Final Exam part 2

Consider these arguments against YA literature below.  Do you agree or disagree?  Pick one book from this semester and imagine that you are having to justify its inclusion in the district’s curriculum.  Imagine that the school board is arguing against you

I feel that The Book Thief should be added to the curriculum because its a book that talks about an even that happened in History and shows how people would hide their what they really felt for fear.  The district wants and tries to protect the students from being exposed to themes that they feel that is not proper for students.  I would have to disagree with them because students should be taught about what life is in reality for them to become stronger in life and have knowledge of previous tragic events.  The district will argue that the Holocaust is too strong for students and could be depressing.  And maybe it is a strong event that happened in history and had a great impact on the nation and students will learn to value themselves and avoid making the same mistakes that people did.  As society ages we see common reoccurences of past events because have little knowledge or they don't break away from that mentality and we want our next generation to be optimistic to change and be open minded.  We want to avoid them being pessimistic about life and their surrounding.  Having students read literature that could challenging will help enhance them in reading and fluency.  Learning about real life events also builds a connection to the life that we live in and strengthen their optimism of life.  Students will not only enjoy challenging books but they will remember it later in life because of the fact that it dealt with an even that marked history and a change of society.  The Book Thief will give students a chance to express themselves of their thoughts of the event and compare and contrast to what is going on today in society and give their opinion to what they think or feel.  Some could start to have a change of mind if they are following the footsteps or being racist or being naive about other peoples beliefs and change to being open minded and not grow up with that mentality as well to go for what they believe and not hide.

Final Exam Part 1

1.  Define Young Adult Literature.  Use your notes (particularly look at the notes from early in the semester found on the Course Home Page and Content), your books (mention or quote from at least two), and your own realizations to craft a definition of Young Adult Literature.  Your response should be a minimum of five hundred words.

Young adult literature is very close to adult literature because many adults are reading adult literature now a day.  The reason that young adult literature is meant or aimed for young adult because of the theme of the story and for the most part the main character is at the age of a young adult.  YA literature ages various depending on the nature of the story, it can range from 10 years to 18 or 12 years to 18 or years, it’s a matter of the story and the child.  Not all YA literature is meant to be read by a young adult child because some stories require the child to be more mature to read the theme focused in the story.  That is why some adults will pick up a YA book to read because they are meant to read by mature readers.  YA literature will focus in reaching the students interest by using similar life experiences that they live as they grow.  Not to mention the main characters will teenagers and the student’s will find a connection with the main character for the most part.  Having the main character think for themselves, make choices, and act on their own as if was the real life events.  Students will be more engaged if the main character is put in the situation where he/she makes a difference in the story, creating events where there is a cause and an effect afterwards.  From the books that we have read, The Giver, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and The Watsons Go To Birmingham remind me of how the main character would have a connection with teenagers because they lived similar events that could relate to the real life.  In The Giver, Jonas is a normal 12 year boy that goes to school and with the exception of the community and their rules and obligations; he does the normal things like play catch or ride a boy like any boy would, “Jonas rode at a leisurely pace, glancing at the bikeports beside the building to see if he could spot Asher’s” (Lowry 26).  He lives with both his parents and has a younger sister.  Obviously their family structure in this story is not the real way that we form a family but they have the basic foundations of a family structure.  Jonas faced discipline from his parents like a child about his age would do if he did anything wrong.  In the story of The Watsons Go to Birmingham, the main character is about close to teenage and the brother who is a teenager, a younger sister and Kenny’s friend Rufus.  Students can identify themselves with Kenny or By or both depending on their attitude.  In this story, we see how Kenny faces being bullied by his brother and at school.  Then when Rufus moves to their school, he then becomes the victim, “Then Larry Dunn said, Lord today, look at the nappy-headed, downhome, country corn flakes the cat done drugged up from Mississippi, Y’all!” (Curtis 30).  In both these books we can see how a student can relate some part of their life and catch their interest to continue reading.  In The Giver at the end escapes his community because he doesn’t want to continue living how they were living, he wanted to be able to experience the feelings that he felts when the Giver would transmit to him, he took his own steps and left.  In The Watsons Go to Birmingham, after the incident that happened when they went to visit their grandma, By did a whole attitude change from being a stubborn hard headed teenager.  Kenny had a life change too because the incident caused confusion. In both of the boys they attitudes changed a sign on maturation as well in which real life boys pass through a phase like this.  I feel that YA literature also serves as a teaching lecture to adults because we learn about what kids might do or think at the age of main character.  We also enjoy YA literature because we might relate to the story of when we were at that age.  After reading the YA books for this class, I got to enjoy books that I would’ve never had thought of reading and actually enjoying them

