1. The lottery is a collective act of murder because everyone, even her own children through the rocks that killed her.

2. This is not morally justified because there is no point in killing someone, especially if the only reason for it is tradition.

3. Tradition does not justify this because there is still no proven reason for this tradition. They believe that if they stop the lottery they will stop being civilized, but they don't know this because they never have stopped the lottery.

4. I would be confused if someone from a different culture did strange rituals because I wouldn't understand the purpose or reason for it. An example of this is the Aztecs who removed human hearts, while they were still beating.

5. Shirley Jackson is trying to tell us that following tradition isn’t always the best course of action, because some don't make sense and do more harm than good.

6. There are many connections between The Hunger Games and "The Lottery". First of all, they both contain killing, in the Hunger Games 24 tributes killed each other and in "The Lottery" the town kills the person who won the lottery. Secondly, there is a lottery, in The Hunger Games it decided the tributes from each district and in "The Lottery" the person who is chosen gets stoned. Finally, it is a tradition, In the Hunger Games it had been going on for centuries and in “The Lottery it had been going on since anyone could remember. These are the connections between The Hunger Games and “The Lottery”.

1. A. Where does Homer live?

B. What are his four best friends?

C. Do you think he’ll make a rocket?

 2. A. Homer lives in Coalwood, West Virginia. 

B. His four best friends are Roy Lee, O’Dell, Tony, and Sherman.

 C. I think he will make a rocket, just because of how determined he is to prove himself.


3.      
Asking questions while
reading a story helps you understand the story because it makes you have to
understand the story and it makes you think deeply about the story, especially
if it’s a cloud question.

October Sky is a book set in the past. In this book the Russians send the first ever satellite into space. My connection is between the Russians sending a satellite into space in the book and the Russians sending a satellite into space recently. The satellites launched into space were, Yamal-300K and Luch 5B relay satellite.

First Point News talked about the launching of the satellites.

This connects to my book because in October Sky the Russians sent a satellite into space and in recent news the Russians sent a satellite into space.

    I think that there are many issues to think about from the article about fishers from the nation’s largest salmon run fighting against a mine. In my opinion both sides have good points but I am mainly tilting to the fisherman’s side. First of all, I understand that with gold and copper being as valuable as it is, people want to mine it. Also I know it will produce over a thousand jobs, but it cannot happen if it can threaten an already damaged resource. Secondly, with this bay being part of one of the largest salmon runs the mine can pollute the water possibly killing thousands of salmon. And finally if the mine is created probably around two thousand jobs will be created, but if anything happens to the salmon over twelve thousand fishing related jobs will be lost. This is why with the information presented, I believe the only way to put this issue to rest is to stop the construction of the mine.

Lesson 1: Reading and Reflecting
1. If we had known that two brothers were shooting at each other, we probably would
have thought that the sniper would try to wound him instead of killing him even though he was on the other side because they are still brothers and he wouldn’t want to actually kill him.

2. Irony is when something happens that isn’t expected. (For example, if a fire station burnt down its ironic because they put out fires.) This affects the story because you wouldn’t expect the other sniper on the other side to be his brother.

3. In the story the street represents the barrier between both sides of the war. It separates the two snipers because it goes straight in between them.

4. The resolution is the enemy sniper died. This is a representative of real life because when something bad happens to an enemy you’re happy.

5. The sniper wants to see his victim because he is curious of whom he killed and if they were in the same unit.

6. I believe that the statement is true because even when the sniper killed the enemy sniper the enemy sniper was still his brother.

Lesson 2: Making Connections
    There are many text to world connections between Pat Tillman's death in the Iraq War and “The Sniper”. One connection is that both men died unexpectedly. Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire and the enemy sniper was killed by his own brother. Another connection is that both men were in a war Pat Tillman was fighting in Iraq and the sniper was fighting in the Irish Civil War. The final connection is that in both cases Pat Tillman and the enemy sniper were killed by their own family. Pat Tillman was killed by his army family (brothers in arms), and the enemy sniper was killed by his real family (the republican sniper). These are the main connections between Pat Tillman's death in the Iraq War and “The Sniper”.

