TKAM Blog - 12/17/15

To Kill a Mockingbird 

Author: Harper Lee

Pages: 0-281 (End)

Prompt: Select a quote from your reading that you liked. What made you pick it? How

does it make you pause and think?

        They are many quotes throughout To Kill a Mockingbird that will make the reader stop and think, but there's one that I liked and related to the most. The quote I'm choosing for this blog is, "I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having take part in what just have been sheer torment tom Arthur Radley—what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering greetings on the end of a fishing-pole, wandering in his collards at night," which was said by Scout.

        I picked this quote because I could relate to doing this. This quote shows how Scout reflected on what she has done to Arthur Radley, also known as Boo Radley. I seem to always be reflecting I did that day or something that happened months ago. I haven't tormented someone like what Scout, Jem, and Dill did, but I have reflected on what I have done with other people or to other people.

        This quote made me pause and think for two reasons. One of them being the fact I can relate to this moment. The other is it shows how Scout is growing up. When they were first doing all the things to Boo she thought it wasn't making tormenting him and was fine to do. From this quote you can see that she realizes that what she did was wrong and feels bad for doing it. This also shows one of the many themes of the book which is coming of age.

TKAM Character Relationship Blog - 12/3/15

Prompt: Think about the two characters in each pair below.  Note at least two ways they are alike and two ways they are different. From there, decide what relationship each has with Scout and what effect they have on her. You only need to choose one pair to blog about.

        In this blog I am going to compare and contrast the characters Miss Maudie and Calpurnia. These characters have similarities and differences. One thing that is similar about them is they both act like a mother figure for Scout. Since Scout's mother died when she was really young she didn't remember her mother she never had a mother. Calpurnia and Miss Maudie filled that gap and acted like a mother for Scout. Another thing the two have in common is they are both nice people to everyone. From what I read Miss Maudie and Calpurnia haven't hurt anybody in any way.

        Though these characters have their similarities they have their differences, too. One difference about the two is their relationship with the Finch family. Calpurnia considered family in the eyes of Scout, Jem, and Atticus. Miss Maudie is their neighbor and a good friend of them. Another thing that's different about Miss Maudie and Calpurnia is their race. They race affects how they are treated in the book and what they have. The church that Calpurnia goes to is poorer than the one Miss Maudie goes to. It's described as, "... was unceiled and unpainted within."

        Miss Maudie and Calpurnia have a good relationship with Scout and her family. Like I mentioned earlier Calpurnia is like family to the Finches and a mother to Jem and Scout. Scout can also go to Calpurnia is she feels lonely. Miss Maudie is their neighbor, but Scout can got to her, too, if she feels lonely. Miss Maudie is also a good friend to Scout's father, Atticus.

        Both of these character have effected Scout throughout the book. Both Miss Maudie and Calpurnia have been helping Scout when she had questions or was just lonely. For example, when Scout asked Miss Maudie about Atticus and what he can do. They also showed Scout what was right and wrong to do.  

TKAM Setting Blog - 11/24/15

 Evans, Walker. Sidewalk Scene in Selma, Alabama. 1935. Library of Congress, Selma, AL. 

 

Prompt: You will be selecting a photograph that represents your idea of Maycomb, AL based on Harper Lee’s description. Incorporating the different criteria from the Visual Literacy Guide, write a thoughtful, thorough, and well constructed response relating the photograph to Maycomb, AL.

        In class we started to read the novel To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, which takes place in Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is described as,"...a tired old town," where,"...grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square." This shows that Maycomb wasn't like a big active city and that it was poorly taken care of. Scout, the main character, also said that her father, Atticus, knew everybody by blood or marriage. This means that the town was also a small town, once again showing it's not a city. I went off of these descriptions pick my photo.

        The first thing I noticed were the prices written on the grocery store. In TKAM they mention prices for food being in the cents. For instance, Miss Caroline insisted that Walter should take a quarter and said,"Go and eat downtown today," showing that the prices and time periods are close together. In the picture it looks like a sign is knocked over and the paint is chipping away on the wall. This can mean that the town isn't that clean and taken care of.

        I also noticed that the sidewalk and street is smooth. Scout said,"In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop," this shows that the streets are made of clay. From what I already know clay is a really smooth material, the street and sidewalk look really smooth in this picture, so it could be made of clay. In the picture you can also see that the men are just sitting around outside and nobody is walking by in this picture. I think this can be the town not being active or the towns population isn't that great, like Maycomb

Theme Blog - 11/19/15

The Eleventh Plague

11/19/15

Pages: 148-222

Spoiler Alert

        The book The Eleventh Plague has many themes throughout it, but there are two big ones survival and war. I will focus on survival because the theme of war doesn't show as much the further into the book you get. Since this focuses on theme there might be some spoilers. As you read the book you see the main character, Stephen, wants to survive and start a new life.

