Nightjohn: 11/12/14

1- Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.
2- Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence.

Pages: 1-end

Word choice in this piece helps develop the meaning of the text by helping better describe the conditions of the slaves. When Nightjohn arrives he has marks from being whipped. The author describes this by saying, " The skin across his shoulders and down was raised in ripples, thick as my hand." The word choice also helps show how little education the slaves had. The word choice in the whole story uses bad grammer to show the lack of education of the narrator. The line says, "There ain't no light allowed in the quarters." This shows the slaves had very little education.

Dialogue reveals that the main character is eager to learn. The main character says, "To read what I just put there in the dirt– can you teach me?" This shows that the main character is eager to learn. Dialogue also reveals that Nightjohn wants to improve other's lives. Dialogue between mammy and Nightjohn said, "You came back to teach reading' John nodded. 'That's half of it.' 'What's the other half?' 'Writing." This shows that Nightjohn wanted to teach people.

Specific incidents revealed that Sarny was scared of Waller. When Waller catches her writing words in the dirt she runs. The author writes, "I crawled-ran to get away. Ran to the only place I knew." This shows how scared Sarny was of Waller. Specific incidents also reveal that Nightjohn takes responsibility for his actions. When Waller is torturing another slave to find out who taught Sarny reading and writing Nightjohn confesses. He also locked himself up. The author writes, "He walked to the spring house and put the bracelets on." This shows Nightjohn would not allow other people to be punished for his actions.

Into the Wild: 11/4/14

Prompt: Summary
Pages: 1-102

This book as about a man named Chris McCandless who hitchhikes across he United States, walks into the Alaskan Wilderness, and dies. The author is a non-fiction writer who was tasked with writing a narrative about McCandless for a newspaper. He became so interested in McCandless that he decided to write a book about him. McCandless started in Atlanta, Georgia. He donated all his money left in his collage fund after collage for law school to charity and changed his name to Alexander Supertramp.

He then drove to south California and left his car under a tarp. He removed the license plates and put a note in it saying that anyone who could get it out could have it. He than took everything he might want out of the car and burned all the money he had with him. He hitchhiked to Lake Tahoe and hiked for a week on the Pacific Crest Trail. He was offered a job in northern California but stole a bike and ran away because the man never payed him.

By this point McCandless' family had become very worried. Police started a search for Chris but could not track him. He bought a canoe and paddled from California to Mexico. He was caught by border patrol while crossing back into America and lost his pistol. He buried his backpack and went into Vegas with no money or ID. When he retrieved his backpack he discovered that his camera was ruined. He stopped taking pictures and writing in his journal.

Brian's Winter 10/29/14

Prompt: List at least three problems the characters faced? Which was the most life changing? Explain

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     This book is about how Brian survived in the Canadian wilderness. In this book Brian is stuck through the winter. He had to create new tools to survive through the winter. One of the problems he faced was that the winter is very cold. He had to make a warmer shelter by improving his wall. He also stitched together animal furs to make cold weather clothing. He made a vest, coat, boots, gloves, and a rug. Finally he built a fire inside his shelter. These things kept him warm and helped solve the problem of cold.

    Another problem Brian faced was that he was threatened by large animals. He did two things to solve this problem. The first is that he built a larger bow. This was a problem on its own. He had to find the right wood for his bow but the biggest challenge was finding larger arrowheads. He figured out that he could chip pieces off of flint to make sharp arrowheads. He also made a lance for if large animals charged at him. He used this lance to save his life from a moose.

     The last problem Brian had was that it was hard to move around in deep snow. He made snowshoes to help him move around without getting stuck in the snow. He also used furs to make a back pack to carry food in. These helped him move around even better than before winter and he explored the land around his camp. The most life changing problem that Brian solved was movement. This resulted in him exploring the area around his camp much more. It ultimately lead to him finding a trapper's house that was how he was rescued.

Montresor Police Interrogation

3- Imagine that it is fifty years after Montresor's crime against Fortunato has been committed. Montresor believes that he has gotten away with this crime, but suddenly new evidence has come to light. Another festival attendant recalls seeing Fortunato leave the party with Montresor. This witness hasn't come forward until now because she was afraid of what he might do; however now that she is old, she has decided that there is nothing to gain by continuing to hide his secret.

The authorities have picked up Montresor and brought him to the local police station for questioning. Write one page dialogue that illustrates Montresor's conversation with police. 

