Vocab Words 2.4

Vocabulary Words for Test 2.4
Due to the snow day, the test will now be on Thursday, November 19, 2015 
(instead of 11/18). 


ENG/ELD Only

1. Monotonous
2. Serenity
3. Benevolent
4. Multitude
5. Assure
6. Grueling
7. Solicitors
8. Pursuits
9. Conclude
10. Infer
11. Resume
12. Resolved
13. Brashly
14. Dwindles
15. Miser

Honors Only

1. Monotonous
2. Serenity
3. Benevolent
4. Multitude
5. Assure
6. Introspective
7. Enshrouded
8. Obfuscate
9. Arbitrary
10. Feeble
11. Prodigy
12. Presage
13. Irrevocably
14. Bleak
15. Notorious

Vocabulary Words for the Test on 11/11

Regular/ELD Classes

People generally feel pretty pleased with themselves when they’ve paid less for something.  You’ve seen that smug expression on people’s faces when they tell you they paid less that you did:  “Well, I only paid $19.99 for that same shirt.”  You’ve paid twice that, so you might resent them a little.  Nevertheless, you feign admiration.  “That’s a great price,” you admit.

“You got yourself some deal there.”

            You walk away muttering to yourself, “What’s wrong with people?  Are we obsessed with this unending quest for bargains?”

            There’s nothing wrong with keeping a little extra change in your pocket instead of the pockets of the merchants.  But sometimes you have to wonder if we don’t overdo it. 

            Here’s a situation you might be familiar with: it’s the “time-is-money” dilemma.  Let’s say some potential patron (those are two separate words) is looking for an alarm clock, a common, everyday item.  In his search for the best price for that clock, this customer visits three stores in three different shopping malls in three different neighborhoods.  Yes, in the end, he might end up saving a few dollars, but what about fuel costs and the parking fees and the expensive lunch he consumed in the second mall?  What about the three hours that are now lost?  Can a price be put on those?  Think of it this way: a truly industrious person might have lost three hours of salary.

            Then there’s the case of buying more than you need.  This actually falls within two categories.  Have you ever seen those sales where you have to buy a large quantity of, say, cans of tuna in order to get the sale price?  Well, the problem there is that you might not use all of those cans before their expiration date.  Or you might not wish to allocate an entire shelf to storing all those cans.  The second category involves purchasing an enormous portion in order to get the sale price.  You might have to buy a huge box of cereal, enough to feed your family for six months.  That’s not necessarily such a bad idea, but you know what happens.  Your family gets tired of eating the same cereal day after day, and this huge cereal box just sits forever on the shelf.  Eventually you get sick of looking at it, and you discard it.  Or the cereal grows stale, a distinct possibility. 

            Merchants offer sales in order to convince you to buy more than you really need.  Someone once said to Mr. Heinz, “I bet you’ve made a lot of money from the ketchup people have eaten.”  Mr. Heinz corrected his questioner: “Actually, I’ve made a lot of money from the ketchup people have left on their plates.” 

            If you’ve ever poured ketchup on your fries, you know there’s nothing subtle about Mr. Heinz’s point.  Next time you go shopping, try to remember the old saying you might have heard from your parents: “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” 

Honor's Class

1.      Feign

2.      Allocate

3.      Subtle

4.      Patron

5.      Smug

6.      Rancor

7.      Commemorative

8.      Blasphemy

9.      Billow

10.  Copious

11.  Emended

12.  Innumerable

13.  Vague

14.  Statuesque

15.  Aliases

Honors Only Required Reading: Non-Fiction

Required Reading Genre for Quarter 2:  Non-Fiction.

After reading a non-fiction book of your choice, you must complete the following task before Monday, December 7, 2015. 

