Article 4 Response: Multi-genre Projects

I decided to read Living Thin, which is a girl's story about her battle with eating disorders. I found this to be very interesting. I think I like this way of presenting research because it isn't just a 10 page paper of straight facts and analysis. It seemed really personal and it had a lot of different ways of showing information. She wrote about the different feelings she experienced while fighting Anorexia. She even personifies Anorexia as an abusive boyfriend. This example helped me to understand what exactly a multi-genre project is. I'm not really sure what I want to research, possibly child literacy, or special needs students. Maybe even a mixture of both. Who knows.

Article 3 Response: UN Millenium Goals

Imagine having to sit in a classroom like this, trying to learn.

As you might have collected from my previous blog post, I have a special place in my heart for kids. That's why I was immediately drawn to United Nations' goal to achieve universal primary education. Most of us don't really enjoy going to school, but I think that if we didn't have the opportunity, we'd be in a world of hurt. Honestly, free public education is something many people take for granted, including myself. Lots of children around the world aren't offered a formal education and if they are, it sure isn't free. Equal education and literacy is something I feel very strongly about. I love to learn and love to read, and it kills me that there are people around the world who aren't given the opportunity to love those things like I do. I apologize in advance if this post gets a little "ranty."

Here's the problem. Enrollment rates were around 83% in 2000. Many kids are leaving schools before they are finished, and things like poverty, race, and gender are keeping kids from learning. UN has a goal to raise literacy rates, lower dropout rates, and to generally increase availability of schools to more groups of children around the world. Several partnerships and programs are popping up to help achieve these goals. Schools are being built in smaller rural areas in order to reach more kids. Special programs are being put in place to reach girls, who often have a higher dropout rate or who just don't start school. Since these goals were set, the enrollment rate has increased to 90% in 2011, and the literacy rate drastically increased. The dropout rates are still about the same, and there are still students being left out of education because of poverty, gender, and race. The UN is working to address these issues, but they have yet to be resolved. 

This issue somewhat applies to our own hometown and country. While public schooling is free and readily available, I don't think it is reaching every single student. Sure, the kids are in the classrooms, but I honestly think that common core curriculum teaches to the middle population of students. What about the kids above or below average? The kids who don't learn like everyone else may be getting the short end of the stick, and something should be put in place to help those kids. Dropouts also continue to be an issue. The dropout rates are dropping, but I don't think we should stop trying to fight it until there are zero dropouts. Primary education is so important, as it's hard to accomplish much in life without it.

Article 2 Response: Start Something that Matters

 I think that if you're going to do something, you should do it with passion or don't do it at all. Reading these stories was something I really enjoyed because all of the people who started these causes had a true passion, and started or are trying to start something they feel very strongly about. Some of them stood out to me more so than others.



The first story I read was about Mike's project, CoverForCover. Through his business, he sells kids' books, and for each sold, he gives a book to a child in a low-income family. His mission is to decrease, and eventually get rid of illiteracy in children. This story caught my attention because growing up, I loved to read anything and everything I could get a hold of. I couldn't imagine not having any books in my house to read. CoverForCover is working to share the love of reading with kids who might not otherwise learn to read. It is unique because they don't sell ordinary books like These are the Colors of the Rainbow, but they come up with clever titles such as Mommy's Favorite Juice which is a book about wine. It's a little strange, but it got my attention.



Another cause I looked at was Good Spread. I opened this story because honestly, I just really love peanut butter. However, when I watched the video that talked about Good Spread, I found that they are doing a really great thing. They made a type of peanut butter which is sold in packets. They pledged that for each packet of Good Spread sold, they will donate a packet of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to a malnourished child overseas. This team of guys really stood out to me because they aren't a pair of big business guys. They're just regular guys with a great idea. 



The third story I read was about Dreamer's Orchestra. This hasn't yet been created, but I fell in love with the idea. The Dreamer's Orchestra will provide an outlet for homeless people. It will be a collection of homeless with a dream. They will sell tickets and hold performances in order to get these people back on their feet. It will also provide a music education program for homeless children, as a way to keep them out of trouble. I really love this idea because music has had such a huge impact on my life, especially being in band. It makes me really happy that someone wants to give other children a chance to fall in love with music the same way that I did.


If you can't tell by the stories I chose to write about, I have a huge passion for working with kids. If money was not a factor, I would spend my time traveling around the world. I would love to learn more about different cultures around the world. I think it would be a lot of fun to do some kind of service project in every country I traveled to. I would want to do medical service work, providing health care and first aid to those who needed it but couldn't get it, either because they couldn't afford it or technology wasn't available.

Article 1 Response: Grammar Rules

This article was actually pretty interesting. It made me rethink the way I write and speak. It pointed out grammar mistakes commonly made in the English language. Some of the points made by the author were bad parallelism, the subjunctive, and semicolon usage. I think this article showed me some things that I need to keep in mind when writing in the future. 


There were a couple of points that went right over my head, and I had to read them twice or three times until I understood. For example, the section about verb problems was confusing to me. I don't think I completely grasp "lay vs. lie" or  "shrank vs. shrunk" concept. The article doesn't really explain this idea, it just points out a few words that are commonly misused, then goes on to the next point.

One point that I could connect with and understand is the one dealing with pronouns. One of my biggest pet peeves is when somebody uses "I" where "me" would be more appropriate, or vice versa. The author makes a note of this, saying, "As long as they're by themselves, object and subject don't give anyone problems. That is, no one who's an adult native English speaker would say Me walked to the bus stop or He gave the book to I." This passage stood out to me because whenever I am unsure of which pronoun to use when talking about another person and me, I usually drop the other person's name to see if it still makes sense. If it does, I know I'm using the correct pronoun. After reading about the verbs, I felt like this little girl; I was completely lost.


I think this article about grammar mistakes was somewhat beneficial to me. I may not consciously think about every point made in the article while I am writing. However, I do feel that I have a better grasp of some confusing grammar concepts after reading this article.