The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie #3

Hello guys! This week we read from page 160 to page 230, the end of the book. This time I am the summarizer. I will do my best to summarize this section of the book as descriptive as I can.
   
     In those last pages of the book a lot happened. Right at the beginning of this section Junior's (the main character) grandmother dies. It is an important moment in the story because Junior was very close to his grandmother. He said that his grandmother is his life model, mostly because she was different. Junior admired his grandmother because she never drank before unlike the rest of the rez that was almost always drunk. His grandmother's death also made him swear that he will never drink. She was killed when a drunk Indian drives her over.
The next important part of the story is when Junior's father best friend, Eugene, dies. He also died because he was drunk and he got in a fight. That was the point when Junior realized how weird Indians are. At school things did not change. He was a lonely Indian along lots of whites. Basketball was his only escape.
 Actually a basketball game is the next important point. His new school, Reardan, played against his old school. The first game was on the rez, the home court of his old school. Junior was going to face a gym full of angry Indians.  2 seconds after he entered the game, a quarter flew from the bleachers and hit Junior in the head. It cracked his head open and he could not play the rest of the game. His school lost. Couple of weeks later it was revenge time. This time they were playing in Reardan,, their gym, so he won't get attacked again. He was ready for a big game, he could feel that this will be the best game in his life. He was chosen to guard the other team's best player, his ex-best friend, Rowdy. In they won. the first seconds of the game Rowdy went for a dunk but Junior magically blocked him. Everybody was schock. After the block, he took the ball and shoot a 3 pointer. He scored! He knew that set the tempo for the whole game. His team won by 30 points but he end the game with only 6 points. He did not really care. He was just happy.That moment he knew that all the kids from his old school hat him even more, but he did not really care.
Next very important thing is the death of his sister. He couldn't believe. It was too much for Junior not only because his sister but she died also because of alcohol. He didn't go to school for couple of days but when he went back to school, the support that everybody gave him surprised him. Junior finally made whites to care about an Indian but he also cared about them.
The book ends with him becoming friends again with Rowdy and him realizing that Indians are ment to die. I did not state that, you can find that in the book.
I hope you enjoyed my post! Have a nice day!

Discussion Director

Hello, my job was discussion director and these are the questions I did.
Q: Did you find this book interesting
Tudor: It was interesting
Matija: Its interesting but I didnt like because there wasn't a cool character
Me: It was quite interesting but I didnt like the character
Q: How did you feel when everyone started dying
Matija: I didnt feel anything
Tudor: I didn't care much because they put it in a funny way
Me: Bad because I feel bad for anyone who dies
Q: Did you like Penelope?
Matija: No because she was anorexic by choice
Tudor: No because she chose to be anorexic
Me: No i felt like she was not really cool and she was kind of mean and aneroxic
Q: Did you feel sorry for Junior because he didn't have many friends
Matija: No because he wasn't a likable character
Tudor: No because he didn't approach anyone and ask them to be friends
Me: No because he didn't quite want to be friends with anyone and I felt like he deserved it because he didnt approach anyone

Connector#4

This rotation I was the connector. At first it was kind of confusing but my group mates helped me understand what I was suppose to do. So I decided to look at the part where Rowdy asks Junior if he wanted to go play ball, because they were both board they went to play ball one v.s. one. They just played for fun, they played fairly. They played until it go dark then they played until a fully bright moon appeared. They had a lot of fun and after this game they were friends again. After that Junior thought of all the things they did together, like climbing the highest tree on the reservation or jumping into the turtle lake which is so deep nobody knows what is on the bottom. There are also many haunting,stories about it like one about a horse. This reminded me of the stupid reasons people  stop being friends with each other, like for example the fact that they got beaten in a game like hokey and you are better than them even thought it is the first time for both of you. But they say you are lying that it is your first time, but you are not belied and they stop being friends with you. It is like me and Edwin we became friends but when we played hokey I beat his ass and he does not want to be my friend any more and he keeps on saying that I played it before and that I am lying about playing it for the first. 

