| Wednesday, September 26, 2007 |
| The Wave by Todd Strasser #1 |
1) a. The book occurs at Gordon High School around the 1960's to 1990's.
b. Some things that I noticed that the book took place in a different time period:
- The students smoked cigarettes. This is not very common for high schoolers to smoke at the 9th grade in our time.
- In the beginning, when Laurie was looking around her office for the school paper, there were typewriters. Now-a-days people use computers instead of typewriters.
- Mr. Ross used a film projector and the film needed to be threaded.
2) One sentence that stood out to me is in chapter 3, page 18. "To me it's like a piece of history. You can't change what happened then." This sentence really stood out to me because it made me think about history. You can't really change what happened then in history, but I don't exactly get what David meant when he said that since they were learning about history in history class.
3) Why do you think that the students were so effected by the movie? Would you have the same reaction? |
posted by charisse @ 5:57 PM  |
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| Monday, September 17, 2007 |
| Betty Ann |
Betty Ann by Ina Hughs - Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
1) The saddest part that stood out to me in the story was when Betty Ann's mother talked to Ina. "Why don't you girls like Betty Ann? She likes you..." That part in the story showed how her mother worried about Betty Ann--she didn't have any friends, and she was always picked on. I also think that Betty Ann's mother didn't understand why the girls just teased her so much. I mean, Betty Ann didn't harm the girls or anything, but since she was new and different than others they started to tease her.
2) I think that Margie went too far when she called Betty Ann's house to talk to Ina. I would of probably told her to stop joking about it after Betty Ann's mother was glad to meet Ina, since she was one of the only people who had came over after school. I would of then tried to start become friends with Betty Ann, after realizing how mean everyone has been to her.
3) "Sticks and stones only break bones. Words can shatter the soul."
The lesson taught in this story is that you should think before you act. Try to make the right choice in life. Be careful of what you say or do, you can't undo it easily by pressing ctrl + z, by using an undo button. You may think little harm will have no impact on others, but they could, or they could not.
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| posted by charisse @ 8:37 PM |
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| Friday, September 14, 2007 |
| Seventh Grade |
1. Today we read another short story called Seventh Grade written by Gary Soto. It's about a boy named Victor and he starts his first day of school. One sentence that stood out to me in the story is when Victor says something he made up in french. "La me vava me con le Grandma" Victor made up some noises that sounded like french. I thought that this was funny and something interesting that people would do when they're nervous and have nothing to say.
2. In the story, one part that connected to me is when Victor was looking for Teresa at lunch. "He raised his eyes slowly and looked around. No Teresa." I can connect of how Victor was feeling when you try to look for someone but you don't see them instantly. It took Victor a while to look for Teresa, and he started to panic because he just couldn't find her. He was probably wondering where she was because he wouldn't want anything bad happening to her. Victor was also probably trying to hide the fact that he was looking for her since he pretended to study, and stared at math problems, even though he wasn't very good at it.
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| posted by charisse @ 2:09 PM |
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| Thursday, September 13, 2007 |
| Test |
Today we read a short story called "Test" written by Theodore L. Thomas. The story gave out many details of what happened throughout a short period of time and gave a surprising twist to the ending.
1. One part in the story that really stood out to me was the part after Robert Proctor signed the application. "He started to speak, but the uniformed man spoke first. "Sorry, son. You failed. You're sick. You need treatment." This sentence gave me questions. Was it all a dream? Why did the uniformed men tell him that he failed? Where are the uniformed men from? What kind of treatment does Robert need? This sentence gave the story a surprising twist to the ending, which made want to read the story over and over again to understand it better.
2. In the middle of the story, there was a hypnosis method that Robert Proctor had done which caused him to think that he crashed and killed a little girl in her sleep. I think that it's a bad idea that the government would test young drivers like that to see if they're ready for the road. I think that young drivers might get frightened while driving and cannot concentrate on the road. Young drivers would start to see car accidents in different views, and would even get scared of even driving.
3. "How do any of us know?" The uniformed man answered, when Robert Proctor asked if it was part of the test. I think that the uniformed man was being sarcastic because he probably didn't know what was going on in his head. That sentence made me think about what the uniformed man was talking about, and wanted me to read more to the story, but unfortunately the story ended.
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| posted by charisse @ 2:07 PM |
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| Tuesday, September 11, 2007 |
| Planet Earth |
Today I watched a movie about Planet Earth which focused about two biomes: Artic Tundra (Great Plains) and the Rainforest (Jungle). It showed many footage of the biomes which not many people really gets to see, and the movie gave me more of an idea of animals and how they survive.
I learned many things about grassland. Did you know that grass covers one-fourth of land on Earth? I never knew that grass was indestructable and basically feeds wildlife. Grass can even grow in bitter conditions in the Artic than just tropical climates.
The Artic Tundra is very cold and snowy in the winter, and it is very green and grassy in the summer. Summer is the time for growth and reproduction. Colors mostly come into the plains during this period, such as sunflowers. At springtime, about 5 million snow geese migrate to the Artic Tundra, and then spend their summer laying their eggs and eating grass. The Artic Wolves also live in the Artic Tundra, who have a hard time searching for food. The wolves hunt for caribou, but they are hard to keep track of since they are always migrating. Caribou travel about 30 miles a day. When the Artic Wolves picks up the trail of the Caribou, the Wolves quickly find their food and the weak and young get singled out.
One neat thing I learned throughout this movie is the tallest kind of grass in the world, which is called Elephant Grass. It's even taller than elephants! Elephants cross hundreds of miles across the Great Plains when they're in danger. For example, if the grassland gets caught on fire, Elephants must quickly escape to get out of danger.
While in the jungle, there are little sunlight because of the extremely tall trees. Trees usually fall down into the jungle, and in less than 4 years new plants grow. Surprisingly, it doesn't rain everyday in the rainforest, although it rains more than it does anywhere else in the world. It rains about more than 2 meters of rain per year on average. A tree would take over a ton of water each year because of all he rain, which is why the trees are so tall.
As you can see I learned many things throughout the movie. There are much more information that I could write about, but there's just too many. This movie got me to think more about animals and how their life isn't that easy. The Planet Earth movie is very educational and interesting.
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| posted by charisse @ 9:09 PM |
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| Friday, September 7, 2007 |
| Favorite Book |
From the author of Holes, comes a sequel about a former Camp Green Lake detainee, Theodore "Armpit" Johnson, called Small Steps by Louis Sachar. Theodore works hard to keep his life back on track by taking "small steps". He takes extra classes to graduate from high school, and has a job, and he is saving up his money trying to keep away from trouble. Louis Sachar writes this entertaining book with interesting plots and surprising twists. It gives out valuable life lessons about friends, breaking the law, racism, and much more. I definitely recommend this book for fans of the book Holes.
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| posted by charisse @ 2:20 PM |
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