For my capstone, I wanted to learn more about music than I already had. I’ve been involved with music since I was 7, and have always been trying to immerse myself in it. What I originally wanted to do for my capstone was to be an intern at a recording studio. After learning I had to be 18 to become an intern, I waited before kickstarting my capstone. Once I turned 18, all the good internship spots were gone. So I had to create a new capstone.

Michelle Hodkins third installment on her Mara Dyer series, The Retribution of Mara Dyer, is a roller coaster of non linear literature. Michelle uses flashbacks which creates a story with many twists and turns. Michelle’s use of flashbacks is to intensify the reader’s understanding of the book by giving them comprehension of a character’s past while also making it non linear. This keeps the reader wondering throughout the book. This style of writing affects the content of the book because it constantly switches back and forth from past and present.

In The Retribution Of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin has flashback chapters that are separated from the regular chapters. These flashback chapters are titled ‘Before’ and appear randomly throughout the book. In the story, readers begin to realize that the flashbacks are being slowly released. Readers think that this is a way to not overwhelm the readers with a huge chapter filled with just one giant flashback. So far in the flashback chapters, readers have read about a young girl who have traveled from India to London to live with her benefactor’s wife. In chapter 20, one of the many ‘before’ chapters, readers see the young girl having a conversation with her benefactors wife, whom the young girl called ‘Aunt’. There’s not much insight on who these people are which keeps the readers curious. One passage from the story that shows this is, “There is power in a name” Sister had said. I did not want to give out the one I’d shared only with her and Uncle, so I’d given anyone else who had asked a different one instead. The name I had given to my doll, before I’d known what it meant/ I decided to give Aunt Sarah the same one. “Mara,” I told her…” - Page 151.  This flashback leaves readers with shock and leaves them engrossed in the book. They are shocked to find out that this girl in the flashbacks is the main character, Mara, but they also want to know how her past correlates with her future. They also want to keep reading. Sure, the author could have released this information in the beginning, and it still would have contained the same information, but it would have taken away from the non linear trend as well as the nagging curiosity it leaves on the readers.

Flashback chapters are not only a way to keep a reader on a non linear roller coaster, but they are also a way to give the reader insight on a character’s past. Little by little, the reader gains more and more insight on who Mara is. Not only do they learn more about her, but with context clues the readers slowly begin to realize that these flashbacks seem to not happen in Mara’s time period. In chapter 43 (before), we read about how Mara has to leave the town she lives in with her professor due to some unexpected occurrences.

“It had been over a century since I fled London with the professor, and yet he still treated me like a child.” - Page 290. Flashbacks like these make the reader realize that maybe the main character has had past lives, or that she might be older than she seems. There could be endless possibilities, but without spoiling it, the two listed above are just a few things that could be possible in this book.

Since the book constantly switches from past and present, readers are always trying to make connections between the two; the readers feel a need to always put two and two together since the book is filled with many mysteries. The readers also begin to realize that all the flashback chapters create their own story within the book seeing as how they pick up where the other flashback is left off.  In chapter 24 (before), we read about Mara’s ‘Aunt’ setting her up with someone so that they could marry.

“But I was presented at court anyway, and engaged six months later. My fiance was sweet and shy, and he loved me. Our engagement lasted three months. He died on our wedding night, just before dawn.” - Page 179. With these flashbacks, readers will constantly try to find out how her past relates with her present. In the present, readers know that Mara has a long term boyfriend named Noah, who she loves very much; but when these chapters appear, readers try to figure out how any of this leads to Mara’s present. Readers also slowly realize that the flashbacks are their own story within the story which adds on to the non linear feel of this book.

In the end, readers acknowledge just how important these flashbacks are. They add onto the story as well as filling in detail. Other readers have noticed the importance of the flashbacks as well; a review from Vilma’s Book Blog shows that. “We see past (“before”) and present finally converge, as answers start to peek through the subtext of the story, making connections we never could’ve imagined. Mara’s quest for answers… for a solution… gets bloodier and more gruesome by the day as we inch towards the climactic end.” With flashbacks, readers can slowly find out how the main character became who they are. They can also find out more about other characters as well through flashbacks. Readers also stay hooked on the book through the flashbacks because of their random occurrences and the shock factor that they hold. Those random appearances keep the readers on their toes and they keep them wanting more. The flashbacks also cause the book to have an unusual feel due to it being non linear. Lastly, this writing style is a unique way to give readers insight without just simply stating it. The constant switch from past and present takes its toll on the reader the deeper they read into it.

You picked me out of many others from a hunting store. “Finally” I thought, “I finally get to be used!”

