Diary of Part Time Indian - Discussion Director

We had to read the whole book in one lesson of "Diary of a Part Time Indian" as a group. My job was Discussion Director and I have to ask questions to my group. They did not do as well as I would have liked but not bad. There was a lot to memorize. The story is about an Indian who is poor and starts to rebel and goes to an all white.

Who is the main character and why did he rebel?

The main character is Arnold Spirit and he is rebelling because he does not want a meaningless life. He wants to go somewhere in life unlike other Indians so he goes to an all-white school.

Why was Rowdy so mad?

Because his best friend, Arnold, left him to go to a different school. Later in the book, Rowdy gave Arnold a concussion.

What was the new school Arnold went to called?

The new "all-white" school was called Reardan.

What was the girl in the school named?

Her name was Penelope and Arnold had an immense crush on her.

What were two main deaths that affected Arnold?

Arnold's sister died which left Arnold distraught because she was his role model. And Arnold's grandmother died because she was run over by a truck.

Connector

Anthony ran way from his town. This reminded me of the time that I ran away from home after I had a fight with my brother and was sick of fighting. At that time I slept in the parking lot for a few minutes and then ran back in to greet my angry father

Sherman Alexie and The Absolute Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Vocabulary Enricher

Chapter one:

1.      Novocain – This is another term for procaine. Procaine is a synthetic compound derived from benzoic acid, used as a local anesthetic, especially in dentistry.

Sentence: His mouth felt full of novocaine, his tongue, merely stirred in his numb lips.

2.      Lisp – A speech defect that affects the pronunciation of certain letters, such as when saying s it is pronounced th in thick and z is pronounced like th in this.

Sentence: Having a lisp is more common than you might expect.

3.      Susceptible – especially liable or subject to some influence, mood, or agency. Capable of being affected emotionally; impressionable. Yielding readily or capable of.

Sentence:  I haven’t had a seizure in seven years, but the doctors tell me that I am “susceptible of seizure activity.”

Chapter four:

4.      Decrepit – Worn, broken down, or ruined because of hard use, neglect, or age. Or, a person that is elderly and infirm.

Sentence: A row of decrepit houses.

Chapter seven:

5.      Flinched – A quick or nervous moment of the face and body as an instinctive reaction to fear or pain.

Sentence: She flinched as he approached her with his hand high

Chapter twelve:

6.      Articulate – having or showing the ability of speaking fluently and coherently

Sentence: She articulated each word with great precision

Illustrator - The Chocolate War (Vishesh)

This is what I thought represented the chocolate war. There is a war in the book, hence the boy holding the sphere. The boy looks mad because he is a bully which played a huge part in the story. He is holding a chocolate bar with $$ signs on the wrapper which stands for the money which is received by selling the chocolates. There is a ball and the goal which is used for american football which was a major sport mentioned in the story. This was the summary of all the main part of the Chocolate War. 

Conector

Connector

My job is to find connections between the book my group is reading. This means connecting what we read with our own life. This was the second time we did this job and I'm really happy with my connections.

Finally, all the chocolates have been sold.

This reminded me of a moment in second grade when we had a chocolate Monday and we had to sell chocolate so we could plant a tree and that tree would represent teamwork. I also wanted to show this connection because the book had a lot to do with chocolate and how the main character sells it.

Emile also likes to insult kids in public, telling them they have bad breath, or asking them if they just farted.

Obie drank his milkshake.

This scene helped me remember the time when I was drinking one of the best milkshakes in the world. There is a place in New York that is called blake tap and the line is five hours long. I also made this connection because the main characters favorite drink is the milkshake.

The novel ends with Archie and Obie walking home together in the dark.

This reminded me of a moment when I had one of the most important basketball games ever. I unfortunately lost but what reminded me was that after the game I was so sad that I didn't want to go home with anyone. I also made this connection because it was some sort of the same in the book.

Chocolate War Robert Cormier Summariser (Final Lit Circles)

Lit Circles- Summarizer

The Chocolate War is a story told in very short scenes and chapters and is pretty easy to read. At the start of the book, Jerry, the main character is in football practice at the all-boys Catholic Trinity High School in the fictional town of Monument, Massachusetts. In the book there is a boy named Archie, the "Assignor". He is the brains of a secret organization called The Vigils. They are a group that write down assignments.

It is important to note that the assignments are cruel pranks and practical jokes that students are chosen to do. They have no choice but to obey The Vigils or face the consequences.

A man called Brother Leon is the acting headmaster of Trinity, and he and Archie had formed, somewhat of an alliance. They wanted to organize an annual chocolate sale. Leon overextended school funds for this chocolate sale to happen. He turns greedy and wants all students to sell chocolates.

Jerry's assignment is to not participate in the chocolate sale for ten days, and so he does. But after the 10 days, he decided still not to sell the chocolates. He was somewhat of a rebel. He decided to refuse to see the chocolates because of the cruelty around him, in Trinity. This leads to heavy persecution of Jerry by The Vigils who beat him up severely...

Leon is somewhat threatened by Jerry and he doesn’t want the other students to act like that. He felt as if the chocolate sale would “die” because of Jerry. Therefore, Leon and Archie organize a cruel boxing match in front of the whole school starring Jerry and Emile Janza, a school bully.

Janza and Jerry fight, but Janza stopped playing by the rules and was just too good for Jerry. Jerry is beaten so severely that he loses consciousness. Before he leaves he tells his best friend to go along with whatever Trinity and The Vigils want him to do in the future, or he may end up like him. What the book implies with the ending is that Jerry might of had died after the fight but that is not certain.

The main theme of this novel is defiance of authority. It shows how fear and manipulation can be very powerful and costly. So sometimes it's even better to follow bad orders of bad people rather than sacrificing your own life. Moreover there are no female characters, and the story is mainly about boys. It is very realistic and emotional.

Blog post #4- Discussion director

For this blog post we finished the book. It was a very interesting book and I was a discussion director.
Ther results:

Questions:

What's Jerry’s favourite drink?

Adam: Milkshake

Aleksa: Milkshake

Luka:Milkshake

Vishesh:Soda

What year is he in school?

Adam: Freshman

Aleksa:Freshman

Luka:Freshman

Vishesh:Freshman

What sport does he train?

Adam: Football

Aleksa:Football

Luka:Football

Vishesh:Football

What happens to Jerry that influences the book a lot?

Adam: Breaks his jaw(fight)

Aleksa:Fight

Luka:Fight

Vishesh:Fight

How does the story end?

Adam: walk in the dark

Aleksa:walked in the dark

Luka:walked in the dark

Vishesh:Walk in the dark