What ELA is to Me -- My Blogging Finale -- i'll miss me too

     I fear that this summer will be spent worrying about the obviously challenging career i will have next year at Bard High School Early College. And the more i learn about it the more i realize that Bard is a school that is based off the idea that discussion and reflection through writing. For example, a class like science might start out with a discussion on what the scientific world has to offer to our society. What i think is so interesting about this is that ELA is the subject that is about us as a people. Communication is a language but not a content. We can know how to pronounce english words but not have any clue what we are saying. Therefor all of our subjects are taught through ELA. 

     I think that ELA is most closely related to theatrical arts in that people like and enjoy reading and watching tales based on their own lives. The only difference between the two is the medium but in reality in both scenarios the writer/actor, shows the reader/watcher, something about themselves that the reader/watcher cannot find by him/herself. Its things like these that make it so important to make sure that the arts and the act of clear communication is so important. Which is why online sites like Facebook are so threatening to our life's. If we get it in our heads that it is ok to tell someone something very important over a message or a text than we are admitting, knowingly or not, that we are to coward to see their reaction. And this then makes it ok to say these things. 

     Something i think is very interesting is that we tend to rely more and more on the fact that we have keyboards and computers that can type faster than we can handwrite. Of coarse this is a good thing but maybe not entirely and alternative. At least not for now. People still write entries by hand all the time and rely on the pen and paper. So when eight-year-olds are learning how to tweet their ideas and facebook their friends then we are left with people who cannot communicate properly with the world and are therefor set up for failure. This is why it is so important to teach kids ELA and the art of writing. 

What they Carried

So last week i reviewed a book while ten pages into it. A critical mistake that wont be made again. But here's the thing, it sounded like i was writing the wight thing at the time. I talked about how i thought this was another book about love letters and the Viet Nam war. I realize that it's about much more. The book is about a boy that shows so much promise: getting into Harvard and finally kissing his girlfriend when he is put into war. It's a non-fiction memoir about this boy wondering why he was chose in the draft and not some college dropout. The book touches on the idea of teenage idealism and how people going through that time in their lives want to know why bad things happen to them. 
So the boy drives away from his life hoping to leave his parents and his country behind along with all of the responsibilities. He finds himself at the Canadian border staying in the hospitality of an old man that owns a local drive-in. The man is described with the utmost care and love. He is a man that keeps his feelings to himself but the author makes it clear that the old man made the boy feel at home. He also crossed the boy as having a sense of understanding. 
This book is definitely not just another love story. Its a collection of real war stories that tell the story of a platoon during one of the most grueling time periods of all time. The Viet Nam war when the U.S. was absolutely scared out of it's mind of Communism. The support of the troops was thinning. 

What they carried

What They Carried By Tim O'brian is a book about a platoon of soldiers in the Viet Nam war. The story is told by the platoon leader which gives the story an interesting. He has letters from a girl back in North Carolina that he loves more than the platoon itself. He talks about licking the seal of the envelopes he's received knowing she has licked them as well. I'm about a third of the way into the book but I predict that he will get in trouble with his feeling. He already has, he had one of his men crawl through a tunnel with only a pistol. When the man was attacked he was thinking about the girl and was only able to save the man when shaken by one of his men. 
What i think is interesting is that they don't say his age. This is actually a problem for me. I picture a platoon leader as a forty or fifty year old. But he seems like he is in love and is going through his twenties or thirties like a soldier at war with a girl at home. I think the author does this to keep the reader openminded. The author now has the ability to do anything with the character and wont worry about the reader being confused.
But what i think is the coolest part about this book is that they don't mention the man's name. I think that the author is really trying to get us to think about how we forget about all of the different soldiers in the Viet Nam war. We think about the soldiers, the troops. But we never stop to think about each different soldier's life and how each different soldier had a different story to tell and different thing that they carried.

Friday Night Lights

I am currently reading the book Friday Night Lights. The book is about Odessa, Texas; a town that runs on football. The Odessa Panthers are the local high school football team and are frowned upon by the town when they merely make it to a state semi-final round. "The boys in this town aren't strong or large. They're not fast or tall, but they have more spirit and conviction than any  of the other teams. At first sight,. yes, it is rather corny. But when accompanied by poetic and progressively impressive writing it makes for a wonderful tale. There is of coarse a  problem though. Yes, this lifestyle of rooting and cheering for multiple 18 year olds is supposedly cherished by the writer. but he does, of coarse, write the story of the boy that is not on the football team.