Lesson 3: Text to Text Connections
 There are too many text to text connections between “The Sniper” and “Friendly Fire” to write them all, but here are the main three. The first connection is that both wars were real. “The sniper” took place in the Irish Civil War and “Friendly Fire” took place in the  Gulf War. Another connection is that in both stories friendly fire happened. In “The Sniper,” the republican sniper shot his brother and in “Friendly Fire,” 24 Americans were killed by their own ground attack aircraft and none by the Iraq military. The final connection is that in both stories not enough information was the reason for friendly fire. For “The Sniper” the republican sniper did not know the enemy was his brother and for “Friendly Fire” the American pilot thought the American soldiers were Iraq soldiers because of not enough information. This is the main connections between “The Sniper” and “Friendly Fire”.

I think war distorts human relationships because families could be split in half, friends and couples could have to fight on different sides and much worse, so in my opinion, yes war distorts human relationships.

    There are many text to world connections between and "All Summer in a Day" and Phoebe Prince's Suicide. One connection is both Margot and Phoebe were
both bullied, with name calling and physical bullying, as well as many other
forms of bullying. Another connection is that both girls were looking forward to
something, Margot was looking forward to seeing the sun and Phoebe was looking
forward to seeing her dad in Ireland, but because of the mean bullies in both
cases it never happened. The final connection is that Phoebe committed suicide
and Margot probably wanted to commit suicide after not seeing the sun because of
being locked in the closet. This is the text to world connections between "All
Summer in a Day" and Phoebe Prince's Suicide, and why bullying should never be
done.

    There are too many text to text connections between "All Summer in a Day" and "The
Bully", but here are the main connections. In both stories, in Margot and all of the kids George, the bully’s school, the victims were verbally assaulted, beat up and severely hurt, either mentally or physically. Also all the bullying was done by a large group of mean people. In "All Summer in a Day" Margot was bullied by her entire class and in “The Bully” George’s school was bullied by George and his cronies. The final and most interesting connection between "All Summer in a Day" and "The Bully" is the fact that boys were the bullies or started the bullying. I also believe this is the same way in the world today in many schools. This is the major connections between "All Summer in a Day" and "The Bully”, and why men seem to be the more violent ones in our society today.

It is scary how much text to world connections there are between "All Summer in
a Day" and Bullies Drove Him to Suicide. As like the other two connection paragraphs the main connection is that both kids were bullied. Margot was thrown in the closet when the sun came out for an hour in the last 7 year and Joel was physically and mentally abused. A second connection is that both Margot and Joel were easy to abuse. Margot did not rebel and was very shy, while Joel was short and brainy, with no physical ability. A final connection is that both Margot and Joel had changed schools. Margot changed from her school on Earth to the school on Venus and Joel changed from the school he was bullied at to a new school.  These are the main connections between "All Summer in a Day" and Bullies Drove Him to Suicide.

    It is scary that there is so much bullying and discrimination in our world today. I think that the only reason people discriminate each other is because their own life is bad or they are jealous. The reason I think that a bad life could cause someone to discriminate someone else is because someone with a bad life wants to let out some anger and blame someone else. I have personally never experienced discrimination from a person with a bad life, but when you look at news articles and bullies in general they don’t have it well off. The reason I also think that jealousy could because discrimination is because if you
know someone who has something that you want you get you get a tiny bit mad. The
perfect example of this is the short story "All Summer in a Day" when the Margot gets to go back to Earth where the sun shines most of the time and the rest of her class has to stay on Venus where it is always rainey. The news article Phoebe Prince's Suicide is another example where jelousy happens because Phoebe dates a popular football player and all the other girls also want to date him. These are the reasons for discrimination and why it can cause serious problems.