Police: Do you know anything about the disappearance of Fortunado?
Montresor: I was with him and we were tasting wine. That was the last time I saw him. I must have lost him after we met in the excitement of the party.
Police: A festival attendant saw you walking away from the party with Fortunado. What were you doing?
Montresor: I was going to taste wine with Fortunado. We went back to the party after that.
Police: That was the last time anyone saw Fortunado. Do you know what happened to him?
Montresor: No. The last place I saw him was when he was tasting wine.
Police: Did Fortunado leave the house with you after tasting wine?
Montresor: No. Fortunado stayed behind in my house after I left for a while. A long while. He did not want to leave.
Police: Do you know if Fortunado left the house?
Montresor: No. I have not seen him since we were drinking wine.
Police: Where in the house were you drinking wine?
Montresor: We were drinking the wine in the catacombs.
Police: Where in the catacombs were you drinking specifically?
Montresor: My family's catacombs are vary large. I could not remember now. We were drinking in multiple places.
Police: Do you know if Fortunado leave the catacombs?
Montresor: No. If nobody saw him after it is possible that he got lost and died in the catacombs.
Police: Could we possibly find his body in the catacombs?
Montresor: My family's catacombs are very large and have many people buried in them. You may not be able to find him. Also his body would have decayed before now.
Police: Thank you.

Brian's Winter: 10/22/14

Prompt: Summary
Pages: 0-end

     In this book Gary Paulsen tells what might of happened if Brian was trapped in the forest through the winter. He introduces this by telling about how readers had asked what would have happened if Brian had been stuck in the winter. He then tells how the winter started from a narrator's point of view that knows Brian's thoughts. He says that Brian began to feel cold winds and feel better by a fire or in his sleeping bag but did not notice these signs. He finally realized that winter was coming when it was cold one night and his sleeping bag was a relief.

     Brian realized that he needed to prepare for the coming winter. He had no warm clothing and his shelter was not warm. He found a deer that had been killed but not fully eaten by wolves and dragged the remaining meat. First he made a bigger bow because he had been attacked by a bear and barely been saved by a skunk. Then he made his shelter watertight and warm by packing the wooden wall with mud and making a door. He also used rabbit skins to make a warm vest. He found a deer that had been killed but not fully eaten by wolves.

     He began practicing with his bigger bow and realized he could hunt larger animals with it. He killed a moose but was almost badly hurt. It took him all day and most of the night to drag the meat back to his camp. He then thought he heard gunshots but when he went to see where they came from he saw a tree explode. He then made snowshoes to move around easier in the snow. He killed a deer and decided to go explore the area around his camp. He put food in a skin pack and took a lighter and his hatchet. While he was on one of these hikes he saw tracks that looked like human footprints. He followed these to a hut and was rescued.

Time Travel Interveiw

Format: Interview
Q: Where would you go? 
A: I would go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Q:To which year or period would you travel? 
A: I would go to November 19, 1863.
Q: Who would you want to meet or what event would you want to witness? 
A: I would want to witness Abraham Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address and meet him.
Q: Where would you find this person or see this event? 
A: I would see this event in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Q: Why would you want to meet this person or witness this event? 
A: I want to do this because Abraham Lincoln is an important figure and this is one of his famous speeches,
Q: How might YOU change history?
I wouldn't because I could create a butterfly effect that could have bad effects.

Quarter 1 Reflective Blog

Where are you in your 40 Book Challenge? How have your blogs been progressing since August? What strategies have benefited you? What have you learned about the world? How have your research skills improved?

Make sure to include a topic sentence and supporting details that fully support your main idea.

     My blogs have progressed a lot since the beginning of first quarter. At the beginning I had trouble writing about some prompts. It took me a long time to think about what to write and it was still not very good. Later in the quarter I got better at this. A strategy that I used to write my blogs that worked best was writing a topic sentence that I remembered a important point from the book. I than came up with supporting, specific, details from the book. This helped me write better, more organized, blogs.

     I have learned a lot about the world. In this class I learned about Malala getting the Nobel Prize. We researched why she received the prize and her achievements. I also learned about Ebola. We learned about how it started and what it is and we have talked about current Ebola news. Finally I have learned that traditions are hard to change in the world. The Lottery introduced this and we had to write two paragraphs about the traditions in the story. The story of Malala reinforced this by showing that women's rights were hard to change because they were tradition.

      My research skills have greatly improved. I did not know how to make a bibliography before this year. I learned how to correctly format and collect information.