reader's Journal # 25 the Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I am still reading The Red badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.  It is an historical fiction novel set during the American Civil War.  Here is a passage from the book from page 238:

                “The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.  As the landscape change from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors.  It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from the long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares.  A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army’s feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile campfires set in the brows of distant hills.

                Once a certain tall soldier developed virtues and went resolutely to wash a shirt.  He came flying back from a brook waving his garment banner-like.  He was swelled with a tale he had heard from a reliable friend, who had heard it from a truthful cavalry-man, who had heard it from his trustworthy brother, one of the orderlies at division headquarters.  He adopted the important air of a herald in red and gold.”

                I picked this passage because I started to understand what was going on a little bit more.  This passage is significant to the book because without it, it would be harder to understand why the author chose the title he did.

                My two before reading strategies were first to skim and scan for text features and second, to remember what I had read last time.  My two during reading strategies were to one, to understand all vocabulary, and two, imply stuff as I read.  My two after reading strategies were one, to relate what I had read to what I had read last time, and two, prepare for Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book is historical fiction.  The characteristics of the genre are realistic fiction set during an historical period.  The setting of the story is in different locations during the American Civil War.  The tone of the book is serious and the mood is serious also.  The moral of the story I haven’t gotten to yet.

                The point of view is third person because it uses words like he, she, and they.  The pattern of organization is climatic order because the story goes from exposition to rising action to climax.  Then it goes from climax down to resolution.

                The author’s purpose is to share a good story about the Civil War.  The author’s perspective is objective because he knows that the story never happened and is not true.

                I would rate this book three out of ten because I didn’t like the way it was written and how there was olden day talk in it.  I would not recommend this book because you may not understand it.

Sincerely,

Michael Heskiel

Current Events #9

Date: 2/12/12

Name: Michael Heskiel

Current Events Journal

Title: Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say.

Author: Sabrina Tavernise

Source: The New York Times

The topic of the article is Education inequality.

The main idea of the article is: How the rich kids are getting a better education than the average kids and also how the differences between whites and African Americans have average closer to the same amount of education is stated.

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform the reader about the inequality of education between the poor and the rich and different information about it.

The author’s perspective in this article is subjective (biased) because the tone of the writing makes it sound like he doesn’t enjoy what’s happening.  For instance, instead of using the word “little” he decides to go with the term “far less”.  

The pattern of organization of the article is chronological because it gives specific dates and times.

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is to emphasize what is going to be explained in the article.

There are no text features except for the title.

This article is about (a summary in your own words) how the poor and the rich have a difference in getting an education depending on which category they fall into.  The author of this article brings up people and statistics to prove this.  It also says that now it is better and a more even average of whites and African-Americans getting the same amount of education.

The significance (importance) of this article is to show that we can always Improve on education even if it look a hundred percent better.

What I learned from this article is that the rate of education for the average and the poor is much lower than I expected.

What I liked about this article is the author brings statistics and different evidence to show that there is a big difference in the quality of education between whites and African-Americans.

What I did not like about it is that it is very sad to hear of kids who want the education to succeed and to have a good living but they’re getting less of an education because they’re not rich.

Who should read this article and why I think all teachers should read this article because the teachers can get a better understanding of what’s going on and how to help lower the rate.

This article reminds me of

(Text-to-self) is that when I was in another school the more behaved kids learned more that the miss behaved kids but not because of behavior it is because they dint give them a chance.

(Text-to-text) this reminds me of a quote: “Education is our passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Malcolm X. If you’re not getting a good education you can’t prepare for the future.

(Text-to-world) this reminds me of how poor kids around the world especially in Mexico due to spatial inequality.   

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning

1. Dilute- threatens to dilute education, Corrupt.

2. Welfare- like welfare and other government programs, how much profit they make.

3. Revert – The danger is that we will revert back to the mindset of war, return.

Reader's Journal # 24, the Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I am reading the book The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.  This is an historical fiction book set in the American Civil War.

                Here is a quote that I liked from the story on pages one and two:

                A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum alley.  He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil’s Row, who were circling madly about the heap and pelting him.

                His infantile countenance was livid with the fury of battle.  His small body was writhing in the delivery of oaths.

