For our last video this year, I’m going to share another Shakespeare performance by Tessa Gratton. This clip is from Helena’s monologue (speech by one person) at the beginning of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. This play is a romantic comedy with lots of mistaken identities. Helena is basically whiny. You can also check out a comparison peformance that Tessa did in high school.
PS – Tessa has offered to write a guest post for our blog. Come back later for more info!
May has been a little slower with the end of school, but I read some great books. It’s hard to pick a favorite.
35) H.I.V.E. by Mark Waldren – child genius + villainy leads to action and humor
36) In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D’Amato – a challenging read involving Mayan prophecy and time travel. I liked it until the very end.
37) Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson – a heartbreaking, wrenching look inside the mind of a girl struggling with anorexia and cutting
38) Hugs for Teachers by Martha McKee and Caron Chandler – my husband picked this up for me
39) Unwind by Neal Shusterman – he keeps getting better and better. This dystopia after the Heartland Civil War over right to life will make you think–and be glad your parents put up with you through the teen years.
40) Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok – She frames harsh poverty and a delicate balancing act between two very different worlds with words of beauty and power.
41) Prom Dates from Hell by Mary Clements Moore – sarcastic girl reporter/Nancy Drew wannabe takes on the demonic forces threatening to wipe out the Jocks and Jessicas (her least favorite people) at her high school.
Some of you have asked if you can keep your blog past the end of the school year. The answer is YES! However, you will need to change a couple of things to keep track of it yourself. Right now all of your blogs are tied to my account and my email. If you want to keep your blog, you will need to change to your email. I do not want to keep track of all your comments plus all my students next year and the next year and the next year….
Here’s what you need to do to take control of your own blog from here on out:
1) From your Dashboard (log into your edublogs account), click on Settings down on the left hand side. Then click on General in the drop down list.
2) In the email field, delete the email and type in your email address.
3) Edublogs will send me a email to confirm the change in address. I will confirm it. Then you will be on your own.
4) Leave me a comment on this post telling me that you want to keep your blog. Otherwise, I will delete it after June 30.
5) Blog responsibly. These are public, and you can be held accountable for what you post.
6) Drop by and leave me comments to let me know what good stuff you are reading and writing.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman blew me out of the water. Shusterman creates a dystopia where the divisive issue of abortion had erupted into a second Civil War. This time everyone lost, especially troubled or lost teenagers. The compromise at the end of the war became known as the Bill of Life, and the Unwinding Accord went into effect. These laws protected life from conception until age 13. Unwanted babies could be “storked,” left on the doorstep for another family to raise. Once a child reached the age of 13, parents had the right for an retroactive abortion. Children could be unwound–divided into usable parts for organ transplants. This way life could be terminated without death.
Unwind follows the stories of three unwinds. Connor is a bright kid who has trouble controlling his temper. He is always in trouble, and finally his parents have had enough. Connor finds the signed unwind order and bolts before the juvey police can come to take him away. Risa is a ward of the state. She is a talented pianist, but not talented enough for the state to continue to provide for. She is to be unwound to give more space to other unwanted children. Levi was raised as a tithe. His parents gave birth and raised him for the sole purpose of unwinding. What happens when these three children’s lives collide?
The images on my collage show some of what happens to these three. The question mark behind the images shows the questions that linger in the background of the character’s minds: What happens when you are unwound? What is the Admiral really up to by saving children in the Graveyard? Who can you trust? Connor, Risa, and Lev must decide who to trust and which actions to take. Their paths go in different directions but bring them back together in the end at the Happy Jack Harvest Camp. The multi-fingered hand and body parts represent the idea of unwinding–harvesting children for their body parts that takes place at harvest camps. What has gone wrong with a world that allows the harvesting of children’s body parts? Will the actions of these three children cause people to rethink their decisions? Several images represent adults who are working against the system. The typewriter represents the Admiral, a retired Navy officer who offers a safe refuge to unwinds who have run away. Because of a secret in his own past, he refuses any medical treatment that involves transplants from unwinds. His refuge is called the Graveyard, a resting place for retired planes in the Arizona desert.
Finally, who is the superhero in this book? Is it the Admiral, who offers a safe refuge? Is it Connor, who kidnaps Lev and becomes known as the Akron AWOL? Is it Risa, who finds a talent for medicine as well as piano? Is it Lev, who is rushes in to save lives rather than add to the destruction? Maybe the hero is not any one of these, but all of them together. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!) Maybe it is as Connor realizes at the end. He watches new arrivals to the Graveyard and listens to Risa play the piano: “She smiles a them as they go by and continues to play, making it clear that this furnace of a place, full of planes that cannot fly, is more than it seems. It is a womb of redemption for every Unwind, and for all who fought the Heartland Ward and lost–which was everybody…..Connor takes it all in–the music, the voices, the desert and the sky. He has his work cut out for him, changing the world and all, but things are already in motion; all he has to do is keep up the momentum. And he doesn’t have to do it alone. He has Risa, Hayden, and every Unwind here.”
