Krista Ramsey

Krista Ramsey:

The third aritcle I read written by Krista Ramsey was called " Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love books" which was an article on a third grade teacher who was preparing her students for the OAA's. But the article stressed how it was important for the kids to actually enjoy reading fro their own pleasure and not just do it because they have to.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/15/krista-ramsey-third-grade-reading-guarantee/6475723/


While I read this article written by Ramsey, I noticed her variety of diction and syntax used in this particular piece of writing wasn't as wide as some of her other pieces of writing that I had previously read. She used simple everyday words which helped her get straight to the point she was trying to make through her writing. One specific line I picked out from the article was, "While she knows the test is about ensuring that every student who passes to fourth grade is an able reader, she can’t help but feel it’s also about her." So this line uses simple and everyday diction, which makes the article fairly easy to read and understand. Also the sentence structure she had used throughout her piece of writing was mostly short sentences, or sentences connected together with commas. This quote from her column is a great example to demonstrate how her writing was modeled for this specific article, sentences which are short in length, and make a statement while getting to the point.

Overall, after reading these three articles I find that the writing style of Ramsey is more factual and can be backed up or proved by actual statistics rather than being completely opinionated and just backed up by her beliefs. In the first article we read called "For better vision, kids need time outdoors", Ramsey wrote about how studies support this topic. "'In his work with University of Cincinnati sports teams, Clark sees athletes who either don't register as much in their peripheral vision or don't fully trust what they see. He believes lifestyle changes may play a crucial part." This line from the article supports her use of facts to back up her topic. In the second article I read by Ramsey called "Super Bowl QBs score points for great style" talked about how dressing better and more professionally can make you appear to seem or even be more successful. "we are all part of a collective experience and that we honor each other and ourselves when we care about how we're dressed and groomed." So this specific quote from the article supports her style of writing and how she continues to use statistics to prove that her claim in legitimate. And lastly the third article I read by Ramsey was "Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love books" which was an article on how the teacher Jeni Ernsthausen wanted not only to teach her students the basics to get them to pass their tests, but go above and beyond so that she could get her kids to actually enjoy reading as well. “'I’m not going to drill and kill them with a test, because I would be bored as a teacher, and we would all lose our minds,' she says with a laugh. Then she stops laughing. 'The OAA is a big deal, but I don’t want kids to hate reading.'” This quote from the article supports how the fact is that kids can begin to hate reading if they are forced to do it, but if they have a fun and exciting teacher who would actually make reading fun then there is more of a chance that those kids would enjoy reading more as they grow up.

Some questions that I would have about Ramsey's writing would be:

1) What are some of the things that inspire you to come up with the topics you choose to write about?

2) Do you prefer writing in the same sort of writing style in all your columns that you write, or do you prefers to include different types of writing styles in each of your pieces?

3) Did you always imagine yourself to become a columnist writer, even when you were in college or high school?

Divergent Connections

Divergent Connections:

While I was reading the book Divergent, I noticed several text to text connections I could make with books that i had previously read. The main story line behind the book was that a new socitey had been created where the population is divided into five factions based on how the persons mind worked. So if they were truthful they would belong in Candor, peaceful Amity, brave Dauntless, intelligent Erudite, and selfless Abnegation. The book was based on a dystopian society just like the book I had read called Maze Runner. In this book though, the characters are placed into a Maze while having their memories taken away from them. Then the people who are placed in the maze have to learn to work together and create/rebuild a society of thier own. And the main purpose of the book was that their wasnt just one maze, but multiple maze's in which they entered the people so they could examine they abilities. So the point where I thought that these two books had some sort of connection or similar story line was when I looked back at the entire story and compared the two. In Divergent, they set up the society with factions that was separate from the rest of the world around them so that they could put the "best" and most "sane" people from the outside world in there and watch them to see what made them better than the others. The world around them was shattered and broken and dangerous to live in while the society almost provided them with a sort of "safe haven". In the The Maze Runner, its also very similar because a group of special kids who have rare traits that many people would kill to have, are placed in a Maze where they can be analyzed and studied to see what caused them to have these special traits. Then those who live outside the Maze live in a threatening and fearful environment which they were hoping to fix by developing a cure. This proves how the books have a fairly similar story line because they both are some sorts of "experiments", they are both based on a dystopian society, they both talk about how in the future the world starts to crumble to pieces and they need to come up with ways to help fix it, and they both include a main character who is aided by friends to take down those that are in control of them. Also there is a connection between the main characters in both of the books. In Divergent the main character Tris makes the choice to leave Abnegation even though, "few people who are born into Abnegation choose to leave it. When they do, we remember." (pg 34, Roth) This choice of hers was out of the norm and not what most people would. its what helped define her as brave. In the Maze Runner, Thomas the main character also has to make a difficult choice where either he has to lose all his memories and enter an experiment where he could help contribute to save the world or instead stay on the outside as he was doing and just continuing to watch the experiment progress slowly. The choice that the two of them had to make was not only life changing to them but it also had a greater impact on the world around them as well.

Divergent: Characters

The book Divergent, by Veronica Roth has been by far one of the best books I've read. The way she wrote the book so descriptively made me really enjoy the book. Also the characters she included in the books made it even better because I loved how she made it as if you could relate to the characters on some level even though their lives and the society they lived in was so different from ours today. The characters were unique and each had some sort of feature that made them stand out in a particular way.

One of the main characters in the book was Beatrice Prior. She was the daughter of one of the leaders in the Abnegation faction that she was born and raised in. Even though she had grown up for sixteen years in Abnegation, she never felt like she belonged. So when the choosing ceremony finally approaches she finds that she was right. She didn't belong in just Abnegation, but Dauntless and Erudite as well. People with this ability were called Divergents. Those who were found out to be Divergent were hunted down by the "government" in fear that they might one day rise up and overthrow the society and change the rules which would cause unorder and chaos. So to save her life Beatrice must have to hide her Divergence, but then the question becomes which faction would be best suited for her to hide her Divergence in, while still living a life she had one day hoped for. Her choice of choosing Dauntless as her new faction made me think of her as a risk-taker, someone who's not only brave but also thinks on a deeper level and provides meaning to the actions she takes. "And if my life here continues as it has been, it may soon be the least of the wedges between us. But I understand now what Tori said about her tattoo representing... a reminder of where she was, as well as a reminder of where she is now. Maybe there is a way to honor my old life as I embrace my new one." (pg 205, Roth) I find the quote to be a perfect description to show how Tris thinks, because it shows how shes brave enough to try something new, something shes been taught all her life has been wrong. To get a tattoo. To the others its seems normal but to Tris it represents her complete transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless. But not only does she get the tattoo so that she could belong in the factions shes in now, but also as a reminder of her old faction and her family that she had to leave behind.

This video linked above gives the actors perspectives and thoughts on the characters they were to play in the movie. I found it quite interesting to see how they related and connected to their roles giving me a new view on the characters which were written in the book.