Reading Response #2

Due: Friday March 22

Create/Design a vanity license plate (a personalized license plate) for your protagonist.  What would your protagonist's vanity plate say? Why?  Use quotes and suport from your independent novels to help answer this question.  Don't forget to check your work with your rubrics.

Creative Fiction Draft #2

Need an idea? Look at the prompt books in class.

Non-Fiction Draft #2

After reading the Coy Mathis article, respond to the following question for this week's non-fiction draft #2:

Should Coy Mathis be allowed to use the girls' bathroom?

Colo. transgender girl can't use school bathroom

By P. SOLOMON BANDA Associated Pr

FOUNTAIN, Colo.—At first, Jeremy and Kathryn Mathis didn't think much of their son's behavior. Coy took his sister's pink blanket, and shunned the car they gave him for Christmas.

Then, Coy told them he only wanted to wear girls' clothes. At school, he became upset when his teacher insisted he line up with the boys. All the while, he was becoming depressed and withdrawn, telling his parents at one point he wanted to get "fixed" by doctors.

When the Mathises learned he had gender identity disorder—a condition in which someone identifies as the opposite gender—they decided to help Coy live as a girl. And suddenly, she came out of her shell.

"We could force her to be somebody she wasn't, but it would end up being more damaging to her emotionally and to us because we would lose the relationship with her," Kathryn Mathis said. "She was discussing things like surgery and things like that before and she's not now, so obviously we've done something positive."

In the above paragraphs, the author introduces ________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________.

Now, her family is locked in a legal battle with the school district in Fountain, a town 82 miles south of Denver, over where Coy, 6, should go to use the bathroom—the girls' or, as school officials suggest, one in the teachers' lounge or another in the nurse's office. Her parents say using anything other than the girls' bathroom could stigmatize her, and open her up to bullying.

Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 declined to comment, citing a complaint filed on behalf of the Mathises with the Colorado Office of Civil Rights that alleges a violation of the state's anti-discrimination law. School officials, however, sent a letter to the family, explaining their decision to prevent Coy from using the girls' bathroom at Eagleside Elementary, where she is a first-grader.

"I'm certain you can appreciate that as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls' restroom," the letter read.

School districts in many states, including Colorado, have enacted policies that allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. Sixteen states, including Colorado, have anti-discrimination laws that include protections for transgender people.

The above paragraphs provide information about __________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________.

Legal battles such as the one the Mathises are facing are rare, said Michael Silverman of the New York-based Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund who is representing the Mathises. He sees about a dozen cases each year. Silverman refers most cases to social workers who work with districts to work out a solution to a well-recognized medical condition.

Psychologists don't know what causes the condition, but it was added to the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual in 1980—some three decades after the psychological concept of gender began to be developed.

The manual's fifth edition, due out in May, changes the name to Gender Dysphoria—which refers to the distress from the gender conflict—partly out of concerns that the current name is stigmatizing, said Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist who serves on the working group that suggested the changes.

There's no consensus on how to treat it in somebody Coy's age because of a lack of data on the disorder in prepubescent children. Research suggests that many children gradually become "comfortable with their natal gender," an APA task force reported in 2011. But the goal of any treatment should be to help the child adjust to its reality, the APA said.

Psychologists think that___________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________.

Coy is a triplet, with a brother, Max, and a sister, Lily. At 5 months old, Coy was already expressing a preference for items associated with girls, the Mathises recalled. A friend gave them baby blankets, and Coy took a pink blanket meant for Lily. The Mathises didn't think too much of it.

They bought Coy toys normally associated with boys, but she showed little interest. While Max was excited when Coy opened her Christmas present in 2009 to find a toy car from the Disney movie "Cars," Coy simply set it down and walked away.

As Coy got older, she found and wore her older sister's bathing suit, which had fringe that made it look like a tutu.

Still they pressed on in raising a boy, encouraging Coy to wear boy clothes and bought shirts that had pictures of sports, monsters and dinosaurs on them. She showed little interest, and refused to leave the house if she had to wear boy's clothes.

It didn't bother her father, an ex-Marine, that Coy liked to wear pink bows and dress up in girls clothes. That is, until Coy insisted on leaving the house with them on.

