Readers Journal #23

Reader’s Journal #23

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            I am currently reading the book “Bull Run” by Paul Fleischman. A Quote I found in this book is “ to be a Negro living in the midst of white, unknown to them, is to be a ghost spying on the living.” First what I think this quote means is that the white think of the blacks as an enemy, an enemy that is just spying on the whites where the whites act as if they don’t notice. The reason I picked this passage is because it has a great influence on what it is the book is trying to say. The significance of this quote is that you should never judge someone on the way they look, but by the way they look on the inside.

            There were six things I did before, while, and after reading this book (two for each). First there were two things I did before reading this book. One thing I did before reading this book is I skim and scanned, looking at and thinking about title, subtitles, heading, captions, illustrations, photos, graphs, and bold, italicized, underline words, and other text features. Another thing I did before reading this book is I identified knowledge and experience I already have with the topic.

            Second there were two things I did while reading this book. One thing I did while reading this book is I thought about information the author provides me and information I gathered from “between the lines.” Another thing I did while reading this book is I made connection and asked myself how does this book/characters remind me of my life, reminds me of another book I have read, and relate to the world I live in.

            Third there would be two things I did after reading this book, but I haven’t finished reading it yet.

            The genre of this book is historical fiction. The characteristics of this book being historical fiction are that it contains events of some people and their opinions in history. There were a lot of characters in this book with and important events in their life. Most of this book was taken place between the 1800’s to the 1900’s. The weather conditions were not at all included in any of the events.

            The events of the people in this article are too short for a plot structure therefore I will provide a summary for on of the short stories. Gideon Adams was a black man in the southern army where was ignored, tormented, and surrounded by whites. Some times he thinks that he just joined the southern army by mistake. He heard dreadful things about him like people would rather kill him then the rebels. Most of this event is just complains, sorrows, and unsatisfying things about Gideon Adams. The conflict in this is that people (whites) didn’t like, admire, or appreciate what it is he did for the army (external, character vs. society).

            The tone in this book is to say no to racism. The mood is very sad with all of the hatred the whites would used to bring to the blacks. The theme/motif is don’t hate some one because they are not like you. The point of view of all the short stories in this book is first person. The pattern of organization for this book is flashback. The author’s purpose for writing this book is to explain to readers how black people felt when they were either abused or made fun of. The author perspective is (objective, biased) that blacks were no different then the whites and the way that whites thought of them was wrong.

            If I was in one of the characters shoes I would be very scared where it might even lead to me getting hurt. I would be scared out of my mind and feel helpless with the way people would think of me. I think that everybody 10 and up should read this especially to change their thoughts of other people.

            Since I am not done with the book I cannot give it a complete rate but so far I would give it a nine out of ten because there isn’t enough written from each character but other then that I am loving the book with all of its convincing and inspiring details.

                                                Sincerely,       

                                                            Ofek Peer

Current Event #7

Title: Should driving age be raised to 18?

Author: Alex Koroknay Paliez and John D’Amico

Source: The New York Times “Upfront”

The topic of the article is the pros and cons of teenage driving.

The main idea of the article is: (stated) “Should The Driving Age Be Raised To 18?

 The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform people on why the driving age should be moved up and why it shouldn’t.

The author’s perspective in this article isn’t subjective or objective since the article include both why it should and why it shouldn’t.

The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support.

 The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is  because the author has an argument and then wrote supporting facts for it.

 The text features included in the article are: Title, Sub-Title and bolded words. Title helps by giving a buzz about the following article, Sub-Title helps by giving a buzz about the following passage, and bolded words helps by showing the important words.

This article is about (a summary in your own words) why a certain  law should be made and it shouldn’t be made. This law is to increase the age of people to be able to to drive to the age of 18. According to the article it all started with 4 teenagers who got into a harsh car accident. In my opinion I think that this law shouldn’t be made. The reason is because being able to drive shouldn’t go according to your age. It should go according to your experience.

Current Events Journal

The significance (importance) of this article is the way the article was broken into pros and cons.

What I learned from this article is that people shouldn’t be punished for others actions no matter what situation it is(under the “no” section).

What I liked about this article is that it is broken down into why “yes” and why “no.”

