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  Earth Stream Teen Magazine

Posted by Meenoo Rami in English 3 - Rami on



Earth Stream Teen Magazine Publication Link

please leave comments for us because we look forward to your reactions!

When I started teaching this amazing group of students at SLA, I knew that we'd do some great work together. I wanted to make sure that my students had authentic experiences as readers and writers.  So this quarter, we have worked together to create this teen magazine.  Our hope is that this project will inspire other classes to create similar work.  If you like our work, please share it widely and leave us comments because we are eager to hear from you. Thank you for checking out our work.   

My student, Rose did a great job documenting this process, an portion of which you will find below:

At the beginning of our first quarter Ms. Rami explained to us how she wanted us to do “real” learning instead of “fake” learning. A common theme in high school english is that the teachers will assign their students a book to read and a large portion of the students will only read a little of the book but pretend that they did. If there is no real reading than classroom discussions become fake and mundane. We as a class wanted to be real readers. The kind of readers that challenge ourselves and motivate others to do the same. Another aspect of “real learning” is writing. This quarter we have focussed on making our writing real and relevant which is where this magazine comes into play. At first the magazine was just an idea but then it turned into this amazing project.


During one of our first classes of the 2nd Quarter Ms. Rami introduced the project to us. She had us brainstorm different ideas that we would want to write our articles on. The following week we sat around in a circle and had a class discussion on ideas. Some of the braver more confident people jumped at the chance to share their ideas. Meanwhile the more hesitant listened from the side. When someone shared their idea either Ms. Rami or other students would recomend other things that they could add to their idea making it something more specific or letting it go a little deeper. Eventually the shy bystanders started to share their ideas and there began to be a sense of what this magazine would end up looking like. It was great to see the ideas float around and begin to form into their full glory. Our assignment at the end of the class was to decide the final topic that we wanted to work on and if their were other people we could work with.

Once each of us had come up with our solid ideas and figured out if it was going to be a partner article or not we started to learn how to write articles in an appealing way. We read “Saying No to College” at our tables in class and took out parts that stood out to us. Then as a group we talked about those parts and how we can implicate them in our articles. We also talked about what parts we didn’t like which is an important part of a discussion. A really interesting thing that we did was we got the opportunity to skype in with Kristen Graham, a Pulitzer Prize winner, about her experience as a journalist. We all got the opportunity to ask her questions about how she gets the stories, what it is like to have a career as a journalist. From her we were able to get the advice we needed to really get started.

A big part of any magazine is making it turn into a well written, visually appealing piece of work. In order to make that possible a couple of people needed to volunteer to do some extra work. There were a couple different roles that needed to be filled. We needed someone to make a name for the magazine, copy editors, photo and art editors, visual layout designer, and someone to get the word out to everyone. Lastly we needed a couple people to oversee all of those roles. It was surprisingly easy to get all of those rolls filled. The simplicity of that showed how interested and excited everyone is about this project.

In the last stages we have a deadline for the rough draft to be due. The classes leading up to the deadline have been fully work periods in which the different people can work together to get the article ready for edits.

As a part of the editing process we were given a sheet to fill out.  The sheet needed to be filled out by the lit lab that we have during lunch periods. The Lit Lab is a place where a couple of stellar students can help out other students by proof reading their writing work.

Q1 English BM: A Dance With Dragons

Posted by Seamus Kirby in English 3 - Rami on


​I am reading the book A Dance With Dragons, by George RR Martin, part of the series A Song of Ice and Fire. The location I have chosen to recreate is called “The Twins.” It is a large bridge that spans a very large river, with a tower at one end and a fort at the other. It is the home of a major House, or family in the book, called the Freys. It is the site of a very infamous event in the series, called the Red Wedding. In it, several major characters are attending a wedding in The Twins, and Lord of the Freys betrays the major character, and kills him and several other major characters, along with hundreds of other people at the wedding. The major character who is betrayed was previously at war with another house, and had been allied with the Freys, but the changed sides in the war and betrayed the people at the wedding. In the setting of book, it is an ancient custom that when someone eats or drinks in your home, they are protected by the laws of hospitality. The Lord of House Frey betrayed those ancient customs, which made his betrayal much more surprising, and made it one of the most significant events in the series.

