Krista Ramsey Columns

I chose the column called Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love books. It’s about a third grade language arts teacher believes that each and every student has the right to properly learn how to read and write and be good at it. No matter how much work it takes this teacher is willing to help until the student fully retains how to read and write because; she does not want her students to be retained in the third grade. Below is a hyperlink to the article.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/15/krista-ramsey-third-grade-reading-guarantee/6475723/

There are a lot of well written lines throughout this column; most of them are dialogue since the third grade teacher is being interviewed throughout the column. Although the line that stuck out the most to me was, “Meanwhile, Ernsthausen has generated a sea of data on each of them. They take weekly and monthly assessments, and, after each book they read, they take a test Ernsthausen created that’s modeled on the OAA.” It really shows some interesting figurative language that the author uses and shows the teacher being interviewed feels so strongly about her students passing and really knowing the material. Metaphors and symbolism is used in this line, the metaphor is “a sea of data on each of them,” and what that symbolizes is all the new information that the students who need help are practicing and learning. It really shows and accurately describes the determination of this teacher and I think the symbol shows how much information is put onto these students just so they know how to read and write accurately, not just to pass the OAA. The diction in this line is a little more elevated than the rest; which is one of the main reasons it stood out to me. For example the author uses words such as, generated, assessments and modeled. The sentences are short and to the point, not much detail is added into them mostly because the article is in interview form. The syntax is very informal and lots of dialogue is added into sentences because the teacher’s response is added into the column. This makes the column more interesting to read and more accurate.

Ramsey’s writing style is very informative and detailed while backed up with facts. In the first column called For better vision, kids need time outdoors, the author first describes/introduces the topic in detail then backs up her claims with facts. “But before parents claw back the iPhones, experts say the problem may not lie in the technology itself, but the amount of time spent on it, the environment in which it’s used and the activities it’s replacing. For years, researchers have wrestled with what’s behind a worldwide increase in the prevalence of myopia, or nearsightedness. In the U.S. alone, the percentage of people ages 12 to 54 who are nearsighted – meaning unable to see things clearly at a distance – rose from 25 percent in the early 1970s to 42 percent now.”  As you can see Ramsey describes the problem/topic then adds in informative facts to back up her claims. This sense of writing style is really repetitive in all of her columns. In the second column I read called, Super Bowl QBs score points for great style, “The amazing thing isn’t that two super jocks know how to dress well, but that they actually seem to want to. It’s a hopeful sign in a nation that now accepts flip-flops and jeans as appropriate wear for weddings, graduations, awards banquets and funerals. At work, “Casual Fridays” have morphed into sundresses and golf shirts every day.” Again, the author introduces the topic and gives a short but detailed enough explanation then backs it up with facts. In the last article I read called, Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love book, “For her students, the stakes couldn’t be higher: Pass the 2½-hour Ohio Achievement Assessment or be retained in third grade, at least for language arts. But their 27-year-old teacher clearly feels the pressure as well. “I keep hearing in my head, ‘One test determines if they’ll be held back,’ ” Ernsthausen says.”  The author’s style is very factual and detailed, just like how she included information about how you have to pass the OAA or be retained in third grade language arts. Then she added the teacher’s opinion and determination. All of her sentences range from short and sweet and long and detailed.

Lastly, three questions I would ask author are, first I would ask: where do you get your ideas from?  I would ask this because I find that her columns range from current events to other events such as ones that people haven’t really heard about, like the last article I read about the third grade teacher trying to get her students to pass the test. Which I found was interesting because I didn’t know about that, but the other two are more talked about commonly. The second question I would ask the author is where she went to college at. I really want to know what colleges are best for journalism because I am very interested in that field of study. I also don’t know what school I want to go to so I think it would help me to decide if I knew where a columnist went. Lastly I would ask her how much a columnist gets paid. Just because I am curious on what the regular journalist salary is since I am considering studying that in college.  I think it would be really cool to be an author and have my stuff published like Krista Ramsey.

