Non-Fiction Reading Response

In the article "Obama Urges Speed on Immigration Plan, but Exposes Conflicts," the writer, Mark Landler, observes President Obama's actions and makes his own inferences. He shows what he thinks about Obama by using adjectives to describe his actions.

"President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship" (Landler 1). Here, Landler uses the word "challenged." Using that specific word in this context, the author is making Obama seem like he wants to give the immigrants of the US an easier way to become citizens of the US. Using that word in this context also makes congress seem like it doesn't want to give immigrants an easy time becoming citizens.

The author of the article also shows Obama's prudent, and caring side by stating that he also warned people about his plan: "Mr. Obama warned, however, that 'the closer we get, the more emotional this debate is going to become.' He said that if Congress did not move forward 'in a timely fashion' on its own legislation, he would send up a specific measure — something the White House has put off for now — and demand a vote." (Landler 1).

Reading Response

I’ve only read the first ten pages of Waiting For You, by Susane Colasanti, and I can sort of infer what's going to happen. Marisa is one of the main characters. She has just left camp and is going back to school. 

In the beginning the author talks about a love triangle that is going to happen. The situation the author is describing is that the girl falls in love with the popular guy and the geek falls in love with the girl. What the author is doing is that she adds problems and issues outside of the central problem to keep the reader from loosing interest. Marisa’s, the girl who falls in love with the popular guy, best friend wont stop falling for older guys and her family isn’t acting normal to her.

Nash is the geek of the story. The author describes a situation that most teenagers have been in. Nash asks Marisa for advice on love, but he wont tell her who is the girl he’s in love with, and then Marisa takes it as a hint and starts questioning his moves. 

Almost every teenager has been in that situation, either giving hints, taking hints, taking possible hints, or just thinking nothing and giving advice.

Nonfiction Reading Response

"Fall is upon us, and that means the school year is in full swing. Along with the stress of homework assignments and extracurricular activities, unfortunately some students bear an additional burden -- bullying" (Goldman 1).

Carrie Goldman, the author of "Why Telling Bullying Victims to 'just fight back' Doesn't Work,"makes the title of the article self explanatory. She starts the article of how every bullied child starts the school year, and continues the school year. She explains the stress school puts on us and the more stress bullied children go through. The author talks about how just telling children to fight back isn't enough. Telling someone to 'fight back' just confuses the person. How does he/she 'fight back'? Verbally, or physically? Some people just ignore this "advice" because it isn't giving them any courage or ideas at all. 

"Fighting back" is most people's way to approach bullying. If you tell someone you're being bullied, most of them will tell you to "fight back." The author talks about physical fighting. How fighting just worsens the conflict more.

"When multiple kids are targeting one child, the situation can feel completely overwhelming. Felicia Garcia, a 15-year-old New York student, threw herself in front of a train in October, allegedly after being taunted by multiple football players at her high school. How would it have helped her to simply punch one of them? It would not have done anything, except possibly put her at risk for physical harm.And earlier in October, Canadian teen Amanda Todd committed suicide after making a YouTube video detailing her history of being bullied mercilessly, online and in person. Both girls were allegedly the victims of sexually explicit bullying, which is not something easily combated by punching the bully in the face." (Goldman 1). The author here talks about how physically fighting back only will worsen the situation because no bully likes to be embarrassed.

Barbara Coloroso says: "As severe bullying continues, an element of terror is created. The bullied child is rendered so powerless that she is unlikely to fight back and she will not even tell someone that she needs help. The bully, who can act without fear of retaliation, counts on bystanders to either join in or at least do nothing to stop it." She talks about the actions that a bullied child is most likely to take because of the fear that's growing in the child. Fighting back doesn't make sense to a bullied child because the child already has this idea that the bully is always stronger. 





Works Cited

Goldman, Carrie. "Why Telling Bullying Victims to 'just fight back' Doesn't Work." CNN Living 31 Oct. 2012. Living. 30 Jan. 2013 <http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/31/living/bullying-fight-back/index.html>.

Looking For Alaska

Reading Response

I haven't gotten that far in the book, but in Looking For Alaska, by John Green, the main character is Miles Halter. It starts with Miles going to boarding school and saying goodbye to his parents. He then meets his roommate, Chip Martin. He meets Chip right after he exits the shower, with just a towel.

Chip starts to make himself comfortable with Miles and then they go to Alaska's room to get some cigarettes. [14] I haven't read anymore than that. From what I have read, and from what the title is, I'm guessing Alaska will show up in the book more than once. Looking for Alaska can mean many things, either she was kidnapped, she was killed, she was lost, or she was spiritually lost, as in she's not the same person she used to be, or she lost her memory.

What I think will happen in the story is that Alaska will get kidnapped. Miles and Chip would most likely go find her, since on page 13 she's the one chip goes to buy cigarettes. On page 14-15, Alaska tells chip a story about how she got honked. She also said she was thinking about how she's gonna "tell Takumi and the Colonel [Chip]" [15] which makes her and Chip seem really close.

Hold Still

Reading Response

Dear Caitlin, there are so many things that i want so badly to tell you but i just can't.

The book Hold Still, by Nina LaCour, shows many social issues in the world by using teenagers. The main issue the book revolves around is friendship and fear.

The quite above is a note that Ingrid wrote to Caitlin, her best friend, after she committed suicide by cutting her wrists, deeply. This shows that Ingrid has been living with fear of friendship. Throughout the story Caitlin discovers her best friend's journal, and after reading it, she regrets almost everything she has ever done.

She has never noticed the fear Ingrid had in their friendship. Ingrid and Caitlin have been best friends, but Ingrid took her life away because of the fear she had of telling her best friend her opinions, on everything. 

