Thursday, November 29, 2007

Debates

~Trials~
A trial is a structured debate that happens in court rooms that is used to decide weather or not the law was broken and the defendant is guilty. The judge and jury decide if a punishment will be enforced. Because it is structured, both sides have an equal and fair chance at bringing the other down with supporting evidence and methods used in courtrooms.

~Sports Talk Shows/Mid-game shows~
In a Sports talk show or mid game show the members of the show express their opinions as to who they might pick to win the championship for example or many other games, and they argue on whether or not one may be right and they compare who they think will win. This isnt always a fair case because they have a set time limit and if one of the members takes up too much time explaining his predictions then the others dont get as much time to explain theirs. It is much looser and unformal than a courtroom trial. It is semistructured, meaning it has some structure but not entirely complete.

~Political Debates~
Political Debates are structured debates that take place in a formal auditorium most of the time and sometimes on Television as well. The Debate serves the purpose of persuading the american public to vote for your party and making the other party look foolish. It does somewhat help the public come to their senses about their voting decision and have a little more background knowledge on the canidates in the election. This effects once again the publics decision making process only, which can in the long run greatly effect the outcome of the election

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

W2 B (pgs.31-67)

Dear Mick Johnson,

I think you are a very talented football player and thus far you seem to have great work ethic, yet I am a bit concerned about how devoted you are to football. You are spending all of your time either playing football, watching foorball, playing Madden 07, or just talking about football and the team with your dad. Have you ever taken into consideration that there is more to your life than just football. It may be your passion, as soccer is mine, but you need to see another pathway in your life because what if, just what if someday football fails for you, then you are left with nothing. You are entering highschool soon and should really consider balancing out your life with football and school just so that you dont go a whole long way and fail and be left with nothing. You seem to have very good connections with your friend Drew and you two seem like you have fun together quite a bit. You should make sure you keep those good friendships and make sure you are there for him/whoever else it may be, if they need you. Also I wanted to congradulate you on making varsity your freshman year, its tough, and i know you can work your way up to the top with the work ethic you've shown so far.

Yours truly,

Arman Shahriar

W2 A (Pgs.31-67)

Vocab:

1) Prevalent (pg 46): having the superiority over another.
2) Unarbitrary (pg 65): not subject to indivdual determination.

Figurative Language:

1) "My heart stone cold i was afraid to even lay eyes on my dad." (metaphor) because it compares not using like or as
2) "His chest is like his third hand when it comes to catching that goddam pigskin." (similie) compares using like
3) "The team needed me, but I didn't need the team, so i called it quits, and for some odd reason they wouldn't let me back 6 months later when I pleaded and swore my attitude changed..." (irony) he went against his own word...ironic??

Quote:

"How good do you really think Drager is?" "Pretty damn good." (pg.54)

This quote really sums up the portion of the book I just read, because it talks about Micks only competition (after surpassing all the other running backs) at Shilshole High. He needs to surpass Drager in order to gain his starting position.

An emerging theme now I would say is work. The foorball Mick is getting into is hard and in order to maintain his status and #2 running back or possibly move up he needs to work harder and harder.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

W1 B (pgs 1-30)

Response:

This section of the book was mainly establishing the whole concept and focus of the book. Mick Johnson is the main character, a young teenager who loves the game of football. His father was a 3rd round NFL draft pick, and Mick really hopes to fufill his fathers shoes. The only problem is so far, his father was a kind of Randy Moss of his time. A man with a bad attitude who will only play when he wants to play and wont settle for anyone elses orders.His 7th grade coach says, "Youre going to end up just like your father. The talent of an all star, the attitude of a punk." Really here again it shows how others view Mick, just like his father, a big punk with attitude problems, so I am guessing that will be one of the things he will be changing throughout the novel. I also really dislike his mother, because for one thing, she completely opposes football, which is reasonable for a mom, but she constantly cannot stand up for herself in telling Mick that he is spending too much time on football. "Mick dont you think you should try something else for a change...Soccer, Baseball?" then Mick says nope i love football, and his father backs him up, and then his mom says "whatever." The whatever is the part i dont care for. She should (as his mother) stand up for herself and enforce what she wants to enforce because clearly in my eyes he is spending too much time one football.

W1 A (pgs 1-30)

Vocab:

1) churning (pg16): the act of using a churn. Turns milk to butter.
2) flameout (pg 28): the failure of a jet engine due to interuption of fuel supply.

Figurative Language:

1) "His abs are rock and his mind is solid steel, it cannot be interupted" (metaphors) compares without using like or as.
2) "Like the wind was born to blow he was born to run." (similie) compares using "like"
3) "Boom, like a gunshot he was sprinting downfield" (onomatopoeia) "boom" sounds like the acutal thing.

Quote/Significance:

"My favorite memory is of an afternoon in June. I was four years old, and I was in the backyar with my dad. He'd just bought me a purple and gold mini football, my first football."--This quote is really forshadowing the rest of the book. Football will become his passion and he will almost grow up his entire childhood around it.

One emerging theme thus far would be competition. Mick is beginning to see the realities of football and that others want to suceed just as much as he does.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Outside Reading, Quarter 2, November 7th 2007

Title: Gym Candy

Author: Carl Deuker

Published 2007 in Boston

Nonfiction novel

297 pgs long

The book should be challenging for me beacuse of the context. It is about highschool football players who expiriment with drugs, which is right about at a sophmore level of context.

I chose this book mainly because i havent really read a book that I'd "want" to read about in a while, and I really liked the topic of this one so i decided to give it a shot. I am excited to read it bieng that we had no restrictions to choose a book so I chose one id enjoy.