Making Connections

We recently read the story, Fireflies in class and wrote about connections we had to the text. As you are reading this week, think about a connection you have to the text you are reading. Remember, it could be to a way a character feels or things they do. You can also make a connection to another story you have read!

My Example:

Text: Crash

Author: Jerry Spinelli

From The Text: It was Crash's first day of seventh grade. He and his friend, Mike, were busy trying to look cool and sound cool. They were bragging about the designer clothes they wore and the expensive sneakers they had. They thought it was funny, in a mean sense, that Penn had clothes that were not as stylish as theirs.

My Connection: I remember being that age and concerning myself with how I looked and how I acted. I thought the whole world was looking at me and if I made a mistake I thought people would think less of me. Yuck! I wonder if Crash was feeling a bit self conscious too and wants to and is acting that way because he thinks that's what other kids will see as being cool. I am glad that I have matured and realize that being true to yourself is so much more important than having the right clothes or the right shoes. I just wish I would have realized it when I was younger!

Wow Statements

We recently read, Come On Rain in school. We noticed how the author carefully chose her words to make the story interesting. Then we searched for wow sentences, or sentences we thought were written really well. As you are reading this week, look for a wow sentence.

Your assignment:
Title
Author
Wow sentence
Why you think this is a wow sentence

My example

Maniac Magee

Jerri Spinelli

Wow Sentence: To the old pitcher, they were like his own best knuckleball come back to haunt him. In, out, up, down-not even the pitcher, much less the batter, knew which was it would break. He kept swinging and missing.

Why:  The old baseball player, Grayson, did not know how to read until Maniac taught him. The wow sentences show how hard it was for Grayson to know the sounds of the vowels because they make different sounds. For example, the letter a sounds different in the words ant, play, autumn, and you don't even hear it in boat. Since Grayson was a minor league baseball player, a pitcher, Jerry Spinelli, compared vowel sounds to the different pitches a pitcher throws to confuse the batter. In this case, Grayson was the batter. His word choice is far more effective than saying "Grayson had trouble sounding out the vowels." Instead, Jerry Spinelli creates a vivid comparison for the reader.