                “Run, Jimmie, run!  Dey’ll git yehs!” screamed a retreating Rum Alley child.

                “Naw,” responded Jimmie with a valiant roar, “dese mugs can’t make me run.”

                Howls of renewed wrath went up from Devil’s Row throats.  Tattered gamins on the right made a furious assault on the gravel heap.  On their small convulsed faces shone the grins of true assassins.  As they charged, they threw stones and cursed in shrill chorus.

                The little champion of Rum Alley stumbled precipitately down the other side.  His coat had been torn to shreds in a scuffle and his hat was gone.  He had bruises on twenty parts of his body, and blood was dripping from a cut on his head.  His was features looked like those of a tiny insane demon.  On the ground, children from Devil’s Row closed in on their antagonist.  He crooked his left arm defensively about his head and fought with madness.  The little boys ran to and fro, dodging, hurling stones, and swearing in barbaric trebles.

                From a window of an apartment-house that uprose from amid squat ignorant stables there leaned a curious woman.  Some laborers unloading a scow at a dock at the river, paused for a moment and regarded the fight.  The engineer of a passive tug-boat hung lazily over a railing and watched.  Over on the island a worm of yellow convicts came from the shadow of a grey ominous building and crawled slowly along the river bank.

                A stone had smashed in Jimmie’s mouth.  Blood was bubbling over his chin and down his ragged shirt. Tears made furrows on his dirt-stained cheeks.  His thin legs had begun to tremble and turn weak, causing his small body to reel.  His roaring curses of the first part of the fight had changed to a blasphemous chatter.

                What I enjoyed about this passage was the vivid description of the violence.  This passage is significant because without this passage the story would be even harder to understand. 

                My two before reading strategies were to skim and scan and read the synopsis.  My two during reading strategies were relate the language in the story to modern language and to find and understand with context clues the meaning of vocabulary words.  My tow after reading strategies were to remember I read and prepare for Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book is historical fiction.  The characteristic of the genre is a story set during an historical time.

                The characters of the book so far are Jimmie, his parents and his sister.  The protagonist is Jimmie and the antagonist has not been shown yet.  The setting of the story so far is a city that hasn’t been named yet along a river.  One text feature I noticed was on page fifteen.  There is a picture of where Stephen Crane grew up on Mulberry Place.

                The exposition is during the fight between the Devil’s Row and Rum Alley kids.  It always seems the Rum Alley kids lose.  The rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion I haven’t gotten up to yet.  The tone of this book is serious and the point of view is third person.  The pattern of organization is cause and effect because the cause is Jimmie doing something bad and the effect is him paying the price.  The author’s purpose for writing the book is obviously to entertain the reader.  The author’s perspective is biased because it shows a little bit of his own personal feelings by using vivid descriptions.

                I would rate this book a four out of ten so far because I have not enjoyed the book that much and it’s hard for me to understand.  I would recommend this book to somebody in college because the kids in college know how to understand this book better.  It is a much higher level than a middle school book.

                Sincerely,

                Michael Heskiel

Current Events #8

Date:  2/6/2012

Name:  Michael Heskiel

Current Events Journal

Title: Warm and Furry, but They Pack a Toxic Punch

Author:  Natalie Angier

Source: The New York Times

The topic of the article is mammals’ defenses.

The main idea of the article is: (implied/stated) stated and is about the African crested rat and how he uses his defense mechanism.  They also include different mammals such as the Capuchin monkey and the deer.

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform the reader about the African crested rat and other mammals that use toxins or chemicals to defend themselves against predators and other threats.

The author’s perspective in this article is objective because due to the fact that she is reporting the findings of others.

The pattern of organization of the article is cause and effect because the article talks about some mammals and how they use toxins to defend themselves.  The effect is how the mammals succeed in protecting themselves using the chemicals.

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is to let the reader have a better understanding of how mammals use chemicals and toxins to defend themselves.

The text features included in the article are: illustrations and photographs helps by giving the reader a better understanding of what the creature looks like.

