Week 1: Star Girl- Connector

Stargirl

Jerry Spinelli

1. Tijana Boricic 7A

2.Connector

3. 95 pages read

          This week, my job was to be a connector. My task is to connect what I have read in the book, with what I read with my own life, what happens in school, and simply somehow connect my life to the event in the book, or similar places and events that have happened in the world or community around me. I have connected the events happening in the book with my life. Here is how I connected; 

During the whole beginning of the book, Star girl, the new student in Mica high school is so different, unique and catches eyes of everyone. She is a girl that everyone, including teachers, parents and director talk about. So much gossip is spread out, and she is the topic of every girl and guy. She is so different, that most people thought she was unreal. Everyone thought about her in the morning, wondering what new astonishing thing will she do, what she will wear and how she will act. During lunch, everyone, including the cashier in the cafeteria. They all looked at her, her moves actions and everyone stared, no blinking. Such silence wasn't heard since ever. Everyone watched her play ukulele, eat, and sing another birthday song to a student. She was dangerous for everyone. Nobody knew how to categorize her. She was new. This similar event happened to me too. When I was new at the drama classes. Every single person looked up at me. They all stared, without blinking. Reason? I am not so sure. Anyway, I really felt uncomfortable, unlike Stargirl.I felt it will be very hard for me to fit in. Acutaully, it was nothing like it. Everyone loved and was obsessed with me. Whatever I said, or did was accepted and agreed, no matter if it was right or wrong. It was so different and unusual. 

Next week I will be a Discussion director. 

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli: Vocab Enricher

Anna Nunan
Vocab Enricher
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
50 pages read

saguaro: a tall, horizontally branched cactus (page 18, paragraph 3)
Sentence: In the gathering dust, the saguaros flung shadows of giants across the pebbled earth.
punt: a kick in which a ball is dropped then kicked before it hits the ground (page 23, paragraph 2)
Sentence: She punted the ball over the visiting team's bench and ran from the field and out of the stadium.
timber: wood suitable for structural uses (page 31, paragraph 1)
Sentence: Only his ribs, thumb-thick vertical timbers, held him up.
wry: produced by a distortion of facial features (page 32, paragraph 9)
Sentence: The pipe stem anchored a wry grin.
clove: dried flower bud of a tropical tree (page 37, paragraph 2)
Sentence: Its tiny unblinking eyes were bulging, black as cloves.
homesteader: owner of a homestead (page 39, paragraph 2)
Sentence: Her grey-brown homesteader's dress was the colour of her subject.
revue: theatrical entertainment featuring skits (page 40, paragraph 4)
Sentence: More than a hundred students tried out for the Spring Revue.
kelly: a man's stiff hat (page 41, paragraph 1)
Sentence: A plain, timid girl painted her toenails kelly green.
amorphous: lacking definite form (page 41, paragraph 2)
Sentence: So I just enjoyed the feeling and watched the once amorphous student body separate itself into hundreds of individuals.
squabble: a petty quarrel (page 47, paragraph 2)
Sentence: The bike became the focus of a family squabble. 

Marija's blog post #1 Stargirl

Author: Jerry Spinelli
Blog post: By Marija M
Book: Stargirl
#of pages: 95

This week my job was to be the illustrator. I drew the picture that you can see to the left. I drew two stars one blue and one pink. The blue one is for Starboy known as the main character that tells the story his name is Leo. The pink star represents Stargirl her name is Susan Caraway. The stars are touching hands because Leo and Susan like each other and now everyone knows so they are calling Leo Starboy. There are a bunch of objects and words around her representing what she likes. There is a basketball and a pompom because she is a Cheererleader and right now it is basketball season. Then there is a heart above her to show that there is love in the story. The is also a notebook and a pencil that represent her being good at school. There is also a microphone that represents her singing happy birthday to people in the cafeteria while playing her ukulele. There is a big word next to her that says HOT SEAT. It is a radio show that is made by Leo's friend. They interview the most popular kids in school and they have wanted to interview her since the beginning of the year. They finally did and it changed her life. Now she is a lot less popular and people are being mean to her.

Illustrator post #1

Dinnie on the train heading to a new begging (again).

Connector by Celine

Meeting #1

My job: Connector

BLOOMABILITY

SHARON CREECH

Grindenwald

In the book, Dinnie moved to Lugano, Switzerland. My Aunt lives there and we have been to things that Dinnie visited. She went to Grindenwald, a ski place, and she describes it as being the same as I remembered it.
Also, she is very adaptable. Like her, we move a lot so I have developed the skill of adaption to new places. Like her, I am a different person with my parents/ family, then I am with my friends. I am more crazy with my friends. But in Dinnie's case, it is her Aunt and Uncle. She feels left out by her family. She thinks that they have forgotten her because she moved away and they never send her letters. Whenever she sees something that reminds her of her mom or dad, she starts to feel sad and miss them.
Unlike me, she is more of a listener that a talker. I love to talk. I hog the whole conversation when I talk to a friend, but I am quiet around my parents. It is hard for me to just wait and listen. In other words, I am very opinionated and always have to say my opinion about everything.

Lugano

Discussion Director: Andrej Novakovic

This week, I had the honor to be the discussion director. What you need to do, while you are a discussion director is that: you have to make questions that relate to the text.

1. Why does Dinnie's father make her and her entire family travel constantly? Point? Purpose?
2. Why does Dinnie's mother not complain about all of the traveling that they have done late? is she not fed up with all of it?
3. Why does Dinnie move to her uncles so unexpectedly?
4. Why does Dinnie's father keep her away from her grandparents?
5. What do you think will happen in the further chapters?

Answers:
1. He is looking for an opportunity of a life time
2. Because she is patient and believes in her husband
3. Because her dad found an opportunity and he thought that all of his kids are in the way
4. Because he considers them a bad influence, and he thinks that they will tell his kids bad things about him just because they don't really like him.