Reading Response: Plot

Reading Time: Literacy Narrative and Short Story 9/24-30 min. 9/25-20 min. 9/26- 20 min. 9/27- 60 min 9/28-25 min.

     In And There Were None, the plot was constantly changing. There were many different subplots, 10 to be exact. Each murder was a subplot on its own. The exposition was very concise. It introduced nearly 15 characters in as many pages. It took almost a quarter of the book for the exposition to make sense. The rising action was pretty obvious in this mystery. The tension of the house in the first couple of days was the majority of the rising action throughout the book as a whole. The rising action for each of the 10 subplots was the setup of each murder, with the climax of each subplot were each murder. Then there would be a quick falling action and it would go back to rising action again.
     And Then There Were None has a very unusual plot. Although it's unusual, it works. You want to read more and more with each little climax. Once you reach the final climax, you can finally take a breath. You finish the book on the falling action, which I thought was very strange. Everything was very open still. I had tons of questions. I decided to read the epilogue, which I never do, and it answered all of my questions. The whole resolution was in the epilogue. I think that this was very risky thing to do. If I were Agatha Christie, the author, I would have just made the epilogue the last chapter so that everyone would read it. Although she takes risks, they're risks that, in my situation, worked.

I am a writer...

I am a writer who has his difficulties
I am a writer who sometimes has a tough time adding meaningful length
I am a writer that has good ideas, but has trouble putting it on paper
I am a writer who has trouble concentrating for a long period of time
I am a writer that has many strongpoints
I am a writer that is writing more developed papers
I am a writer who's word choice has recently skyrocketed
I am a writer that has a very good future
I am a writer

Literacy Narrative Update

Reading Log: Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore 9/18- 70 min. 9/19- 40 min. 9/20- 30 min. 9/21- 15 min. pp. 127-160

     I didn't have much time to read this week because of my literacy narrative, so when Dr. D said I could use my time working on my narrative, I was extremely lucky. Same Kind of Different As Me is coming along. Ron and Denver are getting even closer than they were before. For my literacy narrative, my writing group was very productive. I was able to hear examples of good writing so that I could improve mine. I received some good constructive criticism from my writing group to improve my literacy narrative.

     I have some pretty simple revision plans. I plan on finishing my draft that I started in class for Monday and going from there. By the time I turn in my final draft, I think this could be one of the best pieces I've written. If I can do two drafts before the final, I think that this will be a really good literacy narrative. I fell confident that even though writing is a general weakness for me, this will be something great.

Free Post

     This week at soccer, I was enlightened. On Tuesday, I show up to soccer 10 minutes late because of an orthodontist appt. and one of my teammates comes up to me and says that we are scrimmaging a team that came up from Honduras. Central American countries are usually very good at soccer, and this team definitely lived up to expectations. As I start the game I have no idea what I'm in for. In 5 minutes they score 3 goals. I was completely shocked. This team passed with perfection. I had never seen a team get past a defense this easily. I did what I could, but I had to stay up the field because I was a forward, meaning I was on offense.About ten minutes after it was 3-0, I finally touch the ball and with one touch, I scored. This was almost as crazy as giving up 3 goals in 5 minutes. I felt accomplished to score against this team.
     We ended up losing this game by so much I lost count at 6-1. After the end, we shook hands and as I was walking to my bench, a Honduran dad wanted a picture of me and one of the players. Why they chose me I don't know, I don't take Spanish. He took the picture and all of a sudden comes up and gives me a hug. I thought that was kind of crazy until he picks he up. A man that lives thousands of miles away was picking me up and saying something in Spanish. I guess that's Honduran culture. This was a soccer practice I will never forget.

Literacy Narrative

I haven't yet decided on a definitive topic for my literacy narrative. One of my ideas is to write about how the Harry Potter series and how it became the impetus for reading beyond my minimum requirements in Lower School. Ever since my mom read me the first book of the series, I have had a passion for reading that I didn't have as a kid.