I know many people don’t approve of hunting, but, you know, that’s kind of what I’m made for. The person who sold me said I’m a great shot, and fairly easy to use. That’s true, I’ll get your job done quick and easy. But, I haven’t been used yet, I’ve just been sitting on your mantel for weeks. Your house is empty. Just a table, a couch, and a TV that plays nonstop. Your fridge is also kind of pathetic, barely any meat. I bet if you used me soon, your fridge could be filled. But, I don’t see any hunting gear, or anything that could be even close to hunting gear.. Maybe you’re just looking for the right equipment.  

I know you’re just preparing yourself. Hunting is a big deal, the dude who sold me would talk about how awesome it is all the time. And how much you need to prepare yourself to hunt. I know it will be so much fun. But now I feel like you’re not gonna use me at all. I have hope though. While you’re away at work, I look around. I noticed how you have a picture of a really pretty women on your coffee table. I think that could be your wife, or sister. But mostly wife since I see a wedding ring on your hand. I haven’t seen her around though. I wonder where she could be.

You came home empty handed once again, but you had a scowl on your face. You started to pace in front of me. Yelling obscenities. How could someone think of such hurtful things. Such harmful things. You said you wanted to hurt someone. You said you were finally at your breaking point. But, no one should want to hurt someone, the way you want to.

It’s late at night, and you’ve been staring at me for hours. You still have the same look on your face as you did when you walked in earlier. You’re getting up, and you’re coming towards me. Am I finally being used? Are we finally getting to go hunting?

You threw me in your car, and we’ve been driving quite some time. You keep muttering things about how much you want to hurt some girl named Carly. You stop the car, and take me with you. We are somewhere deep inside of a city… So I’m guessing we aren’t going hunting?

You barged through someones house without knocking. You start yelling the girls name “Carly! Carly!” Then I see her there. She’s the girl from the picture. She’s crying. You’re screaming. She’s yelling back. You keep asking her why did she leave you, and why did she find someone else. She stays silent yet you keep yelling at her for answers.

Then there’s silence. You pick me up and aim me at her. Don’t do this. Your hands are shaking… Please don’t do this.  You pull back my safety. You’re better than this. You start to mutter a countdown. You could walk away right now and all of this could be over. “3…” She is standing still and crying. “2…” Please don’t make me do this. “1…” I’m begging you, please don’t make me the cause of this.

BANG

Sit up straight. Stay focused. This is important. Remember to pronounce water like “wah-er” instead of “wooder”. Remind yourself to put emphasis on the letter ‘s’ in the word ‘ask’ so you won’t sound like you are saying ‘ax’.

“May I assssk a question about relating themes in different religions?”

“Would you like some wah-ter?”

I feel like in order to impress a certain group of people, or in order to ‘sound smart’, you have to pronounce words in a “correct” way. Meaning, loose any trace of an accent you have and get rid of that hometown dialect; it won’t be helpful when you’re trying to impress people of importance.

“Mah, could I get a glass of wooder?”

“Did you see that jawn yesterday?”

“Do you know where the manguera is?”

Be relaxed. Don’t care about the words that fall out of your mouth; don’t pay any mind to the way you pronounce them either. You are with the people you know and spend most of your time with. They don’t care about your Philly-bound slang, or your disheveled ‘Spanglish’, they do the same that you do. I feel a bit more at at ease when I am around the people who grew up with the same dialect as I did. It is comforting to know that you don’t have to impress someone when they do not care about the way you are speaking. Needless to say, I still feel like there are times where I should speak “proper” even though I am in a more “judge free setting”.

Stay focused on the way you pronounce words - wait no, they don’t care - then again you care. Now I am confused. Though I use my Philly dialect when I am in a more comfortable zone, I still feel like I have to speak “proper” English.  If I end up speaking that way, then I feel like I am being judged.

“Why do you speak like that?”

“Speak like what?”

“Using big words and stuff, why are you trying to show off?”

“I’m not, I just like big words, and I like saying them the right way.”

“So are you saying that you say stuff better than me?”

“No… Not at all.”

Being said, that conversation with my friend ended badly; but after that I noticed a trend. The more big words I used and the more I enunciated, the more I was getting judged. They would say that I am ‘uppity’ or that I am trying to be better than the rest of them. But in reality, I am not. I surround myself with books, dictionaries, and other places of where bigger vocabulary roams, and I indulge myself in them. I just love vocabulary, yet people don’t seem to understand how much I enjoy it.

“You’re just trying to sound smart.”