This article is about (a summary in your own words) about mammals that use chemicals to defend themselves.  The article gives specific examples about how each animal gets and uses their toxins.  For example, the African crested rat nibbles bark from a tree whose bark is poisonous.  He then spits on his fur so when a predator tries to eat him and bites him, the predator will become ill, and possibly die.  Another example is how the skunk developed a gland that sprays a noxious chemical.

The significance (importance) of this article is that it educates the reader about mammals and defense different defense mechanisms they use.  What also is important about the article is how not all mammals use claws or jaws to defend themselves.

What I learned from this article is how mammals can also use poison to defend themselves just like reptiles.  I also learned in this article there was an animal called the African crested rat.

What I liked about this article is how the author didn’t just talk about the subject but gave examples.  I also liked the fact I had vocabulary words to write about.

What I did not like about it was that it was very difficult for me to read and understand it.  Even after the third time, I was not 100% sure I understood it.

Who should read this article and why:  People who are interested in animals and learning about animals.

This article reminds me of (text-to-self) when I play video games that have strategy involved and I don’t succeed the first time, I would have to try a different strategy or a new plan to try and win.

(text-to-text) This reminds me of a book I just read, N.E.R.D.S.; M is for Mama’s Boy by Michael Buckley. The protagonist, Duncan Dewey, after failing many times, has to try a different strategy to defeat the antagonists at the end of the book.

(text-to-world) This reminds me of the bark used by the African crested rat is used as a poison to kill elephants.

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning

1.     Flamboyantly “…large, flamboyantly furred and thickly helmeted.”  – flashy. 

2.     Potent “…with potent toxins harvested from trees.”  - strong.

 Deterring “…deterring predators with chemical weapons.”  – discouraging

Reader's Journal # 23, Where the Wind Goes, by Dr. Mae Jemison

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I have finished the book, Find Where the Wind Goes, by Dr. Mae Jemison.  It is the story of her life as kid and as an astronaut.  She was the first African American woman in space.  Here is a passage from the book on pages 6 and 7 that I enjoyed:

               

Another early memory centers around what enticed my sibs to play with me voluntarily.  Ricky and Ada Sue liked to blow on my belly and tickle me until I couldn’t breathe.  I’d laugh so hard I thought that my belly and sides would never stop cramping and hurting.  They would sneak in and do this when my mother wasn’t looking.  I was also a welcome diversion during the vesicular stage of my chicken pox.  That’s when watery blisters, or vesicles as I later learned they were called in medical school, could be burst open and scabs pulled off.  I know you may think “Yuck!”  But, I have come to appreciate that “Yuck” is precisely the job of older siblings.  Younger or older, siblings are around to introduce us to icky things, to teach us humility, enable us to cope with the elements of surprise and fear, to present us with challenges, like how to get into their rooms, clothes, secrets or how to keep them out of ours.  “Sibs” teach us the rewards of perseverance in competition:  how to eat the fastest, to hold off from doing the chores the longest (my personal best for not washing the dishes was two day, which included innovative hiding places); how to pass the blame and make accusations stick (I would always laugh), and how to get the best treatment from parents, aunts and uncles, and other adult members of the extended family.  I could also count on Ricky and Ada Sue to support me whether things were good or not.  We may have had personal skirmishes, but we always wanted the best for one another.  We were proud of each other’s accomplishments, and we would help the others with tasks (as long as it wasn’t washing the dishes!).  The alliances between us changed as we grew – Ada sue and Ricky versus Mae; Mae and Ada Sue versus Ricky; Ricky and Mae versus Ada Sue; or everyone for himself or herself – but we’ve always been close.

                This passage is significant to me because it shows how much she cares about life.

                My two before reading strategies were one to skim and scan the book for text features and two, to read the cover blurb.  My two during reading strategies were to one, try to relate what I had read to when I had visited the Kennedy Space Center, and two, to understand vocabulary words by using context clues.  My two after reading strategies were to review what I had read and prepare for Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book is autobiography.  The characteristics genre is the author sharing the story of their life in a book.  The topic of the book is Jemison’s life.  The main idea of the book is her life and how she searched for where the wind blows in her life.  Some supporting details of the main idea are that she continued to work toward being an astronaut no matter what her teachers believed  and that she succeeded in achieving her goal.  The essential message we would get from the story of Jemison’s life is try and you will succeed. 