     Another idea I have about my literacy narrative is about Accelerated Reading in Lower School. Since I wanted to do well on the quizzes they would have with the books that they read, I would read the books so much that my reading level improved greatly. I was reading fourth grade level in first grade. I was and still am proud of what I was reading in Lower School.

Reading Response

Reading Log: Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore pp. 66-126 9/11- 25 min 9/12- 40 min 9/13- 30 min 9/14 15 min. 9/15- 30 min. 9/16- 20 min

     Same Kind of Different As Me is really deep book. I didn't think that friendship could come from people from 2 backrounds that are on the opposite end of the social spectrum. Ron and Denver have finally met and are getting along well. This true story isn't about the plot though, it's about the deeper meaning of friendship.

     Ron and Denver becoming friends just shows that anybody can be friends with anybody. For an international art dealer to not just meet but to become friends with a man who has worked in fields for his whole life just shows that friendship is very valuable, especially at a time when white and black people were socially equal. Same Kind of Different As Me really is an amazing story.

Comment Response

     One of the comments made by Dr. D on my Hurricane Issac post really stood out to me. She asked tons of questions that I didn't answer in my blog post, so in this post I'll answer them. The questions she asked were: How many people were there? Where were they standing? What was their body language like? How were they dressed? What did they actually say? What kinds of voices or facial expressions did they use? What did the sky look like? What did the breeze feel like?

     During the two and a half hours out there, there was anywhere between 9 to 12 people at any given time. We were all standing (and at times sitting) in my next door neighbors driveway. Everyone had a relaxed and open attitude even though a hurricane was making landfall just to the south of us. Everyone was dressed in different things from T-shirts to scrubs. It was a pretty diverse mix. Everyone was talking about different things from sports to medicine to fabric. Generally everyone was happy and spoke fairly loudly so everyone could hear over the wind. Whenever I would look at the sky, you could see the stars with an occasional cloud blocking the way at times. To answer the final question Dr. D asked, the breeze was strong but felt great because it wan't 90 degrees like it was all day. I hope that this answered some of everyone else's questions and help make that scene clearer.

Reading Response

Log: Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore 9/5- 25 min 9/6- 40 min 9/7-30 min 9/8- 25 min 9/9-35 min pp.1-65
k
     This week I started reading Same of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. It is about Ron Hall, an international art dealer who sells paintings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in Fort Worth Texas, and Denver Moore, a black man living in Red River Parish, and how they meet and become friends. So far, this is a really great story.

     What makes this book amazing is that this is a true story. It's crazy to think that a man who is pretty much a slave and an upper class art dealer would even meet much less become friends. At the time of this non-fiction narrative, it is very uncommon and even bad for a white man to even be talking to a black man. Their friendship could probably get one if not both of them in serious trouble. The fact this this story is true makes Same Kind of Different As Me just that mare unreal.

Outside Reading

Log: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 8/27- 20 min 8/28- 15 min 8/30- 30 min 9/2- 70 min. 9/3- 30 min pp. 76-182

    The Westing Game turned out to be a good book. It wasn't great, but it was written well which made the book a little more enjoyable. The ending was a little confusing but I think I understood it. I preferred my choice book over the summer, And Then There Were None, because there weren't as many characters and the plot was simpler.

     Next I am going to read Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. This was recommended to be by my dad, who doesn't read much but liked this book. From reading the back of the book, it seems to be pretty interesting. The fact that this is a true story makes it that much better of a story because of how unlikely this scenario is. I am excited to read this and see how it is.

Hurricane Issac

     Tuesday evening, while the wind was blowing around my house, my family and neighbors were sitting outside on the driveway and talking about different topics. The guys were talking about sports and the women were talking about kids and family and other things that I didn't listen to. It was such a relaxed atmosphere because the wind was mostly calm and everyone was laughing. Time must've flown with the wind because when we finally went back into our house, it had been 2 and a half hours.

     As we all were all talking, I thought multiple times about what was coming and what the street would look like 48 hours later. I found it weird that it was so nice out just before a hurricane which would make me stay inside and lose power for a day. With hindsight, I would've stayed out there longer. This was probably my favorite part of the hurricane.