That phrase haunts me. My relatives have told me that, my friends have told me that, and people I don’t even know have told me that. I am not attempting to “sound smart” at every chance I get. It does get offensive sometimes as well. I feel as if I have to restrain myself when I am supposed to be comfortable. It is like I have to be locked in some sort of cage to restrain or censor myself from sounding ‘smart’ just to avoid conflict. But by doing so, I no longer feel as if I am accepting myself. The way I speak and the language and dialect I use reflects on me. Using slang and big words are apart of my everyday life, but when I have to hold myself back, then I no longer feel true to myself.

Thinking about this reminds me of the 8th grade. I, along with 8 other students got put into an advanced English class. Instead of reading books and doing tests about them, we read Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and Edgar Allan Poe and ripped their texts to streads (meaning we learned their vocab and tried to decipher the meanings behind their writings). Our English class loved learning new words that were supposed to be beyond our grade level. But when we got back to our normal class, there would be a separation between the Advanced English students and the standard English class. They would always say “they’re showing off” and “they think they’re smarter than the rest of us”. We never felt like we were smarter nor did we think ourselves higher than the rest of the students; we just felt lucky that we got the opportunity to be in Advanced English since there were limited spots.

“...Language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identify: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity” - James Baldwin. I now realize that the vocabulary that I possess is seen as power, that the more vocab I know, the more control I will have in certain situations; but personally I doubt that to be true. There are plenty of people in this world who do not have an extensive vocabulary, and have more power than I possibly ever will. I also realized how language and dialect separates and brings together certain groups. Like in the 8th grade, language separated my class in two. Or how with some of my friends who speak a bit of Spanish like I do, feel separated from the rest of our friends when we end up saying a few words in Spanish. But it brings us together when we all know the same language and dialect, i.e people from Philadelphia have words that only we know of.

I also realized how language and dialect is a key component to my identity. It partially shows where I come from and mostly shows who I am. But when I feel separated from people due to the language I use, I end up silent. Instead of being heard and being judged, I sit with my mouth shut and listen to those around me. It feels uncomfortable to stay silent or to censor myself, but I find it better than hearing the question “Why are you trying to sound smart?”

Mini Capstone: DNA

Inquiry: I wanted to know DNA patterns.

Research: I researched DNA online and DNA structure.

Collaboration: Me and a bunch of my classmates showed off our DNA projects.

Presentation: My presentation was a 4ft model of DNA made of candy. It actually was the reason I got an A on the project.

Reflection: I wish I would have made the model sturdier.

Cliente:Keyaira Doughty

Nuestro cliente se llama Keyaira Doughty. Es muy bonita y inteligente. Tiene 18 años. Se quiere dos hijos. Le encanta natácion y cocinar. Su casa debería todo sueñas de.

Casa:

-La casa es perfecto por Keyaira, es grande y esta cerca de una playa.

-La casa es en el suburbio en Malibu.

-La cocina es largo con dos neveras y un horno con una estufa y un microonda. Los gabinetes a lo largo de las paredes con un lavaplatos y un fregadero mediana.

-La sala se tiene un sofá grande que tiene la forma de un ‘L’ y es negro. Hay ventanas de las paredes. Un tele mediana en la pared.

-El baño se tiene un jacuzzi bañera mediana y un ducha grande con un puerta de vidrio. El piso se tiene baldosas de mármol. Hay dos lavamanos con encimeras de mármol y un espejo.

-El dormitorio principal es perfecto por Keyaira porque es largo y tiene un bano con un lavamanos, un espejo, un inodoro, y una ducha. El baño es pequeño. Su cuarto tiene un balcón.

-En la casa es dos cuartos de huéspedes.

-Hay un piscina.

-La casa es cerca de un banco, un supermercado, un centro comercial, y restaurantes.

-Hay cerca de un parque tambien.

Fotos De La Casa:

Hey everyone, as you may or may not know my name is Adlynn Gonzalez and this is the ending to my You And The World project. You And The World is a way for you to get involved with a topic you really like and write three blogs about your issue. My issue is reading in Philadelphia and motivating children to read more. My blogs 1 & 2 go into more detail with my topic and if you haven’t read them yet, please do!

While doing more research on my topic, I found that there are companies that are trying to encourage kids to read. At my elementary school, Pizza Hut would have a challenge for students to read as much as they can, document how many hours that they read and at the end of the friendly competition the class with the most reading hours would get a pizza party. Another program I found is called “Book Adventure” and its a fun way for kids to find books, read them, takes quizzes, and earn prizes. I think that these programs are great ways to encourage reading. I like how they motivate kids to appreciate reading more than some already do.

For my Agent of Change ( something to bring awareness to your topic ) I created a book drive. My book drive lasted 3 weeks and I collected more than 40 books to donate to a library that doesn’t have a lot to offer. I was actually surprised by how many people that donated; I wasn’t expecting a lot of people to donate so it was a nice surprise.