The main setting in the book is a continent called Westeros. There is a feudal society in Westeros, where peasants answer to the Lords of the castles they live near. Those Lords answer to one major Lord of the area they live in, and those Lords answer to the King. Every noble, or Lord, belongs to a “House,” or family. The castle that belongs to that house is passed down from father to son, unless some outside event were to take those lands from them. Houses are very important in the series, because people have to be loyal to their own family. However, the Red Wedding was something many Freys knew about, and many were not happy to do what they had to do. However, they did it anyway. This raises that question about whether or not you should follow your family in everything they do, whether or not you disagree with it. In the setting of this book, nobles have to depend on their family much more, because without them they would most likely just be a peasant, or soldier. In today’s world, however, it is much easier to get by without your family, because you don’t depend on them for as much as you did in the setting of this book. Because of this, it is difficult to answer this inquiry question because of the different setting. The Lord of the Freys most likely thought that he did what he had to do to end a war. I think for him, taking the lives of about a hundred people was worth it to save the lives of the thousands of people who may have died in the war if it were to continue. I think the book does help answer my second inquiry question, because how far you would go to what you think is right depends on what you think is right, when you decide that what you think is right outweighs what you have to do. Honor is something found a lot in the series, some people don’t value it, while others do. I think that honor is important, but if it gets in the way of “the greater good” as you may see it, it should not be valued as highly. I don’t think Lord Frey valued honor that much, because what he did by disobeying the laws of hospitality was extremely dishonorable, so I don’t think it held much sway for him. The book raises many other questions about morals, or ethics, but I think that the three I chose are the most important, and the majority of the issues in the book revolve around them.

Q1 English 3 Benchmark: Kenny Le

Posted by Kenny Le in English 3 - Rami on

Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard


Book Review by Kenny Le

It is important that we learn about our greatest American heroes and villains. Role models are a big thing in today's life. Everyone wants to be a better person everyday. Everyone has goals whether it be personal or academic goals. Abraham Lincoln had good goals that he had to accomplish, but John Wilkes Booth put an end to the pursuit of those goals. Stories like this inspire people to do good things, and it inspires people to stop the harm that is being done by bad people. 

When I first opened Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, I expected to skim through the pages and see what the book is like. I wanted to find out why would they sell a book about Abraham Lincoln when most people already know what happened. I thought people probably bought it, because it's written by Bill O'Reilly. Bill O' Reilly is a political commentator, and he also has his own show on Fox, The O'Reilly Factor. It is common knowledge that people know what happened to Abraham Lincoln. If they do not know what happened to Lincoln, they can find out what happened by searching up Abraham Lincoln on the web. I skimmed through the book, and read the first page that got me hooked. 

In the beginning of the book, Abraham Lincoln is the President of the Union in the time of the Civil war. It recalls the final days of the war with Abraham Lincoln watching over the war. The story of Robert E. Lee battling against Ulysses S. Grant was very engaging. After the war, the book soon moves into a sequence of events where Lincoln is working to end the war, while John Wilkes Booth's plan goes into work to end Lincoln's life.

Killing Lincoln is a nonfiction book, but as I read it, it felt more of a fiction novel. Killing Lincoln is written as a thriller, and the book just keeps drawing you in and making you want to read more to find out what's going to happen next. Everyone knows how Lincoln's life ended, but the book creates anxiety for the reader making you ask questions like "What if?". There were so many moments where Lincoln could've been saved that I never even knew about. There were so many different things Lincoln could've done differently to protect himself. It makes you keep hoping that Lincoln will realize the dangers in his life, as the plot to end his life continues on. 

Killing Lincoln is a very readable book about history. It's not boring and dull like history textbooks or articles you often see in history class. The authors Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard do a really good job with presenting the details of the past without overwhelming you with too much information. I highly recommend people to pick up this book.

Final Moments

Posted by Alisha Clark in English 3 - Rami on

‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven,’ by Mitch Albom


By: Alisha Clark

  What is Heaven like? Do souls go up to a place called Heaven, where you become an angel and walk on clouds? From the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Tuesdays with Morrie comes a long-awaited saga, a beautiful novel that explores a mystery only heaven can unfold.

  Eddie, the main character, is a veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life as a repairman of a seaside amusement park. Luckily, Eddie didn't always feel so trapped, he endured a very adventurous youth. Then changed into a spiteful old man. Eddie's days are filled with the same colorless routine and a side of regret.

   It is the day of Eddie's 83rd birthday, and the book begins at the end, with Eddie dying. "The last days of Eddie's life was spent, like most of the others, at Ruby Pier, an amusement park by a great gray ocean. The park had the usual attractions, a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, roller coasters, bumper cars, a taffy stand, and an arcade where you could shoot streams of water into a clown's mouth. It also had a big new ride called Freddy's Free Fall, and this would be where Eddie would be killed, in an accident that would make newspapers around the state." Eddie soon realizes heaven isn't a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your life is explained back to you by five different people who you've encountered in the past.

  Throughout the book, Eddie is desperately seeking redemption and questioning his final moments. Was it all worth it? Was the last breaths worth taking and can be considered heroic? Or was it shameful and a huge mistake? This book challenges you to think before you act because they may be your final breaths. Thinking after acting has been looked down upon, and is often what people do today.

  Mitch Albom once again delivers another breathtaking original story that will enlighten your life in many ways. It will open your eyes into helping you see the brighter path in life. It changes your thoughts about the afterlife and the meaning of what life means on Earth. A story of love, hope, redemption, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is the bestselling hardcover first-time novel ever, Selling over 12 million copies in 38 territories and in 35 languages.











ENG3-012

Term
2012-13

Teacher