Travel tracer#3

Today I am going to trace the character Junior through the part where he plays basketball against

Rowdy. When the Juniors team came into the gym the crowd went wild about Junior. The team went into the home locker room out of which the TV reporter took Junior, because they wanted to talk to him about how he felt about playing against his used to be best friend. He told them that it was a weird feeling. After that he went to puck because he does it before every game because he is nervous. when they went on court the crowd went wild again. The coach put Junior on the starting line up  guarding Rowdy when the ball was tossed up into the air and Rowdy got it and went for a dunk. Junior jumped up and blocked him in mid air, then he dribbled to the other basket and he hearing Rowdy running after him he let him pass so he could have a nice jump shot. He scored it and that is how the game developed. The Rearands have won  and every body is surprised how Junior and that night Junior was very happy of hi success

ilustrator#1

This is a drawing of juniors dads best friend with his Indian. This is when he drives up to him and gives him a ride to school. this reminds me of my grand father when he was young and had a motorbike. And it also makes me think about me when I grow up because I really want to be a motorbike rider, although I do not want to have an Indian motorbike because there are safer one these days like the Honda Gold wing. This is a pretty important because it shows how kind Indians are when there is someone next to the road. I chose this scene because I think it is showing how nice people like this guy can die from doing something not so good like drinking alcohol and dying. this was a very important part of the story because it was the day after he punched the alpha in the pack. This was important because it made him look cool  and he was now the alpha.   

Dscussion director #2

discussion directer 

12.5.2k15

Today we discussed how we would feel and how would we act if so many people from our family died. The answers varied for example Sky would be sad and hide in her room under her bed. In my opinion I would probably start crying, stop talking, jump onto a car and let it hit me. Savannah said  that she would have a broken hart and would loose hold of herself and have a hard time living with it. Personally I think that nobody would be happy and would be really sad and would maybe commit  suicide. this is really hard to explain because nobody from our team has ever experience it. people would probably go far away from the place of death. For example as I read it I had to stop because I tend to put myself into other peoples shoes a lot and it made me sad.  

How would you feel if people from your family started dying? 
what would you do? 
where would you go?

The Chocolate War- Discussion Director, Post #5

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

KEY

Black text- My (Sky's) Opinion

Purple Text- My peers (Savy's) Opinion

Why do you think that Rita is so important to Tubs?

I believe that Rita is so important to Tubs because he feels and is overweight, and many people in his life point that out making him feel bad.  Rita sounds like a beautiful girl, who would probably be dating a jock or someone he thought of themselves in a higher class, but she loved Tubs for who he was, and not for what he looked like. I think that Tubs thinks that he won’t find a love like that again which is why Rita is so important to him and which is why he is ‘stealing’ some of the money from the chocolate sale to buy Rita a bracelet.

They are beautiful. And Rita motivates Tubs to do better and makes him feel better about himself no matter what happens in his life, or what he looks like. When Tubs is with Rita he feels special, and all his dysphonia seems to disappear.

Why did Jerry continue to say “no” to Brother Leon about the Chocolate Sales even when his assignment was over?

He had said no and eleventh time even when he didn’t have too, and he started to gain the admiration of some of his fellow classmates as they never realized that they could just say no. Jerry realized that this was a full on rebellion against Brother Leon, and that people were starting to agree with what he had been saying and that he was committed to it now. There was no stopping it.

Jerry continues to say no to Brother Leon because he defiant but he didn't really know why he did it. He felt like he was committed to it now since he had done it for so long.

Why does the Goober seem so troubled by Jerry’s acts?

Goober seems troubled by Jerry’s acts of rebellion because he is his friend. Not only that but the weight of what he is doing seems to be affecting Jerry’s grades and his concentration on football.

The Goober is troubled by Jerry's acts because he is his best friend and Jerry isn't being fully open with him and so he doesn't like it. He doesn't like that Jerry is being so confined.

