Ungifted Themes

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers, a novel depicting success, provides different examples of how an individual can achieve success in every chapter of his book to show his audience that success, despite a variety of barriers, is in fact in our control. A very important chapter titled, “Marita's Bargain”, explains the flaws in today’s public school systems. He shows the problems with the solutions to fix them while showing the alternatives to the regular system such as the KIPP Program in New York. The KIPP Program (Knowledge is Power Program) is a new kind of middle school that selects students from less fortunate locations and uses unique teaching strategies to turn them around into fantastic learners. In the chapter, Gladwell is extremely descriptive by using visual words to paint the picture of the South Bronx in New York City. He describes the buildings that were built in the 1960’s as squat and bleak looking. Gladwell had an interest in this subject as it involves success, however he had no prior experiences to produce the piece. Gladwell establishes personal credibility through the use of knowledge, reason, and facts and figures. He comes across very knowledgeable on the subject presenting great data with excellent vocabulary. He is able to do this with no obvious bias as well. Gladwell shows authority because he is well known for writing novels that involve success. His intention is to teach and explain how schools need to change the length of vacation breaks

In the book Schooled written by Gordon Korman, we follow the story of a 14 teen year old named Cap who has lived on a farm his entire life with his grandmother hippie, who is forced to leave his farm because his grandmother got injured. Because of this he is forced to go into our society and go to a normal middle school and live with his guidance counselor. And because he is very different, he is a target in middle school and because of a tradition at that middle school, which elects the weirdest person to be school president, he becomes school president. In the book there are many craft moves that the author does, including symbolism, first person perspectives and multiple viewpoints, to achieve goals such as supporting the theme, setting

Gerald Graff just wants people who are street smart to be acknowledged as smart intellectuals, just like those who are book smart. Mr. Graff wants them to be taken into consideration, because he was once a person feeling like he was just street smart. Graff considers that people should not think that school is not somewhere they should be at because they are not considered book smart.

In the story “I Just Wanna Be Average” the author Mike Rose argues that society very often neglects and doesn’t see the full value and potential of students.

Murray employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos and logos throughout the essay. The pathos, or pathetic appeal, of the argument is based on what Murray believes is society’s misalignment of understanding when it comes to propelling that all youth prepare to attend college. He makes the claim that a student with a natural liking for the rigorous abilities that it takes to complete a college education, and whose test scores indicate the threshold for college readiness, is more likely to succeed than an individual who doesn’t enjoy the work and who also tests low (PARAGRAPH 11). And because of this misalignment, those low testing, students are being set up to fail. The essay’s ethical appeal suggests that guidance counselors, teacher, political figures and others with a vested interest in a student’s progress, should do more to help students understand what their strengths are and that college is not always the best route for them to take (PARAGRAPH 41). Lastly, the appeal to logos, or the logical appeal is the basis of

Like a rock thrown into a pond, one small action affects everyone because we are all linked together in a karass. That rock causes ripples that travel to every end of the pond affecting the still water and the life that floats within it. In the book Whirligig by Paul Fleischman a boy named Brent Bishop is being too hard on himself and decides to stop his pain by trying to kill himself, but he does not realize that his actions would affect the people around him. He ends up killing a girl named Lea who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In order for Brent to gain forgiveness from the girl’s family he has to make four whirligigs and place them on each of the four corners of the United States. Each Whirligig had to represent

Ungifted by Gordon Korman was a very interesting and an amusing book. This book was very entertaining for me because Donovan was on the edge of his life everyday because of the trouble he caused, and also because this book has a viewpoint of most of the characters in the book, which gave the book more depth and understanding. I was very curious about what is going to happen next and when I started reading, I couldn’t stop. Donovan Curtis is the main character of this book, and I think he is a good character because he keeps on trying hard, and he greatly cares about other people and things. For example, at the school dance party, Chloe was getting bullied and Donovan protected her and he got Chloe out of trouble. I can relate to Donovan because when he moved to the Academy, he first didn’t understand any of the things the

I selected the book The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins because I was interested to read about an adult author’s perception of a modern American high school experience. I also chose the book because the reviews mentioned that it related to a TV series I enjoyed, Freaks and Geeks. As I read through the book, I found that it centered around the theory that if a student is excluded or dismissed in high school for having different traits than what other students considered normal, those same traits that made them different will allow them to succeed in an adult life after high school. As soon as I got about a quarter of the way into the book I was not as enthusiastic as I was at first glance. I did agree that these traits could benefit someone, but they don’t define what you have the potential to be when you’re an adult. This high school cliché, despite the seven heartwarming storylines, is inaccurate in describing what the future holds for high school students because our future is unpredictable, and a book with a little statistic and seven high school experiences can’t solidify someone’s adulthood. I also noticed that there were no counterarguments present in the book, leading me to assume that Robbins may not have heavily researched both sides of her ‘quirk’ argument. Although I had differing opinions than the author, the seven characters, their storylines, and the promise of a young James Franco continued to perk my interest and

“If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen...” (pg. 54). Throughout the course of A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, we familiarize ourselves with the exceptional hardships that Ishmael has experienced as a child soldier, in Sierra Leone, and what actions he takes to overcome them. Despite the fact that Ishmael has been through these devastating hardships and that he became the fear that he himself feared, Ishmael is able to instill hope and keep the reader going through the themes of powerful memories, nature and redemption. He does this through the use of powerful memories that contrast the fear and danger of the war with the remembrance of the beauty of life. Furthermore, nature leaves the reader striving

In the Blackrock text written by Nick Enright in 1996, there are many themes and ideas that are developed and looked at throughout. The main themes and ideas looked at throughout the text are; mateship, peer pressure, and violence. These themes and ideas are built throughout the play and have a great impact.

But then when he went home he got a letter saying he can't be in the GT program anymore. The robotics meet came. His team was nothing without him. He had such skill when drove the robot. He went the meet and saw his friends struggling but nothing could stop him from driving the robot. When Donovan took the wheel they won the state robotic meet.

I know my last review was all about the book of my dreams and whatnot, but All Fall Down was basically an element of reality that I'm quite close to and the best that imagination can offer and it's made me wonder “Why weren’t you creative enough to dream that up, Jess?” Now I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, seeing as it’s only January and all, but that may have been the best book I’ve read in a long while. Alright, so since last week. But as you can see, I’m rather smitten by this book. Because it combined a concept that I know all too well about together with the joys of the thriller genre and an ounce of conspiracy.

In the novel, “A Hope in the Unseen” written by Ron Suskind explains the journey of Cedric Jennings from the Inner City to the Ivy League. Throughout his journey Cedric Jennings has had to navigate many challenges first at Ballou High School, then MIT in the summer, and finally at Brown University. During his High school career at Ballou he received many backlash from his peers because of his devotion to his studies. In Ballou High School, “the school’s dropout/transfer rate at nearly 50 percent, it’s understandable that kids at Ballou act as though they’re just passing through”(Suskind 3) but not Cedric. He had a determination like no other to succeed academically where he would often stay after to finish his homework and work on SAT practice

For every team to work together and use teamwork is a major key, but first each person must put away their differences. That's one of the two lessons in this book. At the outset when Joe was contending for a spot in the freshman boat, there were “city boys dressed very well” and “farm boy,s like Joe who grew up wielding axes and fishing gaffs, etc.” As you observe that point right there, it’s a variety of backgrounds and that is what happens when a group of people come together. A

3. Choose one or two themes from the following list and show how Spiegelman conveyed this in Maus: Loneliness; Discrimination; Abuse of Power; Loss of Innocence, Guilt, Survival.