The biggest problem with This town is not its addiction to a sport rather than, lets say,  education. But the real problem is that those few who dont make the teams bench are forced through years of misery and ignorance. For 17 year old Daniel, this means that when his father dies he has absolutely no one to turn to except for his grandmother living in a nursing home hours away in Armadillo. Its not like the boys wish's he was on the team, he hates the sport entirely, he just wishes he could be treated differently now that his father was dead. 

Amongst all of this bad news there is also the football that is so elegantly written into the story as thought  it takes absolutely no effort whatsoever. The story has thrilling tackles,  wonderful blitzes and impressive runs that take you through the book and TV series Friday Night Lights

Hunger games: the movie... the book

I am currently reading the book The Hunger Games. I don't like to think that it was due to the fact that the movie came out but i think that i was pleasantly surprised with the complexity of the plot. At first glance The Hunger Games is a gruesome novel about kids destroying each other to stay alive. Almost a Lord-of-the-flies-type scenario but almost more real. I think that it's technically post apocalyptic setting but most of the technology is the same or similar to what we have today. I think that this book, however, is about the idea of rebellion. What we as a people do when we feel powerless. It's an interesting idea. And almost a little bit ironic when it's put in context with other things. 


For example, at my sister's elementary school the kids are on strike. The book the Hunger Games is not allowed to be read on school grounds. For the reason that the teacher's feel that the book is not necessarily at a level for the maturity of the kids. Now i should also tell you that this is one of the liberal-arts-public schools that is known to let the kids do what they feel they should and mature at their own levels. But for this one book they had particularly strong feelings. I think that its interesting that it happens to be the book where the main theme is the idea of rebellion. 

I am reading the book Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Guevara. The book is a no-fiction retelling of the authors epic journey through almost all of South america. The journey goes from Argentina through the whole length of Chile, through peru, ecuador, colombia, venezuela and finally brazil. With almost no money and a rattled chap motorcycle Ernesto and him friend, both scientists, go on this journey to see the continent and assist those without medical attention. 


He finds that most of the poor villages are just shut out from the world and all of modern day society. But he is also amazed at the hospitality that comes from the lack of propaganda and modern day culture. When the two run out of gas they often are picked up by someone in a car passing by. They go most nights with the hospitality of someone's bed and a roof. They even get feasts of meats and spanish alcohol mate. 


But I dont think this book is just about one man, and his friend's, adventure throught the desserts, forests and mountains of south america. I think that this South american native is trying to get people to understand what the continent is like. That these people, theses hopeless people, are actually where some of the worlds most interesting and purist culture is.

The Wednesday Wars

I am currently re-reading the The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. The Book is about a boy, Holling Hoodhood, growing up the the kennedy era of nuclear anticipation and the beginning of the Vietnam war. This boy, though, is not jewish or protestant but rather presbyterian and therefor and nowhere to go on wednesday afternoons when all of the other kids where either at church or hebrew school. This leaves him with his, anything but simple, teacher Ms. Baker. At first sight Holling immideatly assumes that she has the utmost hatred for him and wants nothing more than to get him in trouble. But as the book progresses he realizes that the teacher actually not only likes him the most, but does to the point that she expects the most of him. 


During their "wednesday wars" the two discuss Shakespeare and all of his works. He describes slowly beginning to understand and comprehend the complicating subject mass. My favorite part is when she is questioning him on romeo and juliet she asks him why he thinks Shakespeare made both of them die (this is shortly after he asks we he bothers to kill anyone off at all). They discuss why he thinks anyone should die. Even in movies, what is the significance of death in a play as a theme and a point.

