Character Changes

In the beginning of the year we read "Rules" by Cynthia Lord together. In this story, the main character Catherine struggles with responsibility and has conflict with her situation...and her self....in dealing with her little brother who has autism.
As we go through the story, Catherine struggles with her concept of herself, wanting her own life and balancing that with wanting and needing to take care of her little brother. At the end of the story, she has grown more confident in herself and her choices of friends. An example of this is her friendship with Jason. She hides this friendship and even sometimes turns away from the relationship at times. At the end, she realizes that Jason is an important part of her life, no matter his disability, and sticks up for that friendship. She puts aside her worries about what others think. She also realizes that her brother is ok, even if he is not taken care of by herself every second of the day.
We talked during our class discussions often about how she was changing, what she was struggling with, and at the end how she overcame many of her fears and problems. Many of her struggles were her character versus herself, although some were her character versus the situation.
Discussion point for today:
1. How have you seen your main character struggle so far in your story? What is his or her main conflict or need? Are there more than one, and if so, do they connect in some way?
2. How have you seen your character grow or change? (give examples from the book to support your claims)

Theme Discussion

Hello Students!
Together we came up with some good themes that really fit "Krindlekrax". If you remember, we decided that "Friendship" was one "big idea" that really went throughout the whole story. One of the examples that you came up with was that fact that Ruskin and Corky's friendship plays an important part in the story and helps Ruskin to grow and change as a character. Elvis and Ruskin's friendship, or loss of friendship, also plays an important part of the story. Friendship also played a role in Ruskin's father Winston taking the baby crocodile in the first place, he was searching for friendship and acceptance from the others at the pub.
The other theme, or "big idea' that we came up with was "bravery" or "courage". Ruskin showed a lot of courage throughout the story, and his courage is what allowed him to fulfill his dreams at the end of the story. Corky's courage played a part in setting an example for Ruskin. Winston's lack of courage set another example, a negative one, for Ruskin.
In your groups today you did a great job of brainstorming possible themes, or "big ideas" that went throughout your stories that you have been reading. My question for you today is the following:
1. What is one theme that you think plays an important role throughout your group's story? There probably are more than one, but just pick one to concentrate on.
2. Give at least two examples where events in the story demonstrate the importance of the theme. Be sure to explain your thinking fully.
Remember, not everyone has read your book, so be sure to write your post so that everyone will understand your thinking. Reread your post for spelling etc. before sending it off. You may also comment on one of your classmates posts.

Main Character Sketch-House of Many Ways

Charmain Baker lives in High Norland, England. She has red thin hair, pale skin, and reading glasses that make her green eyes look huge. Her mother makes Charmain dress respectable, even though she does not like it. She is average height and is really skinny.

Charmain is intelligent and lazy. She strongly dislikes anyone better than her, especially Peter, her Great-uncle’s apprentice. Out of being intelligent and lazy, she also is a huge daydreamer, she loves to read. In the beginning of the book, Charmain discovers that in hard situations, she has luck and magic on her side.

On the outside, Charmain dislikes Peter, but on the inside she admires him. Charmain is trying to show him that she can be responsible and patient,but its hard to keep up with him. When Charmain gets a job at the royal library, the King sees her as a responsible, polite young lady.

Charmain wants to show people that she is more than she looks. By entering herself into an adventure, she will try to help the king and his friends find the elfgift.

During the book, Charmain tries to prove herself responsible. By overcoming obstacles, she finds that she can do anything she wants to as long as she has faith in herself.

By Elle, Logan and Hayley

Main Character Sketch-Charlie's Raven

In the beginning of the story Charlie is climbing a tree then he thinks of an indian folk tale that people think ravens can cure people. Then Charlie comes across a raven nest. Charlie grabs a baby raven and names it Blue Sky. Charlie runs home because he is scared of getting attacked by ravens. Then Charlie tells his granddad “I found a raven”.

Charlie is a child that has blond hair and tan skin. Charlie likes ravens. When Charlie saw a second raven on his roof, Blue Sky went to see the raven because they knew each other. Then Charlie set up a day care. In chapter five Blue Sky left for a while then he came back all by himself and Charlie guessed that Blue Sky left some doodles.