What I did not like about it is that there wasn’t enough information under any of the sub-titles.

Mostly kids under 18 should read this article because they are eventually going to reach the age of driving.

This article reminds me of:

(text-to-self)- My brother who is now learning to drive and is close to getting his drivers license.

(text-to-text)- The book Fast and Furious where it is about a lot of crazy drivers.

(text-to-world)-The teenagers in the US who cant wait to get their license and then hear that they have to wait another 2 years for the blame of others. New vocabulary I learned

Words	Context Clues	Meaning
Controversial	This idea is	An argument
Pedestrian	The rest were	A walker
Burdensome	To parents	heavy

Current Event #6

Title: “I Have a Dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Author: Martin Luther King Jr.

Source: internet speech

The topic of the article is Marin Luther Kings speech.

The main idea of the article is: And when this happens [applause continues], when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city (Yes), we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual (stated).

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform readers on Martin Luther king JR’s speech of ending segregation and starting integration.

The author’s perspective in this article is objective (biased) because he is fighting for his right, to end segregation.

 The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support because he says that he wants to end segregation and then says why he wants to.

 The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is because it is something that he is fighting for and has supports facts (factual and sensory) of why.

The text features included in the article are: topic and bolded/ italicized words. The topic helps by giving the author a buzz about what the article, book, magazine etc. will be about and the italic/bolded words helps by stating important words.

This article is about Marting Luther Kings Jr and speech which effect so many people. His dream was white people, black people, Jewish people, gentiles, etc. can all come together. This is all he dreamed about. For all people to have equal rights and not to be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. In this speech he included real life examples in relation to his dream and why he wants it to come true.

Current Events Journal

The significance (importance) of this article is that it got into people, it gave them confidents to fight for their rights and when they should be satisfied.

What I learned from this article is that Martin Luther King really loved and wanted equal rights not only for him but for his people, and also all of the confidence he had in himself. What I liked about this article is that the Martin Luther King didn’t give up on what he believed in, he kept fighting and even had other people by his side fighting for that too.

What I did not like about it (nothing I didn’t like)

Who should read this article and why every person who is able to read should read this, especially kids 17 and younger because this article shows the amount of power Martin Luther King had mentally, which would also be a good role model for them.

 This article reminds me of (text-to-self) of my dad because he came from Israel with not such a good educations and ended up very successful raising a family of five.

This article reminds me of (text-to-text) Malcom-X, another freedom fighter, who was black changed his religion to Islam and still also fought for his rights.

This article reminds me of (text-to-world) all the freedom fighters during the civil war.

Devotees	People who give up	Those people
Lodging	Accommodations in a house	Cannot gain
Righteous(ness)	Characterized by uprightness	Roles down like

Readers Journal #22

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            I have just finished reading the book “George Washington Our First Leader” by Augusta Stevenson. The reason I picked this book is because George Washington was our first president and I barely knew anything about him so I decided to read about him. The significance of this book is that it’s about George from when he was just a little boy and how his childhood went.   

               There were 6 things I did before while and after reading this book. First there were 2 things I did before reading this book. One thing I did before reading this book is I skim and scanned for text features throughout the book. Another thing I did before reading this book is I read the synopsis to try and figure out the main conflict about this book.

            Second there were 2 things I did while reading this book. One thing I did while reading this book is I imagined everything that happened in the book. Another thing that I did while reading this book is compared the way they lived back then to the way I live today.

            Third there were 2 things I did after reading this book. One thing I did after reading this book is I thought briefly on what I have read throughout the story. Another thing I did after reading this book is I asked myself id had learned something about George Washington.

            This book is non-fiction biography because it is a book on another persons childhood. The main idea of this book is if you follow, fight, and believe in something it will occur(implied). If I would give this book a title I would say “someone we will remember because he will be remembered for his great talent and bravery. The essential message of this book is not to give up. As the book start the a sheriff had asked the people to move in which they didn’t move(cause) and almost got hit by the barrels(effect). Text features I found in this article are drawings, title, and sub-title. The drawings show gives an image to the reader in order to get a better understanding of what it is he/she is reading. The title helps by giving the reader a buzz about the whole book in just 1-5 words. A sub-title helps by giving a read a buzz about what the upcoming passage will be about. The pattern of organization of this book is flashback because it is looking back into ones life. The author’s purpose for writing this book is to inform readers on George Washington’s life. The author’s perspective isn’t included in this book since it is about another life. The point of view in this book is third person objective. I didn’t find any figurative language in this book. Since this was a 6 grade level book there wasn’t any words I didn’t understand.            