Madmen Underground II

I am currently reading the book Madmen Under ground as i was last week (bit of a beefy book). To recap, the book is about a boy, tiger, that lives in Lightsburg Pennsylvania which he cannot wait to leave. His dada died when he was ten and his mom has been suck an abusive alcoholic and druggie ever since his father's death that he often tries but fails to recall her before the terminal cancer. He is part of a society of misfits like himself, the Madmen Underground that is technically a group of messed up kids in a counseling class but the counselors never stay for more than a few months at a time. And besides, this is supposedly Tiger's big year. The year where he hopes to become normal and not get his ticket to the group so when his veteran, crew cut, muscular, hard ass ELA teacher offers him a letter that will excuse him from the group, he jumps to the opportunity.


Now I should make it clear that this group of kids have serious bonds connecting back to elementary school. And is group has a diversity ranging from popular to gay kids all made fun of for there "membership" even if some are made fun of less and more jokingly. 


This books talks about how sometimes in high school you have to let go of friends. And maybe at times you wish you could have them back but for the better and security of your own life you have to let go of the things you hold so dear.

Mad Men Underground

I am currently reading the book Mad Men underground  by John Barnes. The book is about a boy who lives in the shadow of his dead father who he lost from cancer. His mother struggling to recover from the events has become an alcoholic, thieve, and even swindles money from her own son. She has literally tens of cats that roam the house in search of food and  use the bathroom all over the property. The woman was once a good person, however, and was supposedly one of the best mayor's wife in the history of the town. Because of his troubled life Karl Shoemaker is called into a club of  people with similar and not so similar family struggles. The club is in school and is run by a shrink that come through the town before they score deals at university and other jobs. But this year is different. Karl is trying to act as normal as possible with no help to his alchoholic, pot-smoking, mother that takes businessmen in suits home to "sleep over" with them. So the books takes us through the mind of a kid struggling just to keep up with his 5 jobs and ever shifting task to be the "mother" of one.

Let the great world spin

I'm currently reading the book Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. The book, so far, is a bunch of short stories that take place at the same time of the famous stunt where Philipe petit walked the distance between the two Twin Towers in the air on a tight-rope. It describes the situation and how a bunch a people in different places experienced the event. I don't think it is literally about the story of the the man on wire but more about New York. For example, one story is about an Irish immigrant that moves to New York only to be met with the poverty of the Bronx projects.


The story talks about the kind heart and the generosity of the man who takes in a and shelters the local hookers. It talks about how this man gets known for his generosity only to get shot at the end of the story right after the towers are crossed by way of tight rope. He Doesnt get shot in a fight. He doesnt get shot because he angered someone. He gets shot because a pimp didnt like the way he was being nice to one of the hookers he helped.


Then a second story. This time taking place in the exact opposite conditions. This one about a woman and her tattered relationship with a man while living in the wealth and cleanliness of Parc Avenue on the east side of new york. It talks about her struggle to get in touch and socialize with a group of girls that come from a totally different lifestyle, all the way trying to impress and get the girls to like her.


And then the man walks from tower to tower grasping the breath of the girls and the Irish man. Somehow bringing them together. And that is what the book is about.

Godless, resolved

So i just finished reading godless and i feel as though i had it all wrong, so i am writing to redeem. Godless is not so much about a religion as it is about the effect of it on modern day society. The book takes place in the St. Andrea valley that is still supplied by a fully functional water tower. Fed up wit his parents boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-athiest Jason Bock invents a new religion and god. One that revolves around the local water. He starts the religion as a joke but soon realizes that it's a lot more than a religion to lots of other people. I guess that that is what the book is really about.

In one scene Jason and his high priest, Henry, climb the water tower all the way to the top. The actually break into the water source and swim in it polluting all of the county's water supply. I always imagined that i wish i could do this. They are obviously being illegal but to the reader its not anything near illegal. Its more adventurous and skilled, not to mention impressive. I think that this is one of the most important scenes in the story because it shows why they worship the tower. Its big, massive, and overpowering. But they know what they are worshipping. They know that they can actually swim and splash around in it. They don't have to play a guessing game like some of the other religions. 

To conclude, i believe that this book isn't so much about religion but more about the fact that religion has an affect that can spread and be important to others even if you think it solely affects you.

