"What Do You Stand For"-- Book Review by Matt

"At the Farm" (Narrative from guest author, Matt)

It was in the early spring on a Saturday noon. I was out into the country with my friend Graff, as we walked down the road We saw a man who was moving into a new house.

“Hello boys, Can you come over here and help me out?” Graff and I looked at each other.

“Sure.” we shouted running down his driveway. Graff was already friends with his new neighbor. I was a little shy around the new neighbor. 

“How can we help?” Graff said gently.

“Listen, I have to go somewhere to pick up some tools because I need to build my shed, and I need you boys to help me out with some work on the farm when I’m gone. Is that ok with you boys?” the man said. He looked stressed and in a hurry.

“Yes of course, we have nothing else to do.” I said.

The man ran inside and came back out side and handed us two sheets of paper of things to do.

“Thanks!” the man said as he jogged to his truck. “And make sure you don’t mess anything up, I’ll be back at 6 o clock.” He said as he drove away. Graff and I browsed down the list. Our eyes got bigger as we looked on the second page.

“Does he want us to finish everything on this list before he gets back?” Graff asked.

“Hope not” I said. “Now what do we do first?” I said.

“Well it says here the first thing to do is to clean up the trash in the field.” Graff said. I looked up to see the field.

“O-my.” I said. The field was huge and had so much trash in it. It had rappers and cups every where, and There was several old rusty tires that were stuck into the ground.

“Who used to live here?” I asked.

“I don’t know but I think the pile of empty beer cans out there explain a lot about what happened before they left.” Graff laughed. Graff and I ran towards the field with a trash can. The tires were around 80 pounds to get out of the ground. We dug under the tires with our hands then pulled them out. It took at least five to six minutes to dig under the tires. The tires didn’t fit in the garbage can so we had to roll it up the hill and lean it up against the wall. After the trash was picked up we dragged ourselves back to the house to see what was next.

“It’s already 1:26, What is next?” Graff said.

“Collect fire wood.” I read aloud. Graff and I both split up and searched around the farm for sticks and logs. We mostly traveled into the forest to find some wood. After we couldn’t find anymore fire wood we met back up and counted the wood.

“twenty-four logs and thirty-two sticks.” I said.

“NEXT, my back hurts.” Graff shouted.

“Man up! The next thing is to move the rocks behind the house.”

I said. I look around to see the pile of these big rocks up the man’s long drive way. Graff ran behind the house and picked up a wheel barrel and came back.

“Let’s do this.” Graff whispered. We walked all the way up the tall drive way up to the top. The wheel barrel was heavy. Graff held the wheel barrel as I put the rocks in the barrel. As soon as we walked down the hill the barrel shot out from Graff’s hands and the barrel rolled down the hill and crashed into the pile of logs, as rocks flew out onto the ground.

“Whoops!” Graff laughed.

“That’s not funny dude we have to get this work done before he comes back.” I snapped.

“I know.” Graff said. We walked back down the hill and put the rocks behind the house.

“Alright two chores down four more chores to go.” I said proudly. “Next we have to organize the pile of wood, screws, bolts, and screw drivers.” I said slowly. He gave us a list of how much wood, screws, bolts, and screw drivers there were. Graff and I walked around the farm a few times till we found the pile of stuff. We organized the wood first then the screws then the bolts, and last screw drivers.

“I’m tiered of working!” Graff shouted. Graff lays down all sweaty from the sun.

“No we are not going to quit! We have just one more chore to do. The man will be home in an hour.” I said.

“Fine!” Graff said giving me an ugly look.

“The last chore is not even hard. All we have to do is just pull weeds out of the field.” I said taking deep breaths.

“I hardly saw any weeds out in the field earlier” Graff said. He lifted his head then we walked out into the field, By then the sun was just setting.

“Hurry Graff it’s getting dark.” I shouted. We poked our heads out into the field. There were weeds every where.

“Not hard PUH!!” Graff said giving me an ugly look. I shrugged my shoulders and walked down the hill.

“It is already five thirty.” I said. We started pulling weeds here and there and every where, I also I had to make several trips to the trash can to throw away the handfuls of weeds. After 20 minutes most the weeds were gone. Graff and I dragged ourselves up the hill and sat down. Our backs hurt so much from bending over. The man drove down the drive way parking his truck.

“Hey boys!” the man shouted then he stopped and looked around. “I didn’t say you had to do all of it.” He said. “I was just expecting you to pick up trash and that’s it.” Graff looked over at me really angry. “You boys had done a lot of work! You two deserve something special.” The man walked over and handed us $40 each.

“Wow thanks!” Graff said as he jumped right up. At that moment I learned something. I learned that you should always complete task and objectives even if you don’t know your goal then it could lead you into better things.

