Blogging using criteria

As you begin to blog about Freedom Train  remember to refer to your criteria sheet. Creating a powerful response needs to include a passage or quote that clearly shows persecution occurring in the novel. This quote/passage needs to have made you react strongly in some way - angered, frustrated, devastated, in disbelief. Copy the passage/quote directly from the novel and include the page number it can be found on. Explain your feelings and emotions you felt when reading this and explain why. Go into detail as this will show a deeper level of understanding. A powerful response also needs to included connections. As everyone is now on their second novel, maybe more, you can connect to what you have already read. What is similar or dissimilar about the characters, about the events? Finally, leave off by asking a deep thinking question. What do you wonder about, what questions do you have? It might be about something we have talked about in class and you have been thinking about it, wondering about it? Maybe it is something that has occurred in the novel and you would like to hear others' opinions. This is the time to ask.

Beginning to Respond

Choose a short passage from your novel that made an impact on you as you read it, that made you stop and think maybe even say "Oh wow" to yourself.  It may have made you stop and think because you made a personal connection. It may have made you wonder and ask a question. It may have made you react in some emotional way to the words on the paper.  In your response, quote the passage and list the page number that it can be found on.  Explain, in detail, why you chose this passage, what reason did you have that made you stop and think or had you reacting in some way. Include your feelings and emotions as well as state any connections you made (text to self, text to text, text to world). An example  from another novel of how to start is this:

 "Big signs were posted at the pool saying"No Jews or Dogs Allowed". pg 14

As I read this passage I couldn't believe that this could happen. How could the Jewish even be compared to dogs?"