The Life of a Drug Addict

    I am reading Tweak by Nic Sheff. It is about how he became a drug addict. The first time he did anything illegal was when he got drunk at age 11. He would do illegal drugs regularly like: pot, cocaine, and ecstasy, and later on he would get addicted to heroin, crystal and meth. He felt that he could quit and put his life back on track whenever he needed to, but on a summer day in California, he had a violent relapse that made him believe differently. But he does not tell us about his road to recovery. Sheff paints us a picture of how drug addiciton ruined his relationship with his family and friends.
     So far, Sheff uses flashbacks of his childhood to compare his relationship with his friends and family when he was a child and now. He was a smart kid who held a 4.0 GPA, was on the swim team, and his writing had been published in Newsweek. He used to be a happy, innocent kid, was a great big brother, and loved to do things with his father. But his bad habits started young. He stole from his parents, got high and got drunk, and blacked out a lot when he was in high school. He even stole from his little brother. So he went into his first treatment center when he was eighteen. He also used to be a great surfer, but his addiction made him stop because it made him lose interest in it. He knew what the consequences were, but he did not want to stop and change his behavior because he loved drugs and how they affected him. It gave him a feeling and a different view of life that he could not give up. He hated stealing and hurting his family, but he was scared to stop taking the drugs. The more he used, the more people he hurt, which resulted in using more so he did not have to face the guilt. He does not want to got back, so he tries to forget the past of his childhood life.

I Was Struck by Thunder

Thunderstruck, is a 536 page book that displays the narrative history of a murder and a creator. The author is Erik Larson who has also written The Devil in the White City. This book weaves in the story of Guglielmo Marconi and Hawley Crippen. Marconi is an Italian whose story is only of his obsession to perfect his invention of the wireless. His life and sole source of happiness and pride is in the endless hours of improving the way we communicate today. He is driven and has the extreme determination to not let anything or anyone get in his way. With betrayal and attraction of many hateful critics, skeptics, and competitors, he races for the fame that his always improving and failing invention will bring. Marconi’s story is shown through his never-ending experiments to prove himself to the always harsh, watching world. Crippen’s story is about his prominent lifestyle and his greedy, demanding wife that drives him insane to eventually commit the “perfect crime”. He is a man of intellect and kindness, yet he reaches his breaking point and seems to be void of any true emotion under the iron thumb of his wife. Crippen’s story is shown through his downward spiral with his fame-seeking wife, Belle Elmore. Many onlookers of the Crippens viewed them as people of opposite natures who spoke very little and not altogether friendly to each other. While Belle was a high-spirited woman with a pretty face and opulent figure, Dr. Crippen was described as a placid, extremely quiet gentleman who idolized his wife and always fulfilled her every wish. Belle always had the dream to become famous as an actress or singer despite her lack of talent. To make up for her failing dream she always used Crippen’s good financial circumstance to buy every gaudy and expensive thing. Crippen lived with an inferiority complex toward his wife and did everything to please her to prevent her threat of leaving him from ever coming true.

            Thunderstruck is set up as alternating chapters between the lives of Marconi and Crippen. So far, I find that the life of Dr. Crippen to be curious and interesting as I search for the clues and the event of how he will commit murder. Marconi’s life would be fascinating to those who are riveted with the history of scientific advances during twentieth century London.

The Good Life

At the library I picked up A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beal. This book is a autobiography based on the civil war that was fought in Sierra Leone. This documentary revolves around Ishmael's tragic childhood. Early on his village is ransacked by the rebel group trying to take power in Sierra Leone. The rebels travel from village to town looting, raping and killing. Ishmael and his brother are away from home at the time the rebels invade their village because they had walked sixteen miles to Mattru Jong, the main city, to take part in a talent show. Shortly after Ishmael and his brother hear about their village, the rebels invade Mattru Jong.

Ishmael eventually escapes but gets lost from his brother. He finds a group of former friends and together with his friends Ishmael travels the country on foot searching for his family, hoping that they are still alive. Their main goal is to reach the island of the coast of Sierra Leone where they had heard rumors of peace. They travel from village where they are sometimes excepted peacefully and other times they are violently chased out. Ishmael describes the feelings him and his friends had as everyday they were constantly hungry and always were alert for any rebels ready to kill them for no reason. The book is extremely sad and vividly describes the hardships that the young boys go through. The book becomes even more tragic as Ishmael's friend, Saidhu dies.

In their wandering, Ishmael finds out from his old neighbor that his parents and brothers are in a nearby village. His friends quickly move on to the village but realize that they had been just a little too late as the rebels had recently came through slaughtering and setting the whole village on fire. Ishmael becomes extremely angry and bitter at this because he would've rather died with his family. This is a very tragic scene in the book and as far as I have read but this book is excellent to read and really opens eyes to how good life is here especially since around the world there kids like us who are suffering.

from Justin Parker: disturbing! interesting!

Devil In the Details

Thus far, I have found my non-fiction literary work to be quite fascinating, for it is an autobiography written by Jennifer Traig that tells the story of young girl who struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The author struggled with a particularly severe form of the disorder, scrupulosity, commonly know as scruples, that made it very difficult for her to cope with everyday life. She was raised as a Jewish girl in a household with a Catholic mother and a Jewish father who did not practice his faith, but Jennifer did. She found a place for her religion in her illness, for she often obsessed over the laws in the bible as a way to cleanse herself and bring structure and order to her life; however, she did not find much support for this lifestyle in a home where her parents and sister did not keep kosher or observe the Sabbath as she did.

