Reflections on Literature and Life
I used the sequence generator at Random.org to pick the five winning comments from the fifteen of you who told me why you wanted to read Sween Venom by Tera Lynn Childs. Since all of you are in my classes, come see me to claim your bookmark.
Congratulations! Don’t forget to head to a library or bookstore in October 2011 to find your copy to read.
Oh. My. Word. If you dare to pick up this book and read, hang on for the ride of your life. Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is packed with action and adventure, danger and violence, friendship and betrayl from the very first page.
Nailor works as part of a light crew on the ravaged Gulf Coast. He struggles to meet quota every day as he scavenges copper wiring from the wreckd ships that litter the coastline. It is brutal work in a brutal world where it is hard to know who to trust. Certainly not his father, whose violence escalates whenever he is sliding high on liquor and drugs. Certainly not the weather with its regular “city killer” hurricanes that wipe clean Bright Sands Beach.
It is one of these hurricanes, though, that brings Nailer his lucky break. A clipper ship, one of the sleek ships of the wealthy, crashes off an island. Will Nailer kill the sole survivor–a swank girl–who is wearing more wealth that he has ever seen, or will he gamble to rescue her and return her to her people in hopes of even more reward? Once Nailer makes his decision, the danger in his life increases ten-fold. He must make instant decisions about who to trust and where to go. Any mistake will lead to sure death–if he’s lucky. Along the way he learns that the “civilized” wealthy are just as brutal as the gangs that roam the ship breaker’s beaches.
I love how Bacigalupi slowly reveals the devestation caused by global warming in this future dystopia. The ramifications of rising seas–cities sunk beneath the waves, New Orleans completely swamped, the desperate hunt for scrap metal and oil–become dangers that haunt this world. Rather than slowing down the pace, these details egg it on even faster.
Ship Breaker is one of the Top 10 books for Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011 (by the YASLA). Check out the rest of the list, too. It is also named as a National Book Award Finalist, the 2011 Michael J Prinz Award winner, and a 2011 Notable Children’s book.
Run to your nearest bookstore or library and get you hands on this book–if you dare.
When you have to write on an assigned writing prompt in a limited amount of time, you need to make the best use of your time. That means planning is essential. Use the steps of RUPR (Read, Underline the FAT-P, Plan and Reread) before you begin writing the draft of your essay. We will practice the steps of RUPR with three prompts in class. You will not write the draft for these prompts, just the RUPR planning.
HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes. Choose five words for Weekly Word Study.
Today you will practice RUPR by planning and drafting in response to a practice prompt. These are due at the end of class.
HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes.
Today you will re-look at your draft from yesterday. You will revise your draft to improve your writing at least one score level. One way to improve your writing is to elaborate on your ideas. Begin revising by brainstorming details you can add to elaborate on one or more ideas in your writing. Another way to improve your score is to look at word choice. Highight all the verbs in your draft. Brainstorm more vivid verbs to replace at least ten generic verbs in your draft.
Homework: Read 30 minutes. Word Study due tomorrow.
Practice for reading response. When answering questions about a reading selection, read the questions first! Then look for the answer in the text. Working with a partner, explain your answer choice. Come to a consensus about the correct answer. When you are asked to write an answer, begin by turning the question into a statement to create a topic sentence. Then look for details in the text to support your answer.
HOMEWORK: Word Study due today. Read 30 minutes. Get your reading log signed.
Review conventions. We will grade together the practice test on conventions. Then you may read a book of your choice.
HOMEWORK: Reading Log due TODAY. Read over the weekend
Maggie Fortini loves baseball, especially her beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. When she’s not hanging out with her best friend Treecie, she hangs out with the guys–and the dog Charky–down at the firehouse where her father used to work. Her new friend Jim (even though he is a New York Giants fan) teaches her to keep score of every pitch, hit and run. Maggie hopes keeping score will give the Dodgers just enough to finally win the pennant race and the World Series, but her hopes are dashed year after year. Then Jim is called up to serve in Korea and stops answering her letters. Do her hope and prayers mean anything at all? Maybe, maybe not. Even though life does not always work out the way we want, Maggie learns that “hope is what gets everything started. When you make plans, it’s because you hope something good is going to happen. Hope always comes first” (Parks 189).