                A text feature I noticed were right dead center in the book there were photographs of her.  Another text feature I noticed were the sub-headings in each chapter.  I also noticed that the chapters had titles, too.

                The pattern of organization was chronological order because the book lists dates.  The author’s purpose was to share the story of her life. 

                Three vocabulary words that I learned were vesicles, which means blisters; diminished, which means lessened or reduced; and diagnosed, which means identified.

                I would rate this book a five out of ten, because it didn’t really interest me.  I recommend this book to people who would like to work for NASA when they grow up.

                Sincerely,

                Michael Heskiel

Current Events #7

Date:  1/30/2012

Name:  Michael Heskiel

Current Events Journal

1. Title: Should the Driving Age Be Raised to 18?

2. Author: Unsaid

3. Source: New York Times

4. The topic of the article is about teens and how they may not be old enough at 16 to get behind the wheel.  In the article, they argue reasons to let and not let the teens drive.

5. The main idea of the article is: Stated.

6. The author’s purpose for writing this article is to tell the reader both opinions on the subject.

7. The author’s perspective in this article is subjective (biased) because they are opinions.

8. The pattern of organization of the article is argument/counter argument.

9. The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is to show all opinions on the subject and how they matter.

10. The text features included in the article are:  there are no text features. 

11. This article is about (a summary in your own words) teens who died for lack of driving training and experience.  They talk about if they should change the driving age to 18.  Yes, the reason is they can’t watch the death of young teens anymore in driving accidents.  The “No” side said you shouldn’t be punished if it’s not your fault.  These are both good reasons but I would agree with no.

12. The significance (importance) of this article is to show the danger of driving and how you must be careful on the road.

13. What I learned from this article is they want to change the age limit for driving.

14. What I liked about this article is how vivid each sides’ reasons were and how the yes side gave other laws as an example.

15. What I did not like about it is how they are fighting over it.

16. Who should read this article and why?  Teens obviously so they may get a better understanding of certain circumstances.

17. This article reminds me of (text-to-self) a time I started playing with a knife and I cut myself.  My step-father said if you stop respecting it, it will stop respecting you; same thing with cars.

18. (text-to-text) an article I wrote at my old school about how cars affect people.

19. (text-to-world) the millions of people who died in car accidents.

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning:  There were no words I did not know the meaning of.

Reader's Journal #22 Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I have been reading the book Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka.  It is an autobiography.  Here is a passage that I really enjoyed on pages 51 through 53:

                “Dad, look at this,” I said.  “One hundred toy soldiers for just $1.25!”

                My dad looked over the ad.  “That looks great,” he said.  “But sometimes you have to be careful.  They design those ads to make the toys look better that they really are.”

                “Oh, sure,” I said.  “And look – you get four tanks and four jeeps and four battleships and eight jet planes and a ton of army men, and it’s only a dollar and a quarter.”

                “How much do you have?” asked Dad.

                “Um…nothing,” I said.

                “Well,” said Dad, “save your allowance and give it a try.”

                So I saved my allowance for two weeks.  That was a dollar.  I popped a quarter out of one of Jim’s coin-collecting books.  And I had my $1.25.  I promised god I would let Jim play with my hundred piece army a couple of times so He wouldn’t have to kill me with an earthquake for stealing.

                I filled out the order form.  I checked the box marked “Rush the TOY SOLDIER SET TO ME!”  And I mailed off my money to:

                LUCKY PRODUCTS, INC.

                Somewhere in N.Y.

                HERE’S MY $1.25!

               

Then I waited.  And waited.  And waited.

                I kept looking at the as I had saved on my desk.  Eight machine gunners, eight sharpshooters, four bombers.  The whole army was even “PACKED IN THIS FOOTLOCKER.”

                Then one day when I came home from school, there was a brown-paper-wrapped package on the dining-room table.  It was addressed to me.  Yes!

                I scooped it up and ran upstairs to my room.

                I ripped open the paper and pulled out a little box.  It seemed a bit small.  About the size of a deck of cards.  I figured maybe they packed each division in a separate box.  Army guys in one.  Navy guys in another.  Jets and tanks and battle cruisers in another.