 (These are separate paragraphs; they are not a cohesive essay):

Paragraph #1:  Write a concise paragraph (meaning it’s not 6 pages) that summarizes the entire book and draws a conclusion about the author’s purpose for writing this book.  Include specific details from the book.  Paraphrasing okay, Quotes is what honor’s is all about.  An A will only be achieved by using quotes.  (10 points)

Paragraph #2: Write a paragraph that states the central or main idea of the text. Analyze its development over the course of the text. For example, how does the author support the central or main idea, what specific details, facts or anecdotes does he/she use to support the central or main idea; how do events or actions lead up to and support the central or main idea.     (15 points)            

Paragraph #3:  Do a quick research on what topic the book was about.  Is it still occurring in society?  Is it a problem that is increasing or decreasing?  Are there other events in the news currently happening today?  Any other questions this book might make you ask?  This paragraph should consist of numbers/data.  (15 points)

Paragraph #4:  Answer this question:  Should the president of the United States of America read this?  Why or why not?  Your answer should be supported by your personal thoughts.  I hope those thoughts are good.  (10 points)

Finished Book Choices

01. What is the theme (fiction)/claim (non-fiction) of your book?  Support your theme/claim with at least two of the following: character traits, conflict, title, setting, or in case of non-fiction, direct quotes. 

02. Draw a picture that represents the theme or the Central/Main Idea.  A caption at the bottom of the picture must be a proficient Theme Statement or Central/Main Idea statement.

03. Record a song that is basically a summary of the book.  If you want to record an instrumental song, be sure to include reasoning as to why you chose the sounds you chose. 

04. Build a Legos (or something like that) Diorama of a scene that best represents what the character wants throughout the book. 

05. Complete the book.  That means either write the next chapter in the book or write the first chapter of the next book (if there isn’t one). 

06. Have a series of questions approved by the teacher for the author of your book.  Contact the author to conduct an interview.  Write up the interview.  To do this, you should contact the author first and see if they would be willing to do this.  I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but most authors, especially the “big ones,” won’t do this. 

07. Write a book review.  Criteria should be based on: do the characters seem real?  Is the writing good?  Is the plot believable?  Was the conflict resolved in a sufficient manner?  Is like another book you’ve read before?  And of course, personal opinion. 

08. Create a “mixtape” for the book.  With at least 10 songs, write a brief reasoning as to why you chose those songs.  This must be posted online (Soundcloud, my blog, your blog or on a physical CD, thumbdrive would work too). 

09. Present a two minute book talk (summary, genre, what you like about it, theme/main idea) about the book.  The grade will be based on how well you sell this book.  At least one “important” paragraph must be read.  This has to be done directly after warm-ups.  Please sign up in advance (meaning let me know a least a day in advance). 

10. For you writers out there: Pick a page that represents the authors writing style.  I will photocopy it and bring it back to you.  Then you will annotate the page showing how the author writes.  What kind of sentences?  Reality of dialogue?  Figurative Language?  Description?  Tone?  Mood? Etc.

11. Research the author of your book. In an organized, coherent multi-paragraph writing(I will not say a 5 paragraph essay, but…) show what the author has accomplished, what struggles he/she has went through and, if possible, give some insight into their writing process. 

12. Create a comic based on one of the chapters/parts. There will be a minimum of 10 panels.  Dialogue must be included (in either bubbles or narration at the top or bottom of the panel).    

**** I value creativity!  Do anything you want that proves you read and understood the book.  What are you interested in?  What creative way can you tie your idea/passions to the book you read?   

Reading Response 2.2

Prompt: 2.2 due Thursday November 12, 2015 Your character must’ve made some decision by now.  What was that decision?  What was the purpose of that decision?  In a well-crafted paragraph with at least one quote, explain what decision your main character made and explain the reasoning, the purpose as to why he/she made the decision.  Finally, what were the consequences or if you haven’t read that far, what will the consequences be. 

Your response formatting should look exactly like mine (except the period & Date).  It is quarter two.  If the heading is not correct, I will return it to you so you can revise it.  

******************************************************************************************

Corey Ryan

RR: 2.2

Period 0

November 3, 2015

Background

            At the moment, I am on page 49 of Janne Teller’s Nothing.  This book is about a boy, Pierre Anthon, who one day after coming back from summer break, decides that nothing matters.  When he declares this to the class he walks out of the class room and climbs a plum tree.  Pierre sits in the tree telling people basically that nothing matters, that all we do is pretend that something matters, that we only have, if we live to 80, 9 years of living and that he is going to get started on that now.

