IOC Practice Time!

Here is a link to my voice recording: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1fYJstb5dOI

You can ignore the last ten seconds. I forgot to stop recording so it's just dead space!

I had a passage from Macbeth where Lady Macbeth says, "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor... to cry 'Hold, hold'".

Score:

Criterion A: 7

I feel that I was able to thoroughly explain the context of the text. I was also able to connect my passage to the work as a whole. I used several examples from the passage in order to support the claims I made about the passage.

Criterion B: 6

I did recognize some literary techniques, but I feel like I could have talked more about how they affected the audience. I did still talk about the effects, however I think more detail could have been given.

Criterion C: 4

I had a thesis and was sure to structure my commentary during the planning. This helped me keep a clear train of thought and allowed me to stay on track.

Criterion D: 3

I could have used a higher level of vocabulary. I also feel that I could have had much better sentence structure than I did. Overall, my language was appropriate, but there was a lot of room for improvement.

Total: 20
I have no idea if this is accurate as I have noticed that I am not exactly good at grading myself, but I tried!

Here is my planning! Sorry if it's not exactly legible.

Going Under"cover"

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 4

Cover 3

All four covers present significant themes within Never Let Me Go. They all have images that represent humans, whether that image is of a person or of something made by a person. While most of them have nature on them, the covers are not entirely focused on nature. All of them have some sort of filter on them in order to make the image appear different. This could be to show that the 
children of Hailsham were fed information through a filter to keep them from knowing the truth about donations. None of the covers seem joyful. While Cover 2 does have a child and bright colors, the blurriness makes it seem more dull rather than joyful. This is a good representation of the book because of the depressing fate of the Hailsham students.

All of the covers talk about the book's awards except the last one, which also seems to have the most depressing aspects. Covers 3 and 4 do not have any actual people on them, while Covers 1 and 2 do. However, Covers 1 and 2 also only have 1 person on them rather than a whole crowd. This could represent how, while Kathy has a group of friends, she is more of an observer so she is more on her own. 

Covers 2 and 4 are of particular interest to me. The first thing I noticed about the two covers was the font. Cover 2 has a rather standard font, while Cover 4 has a font that seems shaky and changes size. The words are also very separated and all over the place. The font of Cover 4 reminds me of a horror movie, especially when the image of Cover 4 is taken into account.

Covers 2 and 4 have very different images. Cover 2 features a blurry picture of a little girl with a brighter color scheme. There is no particular background other than a simple blurred yellow and orange color. Cover 4, on the other hand, has a drawing of a person's internal organs. The background is of trees and the sky. The cover is in black and white, giving it a more depressing tone.

Without having read the book, I would have guessed that Cover 2 was a story about a family and maybe a missing girl, because of the blurred image and the title. Cover 4 would make me think of a horror that had to do with people's organs. Really, it would remind me of movies like Silence of the Lambs. The childlike skill of the drawing would have me thinking that the person (or murderer) was crazy, but I would not think of a child.

The fact that the two covers are so different I think shows how wide the audience of the book is. The book could attract many different readers because of how unique it is and the different book covers work to draw in different audiences. Personally, I would be drawn to Cover 4 even though I am not a big fan of horror. This is because of how interesting the cover is. The drawing itself raises questions in a potential reader. Who drew the picture? Why are there trees in the background? Why are there organs in the drawing? Cover 2 also raises questions in a potential reader, but these questions are more based on the child in the picture. Who is she? Why is she blurred? Is she missing or running away?

Overall, all of the covers are unique and show different aspects of the book and its plot. Still, they all show the depressing tone that the book carries.