                I opened the cardboard box, which was marked sort of like a footlocker.

                Tiny little bits of dark green plastic spilled out.  Each piece was thin as a dime, and about that tall.  For one horrible second I thought the mailman had broken my hundred piece army.  Then I looked more closely at the pieces, and discovered that the truth was even worse – the little pieces were my hundred-piece army.

                I picked up one skinny bazookaman.  He was too skinny even to stand on his base.  Four skinny riflemen, eight very skinny machine gunners.  All worthless.

                I chose this passage because I thought it was very funny to watch someone else get ripped off and now I don’t feel alone.   This passage helps the book in showing how Jon Scieszka had a weird life.

                My two before reading strategies were one, to skim and scan for text features and to read the synopsis.  My two during reading strategies were one, to understand any vocabulary I didn’t know and two, to relate the story to everyday life.  My two after reading strategies were one, to review what I had read that day and two to prepare for Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of the book is autobiography.  It is characterized by the author telling stories about his life.  Some characteristics of the book are funny and shocking.  The topic of the book is Jon Scieszka’s life growing up. The main idea of this book his life and how he acted with his brothers and is stated.  Two supporting details would be that he had five brothers and he was one of the oldest brothers.

                One cause and effect I found in this was that he played a rough called Slaughterball and effect was that he broke his brother’s collarbone four times.  Some text features I saw in the book were a lot of photographs, illustrations, and different font types and sizes for the titles of the chapters.

                The author’s purpose is to inform people about his wacky life.  The author’s perspective is definitely subjective because everything in the book is what he experienced. 

                I would this book a nine out of ten because the book was very good and very funny, but I hate autobiographies.  I would recommend this book to any middle schooler who likes to read funny biographies.

                Sincerely,

                Michael Heskiel

Current Events #6

Date:  1/23/2012

Name: Michael Heskiel

Current Events Journal

Title: I HAVE A DREAM                                                                                                                                                     

Author: Dr. Martin Luther king Jr.

Source: PBS.org

The topic of the article is Racism and color

The main idea of the article is:  Racism and how much Martin Luther king, Jr. wanted equal rights      (implied/stated)

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to record that speech that Dr. King gave that was his most famous and most moving.

The author’s perspective in this article is subjective (biased) because it is just a retelling of the speech.

The pattern of organization of the article is cause and effect because the cause is Dr. King giving his speech and saying if you do this, you’ll get that/

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is not chosen, it was just a recording of the speech.

The text features included in the article are none

This article is about (a summary in your own words) how important to Dr. King equal rights were and how we should all be treated the same no matter what color skin we are and no matter what religion we follow.

The significance (importance) of this article is re-emphasizing the importance of what Dr. King said.

What I learned from this article is how Dr. King gave his speech and how long it was.

What I liked about this article is the fact that it supports my religion.

What I did not like about it is the wording of the article and how he used a lot of weird stuff; I did not understand some of the wording he used.

Who should read this article and why:  The Klu Klux Klan because they may realize that what they are doing is not right and everyone has their own rights in the matter of religion and everyone is equal in color.

This article reminds me of (text-to-self) the movie I saw, “Remember the Titans” and how the coaches were different skin colors but in the end, worked together to win the championship.

(text-to-text) This reminds me of the book Eldridge Cleaver, Thin Ice.

(text-to-world) This reminds me of all those people who kill each other because they have different religions.

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning

1. Languished “is still languished in the corners of American society.”  It means suffered.

2.  Invigorating “there is an invigorating autumn of freedom.”  It means refreshing.

3.  Interposition “having his lips dripping with the words of ‘’…”  It means interrupting.

Reader's Journal #21 The Top 10 of Everything 2011 by Russell Ash

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I have read the book, The Top 10 of Everything 2011, by Russell Ash.  It is an informational book that gives lists of the top ten of a variety of subjects.  Here was a Top 10 list I really enjoyed:

                Top 10 Superhero Movies

1.        The Dark Knight

2.       Spider-Man 3

3.       Spider-Man

4.       Spider-Man 2

5.       The Incredibles

6.       Hancock

7.       Iron Man

8.       X-Men:  The Last Stand

9.       Batman

10.   X2:  X Men United

My two before reading strategies were to one, look at the front cover and two, read the synopsis.  My two during reading strategies were observe all text features in the book and two, skim and scan to find the most interesting lists to read, like the 10 Most Common Crimes in the USA.

