- Label your blog entry with the title of your novel (both in your journal and on the website).
- Read the prompt carefully noticing all requirements for the entry.
- Plan your response in your journal first. Blog-only answers may not receive credit.
- Read existing posts before creating your own to avoid posting the same idea. If someone has already taken your idea, don't simply post it again. Instead, respond to the previous post, adding information, giving new examples, or expanding upon the idea.
REFLECTION/BLOG: In this assignment, you will reflect on your experience of both reading the book and completing the assignments and write a blog entry for the novel on the school website. You may choose any topic that you are interested in, or respond to someone else’s blog. While blogs may seem informal, they require that you edit and revise before you PUBLISH. In your Journal, write a blog and revise it. Then, post the blog on the website
I really enjoyed reading That Summer by Sarah Dessen. While reading this book, I realized that the protagonist, Haven, has a life much similar to mine. We both experienced many of the same circumstances, and we were both kind of forced to grow up and mature, whether we liked it or not. However, I learned some valuable lessons from this novel, ones that I want to remember for the rest of my life. While completing the assignments for this extra credit reading assignment, the work didn't trouble me. That is because I didn't feel as if I was just completing work, I felt as if I were making myself a better person.
ReplyDelete~Brianna Albritton, rising 10 grader
The five people you meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom
ReplyDeleteI'm going to start off by saying, this book was definitely a challenge. Not because of vocabulary, or understanding the words on the page, but really understanding what Mr. Albom was trying to show the reader. Mr. Albom did a great job in this book, bringing the emotion off the page. Almost every chapter the emotion changes, from fear for his life, to sympathy for his loss, to anger for how he's reacting. Not only, did I enjoy reading this book, but it changed me. I can't explain it, but it did. Even more than reading the book, I enjoyed finishing the assignments. Not only, did it give me a chance to voice my ideas about the book, but it kept me thinking, in the middle of summer.
Really looking forward to this year!
-Jessica Brewer, Rising 9th grader.
Monster, by Walter Dean Myers.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the book, Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Not only was it an interesting story but the unique way it is written makes it even more captivating. The book is written in a play-write form in the point-of-view of Steve Harmon, a sixteen year old on trial for murder. I couldn’t put the book down once I started reading. Its so interesting to read about what happens in trial, jail, and everything in between from someone actually going through it. Being that the book is written in play form, I can see how it would be difficult for some people to really get into it but it actually a really intriguing story once you get used to the format of the story. I enjoyed doing the assignment because they didn’t really seem like work. Basically, it just seemed like I was writing down my ideas about what happened in the book.
Life of Pi,by Yann Martel
ReplyDelete"My suffering left me sad and gloomy." That's the first sentence of the novel,and it gets straight to the point.Piscine Patel,better known as,Pi Patel,is a Christian,Muslim,and a Hindu all at the same time.He needs all of his faith to keep him alive when his father closes down the Zoo he owned most of Pi's Childhood,and decides to move to Canada,from India. Pi's family brings some of the animals from the Zoo with them,so when the ship sinks,Pi is tossed into a life boat with a hyena in it. This is because He thought the officers who had opened the cages were trying to save him,but they really wanted him to make the life boat safe for them to escape.A frantic Zebra jumps onto the life boat,causing it to go crashing down onto the murky Pacific down below. Later Pi sees a tiger from the Zoo drowning in the ocean,and without thinking pulls him on board. Soon after that an Orangutan is rescued. The hyena kills and eats the Zebra,and the Orangutan.Then the hyena is killed,and is supper for the tiger,so its Pi,and the Tiger all alone in the middle of the pacific. Life of Pi is the incredible story of their survival.With meerkats,sharks, carnivorous algae and trees,and lots of grim moments, the Life of Pi has no dull moments. I shuddered in horror at some parts,wanted to throw something at others,and felt like crying at several other parts. This book helped me be even more grateful for what I have,and kept me up all hours of the night obliging its request to be read. This book showed me what living things are capable of doing to stay alive,and showed me just how precious life is.Yann Martel did an outstanding job of describing Pi's emotions,and suffering,admittedly a little to well at times,but it was a great,and grim story.
~ Eleanor Hume Rising 9th grader
“The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Twain
ReplyDeleteFor this assignment, I read “The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Twain. I started reading thinking that it would be boring and dry just like most other so called “classics” tend to be. I was very pleasantly surprised, then, as you could imagine, to find that it was NOT a boring story whatsoever, and that it was actually quite entertaining. The characters are always extreme in their actions and personalities, and always seem to be in the middle of the most bizarre situations. But above all, “The Prince” was a morality tale. The story tells very accurately and passionately of one of the most unequal and harsh times in history… both in its version of justice, where 233 (!) crimes were punishable by death and people were brought to trial on no evidence whatsoever or on such ludicrous charges as “selling their souls to the devil” and in its characters…Tom Canty, the beggar boy, symbolizes mot of urban England at the time, and Prince Edward (who actually WAS a prince and later king, son of the infamous Henry VIII). This book is well worth reading, and I highly recommend it.