Category: Language and Literature

Equity and Advocacy Summative

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Our equity and equality unit focused on a specific issue that a character in novel (for me, The Defense of Thaddeus Ledbetter) faced. We had to advocate for the issue whether it be by creating a speech, a poster, a video, whatever it is, we had to be able to make people care about the problem. Since my topic was about ADHD, I made a poster that was supposed to represent a kid with ADHD and his mind was racing with all the statistics about the disorder. I had some spare time left, so I also decided to make a speech that went into more detail about what it actually is, what problems surround the issue, and what can be done to help.

Poster:


Slide:

 

Speech:

During the unit, we also worked on TIEAs. We learned more about what exactly goes inside a TIEA and how to write one. This is my TIEA on how people stand up for others even though it’s not always seen.

TIEA:
In the book The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter, John Gosselink conveys in Mr. Cooper’s note that although it’s not always seen, people do stand up for others to make sure everyone is treated fairly. Although Mr. Cooper has not been Thaddeus’ biggest fan, he listens to what people have to say about Thaddeus’ positive influence on the school, so when Mrs. Dixon complains about Thaddeus correcting her in class, he says “Let’s give him a chance. And Jane, with all due respect, maybe you should listen to some of his suggestions.” (228). Gosselink’s choice to include the note that shows him standing up for Thaddeus conveys to the reader that often, people do stand up for others, but it’s not seen publicly. Mr. Cooper doesn’t show any sign that he likes Thaddeus throughout the book, so readers would not believe John Gosselink if he’d just stated that Mr. Cooper would stand up Thaddeus. Throughout most of the book, Mr. Cooper uses an exasperated tone in his letters to Thaddeus. However, in his note to Mrs. Dixon, you see that he does believe Thaddeus has a good advice in his suggestions and that Thaddeus isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary from how a “normal” kid would behave. After listening to kids and teachers about how Thaddeus is a good contribution to the class environment, it helps him to realise that Thaddeus is just like any other smart aleck kid. In the note, Mr. Cooper starts to understand that he can treat Thaddeus like how he would treat any other student; by giving him a chance to prove himself. The only people that know Mr. Cooper is standing up for Thaddeus is Mrs. Dixon and himself because Mr. Cooper does not feel like flaunting the fact that he’s doing the right thing by giving everyone an equal chance to prove themselves. Gosselink implies that standing up for others occurs, whether it is done publicly or done in private, there are people that work to ensure equality for everyone.

MLA citation:
Gosselink, John. The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter. Amulet Books, 2010.

 

After we had finished reading our books, our whole group got together for one final discussion on the whole of the book after our 4 practice discussions. We talked about things like how felt about the book, what techniques the author used that we like, and our general thoughts on the events in the book. So here is the video of that discussion:

Discussion:

 

 

The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter – Sketchnoting

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Sketchnoting is a great way to take a large amount of information on a topic and to condense it to where other people can easily understand what’s being said. For this assignment, we had to take the books that we read (for me, The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter) and turn things like theme, character traits, conflict, and story arc into an easy to follow sketchnote poster. I mainly focused on the story arc of the book as well as the change in people’s opinions of Thaddeus in my sketchnotes.

The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter Booksnaps

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In the unit, we read the book “The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter” in our separate books. During each week, we were supposed to annotate what we were reading using snapchat. You can add colors, stickers, text, whatever you want, just as long as it clearly communicates your idea! Here are some of the highlights from my booksnaps each week:

Week One Booksnaps:

 

Week Two Booksnaps:

 

 

Week Three Booksnaps:

 

Unit Reflection: Journalism

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In this unit, we learned all about how to analyze the style, content, and technique of a news article or news media. There were a couple of different activities we did in order to practice annotating news articles for those kinds of things including; watching CNN10 then annotating on its style of presentation, annotating a news article for both the author’s craft and content, and writing our own article about an issue that affects people like us (other students or people in our community). Here’s a reflection of what we did in this unit:

Unit Reflection on poster:

The Glue Times – Journalism Unit

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In our journalism unit, we were supposed to create a news article within a newspaper with our group and to compare to news articles at the end of the unit. So throughout the unit, we learned techniques that would help us to write our article and to annotate the 2 articles. These things include; author’s craft (technique and style), effect on audience, mood, tone, content, etc. In this post, you will see some of the things we did throughout this unit, like the final draft of article, the writing process, and annotation of the the news articles.

