Blog 9

Sydney Bushnell

Reflection 1 on The Perks of Being a Wallflower

            Written in almost a diary format, but actually written as letters to “Friend”, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower cannot be ruled out in the running for one of the best young adult literature novels out there. It at least qualifies on the list of the “best” characteristics of young adult literature. But who can say what actually qualifies as the best characteristics of young adult literature? (rhetorical question) However(Using “however” correctly), compared to the previous novel, Drama, Perks has much more complex content within the story. I feel that it is much more relatable to not only young adults, but a larger range of young adults, from middle school all the way through college. I read it my first time, for fun; only a year ago and still feel that it applies to me. The reason being for this might be that the characters range from incoming freshman in high school all the way through college. So there are aspects of it that relate to many more age levels. Whereas Drama particularly was aimed at a smaller age level, around 7^th and 8^th graders.

            Young adult literature answers what questions young adults have about themselves. (One sentence paragraph)

            Who is Charlie? And what is he going to do about it? (Rhetorical questions) We can ask this question of the novel (or at least this first half that we have read), but a reader most likely could not get one solid, concrete answer out of it. We, as the readers, are still trying to figure out who Charlie is and where he will go from there. Will he sink into a depression again? Will he and Sam ever get together for real? Will Patrick and/or Brad every come out with their relationship publicly, and if so, how will this affect them? We see everything through Charlie’s eyes…everything—even his (using a dash not with an appositive) awkward instances of his trip on LSD. But through his eyes, we see everyone else so well too because his character is, well, a wallflower. And because of this we can feel a connection with multiple characters, and not just Charlie himself is what gives this story good dynamics. It is all about him, but with that we see other people because he sees other people.

            There are a lot of instances and emotions that young adults reading this could relate to. Again, young adults of a wide range can relate to this. Whether that be relating to a bad trip on drugs, or knowing someone who has been abused by their boyfriend/girlfriend and what to do about it, family issues, suicide, friends of different sexualities. (Long Sentence) That’s just the first half.(Short Sentence) Although knowing what happens, and knowing that each of these topics is discussed more fully. Has Charlie had a coming of age moment yet? (Real question) I don’t personally think that he has had his coming of age moment yet, but I think there are moments in the story where he might feel that he has matured, many of those moments, actually. For instance, when Charlie is going to his first party and him overcoming a stage of his depression and his first real kiss to someone who loves him and even him receiving his learners permits and taking is first solo drives to see his Aunt Helen’s grave. (Simple sentence with compounded verbs connected with ands and no commas) I feel that we as the readers can tell that Charlie feels he is maturing as these moments happen. But for us as the readers I don’t think we have experienced his coming of age moment yet with him. He is growing up and doing more grown-up things, but I don’t think that means he has reached a new level of maturity yet. Personally, I think that the way Charlie views situations and people is very mature for his age, but I don’t think he realizes this yet and when he does realize it, then (using “then”) that would be a coming of age moment for him.

            So far, this book has great aspects to it, not only aspects that would be useful in teaching future students, but aspects that we can learn ourselves. I don’t think that this book is out of our age level. It is simple enough of a story, but rather than (using “than”) being simply written and simple context like Drama, it has a lot of complex ideas to it. It is at this point, a very good piece of young adult literature. 

Blog 7

Sydney Bushnell

English 326

“Dora” Blog 1

“Dora Learns to Write and in the Process Encounters Punctuation” Article

            Like any normal first grader, Dora just wants to be able to write to impress her teacher to show her how well she has done. Also, like most first graders, whose teacher helps them with their different problem areas, she seems to be struggling with how to write proper sentences. With the help of discussion amongst her fellow first graders, multiple exercises, and guidance from her teacher, she progressively begins to form her sentences.

Dora’s teacher does a number of things to help her in succeeding in her writing. As Dora progresses, her teacher tends to strategize on how to help Dora best proceed with her writing. From the very beginning, Dora’s teacher always has Dora read aloud what she has written because Dora can both hear and see what she is doing correctly and what mistakes she is making when she does this.(Using because at the end of a clause) Also, after Dora has written something, the teacher asks her to compare her own writing to that in a storybook to see how her writing differs. This gives Dora examples of how to alter her writing to make it more correct in terms of how it might look.

            Dora’s teacher uses questions and discussions of why she places periods where she does as a strategy to help Dora find incorrect placements. She has Dora read her work as it is written so that Dora can hear the choppy sound it makes when she puts periods at the end of phrases. By reading aloud, Dora can realize when she wasn’t correctly placing periods and it also gives her and idea where to correctly place them by how she wanted her sentences to sound. Dora became increasingly better with her writing and when she did something well, the teacher complimented her on it versus questioning why she did it that way. Compliments gave Dora the confidence in her writing rather than confusing her more.

            Things that I noticed the teacher didn’t do to help Dora in her writing was to give Dora the opportunity to ask the teacher questions about why or where she is supposed to be putting her periods. Nor did she seem to offer the opportunity for the class to ask her questions. (Begin a sentence with NOR) For example, Dora had been writing and putting periods at the end of each line and though the teacher did not say anything to Dora about it, she continued to do these things not know if she was correctly placing them (using though in a sentence to interrupt) but she became more focused on the topic of her stories rather than where the periods should go. The class listens to the teacher explain how to place periods and she wants theirs to reflect hers in that she doesn’t just place periods after each word. Because the teacher points out where they are being placed incorrectly only some of the time, (beginning sentence with Because followed by a clause) this might be confusing Dora as to where they actually should be placed by saying something like “Yours show improvement but if you look at this example you can see the difference in them.”

            Using a medium such as a writing booklet might lead Dora to believe that she should end her writing at the end of the page and causing her to take a longer to grasp the idea of sentence end-making. Speaking aloud also causes confusion for students because we cannot always hear pauses, spaces or periods where they should be placed and this makes it difficult for whoever is writing, like Dora, to transfer speaking to writing. As Dora continues in her writing process, she will begin to develop senses for simple and complex sentences and learn little by little how to punctuate these sentences.  After being taught helpful strategies from her teacher, Dora now writes, punctuates, and discusses her writing with her classmates; and she does it well. (Compound sentence with long clause separated by a semi colon and then a short clause)