Dies Drear Book Report

During the month of May, 2017, my Language Arts class was assigned a book project. Everyone received a book and worksheets that went along with the book, which helped us understand the meanings and ideas in the book. That year we read The Great Gatsby. The teacher would

I will use the Literature circle to enhance the student’s ability to collaborate on a higher level so that they can move toward independent readers, molding them to integrate in a powerful classroom activity that will activate their critical thinking skills. I will do a book study and have students to meet and discuss the importance of rotating their roles giving everyone an opportunity to share the responsibility. I will teach how to highlight in different colors distinguishing each student reading.

The seven rooms in the house also conveyed stages in life ending with death. These rooms were set up from east to west. This meaning that the sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west, and death comes in the darkness. "In this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet--a deep blood color." The guest's avoided this room because it was a sign of death.

Fictional novels, in this case, The Graveyard Book, can teach us about ourselves. A fictional novel is imaginary and is not necessarily based true facts. The Graveyard Book was published in 2008 by Neil Gaiman. This book is about a normal boy named Nobody Owens but is known to his friends as Bod. Bod is raised in the graveyard by educated ghosts, a solitary guardian who is neither living nor dead and is under attack by the Man Jack. Two ideas that have been demonstrated throughout the novel is that life is full of endless possibilities and relationships are a key part of our identity. This novel teaches us about ourselves and the experiences that we have with our relationships with other people in our life with

“Forgotten Dead” by authors William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb, delivered a collective narration of the numerous lynching crimes against Mexican people in the southern west states of the United States. Their purpose was to describe that extend of mob violations against the minority groups of people in the United States. By, arguing how many of these racial crimes were prejudice to eliminate the potential competition for territory, and gold mines’ economy that were potentially able to provide the envy position that Anglo people were afraid to loose. They wanted to figure out, who these forgotten dead Mexicans were at the time, and what types of “crimes” they committed to face such cruelty death in the hands of the mob Anglo groups. They uncovered the grand extend of violent scenes that Anglo vigilantes members of mob groups organized the banishment of many Mexican in what they had considered part of their territory at the time.

The long family line has imprinted its aura onto the house, and in turn, the house conduces the inhabitants towards a predetermined lifestyle. The Usher family, as the narrator says, despite its age, has always been feeble, because it has never been able to generate an enduring branch. Just as the family, the house has a sturdy appearance, given by its endurance through time, but it is marked by decay and so are its surroundings: the crumbled stones, the trees and the spooky tarn all add to the oppressive, uncanny atmosphere. Just as the individual parts which shape the domain are marked by decomposition, so is each member of the family plagued by some form of disintegration.

When a mentor gives you lemons, you make the lemonade. In the book The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the person most important in Bod Owens’s life is his mentor, Silas. Bod Owens did not have the average teenage life; he was raised by two dead parents who live in a graveyard, and was not allowed to leave the graveyard unless his parents gave him permission. The lady on the Grey is the symbol of death that mentors Silas, which gives her and Silas a similar “job” in their afterlife.

The house symbolically acts as a place of isolation, illustrating the way that if humans no longer have communication with other people it results into madness. The symbol of the house is significant, the house is an isolated place especially near the windows. As the unnamed narrator arrives at the house a servant takes his horse, and he enters the Gothic archway of the hall. As the narrator is lead to Roderick's studio by the servant, he notices the familiar yet gloomy atmosphere. He is put in a room where he describes as large and lofty and "the windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from

This is where he and his wife Grace along with their six children would live happily for many years, gradually adding on to the house to accommodate their large family. After the deaths of Grace and Jonathan the house was passed down to succeeding generations that continued to add on to the family home, turning it into the massive structure that it is today. Today, it never lacks in paranormal activity.

A review of the house itself suggests that an architectural hierarchy of privacy increases level by level. At first, the house seems to foster romantic sensibilities; intrigued by its architectural connotations, the narrator embarks upon its description immediately--it is the house that she wants to "talk about" (Gilman 11). Together with its landscape, the house is a "most beautiful place" that stands "quite alone . . . well back from the road, quite three miles from the village" (Gilman 11). The estate's grounds, moreover, consist of "hedges and walls and gates that lock" (Gilman 11). As such, the house and its grounds are markedly depicted as mechanisms of confinement--ancestral places situated within a legacy of control and

It was also discovered, that there was a lady buried in the backyard, one who passed away 50-60 years prior. She also learned from her neighbors that the lady who had died in the house before they moved in, was a very good housekeeper. She was described as always keeping her house clean. Filban said it might have been her moving the furniture. She also added, since her mother did not keep the house very clean, it might have been the woman’s spirit coming by to clean house.

The English department does a wonderful job of finding texts that keep the students interested in what they read, but challenges them with new vocabulary and terms they would not normally use. These topics are also at different lengths that target specific skills that all students need and at different levels so that students with different developmental levels can improve. The English department also works with our school’s library to find some of the newest books that the students will enjoy and do their best to bring those books in. The school’s librarian and one of our freshman English teachers have started a “Book Club” on campus so that students could read some of the newest books and be able to talk about them in an educational setting. Many students are a part of this new club and some of them have stated that this club has really helped them improve their overall reading and summarization skills.

A Lesson Before Dying, a historical fiction novel set in the 1940s, is written by Ernest J. Gaines. In this novel the reader gets to experience the struggles of a twenty-one year old black man by the name of Jefferson. Jefferson finds himself the sole survivor in a liquor store shooting. Although he is an innocent man, he is found guilty of murder and because of the racist era, he is sentenced to death. Determined to morph Jefferson into a man with dignity before his death, Miss Emma, Jefferson’s godmother reaches out to Grant Wiggins, a teacher at a local school. Although Grant isn’t sure he can do anything for Jefferson, he agrees to visit him in jail. As the days to Jefferson’s execution wane, Grant and Jefferson form a bond that ends up bettering both men.

The house is always being referred to as alive, and throughout the story different parts of the house are being talked about as though they are body parts of a human. "Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior," just as a disease or an illness would overcome a human body (Poe 716). They say the house has eye-like windows and are of a crimson red. The house is connected to the family and the family name, because this family is the only family to have ever lived in this house, and the house has `seen' everything that has gone on with the family from the very beginning. As long as the house stays up and strong the family name will remain and continue, but if the house were to crumble the family members in it would die with the house. Because the house is almost like their hearts, and as long as it's alive and well they will stay alive and well, and the family name will be carried on.