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.

Gettysburg: Battle and Address

          "Gettysburg: The Battle and the Address" by Adam Goodheart is basically about the broad 

factors of the Civil War. The part it goes pretty deep into is the Gettysburg Address. It shows a 

timeline to show some of the factors of the Civil War. 

          I think Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is one of the most important speeches in U.S. history 

because it made simple requests of freedom.  In the text it says, "By accepting the Gettysburg 

Address, and it's concept of a single person dedicated to a proposition, we have been changed." I 

think Lincoln's remarks are still relevant to Americans today because we still follow his remarks 

today. In the text it says," This nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom, and government 

of the people, by the people." We vote for government and it is a free country, so these remarks are 

still followed today. 

          I think Lincoln's speech should teach youngsters or even teenagers about equality. It will make 

people think before what they do. If Lincoln hadn't made this speech, I would've been telling my 

slave to finish all my homework, but instead I'm doing this ELA blog. To conclude, I would like to 

say that Lincoln is very inspiring. 

upfront magazine Supreme Decisions

          In the article, "Supreme Decisions" freedom of religion is a case. The religion of the opening 

prayer is the issue. If I was a Supreme Court Justice, then the opening prayer should be given by an 

atheist, so it doesn't benefit one specific religion.

          I wouldn't want anyone hating me for my religious choice. So, I would try to make everyone 

satisfied. I think when the town refused to change its policy, it was selfish. It was selfish because they 

only were satisfying the Christians. I think to many things in the U.S. Only support Christianity. I 

think Its unfair because the U.S. Is supposed to benefit all religions and not just one. 

          To conclude, the freedom of religion that the U.S. says they have doesn't reflect the answer by 

the town. We shouldn't be forced to practice a certain religion .

"Teen Angst? ... Naaah" Reading Response

          In the book, "Teen Angst? ... Naaah" the main character's name is Ned. He is growing up from a

middle schooler to a high school senior. Ned gets treated different ways in the beginning of the book.
         
          So in the beginning of the book, Ned feels really pressured. He's a middle school senior and wants to

get into Stuyvesant High School, which is the best school in New York City. He seems like a genius to his

friends, but seem stupid to his parents. He feels pressured by his parents and feels smart around his friends.

He is also pretty athletic to his teachers because he takes so many sports' classes. He kind of reminds me of

myself.

          In conclusion, I think characters in young adult fiction are treated like characters in reality. Like how

Ned is like me, other characters are like some people I know.
         

Faithful Elephants

          The main theme of the story "Faithful Elephants" by Yukio Tsuchiya is war. World War II is where the

story took place. It affected the the characters a lot, such as the  elephants and the elephant trainers. 

          The way the the war affects the elephant trainers is that the trainers started starving the elephants. 

They didn't want the elephants to die in the war, so they starved them instead. It was really depressing to 

know that they were starving the elephants that they loved. Also, before the elephants' depressing death, the 

lions, tigers, leopards, bears, and big snakes were killed because they were the dangerous animals. The war 

had affected the trainers so much, that they were forced to poison the zoo's own animals.

           The way the war affects the elephants is that they have to die. It's just scary to find out that your 

going to starve to death. At first they were just going to get poisoned like the other animals, but there skin 

was too tough for the needle to handle. At the end, when elephants Tonky and Wanly were starving, the 

trainer couldn't stand it anymore. He wailed and cried and dashed to the food shed. He threw food and 

water at them. Tonky and Wanly's hearts were touched. They could no longer move, so they didn't eat and 

eventually passed away.

          In conclusion, I think the war played a major role to affect both the elephants and elephant trainers. It 

caused the story to be tragic and heart warming. It sends a message to the readers that life doesn't always 

go the way you want it to go, war and other tragedies sometimes leads to deaths of  loved ones.

Marley and Me

          John Grogan has this dog named Marley. Before John had a really loyal dog, this was when John was a teen. So years pass and John gets married, and gets Marley as a puppy and thought Marley would be loyal as well. Marley was a real mess he pooped everywhere, ate things that were not edible, etc. Marley grows to become a 100 pound beast and causes even more mess. John really started to hate Marley on the outside, but inside he loved Marley with all his life. When Marley died John was really sad.
          The theme of this book is friendship/bond. The bond between Marley and John and Jennifer(John's wife). Even though John always got pissed at Marley for wrecking everything, he always loved him. John had Marley when his kids were born and had Marley through precious moments. That's why the theme of this book is friendship/bond.