            (text-to-self)- This reminds me of my dad since he also didn’t give up in his life no matter what it was he went through.

            (text –to-text) This reminds me of the book Mike Lupica the million dollar throw since it is about a boy who had a rough childhood but had a lot of passion for football and ended up winning a million dollars off a throw in a pro football games(half time show).

            (text-to-world) this book reminds me of all the other successful people in the world who had rough childhoods like Chicharito who was found playing soccer in the streets of Mexico next to his some house(found by the best coach in the world from England).

            If was to rate this book out of 10 I would rate it a 9 since the whole book itself wasn’t so interesting but still fun to read.

                                                Sincerely,

                                                            Ofek Peer

                                                                                

Readers Journal #21

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

I have already finished reading the informational book called “The Holocaust Chronicle” by Louis Weber. The reason I picked this book is because I am Jewish, I don’t know much about the holocaust, and thought this would be a great opportunity to learn. The significance of this book is that it is about 3 inches thick and has all factual information about the holocaust.

There were 6 things I did before, while, and after reading this book. First there were 2 things I did before reading this book. One thing I did was I skim and scanned through the whole book for text features. Another thing I did before reading this book is I read the synopsis so that I will get examples of what would be in the book.

Second there were 2 things I did while reading this book. One thing I did while reading this book is I compared some of the scenes to my life and realized how lucky I a to be hear to day. Another thing I did while reading this book is I imagined every scene that happened in my mind as if it were a movie.

Third there were two things I did after reading this book. One thing I did after reading this book is I went back what I didn’t understand. Another thing I did after reading this book is I tried memorizing a lot of facts that I learned in this article.

This book is non-fiction informational. The reason this is informational is because the book has real facts from the past. A summary statement for this would just be the holocaust(stated). If I were to give this book another title, I would title it “What Happened During The holocaust?” because the whole book is about what happened during the holocaust. The essential message the book is trying to give is facts about the holocaust. (cause) Adolf Hitler wanted all of the Jews to convert to Christianity (effect) since they refused he killed a lot of them. One way I can compare me and Adolf Hitler is I respect everyone around me, their religion, and I don’t judge people.

Text Features:

1.    Photographs: shows a real life picture of what the book is trying to say.

2.    Bolded words: important words

3.    Captions: describes a picture or photograph

There were no other text features. The pattern of organization of this book is chronological order. The reason the pattern of organization of this book chronological order is because it says everything in time order. The author’s purpose of writing this book is to teach the readers about the holocaust. The authors perspective is not included since the whole book was facts and no opinions. This book’s point of view is third person objective.

Text to self- this reminds of how every year the Jews (me) are reminded of this day and have a ceremony for those people who will never be forgotten.

Text to text- this book reminds me of the book the boy in the striped pajama, which is also about the holocaust.

Text to world- this book reminds me of the people that are losing their lives for no reason.

      If I was in any of the peoples shoes/place I would be scared out of my mind and commit suicide. I recommend this book to all ages since it is informational.

If I was to rate this book I would rate it out of 10 I would give it a 10 out of 10 since all of the information was valid accurate plus I didn’t have one question.

                                                Sincerely,

                                                            Ofek Peer

Current Event #5

Title: To Preserve History On The Moon, Visitors Are Asked To Tread Lightly  

Author: Kenneth Chang       

Source: Internet

The topic of the article is history on the moon

The main idea of the article is if it is possible for history on the moon (implied)

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform readers on research for moon preservation

The author’s perspective in this article is objective, biased because she is writing pros and  not cons about preservation on the moon.

The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support because she provides a quote and then adds supporting details/ facts about it.

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is because if you quote something it must be supported

The text features included in the article are:

Title and bolded words. Titles helps by explaining a short summary of a something in a few words and bolded words helps by showing an important word of the sentence.