Welcome to our blog. Our class blogs are up and running. You can check out the reading blogs at https://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org. Each student has their own blog, accessed by a username and password given to them in class. You can find your child’s blog by clicking on the links listed on mine. Students may use these blogs to publish their writing, share what they think about the books they read, and respond to each other’s ideas. Students are free to personalize their blogs and respond the each other’s posts as long as content remains school appropriate. Any inappropriate content will be dealt with as a discipline issue.
Due to technological difficulties with the lap top computers, students will have to take turns on the destop computers to finish and print their resumes. These are the things that must be finished by Friday. Students should turn them in as they finish:
RESUME: Students should type their resume using one of the templates in Open Office. They should complete two peer conferences, edit & proofread carefully using their editing checksheet. Then they should print a clean copy. They should turn in their resume in this order: Editing checksheet, best copy, rough draft, peer conference form.
TITLE PAGE: Students will design a title page/cover for the book they read. The front of the page should have the title & author of the book and an illustration that reveals something imporant about the book. On the back, students should copy an important passage from the book. They should also write a one-paragraph explanation that tells how the picture and quote show important ideas about the book.
WALL WISHER: Students should leave a comment on the Wall Wisher for their book. They should share what they think is important about the book, ask a specific question about the book, or respond to someone else’s comment.
TEXTBOOKS should be returned sometime this week along with all books borrowed from my library.
Monday – Wall Wishers .
Homework: Choose 5 words. Read 30 minutes and record on Reading Log.
Tuesday – .
Homework: Read 30 minutes and record on Reading Log. Complete Word Study.
Wednesday- Book Trailer
Homework: Read 30 minutes and record on Reading Log. Complete Word Study.
Thursday- Book Trailer
Homework: Word Study due. Read 30 minutes and record on Reading Log. Get Reading Log signed.
Here are some of the most interesting tidbits from this week’s blog reading.
First, for all you Twilight fans–tune into Jimmy Kimmel of late night TV show on June 23 at 10 p.m. Kimmel will host Twilight Saga: Eclipse stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner in a primetime special called Jimmy Kimmel Live: Twilight Saga: Total Eclipse of the Heart, on ABC. Rumors from the Wrap noted that on the show, “Twihards also will see exclusive Twilight content a week before the film premieres.” (from Shelf Awareness)
Neal Shusterman reflects on his struggle with writer’s block during the writing of Everfound, the conclusion to the Skinjacker Trilogy begun with Everlost. Now if we could just afford to take a cruise on The Queen Mary to cure our cases of writer’s block. I also discovered a website for the movie version of Unwind. I’m in the middle of this novel right now, and it’s blowing my socks off. Imagine a world where parents can have the teenage children unwound–taken apart bit by bit to be used as organ donors. They don’t die; they just don’t live as one body any more.
The Goddess of YA Literature shared this video of the best 100 children’s books. Some of the books are a little young for you, but might bring back good memories. Others are titles I see some of you reading. Which books have you read? Which ones would you like to read? Which books would make your top 100 or top 10 list?
The Goddess of YA Lit also shared this gem: Onceby Morris Gleitzman. Once is a story set during the Holocaust. Felix sets out to discover the truth about his parents. What he learns is shocking and horrifying. What I find even more horrifying is that the Holocaust happened and stories like Felix’s were all too common.
Which ones of you have followed the television drama Lost? I loved the first season, but got lost when the second season moved to a later time slot. My goal this summer is to watch the entire series, including last night’s finale. What you may not know is that this show features literary allusions in each and every episode–sometimes more than one. According to Shelflife, “ABC’s Lost enters its final chapter this week having referenced more than 70 books over six seasons. The Los Angeles Times noted that ‘an abundance of carefully placed works of literature have been featured on the show (in gym bags, on book shelves, in episode titles), spawning Lost book clubs and blogs filled with eager readers combing for clues to the fate of the stranded Oceanic Flight 815 survivors.’ Executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are both readers who acknowledge literature’s influence on their vision for the series. ‘It’s a nod to that process,’ said Lindelof. ‘We pick the books with a great deal of meticulous thought and specificity and talk about what the thematic implications of picking a certain book are, why we’re using it in the scene and what we want the audience to deduce from that choice.'” Pay attention to those details!
Earlier this month I finished a book that was hard, and that got me thinking. What do you think makes a book hard? What strategies do you use to read a hard book? What makes it worth finishing?
One of the things that made Brian D’Amato’s In the Courts of the Sun hard was the sheer length. I’m not usually intimidated by long books, but tackling a big 679 page novel at the end of the school year is a bit much for me. Okay, 679 pages isn’t the longest book I’ve read, but the two-inch spine does look scary. More than the length made it hard, though. Another thing is the vocabulary. Since much of the story is set in ancient South/Central America, D’Amato uses a lot of Mayan words to add flavor. The main character is from Guatemala, so he uses lots of Spanish/Mayan words, too. Not to mention I know nothing about ancient Mayan culture (other than the 2012 prediction shown in movie previews) or the Sacrifice Game, which the central plot turns on. It’s hard to keep track of names that are completely unfamiliar and just sound strange to my Anglo ears. Through in advanced science/science fiction concepts involving physics, different calendars, Wormholes and time travel, and I’m even more lost. Top it all off with a narrator who is not mentally stable and likes to jump around the narrative–and even splits into two characters (past and present) for half the book.
