What's Lori Reading?

Lori Forlizzi is one of our instructors, and her specialty is reading.

Lori is currently reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Freedom is a novel that explores the relationships between family members and how they appear to each other and to people outside the family unit. Lori says she is reading this book because she liked one of the author's earlier books, The Corrections.

What's Chuck Reading?

Chuck Klinger is one of our instructors. His specialty subject is math.

He's reading The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader. Chuck says he liked the Bourne movies so much that he's decided to read the book that have not been made into movies. He says they are fast-paced books that keep him reading to see what will happen next.

Chuck coaches his daughter's soccer team, so he is also reading Coaching Girls Soccer by John Dewitt. He says it is helping him to understand the fine points of soccer better, and also provides him with ideas for drills to use during practice.

What's Destiny Reading?

Destiny Long is our fearless leader! She is our program coordinator, as well as a distance instructor. Destiny is very, very busy and doesn't have much time to read books, but she does read magazine articles. She is taking Spanish classes and she is currently reading her way through an issue of People Magazine -- in Spanish!

What's Lisa U. Reading?

Lisa Urban is our Distance Learning Liaison for the eWorkSkills program. She enjoys reading Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" mystery series, and is currently reading T is for Trespass. The series centers around a female private investigator named Kinsey Millhone. Lisa says she likes these books because Kinsey is a smart, competent, and capable woman who always solves the mysteries and catches the bad guys! Lisa says, "It's fun to see what titles Sue will come up with as she works her way through the alphabet!" The next book in the series is U is for Undertow.

If you'd like to read Sue Grafton's mystery books, you might want to start with A is for Alibi.

What's Shannon Reading?

Shannon Mischler is our ESOL instructor.

She's been reading a lot lately, and she's been reading different genres and styles of books. She recently finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Shannon says the topic was not something that would normally interest her, but the writing was "riveting." Shannon's father-in-law was a B24 pilot during WWII, just like the main character in the book, so she enjoyed being able to sit down with him and listen to his stories of flying during the war. Real-life experiences can sometimes bring a work of fiction alive!

Shannon has also recently finished Moll Flanders by Daniel Dafoe. She says, "I was astonished at the seventeenth century depiction of independent women. Truly one of the original stream -of-consciousness chick lit books!" Dafoe is an ancestor of actor Willem Dafoe (a bit of trivia!), and he also wrote Robinson Crusoe.

Shannon is currently reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Wharton's works usually employed dramatic irony to portay the lives of the upper class. The Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 making Edith Wharton the first woman to win the prize.

What's Jen Reading?

Jen Wagner is one of our DLP teachers. We all teach all subjects, but Jen's specialties are science and math.

Jen says she doesn't have much time to read, but when she does, she reads Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She loves the story and admires the main character, Elizabeth Bennett.

Jen also likes to read books by Nora Roberts. Her current favorite is the new Vision in White series.

She enjoys reading to her children. Favorite children's books include The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog by Ana Martin Larranaga, and The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood.

Jen says she loves to read and wishes she had more time to do it. When she does have time, she likes to read happy books.

Wikipedia

If you would like to read more about any of the posting on this blog, or anything else you would like to know more about, check out http://www.wikipedia.com. This site is a giant encyclopedia, and the best part is that everything is hyperlinked. This means that, as you are reading, you can click on the highlighted words to go to another page and learn more about that subject! You could spend an awful lot of time on wikipedia just jumping from subject to subject!

Remember, the more you read, the more you know!

History and Reading - Gettysburg Address

On this date, November 19, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made a speech at the dedication ceremony at the Gettysburg National Cemetary. This speech, called "Lincoln's Little Speech," because of it's short length, has become famous as The Gettysburg Address. This is the text:

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war . . . testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated . . . can endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate . . . we cannot consecrate . . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom . . . and that government of the people . . . by the people . . . for the people . . . shall not perish from this earth.

Let's look at it one paragraph at a time. Most people have heard "four score and seven years ago," but don't know what it means. A score is 20. Four score is 4 x 20, or 80. Four score and seven is 80 +7, or 87. If we subtract 87 years from the year 1863, we get 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. Lincoln was saying that, in 1863, the year he gave his famous speech, America had only been a nation for 87 years, and that our nation was founded on the principles of liberty and equality.

In the next two paragraphs, he is acknowleging that the civil war tested whether our nation was strong enough to uphold those founding principles, and that he and the other people were now gathered on part of the battlefield to dedicate the cemetary for the men who died to uphold those principles. He says they are there because it is the right thing to do.

In the fourth paragraph, the president then says that, although they have gathered to dedicate the cemetary, their efforts are small in comparison with the men who died here. The blood and bravery of those men who fought at Gettysburg had already made it hallowed, or sacred, ground. Lincoln goes on to say that in the future, people (us) will not remember the speeches that were given at the dedication ceremony, but they will always remember the Battle of Gettysburg and the men who fought and died there.

In the last paragraph, Lincoln asks that we, as Americans, dedicate our lives to the principles that the founding fathers set out for us, and that, over the years and throughout many battles, our citizens have fought to uphold: a nation where all are welcome, free, and equal.

Reading - Fiction, Nonfiction and Genres

Have you ever gone into a large bookstore and felt completely overwhelmed? It can help if you understand how the books are arranged.

The first thing you should know is that all forms of writing are divided into two groups: fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction is made up.

Nonfiction is true.

Fiction and nonfiction are both divided into subcategories called genres.

A genre is a category.

Fiction is divided into genres such as mystery, science fiction, romance, and drama.

Nonfiction is divided into genres such as biography, how-to, travel, political, history, and self-help.