Throughout this project I felt kind of important. I felt like even though I am a teen I could make a difference in this world. I learned that other people actually care about this topic as well, and were actually really interested in what I was doing. Hopefully I could do this again next year. Maybe I could host a yearly book drive at my school and have a fundraiser of some sort with it .

There are a few things I wish I could have done better. I wish I would have started my book drive earlier so I could have gotten more donations. I also wish I had a fundraiser to raise money for organizations that promote reading, but things didn’t go as planned. Now all I need to do is give the books to the library and I will have completed my YATW project. Overall, I am so glad that this project was given to my class and if I got the chance to do it again I would. It was a fantastic experience that allowed me to two of my favorite things: promote reading and write. Thank you for reading this blog and I hope I get to do a project like this again!

Book It

Be A Phanatic About Reading

Hey again! My name is Adlynn Gonzalez and this is my second blog about Literacy In Philadelphia. For my first blog, I introduced this topic and talked about how many kids in Philadelphia aren’t up to par when it comes to their reading scores. I just recently found out that in 2012 there was a decline in PSSA reading scores, and that Philadelphia’s NAEP scores lag far behind other cities. Just 19% of Philadelphia’s children scored proficient or above on the PSSA’s and that’s extremely low compared to other cities.

For our You And The World project we were required to do some original research. For my original research I did field observation. I went to Boy’s Latin Middle School (6th graders) and observed 4-5 English classes and interviewed a few of the students. Before interviewing a couple of the students, I just merely observed the class; and since it was a make-up work day in that English class, I observed the students that didn’t have to make up work. There was a TED talk video playing for the kids to watch, but others did not watch. I noticed that some of the ones that weren’t watching were reading books of their interest, others were goofing off. That’s when I decided to interview some of the kids. I asked them simple questions like “what’s your favorite book?”, “do you like to read?”, “on a scale of 1-10, how much do you like reading?”, etc. Then I asked them “what do they think of people who don’t care about reading”, “ when kids end up not liking to read, what do you think is the issue”, etc. The answers I got were surprising. One kid blamed kids not liking reading on technology, which is one factor I have not thought of before. While doing the field observation and interviewing the kids, it kind of opened up my eyes a bit to see what these kids are thinking. (Transcript below)

After meeting those kids and interviewing them, I now want to know more about what that one kid said about technology being a reason for kids not wanting to read. Also I want to know what else they think about PSSAs because most of them said that it wasn’t stressful, but they feel the need to exceed expectations. While doing some online research, I read about how students more male than female dropped out because they struggled with reading and felt inadequate in class, and that standardized tests were stressful, and not in a good way.  I also asked their teacher a few questions and he thought that PSSAs put good stress on the students. He is also really enthusiastic about reading.

Last but not least, I wanted to talk about my Agent of Change. In our You And The World project, we are required to be an Agent of Change and I wanted to possibly help out a reading organization. Like the Eagles Mobile club, or the Phillies Be  Phanatic About Reading program, or even the Reading Olympics (which I was a member of). All I want to do is promote why reading is important, how it can be fun, and lastly how it benefits you in the long run.

Well, that’s it for now, but make sure to stay tuned for Blog #3 where I actually talk about what I eventually did for my Agent of Change, and what other information I found out about this topic.

Links:

Philadelphia’s Test Scores

Philadelphia’s Scores Drop

Be A Phanatic About Reading

Transcript

Mi Escuela Divertida

Hola, mi nombre es Addy. Soy estudiante de Science Leadership Academy. Science Leadership Academy está en el centro de Filadelphia. Está cerca de un cafe y un Trader Joe’s. SLA tiene 500 estudiantes y 5 pisos. Tenemos deportes, clubes, y otra cosas. Soy en el club de posía. Es mi favorita porque es muy artistica y muy divertida.

Yo tengo ocho classes.  Yo tengo ingles, historia, bioquimica, drama, español, technologia, matematicas, y almuerzo. HIstoria es mi favorita. El Sr. Todd ensenar la classe historia. Sr. Todd es muy amable. Leemos arca de personas que eran esclavos. Habalmos mucho en los problemos del mundo. Necesitamos las computadoras y nada más. No me gusta mucho la classe matematicas porque es muy dificil.  

Mi professores favorita es la Srta. Dunn y Sr. Todd. La. Stra. Dunn es bastante extraña y bien divertida. Ella ensenar la classe ingles. La Stra. Dunn y yo tenemos mucho en común. Nosotoras le gusta las mismas peliculas como Star Wars. ¡Su classe es muy muy fantastico! Leemos muchas cosas como libros, poemas, sonetos, etc. Stra. Dunn es un bien profesor.

This is our presentation on Cellular Respiration