"She would see the stereotypical outfits laid out and then get this look of defeat and then would go, 'I'd just rather stay home,'" her mother said. "It wasn't about the pink. It was about people knowing she was a girl."

When Coy asked to be taken to the doctor to be "fixed," they took her to a psychologist who diagnosed her.

Coy started kindergarten in August 2011 but once the Mathises learned that Coy's behavior wasn't a phase, they allowed her to wear dresses and identify herself as a girl in the middle of the school year. The withdrawn child who was lagging behind in school began to flourish.

In kindergarten, the children used unisex bathrooms. Last fall, in first grade, the district allowed her to use the girls' bathroom. But then they told the Mathises that Coy would have to either use the staff bathroom or the one in the nurse's office starting in January. Coy is being home-schooled now, along with her siblings, while the issue is being litigated.

The family hopes that the district will reconsider, especially since using the bathroom is done in private anyway, and that Coy isn't stigmatized by being forced to use a different bathroom than her peers.

"The doctor's bathroom is only for sick people and I'm not sick," said Coy, wearing white tights, a red dress and sweater and sitting on the living room couch at her house as her siblings played a computer game nearby at the kitchen table.

The author ends with this quote because______________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________.

Reading Response #1

Reading Responses

Reading Response #1-Due Monday March 18, 2013

What can your book teach you about becoming a respectful, thoughtful, and possibly creative citizen?

Vocabulary #1

Chapter Seven: Where Have All the Words Gone?

               Would you like to conduct an interesting experiment?  Go to a used bookstore, and get your hands on an old magazine, something pre-1950s, if you can.  Then take a quick look at some of the ads.  You will not have to peruse them, because that one glance will alert you to a very obvious characteristic.  You might find a small illustration of a pleasant black-and-white photograph, but for the most part these ads are dense with text.  The page is filled with words.  It would take you five or ten minutes to read the entire ad.  

                Now pick up a contemporary magazine and find and ad, any ad.  You will notice the difference immediately.  Gone are all words.  Gone!  They have vanished, it seems, replaced by images.

                Let’s compare them more closely.

                The older one happens to be an automobile ad.  Its ten paragraphs provide in great detail the reasons you should buy the car.  You will learn how the car accelerates and how well it maneuvers in traffic.  You will learn how its stability contributes to smooth turning.  You will read about the manufacturer’s promise: you’ll never feel a drop of remorse for deciding to own this car.

                The modern ad is also black-and-white (although most are color), but that is where the similarity ends.  The name of the car company appears at the top right corner of the page.  At the adjacent corner is a single paragraph.  It is hard to call it a paragraph, though, because paragraphs consist of sentences, yet this paragraph comprises only pieces of sentences.  It advertises a handful of features (for example, a navigation system) that had not been invented when the earlier ad appeared.  There is not an abundance of information.  In fact, if you want more, there is a dot.com address you can investigate on your own.  That’s it for the text.  

                The image does the rest of the talking: a black vehicle on a black background.  Its chrome and glass are perfectly lighted to create a sense of power and mystery.  Its manufacturer obviously believes that power and mystery are more important than information.

                Think for a second about that first ad.  If you came across that ad today, would you take the time to read it?  Would you find ten minutes in your busy day; a day filled with school and friends and home work and chores and e-mail—to acquire all that information about the car?  Probably not.  But when that ad first appeared, the magazine’s readers surely found the time to read it.  Can you imagine a world paced so leisurely that readers would donate valuable time to an advertisement?  It is indeed hard to imagine.  

Creative Fiction Draft #1

Creative Fiction Draft #1

You can use these fake movie plots to create a story or you can create your own creative writing piece. It's completely up to you.  The only thing you have to do is write. 

Possible prompts or just be creative and come up with something on your own.

A no-nonsense (tough) army drill sergeant befriends the creatures of the forest to win the heart of the high school dreamboat.

America's founding fathers help children learn to read in the middle of downtown Tokyo.

The Sesame Street puppets struggle to get off heroin with a wise cracking robot.

A hockey mask-wearing psychopath is on the run from the mob despite being admonished (hated) by a crusty old dean.