In the opening scene of the novel, the reader is taken to a place where Jennifer has hit rock bottom and realizes that this disease has ruined her life, but she suddenly flashes back to her early childhood and allows us to follow her through a series of events that mark the progression of her disease. This allows those of us who do not battle scrupulosity to understand how the disease can creep up unnoticed by family and friends, for it describes the ways in which the author tried to hide her odd behavior and the shame she felt for performing such rituals.

At the end of each chapter, there is an insert that presents and impossible challenge to the reader, and helps explain why it is so difficult to live with OCD. For I have been given detailed information of the proper way to wash ones hands and not become infected with germs instantly, which as we all know is not possible, and I have been given a guide to understand which chairs in my house are not "safe" to sit in, this includes all of them for one reason or another.

Although I am less than half way through this book, I am beginning to understand the author's purpose, for this book has opened my eyes to what life is like with OCD, except for the fact that to me this is just a book, and I can escape from reading about the world of rituals and rules as soon as I close the pages. I am not forced to live under these conditions as many people struggle to do, for this book clearly demonstrates that OCD is not a term to be used for someone who likes things particularly neat and orderly, but rather a serious and debilitating disorder that plagues millions of people and makes daily life difficult if not impossible to cope with. 

Weekend Homework 10-5-2012

My book is called Real Boys by William Pollack, PhD.D. the book is on how boys deal with growing up and facing their problems. There has been an outbreak of depression and suicides among teenage boys in the last century and that number is steadily increasing. One could say that this is a response to the book "Reviving Ophelia" which takes a bigger interest on how our society is affecting young girls and teenagers. While this is a memoir and has lots of physical information, that all the book seems to be. There doesn't seem to be any real substance in the book, past the fact that yes. there are boys facing a struggle and yes they need help. Pollack seems to just want to post a sad sob story on different boys growing up, but he offers no explanation as to what we can do about it.

In today's world, we baby our female children while forcing the male children to grow up to fast. Females are generally more nurtured and we regard them as vulnerable and don't want to kick them out of the metaphorical nest before they are ready to go into society as strong women. There is always going to be a primordial need to protect our children, yet that need seems to disappear once our male children reach the age of 6 or 7. Parents who stay attached to their kids will be warned about the risk of their children being bullied unless they start to grow independent. because of this, many young boys and teenagers are missing an instinctive bond with their parents that would usually help them through the tough times of adolescence.

While i think this is a perfect book for the book review, i am not able to get into it as well as i would like. I have thought numerous amounts of time about switching out my book but i also think i would be missing out on knowledge, that while i may think is boring a pointless now, that may help me in the long run if i ever have children. This book is very long and can get hard to follow, so i wouldn't recommend it unless you are a strong reader up for a challenge. there is lots of useful information in this book if you want to one day work with kids.

3P Grading Letter

September 2012

Dear Reader:

The “3P” Grading System is a holistic approach to evaluation that invites students to accept responsibility for themselves as learners in the classroom.  Students are encouraged to consider how daily effort toward realistic and attainable goals will help them in their preparation for the literacy demands beyond the high school English classroom -- as students, as working professionals, and as citizens.

Rather than evaluating work on a traditional point and percentage method, (which examines individual assignments, assigns a point value, and then calculates a grade based on an accumulation of points), 3P considers a body of work, positive progress towards agreed upon goals, daily work habits, and classroom conduct.  It closely replicates how we are evaluated in the workplace.  In our work lives, we are asked to make a positive contribution every day, to develop our talents and to use them to accomplish common goals.  The 3P grading system encourages students to think about their own learning, their own work habits and classroom behavior, and to work with their teacher toward steady improvement in their reading, writing, and speaking skills.

Four basic principles of 3P Grading are:

• Students are evaluated on participation, progress, and performance.
• Students assess themselves in a way that counts for 50% of their final grade.
• Participation is more important than progress or performance.
• Grades are calculated based on a collection of work over time.

In practical terms, the system relies on establishing standards for daily participation, and asks students to consider their behavior relative to clear expectations.  When students do what they are supposed to do, progress and performance goals follow.

Expectations for participation are as follows:

1. Follow directions the first time they are given and stay on task.
2. Come to class every day.
3. Come prepared: Bring necessary materials to class consistently and complete all homework and assignments before coming to class.
4. Share regularly. Give good feedback. Ask good questions.
5. Take ownership of your results; be accountable; don’t blame.
6. Ask for help when you need it; use the advice I give you.

Progress  is measured by analyzing student mastery of California Standards for English Language Arts, building speed and fluency in writing, and developing specific close reading and critical thinking skills. Additionally, students must set a realistic but challenging goal by articulating the number of books they will read independently this year.

Finally, student performance is measured as it always is -- through the collection of test scores, homework assignments, annotated texts, process essays, and on-demand timed writes.

The 3P Grading system will not be entered into Parent Portal the way that traditional grades (points and percentages) are entered.  While some performance grades will be recorded in Aeries and visible through Parent Portal, every student’s grade is calculated quarterly during a conference between the student and the teacher.  

Students are required to prepare a self-assessment and to evaluate their own participation, their progress towards established goals, and their work (a notebook, essays, timed writes, quizzes, tests).  This self-assessment is the basis of a conference between the student and the teacher, and in this conference, both parties justify their grade in each of the three categories, work the math, average the two together, and arrive at the final grade.

The 3P System may be different, but it is better; students are more engaged in their results, and involved in monitoring and measuring their learning.  The teacher is freed from the tyranny of calculating every single thing like an accounting clerk, and is therefore available to give more meaningful feedback and guidance specific to the student’s needs.  The lines of communication remain wide open; students and their parents are always welcome to set an appointment to discuss concerns or questions.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Fletcher
Advanced Placement English Language & Composition
Mayfair High School
afletcher@busd.k12.ca.us
562/925-9981 x2508