The genre of this book is informational.  It is characterized by having no plot structure, characters, setting, foils, moral, or anything like a fiction book.  All the book is is a book about lists and presenting information.

The tone of this book is imaginative and amusing.  The author’s purpose is to inform the reader of the top ten of everything, including the Top 10 Garbage Producers.  The author wanted to inform the reader in humorous way.  The author’s perspective is probably agreeing with all these facts he was just collecting the lists.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed in the book, and I lot I didn’t know before.  I learned that there was such a thing as underwater hockey, and I learned that the black widow wasn’t the deadliest spider in the world.  In fact, I learned that I’ve been introduced to and seen the deadliest spider; it is the banana spider.    I learned that Shrek 2 was worth seeing by the American public because it grossed $441,226,247 (I never did like it).  I learned that Finding Nemo still makes it onto the Top 10 List of Animated Movies (it’s number 3).  Ratatouille also made onto the list at number 10 (Just made it!).

I enjoyed many of the lists in the book such as the Top 10 List of Criminals Longest on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list (Osama bin Laden was only number 8 on the list).  And, I liked the Top 10 List of Largest Jewish Populations (Israel is only number 2 on the list). 

I would rate this book 10 out 10 (Get it? Because it’s is The Top 10.)  I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Top 10 of anything.

Sincerely,

Michael Heskiel

Reader's Journal #20, Nerds by Michael Buckley

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I just finished reading the book Nerds by Michael Buckley.  It is a science fiction book that is definitely the best book I’ve read.  Here is a passage from the story I really enjoyed:

                “Jackson met Flinch in the parking lot of the school.  The nerd’s face was covered in caramel, and there were a dozen or so candy bar wrappers lying at his feet.  He had a cup of convenience store soda in his hand that was bigger than his own head.  He was also trembling with caffeinated joy.

                “So, I suppose you’re going to beat me up too,” Jackson said.  He could still feel the burning laser stings on his behind, the bruises from the back scratcher, and the place where the kindergartener’s lunch box had hit him in the skull.

                Flinch shook his head wildly.  It seemed everything he did was over the top.  “No way!  We’re going to play a game of catch, bro.”

                “Catch?  OK, that’s something I’m very good at,” Jackson said.

                “But you’re going to have to use your superbraces to do it,” Flinch said.  “All that technology in your mouth is awesome!  We have to teach you how to use it.  Luckily, a lot of it is responsive to what‘s going on around you.  Here, I’ll show you.”

                Jackson watched Flinch step over to a teacher’s car.  He turned the dial on his harness and then, in one swift motion, leaned down and picked the car up off the ground.  He held it over his head like it was a feather pillow.  Then he tossed it at Jackson.

                Jackson screamed and instinctively ducked, though he knew it would do much good to prevent his impending death.  What he couldn’t have imagined was the braces in his mouth springing to life.  The forced his mouth open and several strands of metal caught the car in midair.

                “Hombre, that is awesome,” Flinch shouted.  “Throw it back.”

                Jackson didn’t have time to think before his braces hefted the car back at the little boy.  Flinch snatched it out of the air and set it back down in it parking space.

                “You just threw a car at me!” Jackson yelled.

                “Fun, isn’t it?”  Flinch shouted as he tossed another of the teacher’s cars at him.  This time the braces seemed ready and stopped it long before it closed in on his head. Still, the experience was heart-attack inducing.  Jackson set the car down just in time to spot another sailing through the air at him.

                “Cut it out!” Jackson shouted as he caught it and set it back on its four wheels.

                “I’m strong like bull!” Flinch shouted, oblivious to Jackson’s complaints.  “Let’s make this interesting.”