Why do you think Obie is getting so angry with Archie?

It gets on Obie’s nerves that Archie acts cool, when in reality he is a kind of a nervous wreck. It annoys him that he has to fix everything and make sure that all of Archie’s assignments get carried out well so that his reputation is not ruined. And Obie has become tired of having to do this.

Obie is becoming frustrated with Archie because because Archie is bossy and he pushes Obie around and doesn't let him get a say in anything that he needs to do for the Vigils.

Summarizer #4 - Matija

We have begun the first rotation of reading the book "The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. The book is about this kid, called Arnold, who lives on the Indian reservation in a town called Wellpinit. He decides that he is not getting enough freedom on the rez, and goes off to a new school, where exclusively white and rich people go. This is a huge struggle for him. Not much happens in this section of the book, as it is mostly an introduction for the events to come.

So far, we have come up to the part where he finally decides to go to his new school, after a teacher on the reservation tells him to go where hope is. Arnold leaves behind his best friend and all he holds dear to secure his happiness and his future. He beats up Roger, a boy in Reardan school who is very large and intimidating, after he does so, he gains respect, and fits into the school rather nicely. This has been it for now.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie #2

Hello guys! This week we read from page 70 to 160 of this wonderful book. I really enjoy this book and I can't wait to finish it.

1. 1.       How did you feel when he was talking about the girl he liked?

MJ: “I felt like he was joking. He was just trying to be cool.”

KO: “I didn’t feel anything.”

DT: “I was pretty entertained because he was explaining it in a very funny way.”

1. 2.       Did anything surprise you about this section?

MJ: “Yes. I’m surprised that his best friend punched him when he left for the new school.”

KO:  “Not really.”

DT: “I was surprised that his grandmother died. It was a pretty big shock.”

1. 3.       Predict something about the next section of the book?

MJ: “He will beat someone up.”

KO: “I think the main character will get beat up again.”

DT: “It’s pretty hard to predict something so I don’t know.”

1. 4.       What were the main points in this section?

MJ: “Trying to be friends again with Rowdy and wants to go where hope is so he cares about his future.”

KO: “He wants what’s best for him.”

DT:  “That he never gives up.”

1. 5.       Did you enjoy this section?

MJ: “No.”

KO: “No.”

DT: “Yes, I really like the book.” 

Travel-Tracer #4

The main character begins at his town where he is poor and he goes to school. He goes to a school that the indian kids and white kids go to. He asks his teacher where the most hope is. His teacher responds "the farther you go from this town, the more hope from this town." He asks his parents to go to the school thats furthest away from their town so he goes there where all the kids are white and rich.

Illustrator Savannah, room 19 destruction

heyyyyyy 😉,
Today I was illustrator ans I drew this picture below.

Although this picture isn't the best quality, it has a lot of meaning and symbolism. In a secret society called the vigils, they have meetings and they assign others to go and do strange assignments. Before this picture takes place, the Vigils had a meeting and they decided that the Goober (the one on the right) would go to room number 19 in Brother Eugene's room. He would then go and loosen all of the screws in his room, that is what the picture is showing on the right. After a while, the Goober was desperate and he couldn't finish. Then from out of nowhere came this dark figure crawling into the room with a group of people behind him and plenty of screw drivers and tools.  They then helped the Goober, and it took them three hours. 

The Chocolate War- Connector #4

In the Chocolate war, The Goober was assigned by the Vigils to unscrew all of the things in Brother Eugene's room (Room Nineteen). Throughout the process he had begun to give up hope and awful thoughts started to flood his mind. He was extremely relieved when a group of students (who wore masks to cover their identities) came to help him unscrew everything in the room. In the end it took 3 hours. When I read this, I could relate to Goober's nerves and the feeling that he experienced, because I often have this when I am sent to go talk to strangers or ask them something by other people. I feel like I am doing something bad and when someone else comes to help me I feel extremely relieved.