This article is about preserving history on the moon. It started 1999 when a student had asked DR. O’Leary whether federal preservation laws provide applied to the Apollo landing sites. Then she started getting interested on preservation to the moon.

Current Events Journal

The significance of this article is that for a long time people are studying the moon and now are looking for preserving it.

What I learned from this article is that life on thmoon is possible.

 What I liked about this article is how all of the facts were accurate and it also answered most of my questions.

What I did not like about it is that the author didn’t include all of the cons and risks us humans can be taking for this task.

Who should read this article is astronomers because this will get them interested and it can effect the people studying this in a good way.

This article reminds me of:

(text-to-self) when I always wished to step foot on the moon.

 (text-to-text) the book stinkers return which is about an alien from the moon.

(text-to-world) of all the people studying and all of my fiends who plan on studying this when they grow up.

Sovereign	a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler	Alexander the great was a great sovereign.
Anthropology	the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind.	Anthropology is deals with origins physical and cultural development of human kind.
Farfetched	improbable; not naturally pertinent; being only remotely connected; forced; strained	I gave a farfetched example to prove my point.

Current Event #4

Title: Booking a Flight To Space, With Insurance     

Author: Kenneth Chang

Source: Internet

The topic of the article is space-traveling insurance 

The main idea of the article is: if it is possible to have passengers to go to the moon (implied)

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to explain readers the possibilities of space traveling, the cost, and the requirements.

The author’s perspective in this article is objective (biased) because the tone of her writing gives the readers a message that she supports the fact of families traveling to space considering she didn’t include any risks.

The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support.

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is because she writes something and gives supporting facts (strong argument)

The text features included in the article are: Bolded words and topics. Bolded words helps by giving the reader the message of an important word, phrase or, sentence, topics helps by telling the readers the main idea of a certain passage or paragraph. This article is about certain people (people who study a lot of the moon) want to turn their business around and have people taking a spaceship to the moon. According to the article the estimated price for this would be $200,000. “It’ll be just like scheduling a flight to L.A.” say Ms. Garrett, which means while we get closer to the future it will be that easy.

Current Events JournalThe significance (importance) of this article is that people are inform people that later in the future people will be able to book a flight to the moon as their vacation.

What I learned from this article is that now that people are more advance at studying not only the moon but also the solar system, where we might also be able to send families to explore it for themselves.

What I liked about this article is that it included all of the good effects it has on humans.

What I did not like about it is how the author included all the pros and good effects that it did not include all of the cons and risks we will be taking.

The kind of people that I think should read this article are the business makers interested in the moon like Russia if wher they might be able to get a great idea out of it.

This article reminds me of (text-to-self) my friend Eric who always wanted to go to the moon and explore it with his own eyes.

This article reminds me of (text-to-text) the book exploring the moon which includes pictures, descriptions, and even a couple parts f the moon.

This article reminds me of (text-to-world) the movies transformers which is about aliens from space and their ship that crashed on the moon.

Readers Journal #19

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            I am still reading the 300-page science fiction book “Stinkers Return” by Pamela F. service. The reason I picked this book was because it looked like the most interesting book on the rack in the library since it had a very catchy synopsis. The significance of the passage to the book is that it talks about aliens and other fiction imaginary scenes.

            There were six things I did before, while, and after reading this book. First there were two things I did before reading this book. One thing I did before reading this book I looked closely at the front cover of the book and thought about what it could be about. One observation that I noticed was the Washington memorial which gave me an idea that the setting will be in Washington D.C. The second thing I did before reading this book is skim and scanned through the book looking for text features.

            Second there were 2 things I did while reading this book. One thing I did while reading this book was I imagined every scene in my mind as if it were a movie. Another thing I did while reading this book is after every chapter I thought about what happened and if I didn’t understand a certain part I would go back and read it again.

            Since I did not finish reading this book I cannot say what I did after reading this book.

            The genre of this book is science fiction. The characteristics of this book being science fiction is that it is mostly about aliens and space. The characters in this book are Karen, Jonathan, and stinker. So far most of this story takes place in Washington D.C. The time is around 1993. I am just guessing since the book was made in 1993. The weather conditions are not included but probably sunny since the characters are outside a lot. The social conditions are too not included.            