The Book Thief (Continued)

I am currently about halfway through The Book Thief and a lot of new characters have been introduced. For example this character is known as “the new Arthur Berg” because he replaced the former leader of Liesel and Rudy’s stealing clan. His name is Viktor Chemmel, a ruthless, snotty and greedy rich boy is named the new leader of the fruit stealing boys; plus Liesel of course. Viktor refers to Liesel as “whore”, for example he says things like; “He then turned his casual focus on the girl. ‘Who’s the little whore?’” (Zusak 273). Just from that simple phrase I completely dislike this character. The author then goes on to describe him more in comparison to the old leader, Arthur Berg. “Last year, she knew that is she was stuck in a tree, Arthur would come back for her, despite claiming otherwise, This year, by comparison, she was instantly aware that Viktor Chemmel wouldn’t even bother to look back,” (Zusak 274). So Viktor is nothing but a selfish little devil, in my opinion at least. Stealing has become a fundamental part of survival for Rudy and Liesel; times were rough and they both are starving. So it’s important that they get enough to eat. However, they only get one apple to share between the both of them, and Rudy argues with Viktor so he kicks them both out of the little stealing group.

As Rudy’s death is still foreshadowed I am waiting achingly for the moment to come. Will he starve? Will he get beaten to death? Those are just some of the questions I’m asking myself as I go on to read about this marvelous character Rudy Steiner. He goes to a place called Hitler Youth and always gets in trouble so his teacher makes him do extra work. Hitler Youth is kind of like a military school so basically like a gym class. He comes back with cow poo on him and that’s the last straw for Rudy Steiner. He claims that he needs “a win” which means he needs to steal something. Liesel decides that they can steal from the mayor’s house. The mayor’s wife did fire her mama and Liesel was so furious about this that she yelled at the poor mayor’s wife. This was a huge turning point in the book and for Liesel’s character. It shows the round character she was become. She says, “’You think you can buy me off with this book?” then later she goes on and says, “its about time that you do your own stinking washing anyway. It’s about time you faced the fact that your son is dead. He got killed! He got strangled and cut up more than twenty years ago! Or did he freeze to death? Either way, he’s dead! And its pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it. You think you’re the only one?’”  (Zusak 262). The mentality and brutal words that spread out of Liesel’s mouth is unlike anything I’ve ever heard her say before and it really shows how she has changed and developed emotionally as a character. She used to be such a sweet, quiet, innocent girl and now she is yelling at an adult who let her read and kept her secret of stealing books. What is to come of her next? What will happen if someone finds out she has been hiding a Jew?

The Book Thief Predictions

        So far the book has been through some quite twisted tales, an unexpected stranger is let into the Hubermanns house and hidden within the walls of the basement. He and Liesel connect with their love for words and atrocious nightmares. Rudy's fate is revealed and Liesel is open to a world of books in the Mayors house. What I find most interesting about this book is that it is narrated by death itself. It’s the first book I’ve read that wasn’t narrated by a person but a thing. For example it says things like, “It was exactly when I knelt down and extracted his soul, holding it in my swollen arms. He warmed soon after, but when I picked him up the boy’s spirit was soft and cold, like ice cream,” (Zusak 21). As you can see there is a great use of figurative language such as similes and personification. Death doesn’t have arms! Death might not even be described as a thing; it is more like a fate. However all through the book this ‘Death’ tells The Book Thief’s story. In such a creative way and interesting way, I predict that something tragic will happen at the end. Like maybe they will get caught hiding the Jew or he will die. What I would like to happen is for the war to end and for Jews to be saved to live their life again! But death isn’t so kind, I don’t think it would waste it’s time telling a happy ending story.

