Original Sonnet

Shall I compare thee to an exciting basketball game

The crowd's going crazy

Cuz you're never lame

And the players are always trying, cuz they ain't lazy

As time goes by, I love you even more

I wouldn't want to be with any one else right now

With you I never feel bore 

Every time I look at you, I just go "wow!"

The players keep scoring nonstop 

Everyone is on top of their chairs 

Coaches are now panicking a lot 

  The crowd is now acting like a bunch of bears

The game is now coming to an end

But win or lose, you'll always be my friend

Martin Espada Literary Essay

          Martin Espada writes poems about the hardships of a Spanish life. A lot of these hardships are about the relationship between Spanish and English people. The hardships are from different points of views. In Martin Espada’s “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” the point of view is from a student who gets his name frequently mispronounced. In “The New Bathroom Policy at English School,” the point of view is from an English principal eavesdropping on students speaking about him in Spanish. In “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877,” the point of view is from two Mexican men being hanged by white people. Espada also shows how these hardships effect people of the Spanish culture.

            As mentioned before, a lot of the hardships Espada writes about are about the relationship between the Spanish and English cultures. In “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” it shows how a Spanish person’s name is frequently mispronounced, which is trying to show how a lot of English people don’t have to worry about getting their name mispronounced. In “The New Bathroom Policy at English School,” it shows how Spanish students take advantage of speaking Spanish about the principal behind his back. This is not really showing a hardship of a Spanish life, but an advantage of a Spanish life. This poem by Espada can show how English people don’t always have it easy either. In “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877,” it shows how English people try to make Spanish people feel not powerful enough or worthy enough. This also shows some of the racism Spanish people have to go through.

            Marin Espada also shows how the people Spanish faith get affected by the hardships. In “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” the student who gets his name frequently mispronounced feels like hell. In “The New Bathroom Policy at English School,” the two Spanish speaking students feel like they have an advantage of getting away with talking behind the principal’s back. In “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877,” it makes the two Mexicans being hanged feel powerless and weak by the racism.

            To conclude, Martin Espada’s poems are mostly based off of the hardships of a Spanish life style. Sometimes Espada writes about the advantages about a Spanish life like in the poem “Two Mexicans Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877.” 

Upfront Magazine(Is this story fair?)

          In the Upfront Magazine, there is an article called "Smoke Signals." In this article it talks about teen

smoking and e-cigarettes. Some doctors believe that e-cigarettes help stop smoking. But, studies have

shown that teens that smoke e-cigarettes even twice, then they are more likely to become regular smokers.

           I believe that this story is fair. What I mean by fair is that it is a reasonable article. It is not bias at all.

It uses only facts. I think it has a lot of reasonable facts to support its claim. So, this article has all the

ingredients to be considered fair.

Independent Reading ( Is this story fair?)

          The book, Don't Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock to me is not fair. It mainly attacks McDonald's 

out of all the other fast food restaurants. So most of the blame of America's weight issue goes to McDonald's

in this book. All the other fast food restaurants aren't as popular as Mickey D's, but they still have a big role 

in causing America's problem. 

          Morgan Spurlock could have done his social experiment a little different. He could have ate from 

different fast food restaurants, and not just McDonald's. So, McDonald's took a big hit after this social 

experiment. They stopped serving super- sized orders. That, I agree should have happened. The option to 

super- size your meal is just crazy! This story is not fair in most cases.  

Social Issue

          Parental supervision is a technique that involves looking after, or monitoring a child's activities. A lack

of this constitutes neglect. Some parents are not aware of of need to supervise children from ages 1-18.

Children start making their own decisions, and sometimes it's not the right decision. This is mostly how

children start to smoke and use drugs.

          Sometimes a neglected child can feel as if their parents don't care about them. Also, this is how

teenage girls sometimes become pregnant when their "alone". Complete neglect of a child doing or watching

inappropriate things. For example, the kid might watch something really violent, or might even watch

pornography.

Social Injustice Project

Find a True Story About Someone 

          I interviewed my mom. She is a really honest and nice person. She always gives up her train and bus seats for the elderly and pregnant women. Also, my mom works at a 99 cents store. Every time someone gives her extra money by accident, she always returns it. When she finds anything she always returns it to the owner. She always give money to poor people, always. 

          When I asked my mom "what is the biggest impact you have on the world?" She replied, "putting smiles on everyone's face because happiness is the best way to let everything off your mind and just have a good time." One day when I visited my mom's store, all the customers said things like,"Your mom is so honest, your lucky to have her(my mom) as your mom, etc." The most importantly she takes care of me and my little sister. My mom really does change the world everyday. 

Letter to Ms. Berner about 6th grade book library

Reehan Habib                                                                                                                               10/31/13

811                                                                                                                                                      ELA

Dear Ms. Berner,

          Book banning is getting really ridiculous. Books are getting banned over the silliest things.

Novels like Captain Underpants,  Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and even the dictionary are

in the banned books list, along with a lot of other books. One person's problem with a book shouldn't

be everyone's problem with a book. A personal issue shouldn't become a public issue. It is for I believe 

books should not be banned in the 6th grade library.

          In the Scholastic article, “Why Captain Underpants Is The Most Banned Book In America” it

talks about how the mascot of the book (Captain Underpants) is partially nude and it also has a lot of

rebellion in the book as well. It goes on explaining why the parent doesn't want her child to read the

book. According to the article, the parent says “A young child like mine, shouldn't be learning about

rebelling now, it will rot her mind...” I'm pretty sure that a 6th grader should be mature enough to over look 

the nudity. Also in the “All Time 10s” video about banned books, Where's Waldo was also banned for 

nudity. The book had a partially naked woman in the background. A 6th grader isn't going to go looking for 

naked women in a book! But, the 6th grader's parents who have a problem with their child reading the book 

shouldn't ban the book for all 6th graders. 

          Also mentioned as a banned book in the “All Time 10s” is the dictionary! This ban was because

of the inappropriate words in it for little children. To be honest, I used to look for inappropriate words when 

I was in elementary school. But in 6th grade I was mature enough not to be idiotic like I was in elementary 

school.  In the article, “Age-Rated Books: Right or Wrong” is sort of related to the ban of the dictionary. It 

talks about the heavy topics in young adult reading, and parents' thought about it. According to the article, 

“Some parents think reading young adult encourages suicide.” Like I said before, a personal issue shouldn't 

become a public issue.

          In the article, “Reading Fiction” it talks about how young adult fiction is good for young adult

readers. It says that because the article thinks it's a good way to see how the main character in the book

solves their problems, which may help the reader solve his or her problems. On the other hand the

video on ABC 13 about the book, Fahrenheit 451 being banned. The book was banned because of the 

heavy topics in the book. For books like this, I agree with the fact it should be banned because it is pretty 

deep and can't be taken in by a sensitive person, especially a 6th grader. 

          To tie it up, some silly decisions were made in banning books, but there still were some smart

book banning decisions. The silly decisions are just way too much! Like I mentioned before, books

like the dictionary and Captain Underpants is just ridiculous book banning for a 6th grade library.