Thursday, November 29, 2007

DEBATES

1. Curfew, with parents. This debate could occur at home. It serves the purpose of the child possibly getting a later curfew. It does help arrive at a better decision, because if the parent can hear the child's point of view, they might be able to understand and relate more to their child, rather than sticking to only what they want. This debate is unstructured, because there is no written evidence, or a specific schedule to follow. This effects the decision making process because the parent can hear the child's point of view, see/ hear the evidence, and then make the decicion.

2. In a Courtroom This debate occurs in the courtroom, in front of witnesses, judges, defendents and prosecuters. The purpose of this debate serves as a way of justifying your side of the story. You can try to prove yourself innocent, or prove the other person guilty, or prove the point of the reason of being in court. It does help arrive at a better decision, because the judge can hear out the different people in the court, and get to recognize each of their stories, and base the decision upon those stories. Generally this is structured, because they have schedules to follow, and written evidence.

3. Presidential debates-occur in a variety of places, usually in a well known place. The purpose of the debate is to win votes for their potential presidency. Sometimes it helps arrive at a better decision, but usually people have their mind set on who they want to vote for.
Structured. It effects the decision making process because people can hear what each of the candidates have to offer, and then decide who to vote for.

4. Religion- there is not one specific place where religion is debated, but one example is in the middle east. The purpose of these debates is to prove that one religion is more supieror than the other. This usually does not arrive at a better decision because people stick to their religion, and often times people end up dead. This is not usually structured. It effects the decision making process because the people of the opposite religion need to decide what to do; whether to convert, or stick to what they believe in.

5.Amount of Homework- This is debated in school, with the teachers.. The purpose is to (hopefully) reduce the amount of homework students get. (student perspective) the teacher's perspective would be that if there is more homework, the students would learn more. It doesn't usually result in a better decision. It is usually unstructured. This effects the decision making process because the decision is up to the teacher, and if they agree with the students, the homework load could possibly be reduced.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Eagle Blue, Week 2, post B

Letter to the Author/ Main character

Dear Mr. D’Orso,


I have just begun reading your book, Eagle Blue. So far I am enjoying it very much. However, I have a few questions for you. I am a bit confused when I begin a new chapter because I am not sure if I am reading a new point of view, or the same as the previous chapter. I eventually figure it out, but it takes me a little while. Also, I am confused about who the kid is who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. It mentioned something early in the book, but I haven’t figured out any way it is affecting him in his home life, or at basketball practice. Does this eventually affect his basketball skills? Or is it just a known fact, and nothing really will happen? On a different note, I really like the way you use vivid imagery throughout this book. During a few of the chapters, (4 and 5 in particular) I actually feel like I am right there with the players during their practice, and almost can feel their pain afterwards, when they are sitting on the bleachers. A vivid picture was also painted in my mind in the beginning of the book when you talked about the kid running away from school, and somebody needed to go after him. The details of this scene were so particular, I could envision the town, and even the woods near the town, in my mind.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my letter, and I am looking forward to your response, and answers to my questions.

Sincerely,
Jenna Long

Eagle Blue, Week 2, post A

ONE EMERGING THEME: There are many themes that are emerging through this book, one of which being perserserverance. This is shown on page 61 when they are describing Wes James, a small freshman, who wants to play basketball. He shows up at all of the men's pick up games because he wants to learn all he can. All he wants to do is play basketball, so he works extremely hard to get on the team.



3 EXAMPLES OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

1."The squeak of their shoes on the hard rubber floor is like sweet music to Dave, like the infield chatter and the crack of line drives at spring training in Florida..." (61.)
This is an example of a similie. It is a similie because it is comparing two things, (squeaky shoes, to spring training in Florida) using the word, like


2. "He looks like a skinny dockworker playing ball on his lunch break." (62.)
This is also an example of a similie because it compares one of the basketball players to a dockworker, using the word, like

3. "They flop in the stands, a couple sprawl on the floor, mopping their brows wih their shirts" (63.)
This quote is an example of imagery because it paints a vivid picture in my mind of what is happening at that exact point in the story, and makes me feel like i am actually looking at, or even with the team after basketball practice.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Eagle Blue, week one, post B

Thus far into Eagle Blue, I have seen many quotes that relate to events happening in the world. One of these quotes is “Just like the empty beer cansand cigarette packages tossed in the snow, the bags were a sign of these don’t give a shit times.” (20). This quote relates to the world I live in because it describes many of the lazy people we have living in our society who don’t care about what happens to the environment. They will just throw their garbage out the window, and assume somebody else will pick it up, which obviously isn’t true. All this does is damage the land we live on. Another quote from the book that can be related to the world is “He hasn’t given much thought till now to this college thing. He wouldn’t mind going away, but it’s not as if he’s never been anywhere ” (27). This quote definitely relates to high school kids in this world because many kids don’t start thinking about college until they realize they need to take their SAT’s, ACT’s , etc. This really pulls a trigger in their mind, thinking about where they want to go to school, or if they want to go to school. The decision about where to go to school is usually a pretty big school. Generally, kids always think they want to go far away from home, but as the time draws nearer, they realize how weird it would be to be away from their family for so long, and end up going somewhere semi-close to

Eagle Blue, week one, post A

2 Vocab Words.

1)Panhandling p.14
to accost passers-by on the street and beg from them.

2)Naysayers p.16
a person who habitually expresses negative or pessimistic views


Significant Quote-

"They were short- five foot six and five foot seven- but they ran like flushed rabbits and, with practice, they learned to shoot basketballs as well as they shot rifles." (47)

This quote is significant to the book because the people the author is reffering to, are the kids from Fort Yukon, who would eventually become High School Basketball champions. It shows that they had a small disadvantage (being on the short side) but were able to hold their own and compete well against all of the other schools.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

2nd Quarter Outside Reading Approval

*The name of the book i chose is Eagle Blue, by Michael D'Orso.

*Eagle Blue was published in 2006.

*This book is nonfiction.

*There are 323 pages.

*This book is sufficiently challenging for me, a high school sophomore, because as I was flipping through the pages, I found many vocab words that I did not recognize. This will be challenging because I will need to either use context clues or look words up in the dictionary in order to understand the meaning of the book. Also, it seems like there are a lot of details in this book, which means I will have to pay extra attention to what is going on, especially since it is a fairly long book.

*I chose this book because generally I like books that have to do with sports, and their achievements, and that is what this book is about. I also chose this book because it was on Mr. Hatten's list of recommended books, so I figured if he was recommending it, it must be a good read.