The Book Thief

I have currently started reading this fantastic novel about a young German girl named Liesel Meminger is ripped away from everything she knows of a family. Her brother dies and her mother can no longer take care of her. She is sent to a foster home with this two strangers names Hans and Rosa Hubermann, its 1939, and World War II is on the rise. Hilter has gained full power over the German people. You wont go a day in Germany with out hearing the words "heil Hitler" from all the Nazi citizens. Liesel finds her first book in the snow soon after she finds out her brother is dead. I am at the part in the book where she steals a book left over from the fire. All Nazi's burned every Jewish thing in this fire."They began to leave the scene of the crime and the book was well and turly burning her now. The Shoulder Shrug had applied itself to her rib cage," (Zusak 122). Liesal has just stole the book from the fire and it was still extremely hot. It shows the risks she is willing to take to steal books and how she feeds off of this knowlege.

Hans and Liesel have a special kind of relationship, Hans finds out that Liesel stole the book from the fire. "Listen Liesel.'. Papa placed his arm around her and walked her on. This is our secret, this book. We'll read it at night or in the basement, just like the others-but you have to promise me something.' 'Anything, Papa.' The night was smooth and still. Everything listened. 'If I ever ask you to keep a secret for me, you will do it.' 'I promise.'" (Zusak 127). The trust and comfort in their relationship is far more dynamic than any other characters relationships in the book. Hans trusts Liesel to keep a secret if he asks her to and he promises to keep hers. He has been taching Liesel how to read and they read in the basement every night and she learns new words to catch up withthe rest of the people in her class. She has less of an education than the rest of the kids because she never went to school before she came to her foster family. Hans helped her to catch up and be in the correct grade level.

I am very excited to be reading this book and I look forward to seeing the movie. I predict that the secret her papa (Hans) will ask her to keep is the Jewish man they decide to hide in their basement. The family is not part of the Nazi party and Hans dislikes Hitler. I predict that they will keep the Jewish man safe but will go through a lot of stuggles and Liesel will find comfort in books and her learnings. I know that times are rough since this is during the war and Hilter is killing Jews and other types of opposing people to build a "Pure Germamn Society". I love to see Liesels family defy the rules of the society and keep the man safe. This book reminds me of the Anne Frank Diary i read a while back. They are both set at the same time fram and include Hitlers mass genocide of Jews.
                

The Fault in Our Stars

This is the movie trailer of the book I am currently
reading.  So far the book has been great and there are many dynamic plot twists and meaningful lines throughout the text. Hazel Grace and Augustus travel to Amsterdam to meet up with Hazel’s favorite author Peter Van Houtan to find out what happens to the characters of his famous unfinished book An Imperial Affliction.  While on the plane; Augustus says something absolutely wonderful, he is talking to Hazel on the plane. ‘I’m in love with you,’ he said quietly. ‘Augustus,” I said. ‘I am’ hesaid. He was staring at me and I could see the corner of his eyes crinkling. ‘I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all
doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to
dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have. And I am
in love with you.’ (Green 153).  Gus tells Hazel the story of his old
girlfriend Caroline who died of a brain tumor. She was mean to him but the
doctors said that the cancer “poisoned” her brain. She joked around saying
crude things like, ‘Gus has great legs. I mean leg,’ (Green 176). She would laugh
about it over and over again. Hazel tells Gus that she never wants to do that
to him and he responds with the famous quote; ‘Oh, I wouldn’t mind, Hazel Grace.
It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you,” (Green 176). I think
this line is so important because it shows how much he loves Hazel. He is
willing to go through heartbreak just to enjoy the happiness of being with her.
Augustus is one interesting dynamic character; I look forward to see him
develop even more. So far I love this book and I want to read more books by
John Green.