Non-Fiction Draft #1

After reading the article, "Taco Bell Fans Mad After Cool Ranch Doritos Delay," write your reaction, focusing on the following questions:

1. Is this a real problem?
2. Does this article suggest anything about our society?
3. Is this news?

Taco Bell fans mad after Cool Ranch Doritos delay

POSTED:   03/06/2013 12:26:09 PM MST
UPDATED:   03/06/2013 01:16:30 PM MST

The Associated Press

NEW YORK—Some Taco Bell fans are angry after a delay in the launch of new tacos made with Cool Ranch Doritos shells.

The fast-food chain had announced this week that it would release its highly-anticipated Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos on Wednesday, a day earlier than planned. But then some fans began posting on the chain's Facebook page complaining their local restaurants didn't have them yet. They said they were told by local employees that the tacos wouldn't be available until Thursday.

"VERY disappointed!" one fan wrote. "Boo to you," wrote another. One fan posted a letter to the chain online, detailing how he and a friend made a trip to their local Taco Bell after midnight Wednesday to get their first taste of the new tacos. He said they ended up getting the regular Doritos Locos Tacos because they were "basically committed anyway."

Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum Brands Inc. of Louisville, Ky., apologized in a statement. A spokeswoman noted that the early launch was at participating restaurants but noted the complaints could be fairly isolated issues. She said customers should call ahead to verify their locations had the tacos.

Meanwhile, other posts on Taco Bell's Facebook page mocked those who were complaining. "Oh my god all of you shut up, it's just a taco," one person wrote.

Taco Bell introduced its Doritos Locos Tacos in Nachos Cheese flavor a year ago. CEO Greg Creed has said the tacos have been a runaway hit, accounting for about a quarter of all taco sales. The chain plans to keep rolling out new flavors, including a spicy "Flamas" flavor later this year.

Read more:Taco Bell fans mad after Cool Ranch Doritos delay - The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22730859/taco-bell-fans-mad-after-cool-ranch-doritos#ixzz2MnOu7E16
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
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Reading Response Rubric

Reading Response Rubric

	Proficient	Partially Proficient	Unsatisfactory
Topic Sentence	Includes a topic sentence with ALL of the following: -          title of the text -          author’s name	Includes one of the following: -          title of text -          author’s name	Does not mention the title or author of text.
Thesis	Thesis statement clearly addresses the weekly prompt.	Parts of thesis address prompt but is either confusing or strays too far off topic.	Does not address the prompt.
Text Evidence/ Support for Thesis	Includes at least two examples from the text with at least one direct quote that adequately addresses and supports the thesis.	Includes two examples from text but no direct quote. Includes examples from text but do not adequately support the thesis.	Example from the text does not support the thesis. No evidence.
Sentence Variety	Frequently attempts to use a variety of sentences (simple, compound, complex). Experiments starting sentences in a variety of ways. Incorporates appositives and prepositional phrases.	Mostly uses simple sentences, but attempts to incorporate compound and complex sentences.	Uses nearly all simple sentences. Does not experiment with different types of sentences
Word Choice (academic language)	Frequently uses academic language (i.e. strong transitions, vocabulary words, etc.) Establishes an academic tone through language usage. Does not use any “baby language” like “stuff, a lot, and things.”	Attempts to use academic language but occasionally uses simple language where stronger words could be supplemented. Begins to establish an academic tone. Uses one or two words from the “word cemetery”	Uses all simple language. Does not attempt to use vocabulary words. Frequently uses words from the word cemetery.
Grammar (capitalization, punctuation, proper tense, subject/verb agreement)	All sentences are capitalized and end with the proper punctuation. Uses proper tense throughout response. All subjects and verb agree. Indention correct.	Most sentences are capitalized and end with the proper punctuation. One mistake with tense. Nearly all subjects and verb agree.	Multiple grammatical errors in capitalization, punctuation, tense, and subject/verb agreement.
Spelling	Two or fewer spelling errors.	Three to four spelling errors.	More than four spelling errors.
Conclusion	Conclusion refers back to thesis and offers a “next step” to do with gained knowledge.	Conclusion refers back to text but does not offer a “next step” with new knowledge.	No conclusion evident.