Lion In a Zoo by Dillion David-Malave

An Allegory is a story that is told using symbolic characters that represent real life situations.  Examples include the books like Animal Farm an allegory about the Russian Bolshevik revolution, comic book characters like Wolverine representing soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and movies like The Matrix that features many Biblical and religious references.  Below is an allegory written by one of your peers. 

After reading the short story decide what situation this allegory represents and who you think the Lion and the bars are. 

I am a Lion in a zoo.  The bars mock me everyday knowing that I can't come part them.  These bars believe they can contain me.  They don't realize I can think for my-self.  If I get set free I believe I will be something great.
I feel I am here for their entertainment.  They don't take me seriously.  These bars hold me back.  They don't understand that I am still a lion.

The Cam Newton/OSU Controversy and the NCAA: What Happened to the Rule Book? by Del Kirby

An allusion is a reference in writing to a book, something historical, or other topics from popular culture.  In the article below the writer makes allusions that have been highlighted for you.  Select one of the allusions below and explain why you think the writer makes the reference. 
*For five points extra credit research the issue that the author is writing about and give your own opinion about the topic

Well folks, the year is almost over and the controversies still rage on almost every sports website, with regard to the NCAA and its rules enforcement.

With CamGate and the OSU Tattoo Gang, the NCAA has left the vast majority of sports fans with a foul taste in their mouths.  The organization that is supposed to protect the student athlete and balance the playing field for college athletics, in my humble opinion, failed miserably this year in regulating the sport.
When looking at the past, the NCAA has been almost brutal in enforcing the rules regarding the issues that surfaced this year.  Examples are the 2000 Wisconsin Badgers who had 26 players suspended immediately for taking unadvertised discounts on athletic shoes (interchange tattoos), the 2003 OSU Buckeye's Clarett was suspended immediately by the NCAA for 3 games and by the university for additional 3 games for lying to police and the most famous of all is the SMU death penalty case.  Everyone from the university administration to coaches to players to alumni were involved in pay for play.
So, what makes this year different from many of the past years?  It must be the year of the "I didn't realize or didn't know I (or someone in my stead, Cam Newton) was doing something in violation of NCAA rules" defense.  The NCAA, which for years has been held up as the ultimate rules enforcer, is beginning to look like the O.J.Simpson jury.  They have basically turned a blind eye to the facts and their own rules regarding these facts.
In the past the NCAA had taken great pride in quickly and efficiently doling out punishments equally to all those who abuse the rules.  Now, they have become the protectors of their Sacred Cow conferences and will do what it takes to insure that the impact is kept to a minimum.
It has become a fact of life that the BCS conferences have come to control college football and possibly define how the NCAA should enforce it's rules.  The power being wielded over the NCAA has become apparent this year, by how the rules were enforced.  This is too bad, as the NCAA used to be the "Big Dog", but now appears to be a "lap dog" to the BCS conferences and the money being generated. The NCAA needs to take back its role as the "Big Dog", if the integrity of college football is to be maintained.
The NCAA wants and needs us to believe in their ability to control the off field abuses by athletes and alumni. To do this, they must go back to a hard nose stance of the past years.  If that means Auburn forfeits the entire season, so be it (that would not be as worse as SMU).  If that means that key OSU players are out for a big bowl, so be it.
If that was Toledo, Tulsa or even TCU, the NCAA would not have been so differential to those schools.  The penalties would have been immediate and severe.  The NCAA rules committee's job is to insure the integrity of the game and the student-athletes who play it.  One can rationalize away the sins of players when violating the rules and maybe that's a reflection of what our American culture has evolved into.
In college athletics, the days of being held accountable for ones' actions and accepting the consequences that occur are being eroded.  The NCAA rules committee can change this by returning to its original goal of protecting the integrity of the sports it oversees and insuring that all rules are equally enforced both fairly and in a quick and thorough manner.

source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/563355-controversy-and-the-ncaa-what-happened-to-the-rule-book

The Giggling Girls by Brianna Abrego

Read  the following story.  Based on what you know about urban legends, does this qualify as an urban legend?  Why or why not?

It was cloudy and spooky that day. Dried leaves lay all over the streets and lawns. You could see the moon approaching from behind the dead dry trees.