Most people get a sense of pride and relaxation when they come up with a great idea. This is much like the character Archie when  he comes up with an ingenious assignment or a way to get out of doing actual work

Discussion Director #3 - Matija

The last rotation of "The Chocolate War" is here! To commemorate such an eventful event, I have undertaken the role of discussion director, and posed questions to my fellow group members, who then proceeded to give answers to them, emphasizing on how the events mentioned made them feel. The following is an unaltered record of their answers.

1. "Why and how does Jerry come out banged up in his confrontation with Janza?"
Tudor: Jerry is baited out by Emile to fight him, when he calls for support and starts beating Jerry up.

2. "Why does Jerry accept the challenge to fight Emile in front of the whole school?"
Kaan: He felt pressured because rumors about him were spreading around the school, and he needed to gain some pride back.

3. "How and why was the fight unfair?"
Matija: The crowd got to call every single action and punch that happened, and they all wanted Janza to annihilate Jerry, so they called no punches for Jerry, and forced him to stand still while he got pummeled.

4. "Where did all of the chocolates go after the fight?"
Tudor: They were probably looted by random students after the ambulance and a couple of teachers showed up.

5. "How did the fight make you feel, who did you root for?"
Kaan: I wanted Emile to win, because it was Jerry's fault he got into this mess, he should have been obedient. 

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie #1

     Hi guys! This is my first post on "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. In the first 70 pages the main character speaks about how he was born with brain damage and his childhood and teenage problems. This illustration shows the main character, Junior, getting bullied by the bigger kids in his new school. He was being bullied because he was Indian and the rest were white. He was having hard time to deal with it. Hopefully in the next pages I will see how he deal with bullies.

Chocolate war: Savannah, Vocabulary Enricher

Hey guys 😊
In today's literature circles meeting, I was assigned to be the Vocabulary Enricher. It took quite a bit of time, but I finished it. In this blog, I explored the Chocolate War, and sought words that completely intrigued me, or words that were unfamiliar to me.

Word           Page    Paragraph      Definition          

Ecstasy          5           5             An overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.  Sentence with word: He found utter ecstasy when he served in the center for the orphans.

Squander      19          2            To spend or use (time, money, etc.) extravagantly or wastefully.
Sentence: The woman was at a store with a million dollars and wanted to squander it mainly in the shoe section.

Ingratiate     23          3            Bring oneself into favor with someone by flattering or trying to please them.
Sentence: The little girl was trying to ingratiate herself with her parents

Condone:     27         1             Excuse, Overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with
Sentence: My teacher does not condone when students speak over her while she is talking.

Contemptuous: 21    7            Showing contempt; scornful
Sentence: He felt so contempt for her, that he went back to give her $10.

Well thank's for reading! 📖

Illustrator- The Chocolate War #3

I drew a picture of Archie and Obie discussing who to put on "the list", on the list The Vigils (a unknown secret group) are putting people down for different assignments of sorts. Jerry Renault gets put on their list and gets assigned for "the chocolates". Jerry was also at the football field at the time Archie was making the list, he was trying out for the football team, and that is where Archie saw Jerry.

Final Post on “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier- Tudor Danila

Hello guys! For this post I was assigned to job of Vocabulary Enricher. It was a really interesting job. The words you are about to read (maybe learn) are words that I personally did not understand and ones that I found interesting.

Page and Paragraph	Word	Definition
page 132; paragraph 2	pandemonium	utter confusion;
page 132; paragraph 2	frantic	wildly excited;
page 139; paragraph 2	secrecy	the keeping of secrets as a fact, habit or faculty;
page 140; paragraph 3	guffawed	boisterous laugh;
page 141; paragraph 2	lust	a passionate desire;
page 133; paragraph 1	nursemaid	a person who watches over or guides another carefully;
page 133; paragraph 1	cue	the last words of an actor’s speech serving as a signal to another actor to enter or speak;
page 135; paragraph 4	battalion	a large group of people pursuing a common aim or sharing a common understanding;
page 143; paragraph 2	pronouncement	proclaim or announce officially;
page 197; paragraph 2	staggeringly	astonishing, bewildering.

