Book Club Reflection

Club Name: Group 9 Book Title: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelle Pages Read: 1-16

Summary of my reading:

So far in my book, Stargirl, a new girl has come to Mica High. She is unlike any other girl in the school. She wears weird clothes and carries around her pet rat. At lunch she plays the ukelele and sings Happy Birthday to everyone. Leo and his pals don't know what to make of her. Is she for real or is she an actress, like Hillary keeps saying? So far we can only guess.

Weekly Reflection: Blog about your first impressions of your book (do you like it? Are you intrigued?). What do you think of the way our book clubs are organized? Please describe the way each book club period will work and whether you think it's working well. Please, respond to these questions in AT LEAST SIX SENTENCES.

Stargirl is an excellent book so far. I immediately was interested in the main character, Stargirl. Like Leo I wonder if she is putting on an act or sincere. As for my Book Club, I think it's going well so far. I wish we could take the books home, but I understand that we have to keep them organized. I'm a little behind in my reading so I think I'll ask Ms. McKeon to check out a copy of Stargirl to take home with me. Or maybe I'll stay for afterschool to read. My group members are pretty good, except one girl who's not doing her work, but at least I know that a lot of Book Club work is done independently and so she won't affect my grade. Book Clubs are the best unit we've done so far and I can't wait to read more!

Summarizing my Media Topic

Over the last few weeks I have researched general news by reading online newspaper articles from various sources. Although the articles covered a wide range of events they were primarily about politicians and student activists in the United States and abroad. All of them were written quite recently, within a few days of when I began reading up on the topic. Through the articles I learned that change is happening nearby and abroad; change in politics, change in economics, and, perhaps most importantly, change in the way people think. The most interesting thing I read about were student protests in South Africa that are fighting against the undercurrents of racism in the country. After seeing an offensive video that showcased racism in a South African university students took it upon themselves to rally against the injustice. This story embodies a theme that I saw from one news article to the next: change is being made by people to better the world in which they live.

Persuading Readers

The bbc.co.uk article, "Outcry in SA over 'racist' video" tells of a video recently made in South Africa where white university students humiliate and abuse black university employees. The students forced the employees to chug beers, dance for them, and then eat food that had been urinated on. The video has sparked student protests across the country.


The author of the article subtly tries to persuade me to believe that some good can come out of the horrific situation. He does so largely through the visuals that are used. The only quote that is enlarged and emphasized is one by Siviwe Vamva of the
South African Students Congress. "All these issues must be brought forward so that all the people of South Africa can see that racism is still a dominant feature in South African society," Vamva says. This puts a positive spin on the aftermath of the video.
The author continues this idea through pictures of students rallying together to fight racism after being united by their anger over the video. The author could have chosen to focus more on the negative behavior of the white students but, instead, uses select quotes and pictures to highlight the potential for good in the situation.

Examples and Details

The BBC article, "Outcry in SA over 'racist' video," describes a disgusting act of hatred committed against black employees at a university in South Africa. White students forced the black employees to chug beers and eat food that they had urinated, causing the workers to vomit. Students across the country have protested the acts. However there be some potential for good to come out of atrocities. "All these issues must be brought forward so that all the people of South Africa can see that racism is still a dominant feature in South African society," says Siviwe Vamva of the South African Students Congress.

Several details and examples stood out in this article. In particular, details about the history surrounding racism in South Africa were interesting and helped me understand the significance of the events involving the black employees and white students.

www.bbc.co.uk

Questioning the Media

The New York Times article, "'No Country for Old Men' Wins Oscar Tug of War," gave much information on last night's wins and losses at the Academy Awards. As the title suggests, the film, "No Country for Old Men" won the Best Picture Award. There were several wins that came as surprises, such as Marion Cotillard's win for Best Actress. The movie, "Juno" also claimed an unexpected win for Best Original Screenplay.

As I read the article I thought of several questions about which information the authors chose to include. Best Picture is a topic that is generally interesting to most readers, however few readers are curious about which film won the Best Original Screenplay. This article not only stated that Juno had won the Screenplay category, but also included personal information on the screenplay's author, Diablo Cody. Diablo, the article states, was once a stripper before getting into film. This information has no bearing on the film or the Oscars, and I wondered at first why the authors mentioned it at all. I then realized they included the detail because they wanted to grab readers' attention with a little added scandal.

nytimes.com

Comparing and Contrasting

I chose to compare and contrast the coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries. I looked at cnn.com and foxnews.com. I found many similarities in terms of the facts presented. They included the same information and numbers about wins, losses, and delegate counts. Both articles also mentioned that John McCain is now the leading candidate for the Republican nomination and that Mike Huckabee is also becoming a serious candidate. Both sites also agree that the Democratic party remains divided, largely between Clinton and Obama.

The sites had several differences in the way they presented the information. The titles were the first area where I found significant differences. The headline on CNN.com was "No Super Tuesday Crown," which highlighted that none of the elections were officially decided on Tuesday. On the other hand, the Foxnews.com headline, "McCain emerges as front runner while democrats spin Super Tuesday wins," emphasized that Republicans are more united than democrats, as if to promote Republicans. There was also a heavier focus on McCain's acceptance speech, which helped solidify the idea that he is the undisputed front runner.

cnn.com
foxnews.com