Godless

This book is not corny. It isn't crass, offensive, weird to read or awkward. It's merely a book that evolves around the idea of a religion: Chutengodianism is the worship of the ten-legged-beast (the local water tower). This religion is practiced by Jason Bock, Shin, Henry Stagg, and hotshot Magda Price. The four find ways to get to the top of the water tower and create rules for their "religion." I'm not very far into this book and i have no reason or authority to judge what will happen, but there is something interesting about the fact that they choose to worship a water-tower. Why do they even choose to leave Catholicism? I mean there is always the idea "why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own religion?" But i think it has something to do with the fact that they are all outsiders.

The main character/storyteller Jason Bock is almost 6 feet 6 and weighs almost 250 pounds with a highly visible uni-brow that shaves regularly. Shin is a skinny, blond boy that isn't found without a textbook or notepad in his hand.Maybe when these boys feel like they should start a new religion it's not because they don't believe in the same beliefs as christians its because they feel like Christianity hasn't necessarily been good to them. There's even a part where everyone is going up to the preacher to talk and he decides to stay in his seat.

So when i read this book i don't feel wierd about religion or god or what ever. I feel like this is a book about misfits and how they use starting their own religion to cope with their problems.

Shooter

I'm reading Shooter by Walter Dean Myers. The book is a retelling and elaboration that focuses on a school shooting and is told in interviews recorded in a script-like format. So far there have been five interviews between interviewers and two teenagers, a boy named Cameron Porter who is seventeen and a girl named Carla Evens who is eighteen. The two had interesting relationships between the shooter and themselves. Cameron was very close friends with the shooter, Len. He often went to Len's dad's shooting range and fired off ammunition with Len. Carla was slightly into both Len and Cameron and therefor hung out with them a lot. On the day of the shooting Cameron and Carla showed up early like Len had asked them to knot knowing what they were doing. Len then gave them arms and told them to hold off a crowd while he wrote stop the violence on the wall hundreds of times with his own blood. Cameron and carla immediately ran but where still arrested due to the fact that they forgot to get rid of the gun Len gave them and still had it in their hand.


I think that a big part of the reason Len did this was because he was constantly being exposed to violence. Whether he was at the shooting range or at home with his parents and their guns he was almost always exposed to it. This idea would also support the signs written on wall with blood. I think that this is what the author is trying to tell us is that kids, no matter how old, should not be exposed to things above their age or they can do terrible things and inflect terrible things as well.

Alex's Post on Paper Towns

I just read Alex's Blog Post on Paper Towns. I read it because i have recently read the book myself and actually thought that it was a compelling and good book to begin with and I even wrote a blogpost about it myself. So while filling through the archive of many 8th grade blogs i realized that i could write about Alex's with complexity.


Now Alex wrote this post while still reading the book so i can guess that she feels differently about the book now, but in a nutshell she is basically summing up all of the different parts in the story while leaving all of the components in to leave and interesting blog post. She talks about Quentin, this insecure, troubled, semi-lonely high school senior who has sort of given up on having a fun high school career. He re-meets up with his neighbor Margo who brings his life back up to standard and changes it permanently.


Margo is popular at high school and sort of the opposite of Quentin, the main character. When Margo talks people actually listen and choose o follow her and her beauty. One night margo decides to take Quentin on the adventure of a lifetime that includes breaking into Sea World and waxing a bully's eyebrows . It forces Quentin enjoy what he has while he still has it. 


The next day Margo runs away for the fourth time and leaves a series of small but visible clues that Quentin is forced to follow. Alex Does a nice job of pointing out how each of Quentin's friends help him eventually find Margo. She does a goo job of describing them and their personalities.


Overall i think that Alex does a good job of showing the different characteristics and traits of the story and the characters.

Nickeled and Dimed

I'm reading Nickeled and Dimed by Barbera Ehrenreich. The book is a non-fiction retelling of a journalist who decides to try and live a life on minimum wage throughout america. My bar mitzvah project is about how it's better to experience a tragedy or poverty and give a smaller sum of money than to blindly give lots of money without understanding. This is a perfect example.But i dont think that this idea is commenting on just the idea of poverty. I think she is trying to make the reader look in the mirror and see how they think of the homeless and the poor that do spend Christmas in a homeless shelter and do decide that they can make a living making seven dollars an hour cleaning houses, or even so poor that their only choice is to go into illegal crime to make money. 