"The Woodrow house" Maggie Parker said in her best scary voice. Her and her friends Allison Sampson and Anna Anderson were standing outside the house, looking at it from the empty sidewalk. It gave them chills just looking at it. Full of dust. Deserted. No sign of life coming from inside it.
Seeing that her scary voice didn't scare her friends, she tried something different.

"You know, as the story goes, a family moved there. A happy family.  Happy just like the Brady Bunch. The Woodrow twins were part of the family. Aly and Carly Woodrow loved running around in the house because of how big it is.  But something happened.  When they were walking in the house one day, on a full moon, they fell ... right into the furnace in the basement.  The floor had snapped from under them ... SNAP!!!! They were burned and cut up to death.  Aly was holding a doll when she died,  Carly was holding her stuffed bear. Their parents found them, dead. But right when they looked at the kids, burnt and all, the twins eyes shot open .
Their eyes were glowing red.  Like fire.  They got up and grabbed a crowbar from the side of the furnace and killed their parents.  You can still hear their giggles as they skip through the house holding their doll and stuffed bear singing "Ring Around the Rosie."  Legend has it that people keep disappearing when they go in there, like the girls are still there, waiting to kill."  Magggie told them.  Allison's eyes were huge by the time the story was finished, but Anna kept a skeptial look.  She began to walk toward the house, closer and closer until they realized ...realized that she was walking towards the door.  They chased after her.
"Anna, what the heck are doing?!" Allison screamed.
"Al , I'm not buying this ! It's not true - none of it is true!" Anna screamed.
"Don't go in there," Maggie told her.
Anna sighed. "I'm just going to look through the door window," she told them .
She walked closer to the door and looked in.  No sign of life. But there was something, a feeling. Like something was in there. Waiting for you.  The door opened by itself and Anna flew in there, the door slamming shut.
"Oh God , it's locked!  Anna , if this is a joke I'll break your teeth," Maggie screamed.  She was both angry and scared.  Both of them looked into the house.  There was no one in there.
SLAM !!!!!! Anna's freaked out face appeared banging on the door window .
" OPEN THE DOOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEAR LORD , OPEN THE DOOR," She screamed banging as hard as she could on the door.
"It's locked ! We can't ," Allison yelled to her.
"Hold on," Maggie screamed.  But Anna's face disappeared.  Maggie looked to her side, Allison had fainted. " Dang it Allison, wake up," she said helping her up . They both ran as fast as they could to the neighbor's house and called the police.
Anna proceded down the hall. She looked in front of her when she heard a sound.  A song.
"Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of possies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down."
Anna's eyes turn wide with fear when she heard another line of the song.
"Burning in the furnace, we stabbed and killed our parents, burning, dead girls, you will die too!"
When she looked forward, she saw two girls. One holding a doll , the other holding a teddy bear. They were burned. Scratched up and burned so much that you could hardly make out the details of their faces. Their eyes were sunken in and glowing red.  FIRE red.
"Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down."
Everything went black.  Anna woke up again.  Looking around in panic, she discovered she was in a basement.
The girls were with her. With a crowbar in their hands.
Anna pulled out her asthma inhaler, not knowing what she would do with it, how the heck can you hold off two ghosts with medication   But it was too late.
"She was our best friend . The police and us found her body , scratched up and bloody . Her inhaler in her hand . We had no idea that it would happen . Not like that . We just can't believe it ." Maggie Parker explained. 
"We didn't know that the story was true. We thought it was just any ordinary house. But it's not. Evil lurks in that house. We lost our best friend to evil." Allison Sampson added crying .
They were on a radio show.
Anna Anderson had lived an overall good life.  But only up to the age of sixteen.  No one knows where she is now.  In the house?  Up above?  Down below?
No one knows.

source: http://www.short-stories-help-children.com/the-giggling-girls.html

*typos and grammatical errors are those of the original author

Add this to Your Summer Reading List

Read the following book review.  Does the review make you want to read the book?  Why or why not? What would make the book review more interesting?


How Angel Peterson Got His Name by Gary Paulsen

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. (November 2004)

As a teenage boy growing up. in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, Gary Paulsen--famed author of Hatchet (1986, MacMillan), Soldier's Heart (1998, Delacorte), and many more young adult novels--was never at a loss for ways to entertain himself. At age 13, he sealed himself in a wooden pickle barrel and attempted to shoot the 12-foot waterfall in town.

