Letters About Literature

Arielle Jackson

1301 E. Walnut Street.

Carbondale, IL 62901

Dear Jandy Nelson,

            I read your book the Sky is Everywhere in my English class this year. We have been reading of a reading list called Read for a Lifetime. I liked the plot summary of your book and felt that it was interesting. Little did I know that I was going to have such a strong connection with the book itself. While reading your book I really fell in love with Lennie the most. I could really feel her sadness and every other emotion she was feeling in the book. Not that I would ever wish losing a loved one on someone, but I do think that losing Bailey in the beginning of the book helped Lennie grow and see the world in a completely different way.  I to have a little sister named Alex. We are three years apart and although she is bigger and taller than me, people still think we look a lot like twins. She and I are quite close and do a lot of things together. Reading your book, The Sky is Everywhere, I realized just how much my sister means to me and my life in general.  There was a time when we were younger that I was hospitalized because of a back surgery. I was around 14 at the time and Alex came to see me in the hospital a few days.  The first couple of days were pretty blurry for me and I don’t remember much, besides getting to see my sister and parents. Alex would go to the store and buy me magazines and candy, of course at this point I was grateful to get just about anything. Alex was only around 11 at the time so I myself could only imagine how she felt going to school every day without me. If I compare Alex and I to your book, Alex would be a lot more like Bailey and I a lot like Lennie. Alex was the star athlete of the house and she loved sports, just as Bailey loved theater.  I liked sports but never found a real need for them either. I was the sister who did all her homework and liked playing the clarinet, which was why I feel so connected to the character of Lennie. Anyway, there were times while I was in the hospital that I felt as if Alex didn’t care. I felt as if she thought I was just the weird sister with back problems and she was the healthy one who got to do as she pleased. There were also times when I felt as though Alex could live her life without me. She was always a very independent girl and liked to do things for herself.  So to look back at the book and think, if I left my sister on Earth, could she go on with her life? That was a hard way for me to look at this but it was soon changed by the time I got home. Alex had made a huge timeline poster that had pictures of us together from the times we were babies to the present. It was all colorful and she had put a lot of time into it. That was the exact moment that I realized that Alex would be fine if I never was here again, but she would be better if I was.

            So reading the Sky is Everywhere in English this year was a huge déjà vu moment for me. I was able to get into the book in a completely different way than I think any other reader could. Your book helped me see a new way of looking at life, and at family and friends in general. I’m glad I chose this book to read. I felt it gave me a new insight on life itself. I am hoping to find free time in my school year to read any other books that you have written; I enjoyed this one.

Sincerely,

Arielle Jackson

Vlog... Again!!!

To Read or Not to Read? That is the Question!

     So I'm pretty sure most people if not all students in high school have heard about sparknotes.com. It's usually the last minute website you search for when you didn't read your English assignment. I must admit that I have done this for a few assignments myself. Soon I realised that reading these short excerpts of material that random people put on the Internet are not helpful. They might help people decided if they like the plot of the book and help them make the decision of buying it or not. But, in my situations I would read these short summaries and go to school the next day to fail the quiz. That's because most of these summaries only told me the beginning of the story with a good cliff hanger. It wouldn't tell me much of what happened in the actual story. So when I had tests and quizzes asking what character did this in whatever chapter, I wouldn't have a clue.
       There are a few reasons why reading sparknotes and or Google would be a bad idea. One is , if you have never even touched the book much less read it, how would you know that the summary you were reading was the right one?! That becomes a problem when your talking to a classmate about what happened and you have a  completely different story. Another reason doing this research would be bad was if eventually you had to write a research paper on the book it self.  You would want to know some famous quotes along with the page number. This way people know you can source things correctly and give your author credit for the book. A research paper may be the hardest essay every just because you never read your book in the first place. My final reason for why students should not use sparknotes and Google to "read" their books is because you may be missing out of the greatest story ever. Like when I bought the first Twilight book. It wasn't very popular and I honestly thought it was super boring and long. When I finally decided to read it and try, I never put the book down. It was an amazing story and I read every book after that one!!
     So although typing in the title and getting a quick and easy summary seems harmless, it can turn around and give you major problems!

Twenty-first century English classrooms!

     Facebook, blogging, Twitter, and video chat. Text messages and cell phones, writing papers and reading books. These are all of the things that are incorporated in the English classrooms of the 21st century. I think by incorporating all of these new technologies into the classroom, we can make our own learning styles; also we might be able to understand things more differently. I must admit that I am a huge Skype and Facebook fan, I'm on one of the two almost everyday. I do find it helpful to know that I have access to all homework and school material online. It helps me not procrastinate as much as usual.
     By putting facebook and twitter, along with blogging in the classroom , students don't have to feel so self conscience about what they are writing. They can go on someones blog or facebook and read about how other people are responding to the teachers requests. They can also have someone they can converse with about the books they are reading. Blogging helps you express your feelings on books and other things, without giving stage fright to most people. I feel like I am approaching my second quarter blog with my own decisions. I like the freedom I get for my creativity and my own thoughts. I love that classes in high school are keeping up with the new technologies of their students. They are making everything easier to learn and discover this year. Reading my second quarter book has been a new experience for me. I feel more at ease with the fact that everything can be done on my own time. The teachers doesn't tell you what to write about and everything can have your own twist of creativity.Usually there when teachers decide to teach a book out loud in a classroom, there are lower grades and test scores by the end of that book. I would say that is because there is a lower amount of students that have the ability to pay attention. Now I'm not saying that learning a book through blogging and Facebook make my attention span longer (because it surely doesn't ), but for the amount of time that my attention does stay I learn way more than I would reading aloud.
    With all of that being said, I can finally say that I'm glad we have blogging, Facebook, and Twitter to do our English homework with. Some may say its a waste of time and not needed, but I vote otherwise. I feel this technology use in my English classroom has helped my learn in a way that my mind is more adapted to, not forcing me to read in a way that the teacher thinks is necessary.