So if in fact the idea is to make readers think about what choices they make and what choices their country makes then i think that they would touch upon what the life is really like. For example, she describes what pain it is to look at her roof of dirt at night and picture herself at the bottom of a grave looking up. And another thing, she constantly talks about how she has the luxury of sometimes having a bathroom. How she usually has to pee in a bottle. It actually makes the reader start to think.


I've seen things like these before where the author or movie-maker tries to go on a diet to see if its actually what it seems like in Super Size Me. And what i think people are missing is that these movies or books have a purpose besides total entertainment. They make the reader self-evaluate themselves and their lives. If i ate McDonalds every day then watched Supersize Me I would definently change my habits. I think that these authors should then get more credit that they do for the things that they do. And that is what i think the end result should be.

Gym Candy

I just started reading Gym Candy by Carl Deuker. The book is about a freshman in high school who's life is devoted to football. His dad was a professional NFL player for the San Diego Chargers but was dropped off the team after one game. The book is about the freshman, Mick Johnson, finding out how he is different from his father and how he is similar.


Reading this book took me back to third grade when all i ever read was sport stories. I would read them about football or baseball or even soccer (which I was never really into). But since I don't buy lunch from a rolling cart with pb&j's anymore I have to think like the reader  i am. It's harder than you might think, and even a little sad. The fact that I can't just read this book anymore but have to think about the setting and the characters and cant resort back to my third grade, easy-like way of reading sport stories. But there is also something simple but nice in that. the idea that i can read with sophistication, and all of these years of ela training and annotating have actually led up to something.


So i haven't finished the book yet. And i have a feeling i know what's going to happen. But it doesn't matter, because for the first time this year i'm reading the book that connects to me. In a way that no other book has. And in a way, thats what reading is about. Connecting with a book, no matter how weird the relationship is.

Teen Angst? Naaaah... TWO!

           I just finished reading Teen Angst? Naaah... be Ned Vizzini. The book's about Ned's trip through high school at Stuyvesant HS. The book is broken into parts: Junior High School, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. I though that it would be interesting to blog about something besides an element of story. This was the first time a saw a book that was about something like this. And it was also the first time I had ever seen a book with a pace like this. He literally sums up five years of his life into 374 pages. And yet he somehow manages to make the reader feel like he/she is actually going through the life with the author. But that was the fascinating part to me, the cool part to me was that as i was reading the book i found myself wondering why the author wrote it.


           So we know that Ned went to high school at Stuyvesant, which I know is a rigorous school that requires hours of time and commitment, and we know that Ned had a problem with thought and attempts via suicide from his other book: It's Kind Of A Funny Story. i searched everywhere in the book from the back But I think the real answer was in the first chapter of the book. He talks about how he used to have this backpack. He says that it was so dorky people would "give him looks" until they saw how dorky he looked himself. He goes on to tell the story about how one time he was going up an escalator and the backpack decided to fall down a couple of moving steps. But he realized that if he just kept treading backwards and walking down the steps the backpack would eventually reach him by riding up on it's own. He says that it was cool, in a modest way. As if it meant something to him. I think that this is a perfect projection of why he wrote the book. He wrote this book so that the whole High school experience could catch up to him like his backpack on the escalator. In a sense, this book was written for him, not just the reader. And that is what i think this book is about.

Teens Angst? Nahhhh...

I'm reading Teen Angst? Nahhh by Ned Vizzini. The book is about a teenage boy about my age that is excepted to Stuyvesant High School. The school was at the time, and still is, known for its challenging academic courses and tedious students. Only the smartest kids in the school that do the best on the test get in. He is immediately surrounded by "Nerds, jocks, preppies, artists and every other clique imaginable." He quickly learns that there isn't a clique for everyone, and when your not properly in one you start your own. I'm not that far into this book but i have the feeling that it's about how Stuyvesant is a "Manageable form of pain. Not a sharp, wincing pain that went away quickly-a chronic, dull, four-year ache that, if pressed on the right way, felt kind of good."


