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Reading class in 8th Grade is crazy
Reading class in 8th Grade is crazy
(in a cool way)
Best Book I Read This Year
Best Book I Read This Year
This is a tough question: all books are the best! But unfortunately, I have to pick one. This year, I have to pick House Arrest by K.A. Holt as my favorite read.
This is one of the most fantastic books I have ever read - I'm so glad I picked it to read as my first poetry book. It may actually be one of my new favorite books ever. Every single part of it I enjoyed- the story, the characters, the events- but the poetry is utterly fantabulous.
Look at this (quote from book):
"That day.
Always in my head.
Won't go away.
Always in the mirror.
Written on my face.
That day.
When the guy's wallet was next to the credit card swiper thing
at the checkout
and the manager and the guy looked out the window
at the car crash outside of the grocery store.
My breath came fast.
My vision did this weird pin-point thing.
My brain went white.
So I leaned over, grabbed the wallet, kept walking.
The sun was bright.
The day was cold.
The wallet was heavier than I thought it would be.
I paid
one thousand
four hundred
forty-
five
dollars
and
thirty-
two
cents
on one shiny blue card.
Levi's medicine for one month.
I made it one and half days before they caught me.
One and a half days of feeling like I could breathe.
One and half days of trying to figure out how to tell Mom.
Then the police came.
They took me away.
But even worse?
They took the medicine away, too.
Man. I was really stupid then.
*
White hair on his head
coming out his ears
creeping from his nose
BOBBY
his red name shouts it
as if your eyes are deaf.
When BOBBY took that credit card
he knew it wasn't right
the white hair on his nose
sucked in and out
like seaweed in the tide.
My uncle's card.
The sweat rolled down my face
getting in my eyes.
Quite the generous uncle.
That's what BOBBY said
when he swiped the card
handed over the medicine
never taking his eyes off me
even when the pharmacy door ding-dinged
and I turned around
looking through the glass.
BOBBY watched me go,
his mouth in a tight line
his hand in his white hair
searching for answers."
Look at that!
Isn't it fantastic?! The rhythm (slow and existent), the word choice (simple, to make it sound like it's written by a kid, but 'shouts it as if your eyes are deaf'), and the scene (you can feel it as if you were there! as if you're the main character). There's so much to unpack in this one little poem. It's fantastic.
Skyhunter
Skyhunter
Planning Guide for Book Bento Box and the Image
Planning Guide for Book Bento Box and the Image
It appears the thinglink didn't save, so here's the planning stuff for it!
Click on the image to enlarge it
I loved getting to work on this because it was a new software and it was fun to discover it and explore. It was a challenge to get the picture, because I would remove the background and it wouldn't work! I fortunately got that fixed in time, though!
Journal Jots for Skyhunter
Journal Jots for Skyhunter
One of the things we did this year was create Journal Jots. One of the cool things you get to do with Mrs. Haring! I created a timeline of events in the story based on a poster I saw in Mr. Ashman's room, a timeline of events of Lord of the Rings. This was one of the cool assignments we did that I'm not the most proud of, but still proud of.
Books I Read This Year
Books I Read This Year
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Candymakers by Wendy Mass
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Sunny by Jason Reynolds
Patina by Jason Reynolds
Spy School Project X by Stuart Gibbs
Skyhunter by Marie Lu
Allies by Alan Gratz
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz
Two Degrees by Alan Gratz
House Arrest by K. A. Holt
Swing by Kwame Alexander
Goals I reached
Goals I reached
I didn't have the time to read lots of books during this school year. I was super busy with assignments, trying to manage my time and responsibly completing my work. I'm not very proud of my 8th Grade work, but I am proud of some of the main things we worked on.
During the third quarter I was able to get things done and find time to read! I completed my goal to read 4 or more >200 page books. I got to read Alan Gratz's new book, "Two Degrees". It's a pretty good book and definitely helps spread the word on what climate change is and how we can prevent it.
#1
#1
Read 4 >250 page books this quarter- I tried to make this one but I wasn't able to as 8th grade was just super busy.
#2
#2
My second quarter goal was to have no late work. I had 3 late assignments this quarter, unfortunately. This quarter I was not as focused as I could have been on my reading grades.
#3
#3
Read 4 or more >200 page books- got this one done! I had a lot of time in the 3rd quarter and I kept working increasingly on gettting everything done.
#4
#4
Read >6 200 page books - I almost made this one, I read 4! I got to read Swing and House Arrest as my poetry books and I also finished Ground Zero and Allies. Stepping it up by 2 books made the goal a little tough but important to achieve. All of us 8th graders should be reading more books, as it's a very important skill that is going to be needed in a new society where there's lots of disinformation out there.
Books To Be Read
Books To Be Read
Some of the books I wanted to read but I didn't get to dive into them just yet.
Heartstopper - all my friends are reading it and I wanna try it to! It seems really good and my mom's friend told us about it.
His Dark Materials - this is a sci-fi book series that my one of my family members recommended to me. She's going to lend me the books, so I think I'll read them for my summer reading assignment!
Last Percy Jackson Books - I got into reading them for an assignment in 5th Grade, and after COVID happened and we went virtual, I stopped reading them. I want to get back into them again soon.
Ban This Book - Alan Gratz wrote a book that is similar to what's going on here at our school right now. It's much different from his other books and it's one of my friend's favorites- she got her copy signed in April!
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