                He snatched a car tossed it, the snatched another, then tossed it, and on and on and on.  The cars sailed through the air fast and furious.  Jackson’s braces spun around in his mouth like a blender as the attempted to catch them all, but there were too many.  The best he could do was try to swat them away.  His efforts did little, and soon one of the cars crashed to the ground next to him.  Then another landed right behind.  Soon the cars were piling up around him, locking him inside an automotive pyramid.  He was safe and unharmed, but he was trapped.

                “You are supposed to catch them,” Flinch shouted.

                Jackson stewed with anger.  “Get me out of here, you freak!”

                I chose this passage because it’s one of the funniest passages in the book.  The significance of this passage is that without this passage they would have been excluding one of the special abilities in the book.

                My two before reading strategies were one, to skim and scan the book for text features, and two, to read the synopsis of the book.  My two during reading strategies were to one, image a picture of the story and to look at the vocabulary that I didn’t know and figure out their meaning with context clues.  My two after reading strategies are to one, review what and comprehend what I’ve read, and two, to prepare for a Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book is science fiction.  It is characterized by fantastic things or events that involve science or technology. 

                The characters in the book were the following:  Jackson, Duncan, Matilda, Ruby, Heathcliff, and Flinch.  There were also Agent Brad, Miss Holiday, Doctor Jigsaw, and the Hyena.  All of the characters are flat until the end of the book when they get very static.  The protagonists of the book are every one of the characters except for Dr. Jigsaw who is the antagonist.  The foil is the Hyena.  The setting is in many places, but one of the main places is the North Pole.

                The exposition is when Jackson is a cool kid and one of the most popular in school.  One day he goes to the dentist and he finds out that he needs to get braces.  Once he gets braces every one treats him like he’s a nerd.  One day he was spying on the nerdiest kids in school and gets caught falling through a hole in a locker.  When he gets to the bottom a bunch of scientists try to capture him.  And exactly at the same time this is happening, the Hyena waits for her boss to picker her up because she is a professional assassin.    The rising action is when Jackson goes into this strange place where the scientists were chasing him and gets locked in one of the rooms.  He starts clicking randomly on the buttons that are in this room.  Somehow he manages access technology that should only have been used by the scientists.  That technology that he accesses turns his braces into robotic defense claws.  At the same time, the Hyena is introduced to Dr. Jigsaw’s Doomsday Device.  It has the power to move any land mass to another part of the world which would kill millions of people.  The climax is when the team gets captured and then Jackson saves the day.  Jackson goes to save his teammates and ends up killing the villain.  The falling action is when the Hyena turns to the good side and becomes an agent.  The conclusion is when Jackson moves on to sixth grade.

                The conflict is man vs. man because the team is going against Dr. Jigsaw.  The tone of the story is exciting and the mood of the story is thrilling.  The theme of the story is finding different ways to do things.  The moral of the story is don’t judge a book by its cover.  The point of view of the story is third person, because the author uses words like “he”, “she”, and “they”.  The pattern of organization is cause and effect.  The author’s purpose of the story is probably to entertain.  The author’s perspective is in agreement with this book because he probably enjoys science fiction. 

                I would rate this book ten out of ten because everything in it was amazing.  It was very understandable and was a good cliffhanger.  I would recommend this book to everyone from middle school because there are words in there that you could understand even if they sound hard and it’s very entertaining.

                Sincerely,

                Michael

Current event # 4

Date: 1/8/12

Name: Michael Heskiel

Current Events Journal

Title: Booking a flight with a space travel agent

Author: Kenneth Chang 

Source: Miami Herald

The topic of the article is space travel

The main idea of the article is about Virgin and how they’re going to allow tourist to see the brim of the world.

(Implied / stated) Stated.

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform the world how this will be a great experience to all mankind.

The author’s perspective in this article is probably agreeing with this due to the fact that there is a happy tone.

objective/subjective (biased) Subjective because he probably agrees with it he is writing it in such a happy tone.

The pattern of organization of the article is cause and effect.  

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is because when everybody would read the effect, they would get more involved in the article and get more excited about the program.

The text features included in the article are: there are no text features in this article

This article is about (a summary in your own words) a company called Virgin and how they’re going to make it possible to go to space. They also have people talk about the convenience of purchasing a ticket on their space ship. They explain how it will feel on this space ship, how far they will travel, and how much it will cost.