I’m not a big baseball fan and had no idea what keeping score was all about, but I couldn’t help but join Maggie as she cheered on her Brooklyn Dodgers. Even I have heard of Jackie Robinison who played with the Dodgers (Maggie’s one and only team) and of Willie Mays (Maggie’s favorite player) who played with the New York Giants. With Keeping Score (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Park captures America’s favorite pasttime and more with this heartfelt look at faith and life. Take it from me, you don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this book.
Since spring is coming, what are some of your favorite baseball stories?
Picture from Titlewave
Today I am one of 100 blogs across the blogosphere who gets to reveal the cover for Tera Lynn Child’s newest trilogy about three descendents of Medusa. Isn’t it lovely? Here’s the teaser found on the bookmarks from the publisher:
Three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in a world where monsters lurk in plain sight. You can find out about the three teen beauties–Grace, Gretchen, and Greer–by checking out the character collages Tera Lynn Childs created at the Books, Boys, and Buzz blog.
Sweet Venom is coming to bookstore near you in October 2011. But while you wait for its release, you can join in the anticipation by checking out these sites:
Yes, there’s more! I have signed bookmarks to give away in my blog’s very first swag sweepstakes! Actually, I don’t have the bookmarks yet, but I have been assured they are in the mail. If you would like to enter to win one for yourself, leave me a comment telling me why you want to read this book. I need your comment by midnight on Friday. This contest is open to US residents only. If you are not a student in my class, let me know your email so I can contact you to get an address to send the bookmark to. I will choose a comment with some sort of random selector–computerized if I can figure out how to do it. Otherwise, the names go on slips and paper to be drawn out of a hat!
You have been busy writing great posts using your vocabulary words and sharing your Golden Lines. Once we get past ISTEP, you will come back to research the author of your book. You may want to get a sense of other books your author has written. Here you can see who is reading books by all the different authors even if they are in different class periods.
Leave a thoughtful comment on at least five people’s blogs. A thoughtful comment adds to the conversation by making a comparison, asking a question, or sharing additional information. Look for posts by students reading the same author. If you are the only one reading your author, choose authors who sound similar.
If I left you off or have you listed with the wrong author (some of you were absent and some of you changed your author), leave me a comment so I can update this post.
You should be finished with your book by now. If you’re not, don’t tell me. Just get reading! Today you are going to choose a “Golden Line,” a brief passage that points to something important from the book. It might show something that the character learned or connect with the title of the book or point to one of the themes of the book. It might be beautifully written. Qoute (that means copy) the passage you chose. Be sure to include quotation marks and a citation at the end. Then reflect on what this quote means to you and the book. Click here for my example.
HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes. Choose five words for Weekly Word Study.
Finish any incomplete blog assignments from last week or the Golden Line blog post. Read and respond to at least five blogs posts from other students. You might want to start with bloggers reading books by the same author as you. Click here to find who is reading what.
HOMEWORK: Read 30 minutes.
Polish your editorials and type a final draft. Type in Open Office and save it to your folder. Please single space, so you can copy it to your blog. To paste in a new blog, click on the “paste from word” button on the second row. Then press CTRL-V to paste. Click insert to put it in the blog post. Yes, you need to publish your editorial on your blog. Also check out the Publications page for ways to share. You may enter Creative Communication’s essay contest, submit to Teen Ink, or submit as a letter to the editor in our local paper. Click here to get to the Publishing Opportunities page for more details and links.
Homework: Read 30 minutes. Word Study due tomorrow.
LIBRARY: Choose a new book to read. If you liked the book you read for the author research project, choose another title by the same author!
HOMEWORK: Word Study due today. Read 30 minutes. Get your reading log signed.