Thank you for reading this post! Hope you enjoyed! 

Literary Luminary meeting #2 - Matija

As our group has continued to read through the story of "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier, we have progressed to stumble upon a couple of interesting and otherwise notable segments of the writing. Here I have highlighted a few that intrigued me.

1. "Jerry felt a sudden sense of freedom, he continued to fade, easy, easy, stalling until he could find the Goober, tall and rangy, down the field where he'd be waiting if he lost his safety man. Jerry ignored the fingers that tore at his sleeves and unleashed the ball, a perfect pass, straight into the hands of the runner." Explaining how Jerry excels at sports, and gets along with his teammates is an important detail to remember before everyone turns against him, showing the power of the Vigils.

2. " 'Let me get this straight, Renault', Brother Leon said and his voice brought the room under his command again. ' I called your name. Your answer could have been yes or no. Yes means that like every other student you agree to sell a certain number of chocolates, in this case 50. No - and let me point out that this sale is strictly voluntary, Trinity forces no one to participate against their will - no means that you refuse to sell the chocolates for our great school?' " Shows the disbelief in Brother Leon's mind that anyone would refuse to sell the chocolates. This is the key turning point in the story.

3. "He could hear their gasps, their running feet receding, although somebody stayed behind to kick him again. This time in his lower back, the final sheet of pain that drew a black curtain over his eyes". Emile Janza confronts Renault on orders of the Vigils, and beats him up badly with the help of some mercenaries he found on the street. This is the direct result of Jerry disobeying Brother Leon and the secret society.

Summarizer meeting #1 - Matija

     Our literature circles book is currently going through "The Chocolate War", by Robert Cormier. This book goes over the troubles of freshman Jerry Renault, and how he struggles to fit in at Trinity School, a catholic institution in the city. He has a very bad personal life, as he lost his mother when he was young, and his father is sullen and quiet all the time, he also suffers heavily from the loss of his spouse. At school, Jerry is awkward, but everyone seems to like him, he tries out for football, and excels in the quarterback position. However, the school is running low on funds, and a budget - saving plan is brought into action by the schools superintendent, Mr. Leon. He proposes that every student will sell 50 boxes of chocolates at two dollars each, which the students resentfully accept. All of them but Jerry Renault, who's rebellion was inspired by a torn poster reading - "Do I dare disturb the universe?".

     This act of defiance infuriates Mr. Leon, who proceeds to contact an underground society known as the Vigils, who dictate what goes down and happens in Trinity school, they have power to command every single student, and make anything happen within the borders of the campus. Mr. Leon begs them to suppress this outburst of free thought, and they deny him at first, when he threatens to reveal them to the world and shut them down, they comply. They go on to start rejecting Jerry Renault from social groups, and more specifically, in the school football team, they start dropping his passes on purpose to ultimately get him kicked out. They also beat him up quite badly on a couple of occasions. The final straw, however, was when Janza, a monstrous boy who enjoyed giving others a hard time, accuses him of being queer, and spreads the rumour throughout the entire school, and entirely ruins his reputation. Jerry snaps, and challenges Janza to a one - on - one battle, where due to the overwhelming support of Janza, the Vigils rig the fight so he would win without mistake. As Jerry Renault sprawls on the ground after being defeated, he is taken to the ER, suffering from broken ribs and ruined facial tissue. The story ends on the trivial scene where Mr. Leon and Archie, the leader of the vigils, chat about how they wish they could have one of the chocolates, walking away from the disaster.

The chocolate war #3

Hello, I am kaan
I finished the chocolate war by Robert Cormier.
My job is the vocab enricher.
The words I found were:

Chapter	Word	Meaning
Chapter 3	Appendicitis	A type of disease
Chapter 8	Claustrophobia	The fear of being in places with no escape or closed and small spaces
Chapter 21	Errand	a short journey undertaken in order to deliver or collect something
Chapter 17	Despite	without being affected by

Illustrator - Chocolate war #2

Hello

This week I finished the chocolate war. Here is the picture I drew of the kid getting beat up at the end. The drawing was a bit off but that's kind of the best thing I can do on paint.