She wanted to tell her about everything, from her feelings, to what happened in first period. Ingrid was afraid that Caitlin wouldn't care, that it would affect their friendship. 

A while after Ingrid is gone, Caitlin finds a friend, who's lesbian, and has a girlfriend. Friends are found everywhere. The book is written from Caitlin's perspective, and it seems that Ingrid's death is used as a reminder of what mistakes not to make in her friendships.

Friendship plays an important role in the book. The main character's life depends on friendship. What happens at home doesn't matter, all that matters is friendship. Friendships can change your life in many ways.

The New Jim Crow

Reading Response


How does this text address the points of view (perspectives) of other groups, especially those who usually don’t get to tell their side?



The book, The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander, talks about segregation. She only talks about the perspective of one person, Jarvious Cotton, a black male. She talks about the history of his family connecting to his present, and future. She talks about only that persons perspective on what is going on, and what was going on. She connects this book to history. 


"We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." [2] this is part of the introduction. Alexander gives her opinion about society now. She clearly states that we have redesigned racism instead of putting an end to it. She states what we intend to do, which is end racism, and states what is being done, redesigning it, and makes society, or 'we,' look like a villain. Anyone can read this line and say that we have done something bad through the eyes of the author.


In the introduction, she introduces the character, Jarvious Cotton, and also states her opinion, which is also the characters opinion. "The more things change, the more they remain the same" [1] Th author states this in the introduction. She says that Cotton's story uses " the old adage" [1]. In the introduction, she explains how society was like in the past dealing with the issue of racism. She explains how freedmen were threatened and killed for trying to vote, and sometimes for voting. She states "denying African American citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union" in history.

Social Awareness Project

#4~ Reading Response

a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.-Dictionary.Reference.com

In the book, Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers, focuses in the topic of bullying and popularity. Bullying can be physical, verbal, viral, and more. Physical and verbal bullying, as well as cyberbullying take place. It all started with some drinks.

In the beginning, the Regina, the main character, and Anna ,her best friend, were staying at a home while still being drunk from a party the just happened, then, Anna’s boyfriend, Donnie, is too drunk that he decides to almost rape Regina. ALMOST. Anna was still there but she was knocked out and didn't want to wake up. Regina then runs out of the house into her “friend” Kara. She tells Kara everything. The next day, Kara tells the story to everyone, not the true one, the twisted one, she tells Anna that she had sex with him. After this, Donnie doesn’t get bullied, but Regina does, ALLOT. Donnie has loyal friends and Regina just has friends that would do anything to remain popular; they care of what people think. The bullying worsens.

The way the author describes Regina’s feelings makes me sick. The way Regina is being bullied seems ridiculous. Someone actually pushes her down one flight of stairs and causes her great damage. She gets beaten and left in a stranded area. She gets things written about her on the internet and images get posted. The whole school smirks at her and call her names like, “slut” and “whore.” She makes a friend though, Michael. It’s a rough start and with Michael, Regina doesn’t feel lonely, but doesn't feel safe either. Michael and Regina aren’t really close. But she feels a happier, not allot, just a little.

After reading this book, I felt disgusted. I felt that no one could possibly survive bullying. Reading the book literally traumatized me. The images are drilled into my brain. The author makes you understand the topic of bullying more clearly and explains everything that gives you a clear image, which makes more traumatizing. What the author is trying to say, is that bullying isn’t funny, especially not to the person who’s being bullied. 

#5~  Poem

I spend lunch alone and isolated,Everything I do gets you aggravated.

I don’t understand what I’ve done,My hopes as of now are close to none.

One day you will see,
Everything that you have done to me,

One day it will be over,Just when I get that for leafed clover.

School and home are the same,They don’t have a hint of shame.

Teachers swear they’ll make a change,It’s obvious that it isn’t in their range.

But now my hopes are none,You will see what you have done.

I’ll cut through flesh and veins,all to take away this pain.

I’ll have to cut deeper,Waiting for the grim reaper,

In the bathroom.Bleeding.You didn’t hear me out.It doesn’t matter now.


PROCESS:I wrote this poem thinking of the experience I had reading books about bullying, in the first person. I literally felt the pain in my gut and disgust. Even though I haven’t been bullied that much, the pain I felt reading was real. I used that experience in writing that poem. The poem is about a kid being bullied, and he takes too much of it. He tries to talk some sense to the bully/ies but fails and decides to cut himself. I didn’t include a happy ending because it seems that most stories have solutions to problem and there are actually people that have sad endings like this.

#2~ Stahp.

The word “stop” means to put an end to. I come across people being bothered about their beliefs, and even their likes. It may seem funny for a moment, but enough is enough. Of course, what’s popular now is One Direction, what used to be VERY popular, and still is, is Justin Bieber. I constantly hear people bothering fans about how they suck, and it never stops. I’m a directioner, and I get bothered constantly, people always say “One Direction sucks.” It can be easily ignored, but some people cross the line saying that they are gay and that we should go kill ourselves. This used to happen to beliebers, but now its on directioners. It hurts because it’s something we are passionate about. The point is, people should be able to know when to stop. What’s something you’re passionate about? It may be cooking, to reading, to watching TV, and playing video games, and it might also be a movie. This is basically bullying. The cause for this is questionable. There seems to be no reason at all to hate on others passions or dreams. The cause for this might just be if someone’s passion literally has done something to someone, which is highly unlikely. Some people do it to provoke someone and see their reaction to it, which they find funny.

The solution is simple, don’t cross the line. Crossing the line could lead to verbal and physical fights. I see this everyday. We try to ignore this, but unfortunately the passion drives us to different directions. Forget about our “obsessions” and “fandoms” for a moment and think about what your passionate about. Forget I even named directioners or beliebers or fandoms. I’m talking about dreams and passions and crossing lines. It may seems funny at first, but don’t pass that line.