Works Cited

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. New York: Delacorte, 1995. Print.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

Mother Monologue

Mother

People judge me for leaving my son Christopher and my husband Ed but only I know what life was raising a child with autism.  I’m not saying that I’m proud with what I did but I’m human and we make mistakes.  I can’t deny that raising Chris was very challenging and stressful.  I’m pretty sure that any parent that has a child with autism would agree with me.  You have to be very strong and extremely patient with your child and I suppose I wasn’t up to those standards and that’s not good.  Every day was hard with Chris from cooking a dinner for him, having a conversation, and just about anything that he didn’t like.  It was really hard when Chris would do his tantrums in public because it wasn’t easy controlling him right away.  Therefore, I think all the frustration and helplessness made me feel like being pushed against the wall and would make me lose my patients towards Chris, which I hated afterwards.  My husband Ed seemed to be more comprehensive and patient.  It seemed that Chris felt more of a bond with him than with me.  In a way Ed had the motherly feelings that I didnt.  Not saying that I didn’t love my son but he was much better with him.  Seemed that that frustration that I got with Chris’s behavior created a factor and motive for Ed and me to argue and fight.  Although we made sure that Chris wouldn’t see us or hear us, but I have to say that it wasn’t easy because our arguments and fights were more often.  I was just fed up with Chris’s tantrums at home and in public, like the one that happened at the store, which I don’t like remembering.  After that incident, things weren’t the same.  We would spend time with Eileen and Roger her husband our neighbors and became good friends.  Although I became really good friends with Roger and we would meet privately.  He was a person I could talk to about my problems at home with Chris and Ed and Roger would share his problems about his wife.  Things happened and we fell in love.   Shortly afterwards Roger asked me to move with him to London, since he had requested his transfer and it was granted.  I was confused of what to do because I didn’t want to leave without my son but I thought of how Ed and Chris had a better relationship and the fact that they never argued like Chris and I did, therefore, I thought I should leave for their sake.  When I called Ed to let him know what I had planned to do, he told me not come back and that he wasn’t going to let me talk to Chris.  Therefore, to make me feel better and not so guilty, I decided that I would write to Chris in a sense to keep in touch, but I never received a letter in return.  The day that Chris was waiting at my apartment door, I was very happy to see him and at the same time surprised.  After learning that he had accomplished the whole trip all by himself it made me feel very proud.  Chris told me that his father had lied and told him that I had died of a heart attack in the hospital and my letters weren’t given to him.  I can’t deny that I felt anger.  Things weren’t easy with Chris living with Roger and I because I still dealt with Chris’s behavior problems.  Roger wasn’t supportive as I would’ve wanted and things were just not the same and we weren’t close anymore.  So I felt that we shouldn’t be together and decided that it was better for Chris and I to move back to Swindon.  Can’t say that I don’t regret leaving Roger but the fact that I’m with my son is better.  Chris and I live in our own place but he is able to spend time with his father.  It’s still challenging dealing with his behavior at times but I know that I can do it even if his father isn’t with us.

Into The Wild

“I can’t believe they’d try and buy me a car…or that they think is actually let them pay for my law school if I was going to go…I’ve told them a million times that I have the best car in the world, a car that has spanned the continent from Miami to Alaska, a car that has in all those thousands of miles not given me a single problem, a car that I will never trade in, a car that I am very strongly attached to—yet they ignore what I say and think id actually accept a new car from them!  I’m going to have to be real careful not to accept any gifts from them in the future because they will think they have bought my respect.” (pg 21)

I choose this quote because first of all it shows the Chris has completely different thoughts that his parents.  He doesn’t see life as being made up of new material things.  He shows that he wants to cut the strings between his parents wanting to control his life.  He is an independent adult and wants to be treated as so.  It relates to the book because for Chris life is not made up of money and material things.  He sees it ridiculous the idea of replacing his car when it’s up and running.  In my own personal life because I don’t think that happiness can be bought with material things.  You shouldn’t replace a good working item just because they came up with a new color or style which does the same thing as the one you have.  I think we have to reconsider that other people might not be able to have what ones have and we are being selfish.  I know that I can say that I can say that I have guilty of this because that used to be me with wanting the newest color or style of items.

Censorship

1.   Why is it important to include nonfiction as part of the curriculum in the classroom?  What are some nonfiction works that you recall reading as a young adult?  Did what was best about those books match up with the traits described in your notes?