            (Exposition) the story starts with introducing the characters such as stinky, the alien who faked as skunk, Jonathan, and Karen. Stinky has crashed on Earth and needs to find his way home. With stinkers computer skills he borrows a shuttle flight. (Rising Action) Now stinker has returned and is enlisted the help of Karen and Jonathan on an important mission. They must find a uniquely earthly. While they are on the search around the nations capitol police for the disappearance of the space shuttle is also following them. This is how far I go into the book and I hope to get higher.

            The tone of this book is very imaginative/creative. The mood is very interested and curious. The theme, motif, and moral aren’t possible to say since I am not yet finished with the book. The pint of view of this book is third person. The pattern of organization is conflict and resolution. The author’s purpose for writing this book is to entertain the reader with imaginative scenes. The author’s perspective is objective, biased. 

            If I were in the author’s shoes I would never think of anything in order to handle a situation like this. I would also recommend this book so far mainly to six graders since everything is a little bit too childish.

                                    Sincerely,

                                                Ofek Peer

readers journal #18

Dear Mrs. Zrihen

          The title of the book that I had just finished reading was “ The true confession of Charlotte Doyle”. The author of this astonishing book is “Avi.” The main reason I chose to read this book was first because it was a good amount of pages for a 7th grader and the second reason I picked out this book was because it was given a Newberry Honors award. The significants of the passage is how an intelligent young woman understands the true meaning of hard work, fairness, care, etc. There were 2 things that I did right before I read this book. First I read the synopsis on the back to get a thought of what the book will be about. The second thing I did before I read this book is I stared at the front cover illustration where I thought about what would probably be in this book. I also did 2 things while reading this book. One thing I did was I pictured everything that I read in my mind. The second thing I did while reading this book is I tried memorize what happened write after each and every chapter. Last, I did 2 things after reading this book. The first thing I did was I made a summary in my head about everything that I had read. The second thing I did was I went online and looked for a summary to see if I had missed anything after I read.

          The genre of this book is fiction, sub-genre is realistic fiction. The characterization of Charlotte was that at first she was happy cause everyone was very nice to her but then unsatisfied with how the captain of the ship acted towards here. One motive made by Charlotte Doyle was when she climbed up the highest point of the crew ship to prove that she is worthy of working on the ship. The antagonist of this story is captain jagger that nearly killed Charlotte’s favorite member Zachariah (the chef). The protagonist is Charlotte who saved Zachariah who was almost killed. The foils were the rest of the crewmembers. This whole story took place on a ship. The time this story was 1832. The weather was nice sunny then came a treacherous hurricane. (Exposition) This book started out as intelligent young women came on a crew to her home that took for two months. (Rising action) She is getting respect for every single crewmember. Her favorite crewmember was Zachariah. But she did have problems with the captain. The captain didn’t respect her much. (Climax) Charlotte decides to be a member of the ship. She had to make the highest point of the ship then come back down to prove that she is worthy of working on the ship. She has done the job then became a crew ship member. (Falling action) A member of the ship was killed with a dirk write through his back and captain jigger blamed it on Charlotte. She was sent to the crew ship jail and then was sentenced to the courtroom in twenty-four hours. Until then she thought and thought about what could of had happened. (Resolution) At the court room charlotte somehow got captain jagger to admit that he had killed the crewmember and framed charlotte for doing it. The main problem of this book is mainly internal, character vs. character cause of when charlotte was proving captain jagger wrong. The tone of this book is that charlotte Doyle is a truthful and elegant young lady. The mood of the story is giving the reader an idea of what happens when you make and action then blame someone else for it. The main message is that a smart rich young woman learns the true meaning of very hard work on a crew ship. The moral of the story is not to take everything for granted. The point of view of the story is third person limited. The P.O.O. is cause and effect. The author’s purpose is to inform. 5 different kinds of figurative languages are bold words, italic words, topic, sub-topic, and double space. 

          This book was very specific and explainable. I mostly loved it because it contains so many conflicts with just one main conflict. This was probably the best book I have ever read and would recommend it to so many people.

          If I were to rate this book I would rate it a 9 1/2 out of 10 because it gave me a lesson and a good understanding. 

                                                          Sincerely,

                                                                  Ofek Peer