll hear from me. Many nights I have slept with a big palm tree leaf I had found after the crash. Cactus has been my only source of food this rough, long period of time, and had been drinking through my sock, for clean water, with damp soil. It’s been forever since I've been so tired been of prickly pears.

“It looks fine Maci. Now go upstairs and get washed up for dinner, your father will be home any minute.”

Writing can be a very hard topic to teach. It can also be a very hard subject for a student to grasp on too. The amount of instruction on writing and the amount of writing students have done in middle school is very low. Unfortunately, the time dedicated for writing in middle school has been very minimal lately in classrooms. However, Common Core State Standards says writing needs to be done. Research has shown that the seventh graders at Solon Middle school have completed a unit on writing and they had a higher amount of engagement. This students were practicing the CCSS structure and the loved it.

I’ve always been known as a nerd, a good girl, a teacher’s pet; but yesterday, that all changed.

Palpadge Middle School is where two very different girls go to school. Joy ¨The Angel¨ is always complimenting people, but Sage ¨The Devil¨ has never said anything nice in her life.

Chelsea whipped her head around in pure frustration to find Mark, her only classmate which she found irritating, poking her shoulder with a pencil.

The sweetly, disgusting smell of vape juice filled the air and the sight of my new classes burned my eyes, but that wasn't the only problem. My new school was like a college campus, it had three schools about a hundred yards away from each other and the students had to walk between the buildings just to get to some of their classes, but that's only half of it. Being the newest, Plymouth High School was nice, but the problem with this school was that it was designed like a prison, not to mention it also felt like one. The oldest, Salem, definitely showed its age; the school colors were blue and white, but for some reason, the lockers were a nasty yellow with rust spots all over them, so in other words they looked like moldy cheese. Last but

Logan recalls a time when he knew a boy in his class that was really shy. T

Through someone’s aspect, it could be considered as the most efficient communicating tool of human being. On the other hand, some people may treat it as an irreplaceable expression of their emotion. Objectively speaking, “words” could definitely be concluded in both ways above, but in my opinion, using words is a privilege and honor. I use words to gain knowledge and words give me all kinds of possibilities of understanding new stuff when I intend to enhance my personal abilities.