Notes From The Midnight Driver: Week of 2-27-14

Book: Notes From The Midnight Driver
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick
Pages Read: 0-87
Prompt: Describe the setting – when and where what you are reading takes place.

        The story is currently taking place in a foster home. It is in modern time. So the story starts off with this kid named Alex who crashes his Moms car after he gets drunk and attempts to drive to his Dad's house. He is grounded until his court hearing. This happens in the world today so it tells me that it is in modern time. When they go to court they sentence him to a certain amount of service hours at this nursing home. So he goes over there. He gets stuck with a man named Sol. This is an old sort of cranky man who is always criticizing Alex.
        So as you can imagine Alex does not like this man. In fact he sends a letter to the judge pleading to let him take on another task. His best friend decides to go to the funeral home with him one day. Her name is Laurie. Alex thinks its going to be horrible. Then they hit it off. "What!?!" Alex is thinking. They keep on talking and Laurie loves helping the man. So then when Alex comes back next time without Laurie, Sol's automatic reaction was "Where's that lovely girl Laurie?" Now Alex is even less happy to go work with Sol because he always talks about Laurie coming back.
        At this point Alex sends another letter to the judge asking to reconsider. This is a very realistic setting because teenagers woud not want to do this, then have to put up with some crazy old guy. Again the answer is no. But one day Alex finds something they both enjoy. The guitar, Alex loves to play it and Sol loves listening to him play. In fact Alex learns new songs and spends extra time practicing and getting better just to impress Sol. The last part I read ends with Alex playing a song in front of a bunch of people at the funeral home. And Sol likes the song and for once compliments him.

"The Ultimate Enemies"

Reflective Blog

        Since September of 2013 to now, February of 2014 I have shown good growth. In our first blogs I was a lot more careless. I would make simple grammar and spelling mistakes. I think from writing blogs and reflecting on AoW's I have gained better grammar. Then from vocal tests and reading I have gained better spelling skills. My word choice has also increased. I used to use much more simple words such as "scared" or "mad" instead of "frightened" and "furious". For the rest of 3rd quarter and 4th quarter I will still work on more complex words, more depth on the characters or their actions, my feeling toward things in the book and textual evidence to support my opinions.

        My favorite blog this year was the assignment where we had to summarize the book from the point of view from one of the characters. I liked this one because it showed how much we are capable of. In this blog I wrote five solid paragraphs from different parts of the book. This blog also shows improvements in grammar, spelling and word choice. I think it shows how I have grown from writing a 3 paragraph summary to a 5 paragraph story. Before it was just a picture for media. Now there are two pictures and a video that is connected to the book. It also includes links to websites that have to do with what the character is talking about. I think this blog is the best because it shows are capability at the beginning where we were still in a more 6th grade mindset to how much more capable we are of producing great things a few moths later in a 7th grade mindset. Below you will find one of my first blogs and then right under there is one of my more recent blogs. 

Here is an example of one of my first blogs

Here is an example of my favorite blog more recent

        

Notes From The Midnight Driver: Week of 2-17-14

Book: Notes From The Midnight Driver
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick
Prompt: Describe what was either believable or unbelievable about your reading.

Defend your opinion.

        My book is believable. It is believable because it is about a teenager named Alex. First thing is that his parents are divorced. This happens a lot so it makes sense. He is really mad at his Dad who left his Mom. So one day his mom is leaving on a date. She thinks he will be fine. Next Alex is bored at home so a dumb idea comes to mind. He decides to get drunk. He had been drinking a lot. So as you can imagine more stupid things will come when you start drinking.

        His next decision is also very believable. He takes his Mom's keys and decides he is going to storm over to his Dad's house. He thinks he can just drive there. He gets in the car and the next thing you know he blacks out. He wakes up and gets taken to the hospital. His Mom is furious and his Dad is there who at the time he hates. Now he will have a court hearing in a month. His Mom locks him in the house besides school. She will not let him out of her sight because she no longer trust him.

         Then at school the word gets around. One kid starts picking on him. Then something worse happens. His only friend found out and starts yelling at him he feels it is nonstop. Now he is going to court. This is believable because many kids get upset about divorce. Teens make stupid decisions like drinking which this one does. Finally there are a lot of accidents involving teenagers each year. He decides to get into an accident. It is also very realistic for hi mother to get mad at him. All mothers would.

"Fear of the Dark"

It Reads:

Puzzled
light no longer
There was no one
alone in the darkness
unable to face
silence of the night
close to fear
closer with every breath

         The theme of this poem is alone in the dark. When I was younger I was scared of the dark. I wouldn't go to the basement by myself and if I did I turned on all the lights immediately. I felt like this describes being alone in the dark. I had "no light" and "fear" which was probably the two biggest things to do with the dark. I thought that by making a dark setting it adds to the affect of the poem. The person is clearly alone. But since it is night there is a moon. But I made the moon like a dark blue or black to add to the sense of fear. The main idea is basically talking about the dark and what comes with it.

"Hard Work"

         The theme of this poem is hard work. I feel like these phrases describe people who work hard because they start off small then get big expectations the more they work and then ending with million dollar throw means they have showed off their talents and it truly showed their hard work. The message is basically that these phrases are parts of or things that come with working hard and accomplishing goals. I felt this poem made sense because when you see people who work hard to accomplish something they can connect to these things.

Notes From The Midnight Driver: 2 Voice Poem

"Notes From The Midnight Driver"
 Mom

 Son 

Itrust my Son

 She shouldn't trust me 

I am going on a date

 She is going on a date 

 Bad Idea 

 I'm sure he'll be fine

 She has no idea whats going on 

It will only be for a little while

 Just enough time 

 He won't cause any trouble

 I'm going to drive to my Dad's house 

I'm sure he won't touch the liquor

 Now where's the beer? 

 Did I leave the keys to the car?

 She left the keys to the car 

 Mistake 

 He wouldn't try anything stupid

 Time to go for a drive 

 What do I have to worry about

 Nothing will go wrong 

 Crashed car

Why did I trust him?

 Ugh cops 

 Now in the hospital 

 What were you thinking?!?

 Mom am I okay what happened 

 You are certainly not okay

 Well what happened 

 You crashed

 So thats why I have a 

 Headache 

Yes

 This sucks 

 Yeah it does your in big trouble

 Like I didn't see that coming

"Where I'm From"

Slam!: Week of 2-3-14

Title: Slam!
Author: Walter D. Myers
Pages Read: 0-288
Prompt: Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be read people)? Why

or why not?

The characters in the story seem very real. It is about a teenager who his nickname is Slam. He grows up in a dangerous neighborhood where there is lots of bad things like drug dealing and stuff. He and his friends are the top basketball players in the area. This reminds me of Derrick Rose because he grew up in Englewood which is one of the more dangerous areas of Chicago.

So Slam and his friend promise to never sell drugs or get mixed up in anything. They both know they could have big futures. When Slam joins his new schools team he is not respected. This is because he is too flashy for the coach and the team. The team was terrible and Slam was great but coach wouldn't play him unless they were desperate because he didn't like Slam. Slam got really mad.Later on Slam learns to control his temper.

He figures out that basketball is a team sport and that he had to be less selfish. So he focuses more on winning with the team than him winning on his own. Then something happens that rattles Slam. He find out his friend has been drug dealing. He gets really upset. They known each other since they were little kids and he never thought he would do this. He thought he was smarter because they both could have big futures ahead of them. I like Slam because he is smart on and off the court. I enjoyed this book because it seemed realistic and it showed how some people can mess us their lives and others can have more perseverance and remember whats important.