True Diary of a Part-Time Indian #2

I was the vocabulary enricher this time and so these were my words I chose to inquire more about.

Page and Paragraph	Word	Definition
Page 1,Paragraph 1	Cerebral	A part of your brain near the neck
Page 4, Paragraph 1	Susceptible	Likely to happen
Page 17, Paragraph 3	Powwow	An Indian ceremony with dancing and feasting
Page 28, Paragraph 6	Varsity	Principal team representing a high school or college in a sport or other competition.
Page 107, Paragraph 3	Bulimic	An eating disorder that makes people self-conscious about their weight, leading them to throw up and skip meals

Discussion Director - Savannah

My group and I had all decided to read 11 chapters a week, and we should be done with 22 chapters in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.
I have chosen to be the discussion director, and I have to write a list of questions that our group will discuss about from the parts that we read. Here are the questions:

#1: How did you feel when Junior stood up to the teacher about petrified wood?

Savannah : I thought it was very brave of Junior to do that because he had just started attending that school, and he had to deal with strange and unfamiliar teachers, classes, and other students.

#2: How would you explain Gordy as a friend?

Savannah : In my opinion, I think Gordy is a smart and cool guy, but he is a little bit strange. He thinks that the most small and simple things are big and fascinating.

#3: What do you think about Junior sister Mary? Is she the type of sister that you would want to have?

Savannah: I think that Mary is a very interesting and outgoing woman. She seems like a person who goes with the flow, and lets the wind guide her. I don't really get why Mary is so obsessed with romance books and riding into the sunset with her new husband. I wouldn't want to have a sister like Mary because I like the sister I have, and I wouldn't want her to change.

#4: How do you feel about Junior having a girlfriend that is way out of his league?

Savannah: I think that Penelope is a little bit ou of Junior league, but they make a cute couple in a weird, awkward sort of way.

#5: When you read the back of this book, did it seem interesting? If not, did you change your mind in how you feel about it when you started reading?

Savannah: I am in love with this book, there are so many fun and funny events in it. It talks about friendship, poverty, wealthy, and even family. It is no doubt interesting, and there isn't a moment in this book that gets boring or dull.

Summarizer - Kaan

Hi,
This week, I read the chocolate war by Robert Cormier. In this book, Jerry Renault is wondering what the postero n his locker means, "Do i dare disturbing the universe?". They refuse to sell chocolates in the Trinity school fund raiser which is not a smart thing to do. But jerry challenged a a secret school caleld Vigils which eventually turns into war.

Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Summarizer #1

I have read 87 pages out of 230 from the book The Absolutely Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. So far in the story, we were introduced to Rowdy, Junior’s Parents , Mary Runs Away,  Penelope and Grandma. Rowdy convinced Junior to go to the Powwow ( A Dancing Ceremony). At the Powwow Junior got beat up by some 30 year old triplets, Rowdy protected him as he always has since he is his best friend. Then when Junior went to school, he threw a book at Mr.P because he was mad that all that happened to the Indians was give up and that they were so poor.  Mr.P gave Junior a talk about how in the Rez, all the people give up and lose hope, he told Junior that he still has hope left and that he has to leave the Rez and go to a different school before he loses hope. Junior tells his parents that he wants to transfer to another high school outside of the Rez and they agree to let him transfer. Junior tells Rowdy about his plans to go to Reardan and asks him to come with him, he gets mad and betrayed so he beats Junior up.  Junior has his first day at school and meets Penelope a stuck up, full of herself girl that is the first to talk to him. Junior gets pushed around by the jocks and eventually he punches one of the large bullies in the face, leading the jocks to leave him alone and respect him for standing up for himself. That so far is what happened in A Part-Time Indian.