        At the beginning of the book Stephen wants to continue surviving with his father. He wants to start a new life. They have to survive the winter, injuries, hunger, and most importantly the disease, P11. His father later gets a concussion and they are helped by a settlement. Now Stephen has help from the settlement, but in a way he still has to survive. He has never had contact with other kids his age, so he has to adjust to their living style and he has to think about the future of him and his father when his father recovers.

        This theme was introduced from the plot. This story follows Stephen as he tries to survive after a war caused P11, a very strong and deadly strain of influenza. This caused many people to die and left others to survive in very harsh conditions. Stephen survived this becuase he was born after the war, so  he has to survive the aftermath not the war.

1st Quarter Reflection

1st Quarter Reflection

10/29/15

       I think this quarter went by really smooth. I think this quarter went by smoothly because I used skills to help with my learning that I didn't use last year. I used metacognition, or thinking about your thinking, a lot more this year when it comes to assignments, projects, and lessons. It helped focus on what I was struggling with and not what I already knew. That made it feel like the whole day go by faster. Another thing I that I think helped was organization when it comes to document and paper. Every class that has multiple documents or papers has a folder. This helped me find stuff easily if I needed it.

        This quarter I learned good about current world conflicts and past world conflicts. We learned a lot about refugees, especially Syrian refugee. We read a book Of Beetles and Angles, which was a memior about a refugee. We also read and shared various articles about refugees. I also learned about banned or challenged book this quarter. We did research on a book and we had a gallery walk showing all the books. It was interesting to see books like Harry Potter and Green Eggs and Ham being banned and challenge.

        I think my research skills have gotten better this year. I've done a lot of research this year so I'm slowly improving. Now I use multiple sources and I will check publish or last edited dates. Last year I don't think I ever checked that, so that's a improvement. Before I also would use Wikipedia and only that. Now I use the resources listed on Wikipedia and I mostly try to stay away from it.

The Eleventh Plague - 10/14/15

The Eleventh Plague

Author: Jeff Hirsch

Pages: 0 - 148

Prompt: Analyze what motivates the main character’s behavior

SPOILER ALERT

        Stephen's, the main character, behavior at the beginning of the book was motivated by his grandpa and dad. His behavior is also affected by the post-war setting throughout the book, but I'm going to focus on the grandpa and dad. Stephen's behavior was mainly motivated by his grandpa. His grandpa had a lot rules set for Stephen and his dad. They would always make at least one mistake, even while doing the simplist of tasks. The way his grandpa would punish Stephen and his dad was by slapping them. After his grandpa died he was motivated by someone else, his dad.

       After the grandpa died Stephen and his dad behavior changed. They would always question their actions because of the impact the grandpa had on them. They were stuck in the way of thinking, but they would say to their self that he isn't here anymore. It is a little messed up that they said that to theirselves, but they had to take risks. Once again, Stephen's motivation would change after his dad fell into a coma.

        Now Stephen is motivated by his surroundings. He gets taken in by a town of people that was created. They hospitalized his dad and they take care of Stephen. They give him food, water, clothes, etc., since they are that nice he doesn't want to get thrown out of town. He has to now resist his instinct to loot and fight. He also has to adjust to living with many people.

        

OBAA and AoW Comparison 9/24/15

Prompts: Analyze how Of Beetles and Angels and your AoW make connections or distinctions between individuals, ideas and/or events. How does war affect individuals and societies?

9/24/15

        The book Of Beetles and Angles(OBAA) and the article,"Kerry says U.S. will take 85,000 refugees next year; 100,000 in '17" have their similarities and differences. One of the similarities was an idea of what another country was like. In OBAA the Sudanese refugees and Mawi's family thought of America as a paradise. In the book Mawi's father, Haileab says,"...a paradise called Amerikha, a distant land where everyone had a future." This idea of another country is very similar to a mother mentioned in the article. The mother was a Syrian refugee,but moved to Germany. She moved to Germany,"...in search of a future," which was the same reason as Mawi's family.

        Another similarity between these two pieces of writing is some of events that happened. In OBAA Mawi's family became refugees because of a war. Mawi's family was situated in the middle of the war between Ethopia and Eritrea. Since, they were where there Mawi, age three, and his family had to walk to Sudan. In the article,"Kerry says U.S. will take 85,000 refugees next year; 100,000 in '17" the
refugees that are being moved to the U.S. are from Africa and Syria. Syria at the moment is going through a civil war causing many to flee the country. Africa is also going through a war creating even more refugees. In all, the refugees in OBAA and the article are both created from countries in war.

        War can affect individuals and societies greatly. A family or individual's life can change completely. For instance, in OBAA Mawi and his family came from a refugee camp with little food and clean water to America with a surplus of all of that. A place with very little technology to a place where they were surrounded by technology They also had to to leave some of their friends and their culture. Societies are affected by war because they fall apart. The article says,"...mass migration of Syrians fleeing their civil war." If all of this is going on a country there must be anarchy in that country. There would be anarchy because the authorities are focused on the war and not the citizens.