            The other students don’t know what to think about this.  They throw stones at him.  They want to believe that everything they are doing and where they will be going in life matters.  Now, with Jon-Johan as their kind-of-leader, they have decided to collect items that mean the most to them, that give life a meaning, and store those items in an old mill.  The pile is growing.

Prompt

            One important decision that the narrator, Agnes, makes is to befriend Gerda for no other purpose than to get revenge by finding out and exposing what Gerda cares most about so that she will have to add that item to the pile.  All of the students decided to bring whatever it is that means the most to them and store them in an old mill.  These items are going to be used to show Pierre Anthon that something matters.  Gerda has not brought her item yet.

            Agnes makes that decision because Gerda forced her to give up her green wedge sandals.  Agnes loved those sandals more than anything.  Her mom saved up a lot of money to buy them (they didn’t have a lot of money) and even had to wait to the summer was almost over and they were one sale.  So Agnes found the one thing that Gerda cares about:  A hamster.  “No the thing that made Gerda’s room at her father’s place special was that in the corner stood a very large cage with a very small hamster inside” (page 43).  Agnes then tells the group of children Gerda’s “secret.”  Agnes and Ursula-Marie walked to Gerda’s house and got the hamster, Oscarlittle, and put the hamster in an old rusty cage on top of the growing pile of things that give meaning to life. 

The consequences of Agnes’ actions are that first, Gerda hates Agnes.  Gerda cries, begs, pleas.  Will she get revenge?  The second consequence is that there is a living thing on top of the pile.  Up until now there has been nothing but inanimate objects.  This little hamster on top of the pile in the rusty cage seems to be what they were looking for.  But the true consequences for Agnes have yet to be determined. 

My Thinking

            This is the kind of book I love and the kind of book I would hope to write one day: A sort of simple premise with a deep meaning.  What is the meaning of life?  Do these items that the kids are collecting actually prove meaning or are they simply “stuff.” 

            I am making a prediction because that’s what good readers do and that’s what would get you full credit for this section: I think that the students will not prove to Pierre Anthon that there is a reason to live and that something does matter.  But that sounds really depressing and I don’t know what kind of message that would send to the author’s audience so I’m changing my prediction.  The meaning of life will be whatever memories are inside of you.  Whatever good you have done for others even though you might not have realized it at the time.  The meaning of life is to not think about the meaning of life, but to just live it. 

            Pierre Anthon will climb down from the tree. 

***Oh man, I was so wrong on my prediction.  But that's okay.   

Book Talk for "Nothing" by Janne Teller

This is a quick example of what would be included in a proficient book talk. Don't be afraid to improvise a bit, but don't improvise too much. If I were you, I would write myself a little notecard and mark the page in my book I'm going to read so I don't forget what I plan on saying. Stagefright tho...

Intro: Hello, I’m Corey Ryan and I’m going to make you want to read Nothing by Janne Teller.

Hook: What if I told you that everything you’re doing, everything you are means nothing.  I’m telling you nothing at all matters!  What would you give me of yours to convince me that something does have meaning?  

Summary:  Anthon Pierre walked into his 7th grade class the first day after summer break and decided that “Nothing matters.”  His peers don’t believe him and they want to prove him wrong.  Students in Pierre’s 7th grade class start constructing a “heap of meaning.” Each student picks something that the next student will give up and then that student gives up what was asked of them and so on and so on.  This pile, at first, contains things that carry deep meaning such as pictures of deceased loved ones, the flag and items that took a great sacrifices to get.  But soon the students get serious.  They “mad,” maybe resentful at what they had to give up and think of something that MEANS a lot for the next student to give up.  

(Of course you’re going to say nothing.  No, you can’t read this as reality.  It’s metaphorical.  But it’s deep!)

Introduction:  This is the first item that appears in the heap of meaning that turns the heap of meaning into something else entirely.  Otto had just given up his boxing gloves which meant a lot to him.  It is Otto’s turn to pick what Elise has to add to the heap of meaning. There is the turning point in the book.  I’m going to read from page 64.   

Who should read it:  People who like to think.  People who would think about the meaning of life.  People who like to read about weird stuff.  People who like Survivor but are not dumb.  You all should read it because it’s written in a simple manner, but has tons of meaning inside.

Questions:  Does anyone have any questions?