His problems started when he discovered the barrel wouldn't float but ended when the

barrel fell 12 feet only to land on a sharp boulder and splinter into assorted pieces.  Extreme sports were born. Paulsen and his friends did not have any of the expensive  and fancy gear available from catalogs and high-end stores that teenagers have today,  but they did have a veritable smorgasbord of adventure equipment available for next to nothing at the local army surplus store. Parachutes, rubber rafts, fighter plane target kites, possibly even whole jeeps (disassembled and packed in grease, according to popular legend) could be had cheaply there. Paulsen acknowledges the equipment as the genuine article from the battlefield; he even had a canteen with a bullet hole right through it

Angel Peterson, whose real name is (or was) Carl, got his sobriquet from remarks he made after breaking the land-speed record for snow skiing. Carl and the gang convince a local hot-rodder to pull Carl (about to become Angel) behind his souped-up car until they cruise on past the speed record and into the history and record books. The conditions are perfect on the day they make the attempt, but Carl has a slight equipment breakdown halfway through the run, and when the tow rope entangles the thumbs of his mittens (army surplus mittens, of course), he appears to give a permanent thumbs up to more speed. The boys break the record at 82'k miles per hour, and after they dig Carl out of the snow where he has been embedded, he tells them that he thought he heard the angels singing when he was careening at high speeds and. Paulsen or one

scared beyond belief. From that point on Carl would be known as Angel

of his buddies at one time or another attempted a litany of crazy stunts, including jumping off a water tower with an army surplus parachute (now called "base jumping" in extreme sports), getting airborne on an army surplus fighter plane target kite (hang gliding), skateboarding, bear wrestling, and many others. 

It's hard to say which is funnier, the facts of the stories themselves or the way that Gary  Paulsen tells them. He has a way of putting the reader right there with him so that the sights and sounds come through clearly and loudly. Paulsen looks at adolescence with a large dose of good humor. We can almost see him shaking his head and laughing in disbelief at the insanity of teenage behavior as he dedicated the book to "all boys in their thirteenth year; the miracle is that we live through it" (p. v).

source: http://www.newberry.k12.sc.us/nbhs/literacypage/Middle%20SChool%20Book%20Reviews.pdf

Who Done It?

Solve-it

A solve-it-yourself mini-mystery
Be detective in this 5-minute mystery!

"The Three Ring Murder" by Richard Ciciarelli

Solve-it #354 - May 2011

Previously published Jan. 1999

Sergeant Harold Cash sidestepped the flipping acrobats and knocked at the trailer door marked DIRECTOR. A husky voice bade him enter.