 

The Glue Times Newspaper:

Compare & Contrast 2 Similar News Stories:

Compare:
The articles “Texas Faces Major Flooding” and “Catastrophe in the Gulf” are similar because they both describe Hurricane Harvey as a historically large hurricane in order to grab the reader’s attention. Hurricane Harvey is a hurricane that hit southeast Texas, causing mass destruction everywhere it went. Many were trapped in the path of the storm and needed rescuers to save them from the flooding even though the storm had just arrived. In page 4 of “Texas Faces Major Flooding” the author quotes the National Weather Service, saying ““flooding​ ​ in​ ​ the Houston​ ​ metropolitan​ ​ area​ ​ is​ ​ expected​ ​to worsen and could become historic” while the article “Catastrophe in the Gulf” said “That has led to historic flooding, mass destruction…” In “Texas Faces Major Flooding” the author mainly focuses on the flooding in Houston and how the flooding issue caused by Harvey could become more severe and rise to historic heights. The author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” focuses more on how the whole of the storm is historic including the amount of destruction it left behind, not just the flooding. However, both authors are using the word historic in order to keep the readers intrigued and interested in the hurricane. Both articles recognised that although the flooding was a major problem, the storm was still ongoing and could become historic, but is not historic yet. The authors of both articles know that in order to maintain the reader’s attention, they need to use key words/impactful words in order to keep the audience engaged.

Contrast:
The articles “Texas Faces Major Flooding” and “Catastrophe in the Gulf” are different because the first article is sounds more biased in its description of the hurricane while the author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” lets the audience know that the descriptions are based off of other trustworthy news networks. Hurricane Harvey was an unusual hurricane because the storm stayed intact above Houston instead of breaking up once it hit land, and this caused massive amounts of rain to fall; many have died from this flooding. On page 3 of “Texas Faces Major Flooding” the author uses uncertain phrases such as “at least” or “though that number may climb.” The author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” says on page 3 that the ​”breadth​ and​ intensity ​of ​this​ rain fall​ is​ beyond​ anything ​experienced ​before, the National Weather Service said in a statement.” In the quote from ​the “Texas Faces Major Flooding” article, the author is using phrases that makes the hurricane sound like it will cause a lot more destruction even though the hurricane is slowing down. The author does not take any quote from a trustworthy news site when saying that the number of deaths may climb, but instead is saying that from his own judgement and from his own opinions on the subject. Meanwhile, the author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” takes a different approach to describing the hurricane in order to avoid biased/strong phrases like “at least.” The author tends to quote sources that the readers trust, like the National Weather Service, and in the statements from those trusted sources, there are impactful words and phrases. The difference is however, that the author of “Catastrophe in the Gulf” is using key phrases taken from sources that are trusted and sources the readers trust to give pure facts. The author of “Texas Faces Major Flooding” is making his own statements sound like bias because he doesn’t quote other sources, but just explains what he thinks the hurricane will destroy next. By quoting official sources, the description of the hurricane in “Catastrophe in the Gulf” manages to avoid sounding biased.

Annotation of news articles:

 

News Article: The Mystery Of The Disappearing Rats

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The Mystery of the Disappearing Rats

September 4, 2017
Paula Hsiao

On August 26, at around 8 pm Saturday, a rat was spotted running up the stairs before disappearing beneath the TV set and refrigerator. Witnesses at the scene say the rat was fairly small, compared to the other rats they’ve seen, but very quick. However, people at the scene during the incident say they could not find the rat after it’d ran under the TV, and that they are still searching.

According to the witnesses at the scene, they were just enjoying their dinner in front of the TV when the rat first appeared. One of the family members who first saw the ray way that the rat had been running up the stairs very fast when she’d seen it. That was supposedly when she screamed, which grabbed the attention of the others who were also there at the time. The screamed is said to have startled the rat, who ran underneath the television before any bystanders were able to catch it or hit it with a broom.

The family member who first say the rat says that “this is the 2nd time this has happened, so I think there must be a hole in the back door. There was another ray that had gotten in somehow a couple months ago and had run up the stairs the same way. So there must be a hole or something somewhere if they were able to climb up the same way.” The family is not too sure about where the rats were coming from though because they make sure to check that all their doors are closed every day.

“We waited so long for the rat to come out and we had even moved everything near the television away, but the TV set is right under the staircase so it’s a snug fit for humans. The rats have no trouble hiding there though,” claimed another family member at the scene. The rat was not able to be found despite their best efforts, so the family, who have said they’re going to set traps, says they have to take extra precautions with leaving doors open now.