It’s important to include nonfiction as part of the curriculum in the classroom because students will find themselves more interested in wanting to read.  For example, boys will be more attracted to boy theme books that attract their interest.  I honestly don’t remember the books that we read when I was in middle school or high school that were nonfiction.  But I suppose that our teachers took in consideration the traits that were discussed in the notes.

2.   What are the benefits of including ethnic literature as part of the classroom canon?  How should teachers approach it?

I think that it’s beneficial to include ethnic literature as part of the classroom canon because students needs to be aware of the lives of other diversity and better understand a classmate if the ethnic book is related to them.  I think that teachers should pick an example of a situation that the book talks about and then ask the class about it.  Then introduce the book and the purpose for reading it.

3.   From your notes on censorship, what surprised you as you read?  On the Misunderstandings page, make sure you click on the link provided.  This was set up by parents who wanted to censor a book called Rats Saw God.   What is ironic about these parents including the “worst” passages from the book on their site?  What can we do about censorship?—and this is especially important for those of you who plan to teach one day!

The thing that surprised me from the notes of censorship is that parents are trying really hard to protect their kids from reading books that they consider inappropriate when in reality they are pushing them to temptation wanting to read the book and they want to keep their kids pure and innocent when many times they are living a life that it worst from the books.  It’s ironic because they talking about censorship from books but how they can control everything else that their kids will see read or do.  I think that we could be cautious about choosing a book to read for the class because we don’t want to be in a situation where a parent gets upset and then gets every other parent wild up about the book.

Reality of Life

Questions for you to think about before reading. 

1.       Have you ever argued with your family?

I think that we all have argued with our family, whether it’s our father, mother, cousins, siblings, aunts or uncles and even our grandparents.  We all have minds of our own and don’t always feel the same about everything and sometimes things will get out of control and then arguments will erupt.  Not saying that arguing is a good thing but it’s nothing out of the norms.

2.       Have you ever been hurt after learning a secret?

Yes, I have been hurt after learning a secret.  Secrets hurt a lot after you find out because people play with someone’s feelings because you might trust someone while they are doing things behind your back.  I think that any kind of secret that is kept from you is going to hurt you unless it’s a secret to surprise you with a gift or party.

3.       Have you ever just wanted to get away from everything-- drop all the stresses in your life, get in your car and drive?

I have to say yes and many times because sometimes you feel overwhelmed with everything that is going around whether its school, work, volunteer work, or even your family.  Although, many will judge you if you tell them that you feel that but only the person going through the stress knows the feeling.

4.       Do you think possessions buy happiness?

No, possessions do not buy happiness.  Possessions will only give you happiness when you first have possession of it but after a few days that happiness vanishes and you’re at point zero again.  If you have happiness without possessions means that a smile from your kids will bring you satisfaction and happiness.

5.       Do you think people are mostly good?  Do you think people are mostly fake?

I think that in today’s society there’s 50/50.  Fifty percent that are mostly good and honest and fifty percent that are mostly fake and dishonest.  I can’t say that there’s not good or bad because society has to be balanced with all types of characteristics of people.

6.       Have you ever tested yourself, taken yourself to the limit?

No, I can’t say that I have tested myself to the limit because I’m too afraid of risks.

7.       Are you afraid of dying?  Or are you afraid of dying with ever having truly lived?

I have to say that yes I’m afraid of dying because I think of my daughters and the fact of leaving them to suffer my absence.  I fear the pain that my mother will suffer and probably the rest of my family.  Yes, I’m also afraid of dying without ever having truly lived because I have things that I want to accomplish in life and dying isn’t on my list yet.

Based on these questions, I suppose that the main character of this story will have some this issues that are pretty common in anyones life.  Because I really don't think that there's a family that doesn't have arguments.  I also believe that the majority of the people in one way or another have that fear of dying.

The Watsons Reflection

When I hear of discrimination and racism, it just gets me mad because I think to myself why do people have to be like that, why can’t they just learn to accept that we live in diverse society and whether they like it or not, that’s life in the 20^th century.  Recalling from the our reading and not being able to understand what those two white guys thought they would get out by causing this harm to innocent people.  I think to myself, is their life so miserable that they can’t handle it and has to harm others.  Mrs. Watson thought that going back would be much better because when she lived there, everything was so calm and racism wasn’t an issue.  But what she didn’t realize was that Birmingham was a perfect target for racism acts to be done because of the African Americans population.  Therefore, because of that the Watson return backs home the same of the incident.  Although, the story is fiction and the facts of some of the things that happened are not real but they have some truth to the history of the things that happened in that time.  I wasn’t born in the time frame and can’t imagine the hardship that the people had to go through to live life day by day.  I’m not sure if I would’ve been strong enough to have taken the horrible treatment that African American’s had to go through.