Stuyvesant is a legend still today. Its still protects it's legend of being the "nerdiest" school on the public high school scene. A mix of Asians, Whites, Blacks, Latinos and every other race in New York, squeezed together in this one big mass of learning that the city can take credit for; We funded the multi-million dollar Stuyvesant High School. The one that surpasses all other Specialized high schools in itself. But Ned Vizzini Doesn't care about the fact that he got in, he wants to reader to know what the middle four years of his teenage life were like so he chose to show it this way. He continuously talks about how this school is a little bit of everything... of the best. I think that thats his life though. A little bit of everything, of the best. He moves to New York when he is 6. He falls in love with the New York Mets. He becomes a vegetarian. All of it, is sort of connected. 


To conclude i believe that Ned Vizzini describes half of his teenage life, his high school, his friends and everything in his book as a "Manageable form of pain. Not a sharp, wincing pain that goes away quickly-a chronic, dull, four-year ache that, if pressed on the right way, feels kind of good."

Purple Heart

I'm reading Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick. The book is about a boy that enlists in the army and is shipped out to Iraq. The book immediately starts in a hospital ward right after he was "On the business side of an RPG." In this book, and in all books about war, there is almost always no justice. 


The dictionary defines justice as "righteousness; fairness; reward or punishment as deserved; the use of authority to uphold what is just." If that is what justice means then the whole concept of war seems to be corrupt and in-just. All of it, the casualties, the bystanders dying, everything. But the idea in this book is behind the idea that even though there is no longer a draft the soldiers in the war don't really want to be there. Maybe thats a fair assessment, i cannot say that i have ever been in or near a green zone. But i can assume that it is not pleasant to be in the middle of an Iraqi civil war. He speaks about chasing a pack of insane terrorists with AK-47's in a minivan like it's some small deal. I would freak out if i had to do it. He also talks about how you get used to the machine gun fire and its no big deal. But I think that it should be a big deal. I think.


I dont think that war, especially in the book Purple Heart, is just in any sense. It evens come from the title: Purple Heart. Later in the book he talks about how he feels like his heart is no longer made of red and flesh but now purple and dry. He feels this way after talking to his younger sister on the phone. He doesn't want to be there. He doesn't want to have to fight for  decent meal, and most of all, he doesn't want his family at home to worry about him.


So to conclude, i believe that war, of any kind is extremely in-just and unfair. But is an honorable kind of unfair. it is the kind that people sign up to go through. And i think that thats something that we can all learn from. because if someone want to risk their life so that you can life with justice then thats what Purple Heart is trying to get at.

Paper Towns

I just finished the book Paper Towns by John Green. The book is about a boy name Quentin who used to be best friends with a beautiful, adventurous, girl who was caught up in the popularity and drama of high school. But one night, the girl, Margo, crawls into his room. She gets him to join her in a one night adventure that includes breaking into Sea World and crawling into bullies houses to wax their eyebrows while they are asleep. The next day Margo is found missing for the fourth time in five years. Quentin and his friends go looking for her and eventually find her in a "paper town" in upstate New York. A big theme in the book is how Quentin thought he knew who Margo was until he realized that everyone had their own version of Margo and that his had just another way of seeing her. So i think that the author intentionally doesn't give us Margo's perspective so that the reader can imagine her in his/her own way and have his/her own version of Margo.


I think that the author doesn't give us the perspective of Margo because he wants us to imagine her, not just through the narrator's point of view but also from the point of view of the reader. If the author wanted us to know why margo ran away then he would have told us and then we would have known why Quentin wanted to find her so badly. He only talks to her once or twice in the whole book and its only to plan a prank or say goodbye. When he does eventually find her they don't talk they just lay on the ground for a day before she tells him that he has to go back home and that she doesn't like to live her life like he does. The reader is lead to almost not believe her. Does she really believe that he cant live with her in the way that she wants to live? Or does she have no other way to shrug him off. In the end, maybe this is what the author wants. Us wanting more out of a character that everyone wants more out of.


He eventually leaves, along with the reader, like any book told with perspective. And the author leaves with the character too, in that he leaves the character behind, making me wonder if he ever wonders what happens to her. Does he know? Maybe he thinks of himself as Margo. Either way, he trails the reader into wanting a piece of Margo Roth Spiegelman's head.