"Mr. Birdie?" Cash asked. "Clyde Birdie? You the man who runs this circus?"
"Yes. How can I help you?"
"I'm investigating the murder of Larry Conroy, your accountant. I understand you found the body."
"Yes. The owner hired him to go over our books. I put him up in the trailer next door and gave him all our books, bills, receipts, the works."
"He didn't work full time for the circus, then?"
"No way. The owner felt circus people couldn't be trusted when it came to money, so he always hired someone with no connection to our way of life."
"How did you come to find the body?"
"Well, while he was working, Conroy would always lock himself in the trailer. Wouldn't open the door to anyone except a person whose accounts he was going over that day. Anyhow, last night when I walked by his trailer, I noticed the door was open. I looked in and found him slumped over his work with a knife in his back."
"I also understand he wasn't quite dead when you found him," Cash said.
"Yes. I saw his fingers twitching. He was mumbling something. I called for help, but he died before anyone could get here."
"Did you manage to hear what he was saying?" Cash asked.
"Yes. I told the other police who were here. Mr. Conroy kept saying 'Joey' over and over. Then he died."
"Joey? That could be the name of his killer. Do you have anyone working for you named Joey?"
"No. And I don't think you understand, Sergeant. Joey is circus talk for a clown. All clowns are called Joey. Mr. Conroy was going over the clowns' expenses recently."
"Clown, huh?" Cash thought a moment. "How many clowns do you have working for you?"
"We're a small traveling circus, Sergeant. Lots of our people do two or three jobs. We have three part-time clowns: Giggles, Happy Boy, and HeeHaw."
Ten minutes later Cash was talking to a tall, thin man who was feeding chunks of meat to caged lions and tigers.
"Yep. When I'm not taking care of the cats, I'm Giggles," the man said.
"You weren't born with the name Giggles," Cash said.
"No, but that's what I go by around here. Now, what would you like to know?"
"How well did you know Larry Conroy, the man hired to audit the circus' books?"
"Didn't know him at all," Giggles said, moving from the lions to the tigers. "The owner hired a different accountant every year. Rubes, the lot of them. Usually we got lectures on cutting back on expenses to help out. This circus is always in financial trouble. Got to compete with tv, computer games, and special effects movies."
"Where were you at about seven o'clock last night?"
"In my trailer putting on my Giggles make-up and costume. We had a show last night, and I was on at eight, right after the high wire act."
Cash tracked down Happy Boy inside a huge tent, leading horses around a ring.
"Conroy?" the part-time clown asked. "Yeh, I met him once. He asked me about some bills I submitted for shoeing my horses and having a vet check their legs."
"Your horses?" Cash asked.
"Well, not mine, really, but I've grown so close to them I think of them as mine. This Conroy guy had obviously never been around circuses. He asked me if those things were absolutely necessary."
"Were they?"
"A horse's legs are its most valuable asset, Sergeant. Especially a performing horse. If I don't take care of them, they'll be hurt and I'll be out of a job."
"Where were you at about seven last night?"
"I had just finished my act, and I was in the stalls, wiping down and combing my horses."
"Your name wouldn't be Joey, would it?"
"No. It's Jake, why?"
"No reason. Could you tell me where I could find HeeHaw?"
"Probably outside tending to the elephants. He loves those big grey beasts about as much as I love my horses."
HeeHaw was a large man who was waving a white baton in front of three elephants. With each movement the pachyderms performed a different trick, first "dancing," then rearing on their hind legs like pet dogs.
"I never met the guy personally," HeeHaw said in answer to Sgt. Cash's question, "but I found a note from him on my trailer door. He wanted to see me today about some bills I submitted."
"Was he specific about what he wanted?
"Something about the cost of feed for the elephants. He thought it was too high."
"Was it?"
"You're as dumb as he was. Do you know how much an elephant eats every day? And I've got three of them here to take care of. And I'll tell you something: I'm not going to starve these beautiful animals just to save a couple of bucks. They not only perform, they do a lot of heavy work around here like putting up the tent supports."
"May I ask where you were last night at about seven?" Cash asked.
"Sure. I do my clowning bit between the horse act and the high wire act. I had just finished and was in my trailer removing my make-up to get ready for the elephant routine that came later."
"Do you know of anyone who would want to see Larry Conroy dead?" Cash asked.
HeeHaw shrugged. "Maybe somebody who had a secret he didn't want uncovered by an audit. Don't ask me for names-- that's about as specific as I can get."
Sergeant Cash headed back to his car, his head spinning from the information he had gathered.
"Got to sort all this out," he told himself. He leaned on the hood of his car and examined his notes from that day.
"Of course," he snapped his fingers. "I know who killed Larry Conroy. Now all I have to do is investigate him a little more thoroughly."

   

Who killed Larry Conroy?  Explain your reasoning using the clues that helped you come to your conclusion.

Clyde Birdie
Giggles
Happy Boy
HeeHaw

No Child Left Behind?

Read the following political cartoon below.  In your interpretation what is the cartoonist trying to say?  Do you agree with the author's opinion?  Why or why not?

Top 10 Reasons to Participate in an Investment Club

An investment club prepares you for the future by teaching and encouraging you to save money.  Below is an excerpt taken from the Motley Fool's, a popular financial magazine, website.  Read the ten reason's to join an investment club provided by a teenager and answer the question that follows.  *Remeber to include your first and last name for full credit.

1. You'll learn about something that schools forget to teach you, something that will have a huge impact on your life.
2. You'll have a strong chance of making money.
3. You have something more valuable than money, something that you will not have for much longer and that you should take advantage of: You have time.
4. It's a good extracurricular activity that colleges will look at.
5. It also looks good on a resume.
6. You can make contacts in the business world that you would not have otherwise made.
7. You get to hang out with friends while learning something and still having a good time.
8. You may even end up being covered on the news or in the newspaper.
9. You'll earn the respect of fellow classmates, parents, and teachers.
10. You'll have the opportunity to change your life.

-- Bryan Sims, 18
source: http://www.fool.com/teens/teens09.htm

 Do you agree?  Explain what persuasive technique you found to be the most convincing.

The Lorax

Follow this link to read Dr. Suess' The Lorax and respond to the following question:
Why is the Lorax called a cautionary tale?