The significance (importance) of this article is probably to inform the public of this new opportunity to go into space.

What I learned from this article is that they are letting any average person go into space with a ticket.

What I liked about this article is that it is not a lie, it’s coming out soon, and I would to either try and get a ticket or watch it go into space.

What I did not like about it was nothing; I liked everything about the article.  I felt it was the best current events article so far.

Who should read this article and why.  People who like studying space and going to the Kennedy Space Center would probably book a ticket when reading this article.  This article is very persuasive.

This article reminds me of (text-to-self) of the first time I went to the Kennedy Space Center and how was I amazed at most of the displays.

(text-to-text) This reminds me of a book I read, My Teacher Fried My Brains by Bruce Coville because when they got into space they found a bunch of aliens and we don’t know if aliens exist.

(text-to-world) It reminds me of the time that they didn’t have the Space Shuttle only rockets and only astronauts could go into space.  Now, any tourist who is willing to pay money can go into space

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning

1. Culminate “..the ride to space will culminate a three day trip…” It means come to an end.

2. Albeit.  “..will fulfill a dream, albeit an expensive one.”  It means exception.

3. Jaunts “…”suborbital” jaunts…” It means short trips.

Reader's Journal #19 Young Monsters, edited by Isaac Asimov, martin H. Greenberg, and Charles Waugh

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I have been reading a collection of short stories titled Young Monsters edited Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh.  It is a collection of short stories about kids who are also monsters.  Here is a quote from the book.  It is from the story, “One for the Road” by Steven King.  It appears on pages 205 and 206:

                “She held out her arms at me and smiled.  “Pick me up, mister,” she said softly.  “I want to give you a kiss.  Then you can take me to my mommy.”

                I didn’t want to, but there was nothing I could do.  I was leaning forward, my arms outstretched.  I could see her mouth opening.  I could see little fangs inside the pink ring of her lips.  Something slipped down her chin, bright and silvery, and with a dim, distant faraway horror, I realized she was drooling.

                Her small hands clasped themselves around my neck and I was thinking:  Well, maybe it won’t be so bad, not so bad, maybe it won’t be so awful after a while – when something black flew out of the Scout and struck her on the chest.  There was a puff of strange-smelling smoke, a flashing glow that was gone and instant later, and then she was backing away, hissing.  Her face was twisted into a vulpine mask of rage, hate, and pain.  She turned sideways and then…then she was gone.  One moment she was there and the next there was a twisting knot of snow that looked a little bit like a human shape.  Then the wind tattered it away across the fields.

                “Booth!”  Tookey whispered.  “Be quick, now!”

                And I was.  But not so quick that I didn’t have time to pick up what he had thrown at that little girl from hell.  His mother’s Douay Bible.”

                I picked this passage because it is the only part of the story that gets good.  The significance of the passage is to probably get the reader interested at some point.

                The two before reading strategies I used were to skim and scan and two to read the synopsis.  The two during reading strategies I used were to understand the words in the story and to review what I had read every time I finished a story.  My two after reading strategies were to review everything I read after the reading session and to prepare for Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book science fiction and the characteristics are boring.  As you can see, I did not enjoy this book because each of the stories had a lame plot structure.  I never found one of the stories that were good.  There are multiple characters in each story and most of them were round.  There were multiple places in each story.  The plot structure varied from story to story.  The conflict in every story was man vs. the supernatural because many of the characters had problems with monsters.  The tone of the stories was spooky.  The moods changed from story to story.  The theme of all of these stories is that monsters come in all shapes and sizes and you never know when one will jump out at you.  There was no moral in any of the stories.  The point of view of every story was third person except for “One for the Road”, which was first person.  The pattern of organization is cause and effect because the cause is a character does something wrong and the effect is they run into a monster.  The authors’ purposes were to get money, which they didn’t.  The authors’ perspectives are definitely not agreeing with this book because they know that monsters don’t really exist.

                I would rate this book a zero out of ten because it was horrible.  I barely noticed any creative hooks that got me interested.  I would not recommend this book to anyone, period.

                Sincerely,

 Michael

RJ #18 Homework Pass