Analyze ISTEP essays. Rank the sample ISTEP essays from best (score 6) to worse (score 1). Explain your reasons. For essays below the Score 6, what would you do to improve the writing? What are the qualities of good test writing? Tomorrow we will start practicing.
HOMEWORK: Reading Log due TODAY. Read over the weekend.
First, choose an important passage (short) from your book. Choose one that points to what the book is all about. It might come at a point where the main character learns an important truth or makes an important decision. It might be a passage that gives a clue to the title or is beautifully written. Remember quotation marks and citation (author’s last name and page number). Here’s the passage I chose from Football Hero by Tim Green.
” ‘It’s not over until it’s over,’ Thane said, speaking slowly, the way he did when he wanted Ty to remember. ‘You want to be a champion, you have to think that way, in everything you do. You never stop. You let yourself start to think that way, then the one time you could pull out a win because of some freak luck, you’re not ready for it. Maybe it’s only once in a lifetime, but that’s one win you’d never have, and who knows what that one win could do.’ ‘ (Green 289)
Once you quote the passage, explain what it means to you. Tell me what you’re thinking and support it with examples from the rest of the story. Here’s what I think about the quote above:
Ty remembered this conversation with his brother in the middle of a football game. Ty was racing to catch the ball. He had already outrun three defenders but the fourth had just tipped the ball out of reach. Even though it seemed impossible, Ty kept going for the ball. But more than that, throughout the story Ty never gave up. Even when things seemed the most hopeless, he kept trying. Sometimes he kept trying on the football field–running barefoot when his cheap sneakers wouldn’t do the job. He also kept trying to stay in contact with his brother Thane. At first Uncle Gus tells Ty he can’t visit his brother then weekend of the NFL draft. Then when Lucy, the bar owner, sees a way to use the brotherly connection to his advantage, Ty asks him for permission to play in the football spring scrimmage, too. When the school bully won’t leave Ty alone, Ty stalks him on the football field, earning the respect of his teammates. When he realizes that Lucy is out to hurt Thane, he rushes to warn his brother and shoves Lucy down an escalator. One of the things I like best about Ty is that willingness to never say never. I think Tim Green wants his readers to come away with that message, too. Don’t ever give up, no matter how hard or impossible life seems, because you never know when that one time will pay off for you. Keep trying so you will be ready for it when it comes.
Kelly Gallahger, a high school English teacher for more than twenty years, defines readicide as “the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.” I found much to think about in this slim book. Here is a list of points that I will continue to ponder as I teach:
The news is not all bad. Gallagher offers many suggestion of ways teachers and schools can both foster a lifelong love of reading and encourage deep thinking about reading and writing.
What do you think we can do to foster a love of reading in our students and help them to develop into thoughtful, critical readers?
I rescued The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver from the discard rack in the library. I first read Kingsolver’s nonfiction book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (a very thought-provoking look at where our food comes from), and have wanted to read her fiction ever since. I might as well start with her first novel.
Taylor Greer wants to escape her dirt-poor life in Kentucky without getting pregnant. As soon as she earns enough money working in the hospital lab, she buys an old Volkswagon Bug and heads West. She keeps driving until she her tires give out at the Jesus Is Lord Used Tires repair shop. Along the way in Oklahoma, she picks up a three-year-old Cherokee child named Turtle. With Turtle in tow, Taylor meets life head on with pluck and courage.
She moves in with Lou Ann (who sees disaster at every turn) and baby Dwayne Ray and works for Mattie at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires, which is also a sanctuary for Central American refugees. With help from their neighbors, grouchy Virgie Parsons and blind Edna Poppy, Mattie, and refugees Estevan and Esperanza, she and Lou Ann make a life together that fills with heartbreak and laughter.
As Taylor grows into her new life, she encounters evil and love in the human condition and must come to terms with her past and future. Just as life hides in the Arizona desert, Taylor discovers sources of strength in the empty places of her life.
I liked this book, but I’m not sure what to do with it now. Does it sound like somethiing you want to read? Would you like it on my shelf, or should I pass it on elsewhere?