Untitled

Give the following short memoir a title.  Explain why you would select this as your title.  Use story details in your response.

By l_p_b, Arlington, MA

I never used to pay much attention to what was happening outside the car window. The route to school was nothing but a blurred cruise through suburbia, one splattered with blotches of vegetation, rushing vehicles, and the sun’s glaring reflection on the windshield.

At night, streetlights danced and multiplied, darting through the sky. Masses of granite or brick bulged out of the darkness, suddenly caught by the headlights. Forms swayed in the shadows, forests were cloaked in darkness, only the faint network of branches remained visible. Hazy fields of stars held up the rising moon and its nimbus. The night was constantly in motion.

Over time, my smeared vision began to prevent me from reading numbers on the whiteboard. Thanks to my squinting and my sluggish reading pace, I was sent to an eye doctor. Two appointments later, I had a prescription.

It was winter when I got my contact lenses, and I shielded my eyes as I walked to the car – through scintillating, blinding snowdrifts. Once in the car, I allowed my eyes to recover from the barrage of light. With the car rolling away and sunglasses cooling my sensitive pupils, I took my first look at the new world.

Tree limbs burned amber in the morning light, branching out like cobwebs against the crisp and cloudless sky. Hills and buildings leapt out of the background, with borders sharp enough to slice through ice. There was no sound, only the jagged, perfect landscape.

I felt the chill of precision, of focus. I saw dust particles fluttering through the steaming beam of a projector. On computer screens, which used to be composed of a flat jumble of black and white text, bold letters carved their proper places in sentences. Assertive punctuation connected it all. Life was coming alive in front of me – line by line, corner by corner.

Later, with the cold smothering the day’s excitement, and my breath showing against the tenebrous night, I gazed skyward. No longer dim smudges, but radiant specks sprinkled across the sky, the stars blazed. In their flickering stillness, they conveyed a sense of the infinite.

Aesop's Fables

Select and read one of the stories below.   Answer the following two questions:  Why do you think Aesop uses animal's in many of the stories? Explain how the story connects to your life and the moral of the story. 

 *Remeber to put your first and last name for your post to earn full credit.

 The Crow and the Pitcher

  A CROW perishing with thirst saw a pitcher, and hoping to find
water, flew to it with delight.  When he reached it, he
discovered to his grief that it contained so little water that he
could not possibly get at it.  He tried everything he could think
of to reach the water, but all his efforts were in vain.  At last
he collected as many stones as he could carry and dropped them
one by one with his beak into the pitcher, until he brought the
water within his reach and thus saved his life.

The Dog and the Hare


  A HOUND having started a Hare on the hillside pursued her for
some distance, at one time biting her with his teeth as if he
would take her life, and at another fawning upon her, as if in
play with another dog.  The Hare said to him, "I wish you would
act sincerely by me, and show yourself in your true colors.  If
you are a friend, why do you bite me so hard? If an enemy, why do
you fawn on me?' 

The Dove and the Ant  An Ant, going to a river to drink, fell in, and was carried along in
the stream. A Dove pitied her condition, and threw into the river a
small bough, by means of which the Ant gained the shore. The Ant
afterward, seeing a man with a fowling-piece aiming at the Dove, stung
him in the foot sharply, and made him miss his aim, and so saved the
Dove's life.

The Miser
  A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he
buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and
went to look at daily.  One of his workmen observed his frequent
visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements.  He soon
discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down,
came to the lump of gold, and stole it.  The Miser, on his next
visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to
make loud lamentations.  A neighbor, seeing him overcome with
grief and learning the cause, said, "Pray do not grieve so; but
go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the
gold is still lying there.  It will do you quite the same
service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did
not make the slightest use of it." 

Thank You, Ma'am by Langston Hughes

Follow the link, Thank You, Ma'am, and read the story. Once you have read the story respond to one of the three questions below. It should be clear in your response what question you are responding to in your post.

Why do you think she takes him home?

Why do you think the story ends the way it does?

Why do you think the boy stays when he has an opportunity to run?

Speech by Parson Martin Niemoller

The Nazis came first for the Communists.
But I wasn't a Communist,
so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the Jews,

but I wasn't a Jew,

so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

but I wasn't a unionist

so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for the Catholics,

but I was a Protestant

so I didn't speak up

Then they came for me.

By that time there was no one left.

What is the author of this poem saying?