So, how do I deal with such a difficult text? First of all, I don’t have to understand everything. I ask myself if I’m getting the gist–the main idea–of what’s going on. If I am, I keep going and usually the unknown parts sort themselves out. If a character (with an unusual name) is important, I’ll keep reading it as the story comes on and will eventually remember him or her. If not knowing a foreign word doesn’t mess up my understanding of the story, I let it go. (Remember reading improves your vocabulary–it just may take reading a new word multiple times in different contexts before you get it). If I get to a part where I’m completely lost, I go back and reread.
Finally, why do I keep going instead of giving up? In this case, I was curious enough to want to know what happened. Would Jed learn how to play the nine-skull game and save the world from total destruction on December 21, 2012? Would he and Marena hit it off? Would Jed return from the Mayan world in AD 612 to the modern era? Besides, I kind of liked the wacky guy–until the end. Sometimes, though reading is hard (and not fun) but it is necessary. More on that later.
Now it’s your turn. What do you think makes a book hard? How do you get through it? What makes it worthwhile?
I read a book today that both broke my heart and gave it wings to fly. Laurie Halse Anderson takes readers inside the mind of Lia, a girl desperately trying to drown out the voices that say she is too ugly, too fat, too unworthy. She is now haunted by the death of her used-to-be best friend, Cassie. Cassie died alone in a motel room, but she called Lia thirty-three times the night she died. Lia never answered the phone. Together they had entered the land of the wintergirls: girls frozen from life, hiding behind the constantly shrinking numbers of their weight and releasing the pain in their hearts by cutting their own flesh. Now Cassie wants Lia to join her on the other side of death. Will Lia succeed in slowly killing herself and join Cassie?
Anderson reveals the tug of war going on inside Lia with compassion and empathy. Her writing is as beautiful as Lia’s struggle is terrifying. Even though Lia’s parents are far from perfect (her heart-surgeon mother is controlling and has little time for Lia; her absent-professor father refuses to see what’s before his eyes), I shared their desperate ache to help Lia, who steadfastly rejects it all. Lia’s story opened my mind and heart to the struggle girls with eating disorders and cutting face. I had no idea it was so hard. I can’t recommend this book strongly enough to everyone who works with teens.
Authors love it when readers “get” their books. They love it even more when readers share their passion for their books. Laurie Halse Anderson was moved to tears at this young man’s tribute to Chains. She embedded it on her blog to share with her readers there. Now I’m sharing it with you. Enjoy his music video. Then go to your nearest library or bookstore and pick up a copy of Chains to read.
Some of you were having to think to hard to come up with experiences to put on your resumes. Trust me, numchuck training or experience as a hit man won’t help you get a job. Neither will winning speed texting competitions of running a farm on Farmville. The good news is that you’re just finishing the eighth grade. You have time to gain experience. One great way to gain experience is to volunteer.
(Eighth grade response: What? You want me to work for nothing?) Yep, except even though you’re not getting paid cash, volunteering does have its benefits. Remember, you are gaining experience that employers will value. Besides, volunteering makes you feel good, and it’s an excellent cure for boredom.
Where can you volunteer? Just open your eyes and look around. Is there anyone in your family or neighborhood that could use a hand? Could you mow their lawn, rake leaves, walk and feed their pets, get their mail, spend time listening? Are you part of a group that performs service projects–church, Scouts, 4H, Builder’s Club (JCMS) or Key Club (JCHS)?
There are several community wide service projects that happen in Jennings County throughout the year. Next April look for information about the United Way Day of Caring. It’s one morning where groups work at various projects around the county. You might paint a house or garage for someone, clean up the park, or build a wheelchair ramp. The Friends of the Muscatatuck sponsor two River Clean-ups–one in April (usually 4th or last weekend) and one in October (usually first weekend).
Your local library also offers a teen volunteer program. Pick up an application from the Jennings County Public Library. You have to be in grades 7-12, fill out and application, and attend an orientation. There are three orientation sessions on June 3, 7, and 12. You only have to go to one. You can also volunteer as part of the Teen Advisory Board. Check out the Teen Page at the library for more things to do!
If you think you might be interested in a career in the medical field, check out the volunteer opportunities at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour. If you are fourteen and have finished the 8th grade, you can apply to be a Junior Volunteer. To get an application, email your name, address and phone number to Kim Varnell at kvarnell@schneckmed.org. You can also leave her a voice mail with the same information at 812-522-0439. She will mail you an application packet with instructions and important information about what is required to take part. You MUST attend the MANDATORY (no exceptions, no excuses) Orientation on June 7 (12-4 pm) in the auditorium at Schneck Hospital, located next to the Visitor Lobby. Come through the lobby by the gift shop.
If you like horses, there are many ways you can help out with Reins to Recovery. Volunteers can do anything from groom and saddle horses to shovelling out stalls, from taking pictures to walking beside clients as they ride. This therapeutic riding center uses horses and riding lessons to help people with physical, developmental, and emotional challenges. Volunteers must be at least thirteen, fill out an application, and complete training.