The behaviors of Charlie are: he is confident in himself and he never seems to get upset . His feelings are happy, confident, and he has happy feelings for Blue Sky. His feelings towards other characters are happy and very sad about his granddad because he has had a heart attack. How Charlie feels about Blue Sky is happy, good and grateful about him but not so much about Pinecone, Blue Sky’s sister .

Charlie’s needs are for Mr.Spinder not to kill the ravens . Charlie really needs food for the ravens so they will live. Charlie wants Pinecone to come down from the roof .

We think he will change by getting Pinecone off the roof. He will change by making Mr.Spinder not kill the ravens. He has accomplished getting food for the ravens.

By Rachel, Dean and Katie

Main Character Sketch-Black Duck

Rueben has dark brown hair,with brown eyes,and wears a t-shirt and khaki pants with beat-up work shoes and he always wears a worn-out baseball cap. He has tan skin from digging up the lobster pots on the beach.
Rueben is brave and he is good at investigating. When Jeddy and Rueben were heading toward Tom’s house, two guys with machine guns came and searched the house for a wallet. After they were gone Rueben and Jeddy went in. They found Tom sitting with his dog on the porch and his dog was dead.
He feels the thirst to prove himself when the police say he didn’t find a body. Marina (Jeddy’s sister) is always willing to keep Rueben for dinner but Jeddy’s dad does not always agree with Marina. Jeddy is his best friend and Rueben can tell him almost anything.
Rueben wants to get to the bottom of the story so that maybe his dad will believe him about the dead body. He wants a good job ,not at the family general store. He searches the dead man’s pockets because he needs to know who the man is.
We think that the book is foreshadowing that Jeddy is going to get into a fight with Rueben and Jeddy is going to leave town. Rueben might be left without a friend except for Tom.

by Callie, Justin, Marina, Emilie and Colby

Main Character Sketch-There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom

Bradley Chalkers is the main character in the book “There is a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom.” He looks like the oldest and toughest kid in the 5th grade. The book says that Bradley looks like a good spitter.

His strengths are that he bullies people including the teacher,he lies to everybody,and accuses people of lying. His weaknesses are that he doesn’t have many friends. He likes to bully people and lies to people. He dislikes when Jeff says “hi” back to the girls who like him.

Other's feelings toward him are they say he’s scary, they think he is ugly, a bully and very weird. His dad thinks that when he is older he will be a criminal in jail. His feelings to other people are that he thinks that people that stand up to him are mean and liars.

He wants people to hate him. He also wants Jeff to not say hi to the girls that say hi to him. He needs to do his homework more often. He also needs to see the counselor. He also wants to beat up the girls who say “hi” to Jeff.

We think if Jeff gets new friends, Bradley will go to the counselor and she will talk to him and make him think that it is okay that Jeff has new friends. We think that he will accomplish being nice to everybody including his parents near the end of the book.

By Jordan, Josh, and Jack

Main Character Sketch-Tiger Rising

By Emma, Jess, & Mason
Robert Horton is an average boy who’s mom died when he was eight years old from cancer. He has brown hair,brown eyes,and a nasty rash on his legs. He wears a blue t-shirt and brown shorts.
Rob likes animals, especially tigers. He hates school and the two school bullies,Norton and Billy Threemonger who bully him every day. He hates talking about his mother since she died. Also his dad doesn’t let him talk about it either.
Rob feels happy when he is around Sistine and his Father. His behavior towards the principal is not very friendly since his principal thinks he has a disease other students can catch. He also doesn’t like Billy and Norton Threemonger.
Rob doesn’t want to go to school everyday, Instead he wants to stay home and help out the maid, Willie May and feed Beuchamp’s tiger in the cage. Sistine wants to let the tiger go, but Rob won’t let her.
We think Rob and Sistine will let the tiger go in the end. He will respect Sistine and his father more. Then he will change by getting more positive and happy about what he has.

Cooperative Reading Groups

Right now we have 5 reading discussion groups going in room 2308. Students were able to choose books they were interested in and then arranged in cooperative groups to work together to read, enjoy and discuss their books. The students are reading the following books:

"Tiger Rising" by Kate DiCamillo
"There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" by Luis Sachar
"Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
"Black Duck" by Janet Taylor Lisle
"House of Many Ways" Diana Wynne Jones