Blog Reflections

Looking through my past blog posts I have noticed that they have become more detailed and in depth. I have read a total of four books this trimester. I used Good reads and found out about the Divergent series which 3/4 of my blog posts were about. I chose to read Divergent because it had good ratings and a lot of my friends were reading it. I noticed in my past blog posts I didn’t explain very well and I wasn’t as interested in the book I was reading so I read less often. The quality of my writing has improved immensely over the course of the trimester, my first blog post compared to my last are very different. You can tell by my use of vocabulary and detail in my last post compared to my first post that I have improved a lot. An example of my first blog post is; “The theme of my book is that with every good thing that happens a bad thing follows shortly afterwards. For example my main character Ren, gets adopted when his chances were very slim which was fantastic but; he doesn't get the "perfect" family that he has always dreamed of. A quote that supports this from my book is "We all need prayers," Said Brother Joseph. "Especially when something good happens to us" He sighed. "Bad luck follows anything that’s good" (Tinti 12).” What I said in my first blog post wasn’t bad, I like how I included a quote from the book and stated the theme. Now here is an example of my most recent blog posts; The new discovery is that the Bureau gave Jeanine Matthews the serums! So they helped her kill the Abnegation. Why? I don't know, I suppose they do whatever is best to heal the genetically damaged people. They will stop at nothing to do so, and kill as many people as they want. Tobias recently discovers that he is a GD and this informer Nita who works at the Bureau explains how the government has treated GD's so badly and that we have had wars before people were GD. So the question to ask is, why waste time fixing the GD? The tragic event that occurred was a plan to steal death serums in order to get revenge on the Bureau. Nita however told Tobias that they were going to steal the memory serum. A series of explosions occur and Uriah gets hurt. He still remains unconscious. Later on Tris and everyone teams up with some Nita and her inside people in the Bureau as well as some people from this place called the fringe.” I paraphrased on my most recent blog post and really summarized what happened in the book and included a lot more detail. I also can tell just from comparing the two blog posts that I was more passionate about the book and enjoyed reading it more than reading my summer reading book. I think this was because I didn’t really have a wide range of options to choose from. One strength I had while blogging was summarizing and including a vast amount of detail. Also my use of vocabulary was good. I struggled with coming up with a topic to blog about, I didn’t really like going off the writing prompts because I felt restricted into only writing about one certain topic. I overcame this by explaining what was going on in my book. In other words I included a brief summary of what I read. Then I made predictions and included my opinion and thoughts on the book. Although I did not meet my goal I am still proud of what I have learned and read this trimester. I gained a lot of knowledge and learned a lot of lessons just about life in general from reading these books. I also have expanded my vocabulary and common sense. I now understand what is it like to have no one you can trust; like the character Tobias from the Divergent series. I also made some strong connections with the character Tris from Divergent. So a vast majority of my learning has come from the Divergent series. I highly recommend reading this series if you haven’t already. My experiences while reading these books have taken me on an emotional roller-coaster. The books are very action packed and unexpected. There are many cliff hangers and a lot of imagery and diction; as well as figurative language. So overall, I think I have improved a lot in my reading skills and writing skills.

Unwrapping Allegiant

 

As a follow up on last week’s predictions for this book I have recently "unwrapped" new secrets and some tragic event does occur so my prediction was correct. Although I do think that something even bigger will occur. The new discovery is that the Bureau gave Jeanine Matthews the serums! So they helped her kill the Abnegation. Why? I don't know, I suppose they do whatever is best to heal the genetically damaged people. They will stop at nothing to do so, and kill as many people as they want. Tobias recently discovers that he is a GD and this informer Nita who works at the Bureau explains how the government has treated GD's so badly and that we have had wars before people were GD. So the question to ask is, why waste time fixing the GD? The tragic event that occurred was a plan to steal death serums in order to get revenge on the Bureau. Nita however told Tobias that they were going to steal the memory serum. A series of explosions occur and Uriah gets hurt. He still remains unconscious. Later on Tris and everyone teams up with some Nita and her inside people in the Bureau as well as some people from this place called the fringe. The fringe is a poverty blown place outside the city. What I question is why the government doesn’t just help the people and give them food and shelter instead of trying to fix their stupid genes. Also, why are they hiding the history of our world from everyone? There are so many secrets to unravel still and I ponder on what is going to come next. I like the use of the author’s words that get to you emotionally. She uses great diction and figurative language and has a mass amount of imagery. I admire her writing greatly and enjoy her books.