Student Blogs Go Live

Along the right side of this page, you will find the links to newly-created individual student blogs.  Many already have writing published for you to check out!  Comment and let the authors know what you think.

Transfer Task #2: Comparing Authors' Viewpoints

 This Week's Guest Author: Katie K.

This week, our class completed a second transfer task, where we compared and contrasted 2 different pieces of text based on current world issues.
I decided that my world issue would be the "No Child Left Behind" act. This bill was proposed to Congress, and signed by Former President George W. Bush by January of 2002. The bill requires every state to set achievement standards and reachable goals for all public school students. Then, each year, students are assessed on their goal achievement with standardized testing. For Missouri, the test is the MAP, taken each year by public school students in grades 3-8. This helps the government focus on narrowing the achievement between the proficient students, and the minority students that are falling behind. This also is showing the government the accountability of the education coming from teachers. It also gives students that are falling behind the option of school choice if they are attending a consistently low-performing school. This bill encourages teachers to "teach to the test" so students are learning and correctly preparing for the state test. Last year, the Obama Administration proposed a deal to congress to overhaul the law, due to the fact that many believe that NCLB has failed to improve schools in the United States. I agree that every child counts and that every student deserves great education for a successful future.
I related this issue to "The Lighthing Thief", which I recently finished. Percy was both dyslexic and diagnosed with ADHD, and was consistently performing poorly in his school. I inferred that Percy had already been "left behind" by his school, and should have been taught in a way that he could understand better, which I believe should be required for every student in America.

What do you think? Do you think NCLB has raised education quality in the U.S. What are some pros and cons?

What world issue did read about? How did the authors' viewpoints of your two pieces of text compare and contrast? 

-Katie

Today's Guest Author: Alyssa

The Transfer Task was an assignment that asked the questions:

"What world issues are hidden in a text?"

"How do I use text to understand and evaluate the world issues in a story?"

Our goal was to identify a world issue in a piece of fiction in something we have read this year. Then, find a non-fiction article about the same world issue. Lastly, we would cite text evidence to make inferences that show how the two texts support each other.

The fiction text I used in this project was Beautiful Creatures by Kami Carcia and Margaret Stohl, a book about a boy, Ethan, who falls in love with a girl in his dreams, Lena, who comes to his town and is rendered a freak by the popular crowd in his highschool. The non-fiction text was an article from the Los Angeles Times titled, "Study Links Teen Bullying to Social Status." The world issue these texts both showed was bullying and excluding people in school.

Here's how I mapped out my connection between the texts:



*Correction: "Combating bullying in schools is targeting social hierarchies."*

What kind of world issues did you find in your articles? How did they connect? What book did you read to find the world issue?

- Alyssa

Book Recommendations

Great start to the class blog!  Thanks to everyone who contributed your ideas about what makes a good book. Feel free to add to that discussion at any time or share how your thinking evolves on that topic.  But now let's get specific.  What have you read recently that would you recommend to others with similar reading interests?

I'll get us started:

One great new book I read this summer was The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen.  I was intrigued when I found out this book was coming out because not only had I just started running again myself, but I had also recently read and really enjoyed Van Draanen's earlier book, Runaway (a story about a teenage girl who left home to figure out how  to make it on the streets alone).  What could be better than a book by a trusted author on a topic of personal interest? So I put in my request for The Running Dream at my local library and, when I finally got my hands on a copy, I was not disappointed.  In The Running Dream, Van Draanen shares the story of a girl named Jessica who loses a leg in a car accident on the way back from setting a record at a high school track meet.  We get to follow Jessica's inner thoughts as she comes to terms with her tragedy and searches for a way to run again.  While the style of The Running Dream is a little more traditional than that of Runaway (which is made up of the main character's journal entries), both books share similar subject matter as they both include main characters who are teenagers dealing with intensely difficult and unusual situations.  One of the reasons I like Van Draanen's books is that they help me build empathy for those whose lives are much harder than my own.  I think a lot of you would enjoy The Running Dream or Runaway for similar reasons.

What else can you all recommend? 

What Makes a Good Book?

Last week, students were given reading surveys in which they responded to the question: "Do you like to read? Why or why not?"  There were many interesting comments about why we like to read.  Here are just a few:

"It's like watching a movie, but I can visualize it in my own way."
"It makes me think about how my life compares to the characters' lives."
"It takes me into another world."
"It takes me to new places and expands my vocabulary."
"It's a good way to pass the time."
"It inspires me to write."

However, by far the most common response to the question was something along the lines of:

"I like to read, but only if I'm reading a good book."

So what makes a book a good book?  How do you find one?  Leave comments with your responses.
(Try to add something new to the conversation or expand on what others have written.)