Fiction and nonfiction are both made up of many, many genres. I've only listed a few. If you're one of those people who says, "I don't like to read," maybe you just haven't found the right genre yet. Think of something you're really interested in, something you would like to know more about. Everyone is interested in something! It could be cars, dogs, cooking, outer space - absolutely anything! There is a book - probably a whole genre out there just waiting for you! And remember - books are like potato chips; one is never enough!

Reading - Stephen Crane

On this date, November 1, 1891, American author Stephen Crane was born in Newark, NJ. Crane's best-known work is The Red Badge of Courage, a novel about an 18-year-old young man who goes off to fight for the Union Army in the Civil War. The main character, Henry Fleming, has a romanticised idea of war when he leaves home, but he as the story progresses and he is forced to confront the realities of war, and becomes a man as he faces his fears.

The Red Badge of Courage is an example of American naturalist literature. Naturalism portrays the subject as it is, rather than how we think it might be. For example, like the Fleming character dreams of becoming a war hero at the beginning of the book, but when he gets there, he actually sees the grit and violence of war, and Stephen Crane portrays this very much as if he had seen it himself, in stark detail. It is interesting to note, however, that Stephen Crane had never seen battle at the time he wrote the book. Crane chose to write the book in this manner, because he had read accounts of soldiers who had fought in the Civil War, and he found them dissatisfying because the soldiers told about what they did, but not about what they felt. Crane felt it was important to include emotion in his story so that the reader could empathize with the characters, rather than just read dry accounts about what they did.

Stephen Crane died in 1900, of tuberulosis, at the age of 28.

Tip of the Week - Reading

We're once again combining the Reading Tip of the Week with Today in History! Author Terry McMillan was born October 18, 1951. McMillan was born and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. She was a single mother living in New York in the 1980s when she attended a writer's workshop in Harlem. She went on to write several novels including Mama and Disappearing Acts. Two of her novels, Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, have been made into movies. If you haven't read anything by Terry McMillan, check out one or more of her books!

Reading Tip of the Week: Tone

Just as we have a "tone" when we speak, writers and their characters have a "tone."

When you read, think about the characters. Tone can be detected from their words, from the way the words are delivered, and from context. For example:

Jane said, "I'm going to Joe's house."

This sentence is flat. We have no idea why Jane is going to Joe's house, or how she feels about it.

Jane exclaimed, "I'm going to Joe's house!!"

Jane's tone has changed. She's excited or happy now.

Jane rolled her eyes and sneered, "I'm going to Joe's house."

Her tone has changed again. Now she's sarcastic.

A character's tone can change throughout the story, just as a real person's tone can change, depending on the situation.

If we think of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is a character in the story. His tone starts out calm and calculating, and slowly builds to guilt, and finally to terror and madness.

Sometimes, though, a character will have the same demeanor throughout. Let's look at Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Count behaves differently with different people, just as we all do. He is a charming gentleman to Mina, a controlling monster to Renfield, and a dangerous adversary to Van Helsing, but he is always secretive, cryptic, and mysterious.

Banned Books Week September 25 - October 2

As the character Scout Finch said in Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1960: "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Scout was saying that reading is something people take for granted, like breathing. As we assume the air will always be here for us, so we assume that books will always be here. Not so.

The American Library Association declared annual Banned Book Week in 1982, and we celebrate by reading books that have been challenged or banned. Every week, there there is mention in the news of a person or group of people who want this or that book removed from library shelves for one reason or another. Do you want other people to decide what you are or aren't allowed to read?

This is just a very small list of the books that have been banned or challenged in the past:

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Beloved by Toni Morrison

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Little Women by Lousia May Alcott

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburg

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The list goes on and on . . . and on . . . Be a rebel! Support your right to FREADOM! Read a banned book!

Reading, Social Studies and Today in History All in One Post!

On this date, September 20, 1878, Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, MD. Sinclair was was a muckraker, which means he was an investigative journalist who dug beneath the surface to find the story beneath. It wasn't always pretty.

In 1904, Sinclair spent several weeks working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking industry. The result was his novel, The Jungle, which was published in 1906. It exposed the horrendous conditions, not only for the workers, but also of the food that was being produced for the American public. The novel cause such a public outcry that, with a few months of publication, the government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act.

If you have never read The Jungle, pick it up sometime. It will make you appreciate your food and your working conditions!

Sinclair went on to write many other novels. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943 for Dragon's Teeth. Another of his books, Oil!, was the basis for the 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Upton Sinclair died in 1968, at the age of 90.

Reading Tip of the Week: Types of Conflict

Conflict is found in all literature. Every story you will ever read has a problem that needs to be solved. That's conflict.

These are the four types:

Man vs. Self is the only internal type of conflict. This is when a character is torn between two paths or ideas, or must make a difficult decision. An example of Man vs. Self would be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by his past, his present, and his future and must amend his ways.

Man vs. Man is the most common type of conflict. This is when the character is in conflict with another character. An example of Man vs Man conflict would be Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. Holmes tracks down the bad guys - often one bad guy: Professor Moriarty.

Man vs. Nature occurs when the character is pitted against a natural event or occurrance. An example of this would be Jack London's To Build a Fire, a man who is lost in the wilds of Alaska struggles not to freeze to death.

Man vs. Society comes into play when a character when a character is out of sync with the society in which he lives. An example of this would be Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The Monster want desperately to be accepted and to be loved, but he knows that this can never be.

All four types can be found in movies and on television, too. For example:

Man vs. Self: Good Will Hunting shows the character's internal struggle between loyalty to his friends and going on the achieve his full potential. Casablanca shows Rick's internal struggle between saving the woman who broke his heart (and her husband), or saving himself from the Nazis.

Man vs Man: Batman puts the superhero up again bad guy The Joker. The police on Law & Order track down criminals. Any "good guy vs. bad guy" book, movie, or TV show would fall into this category.

Man vs. Nature: Jaws shows characters tracking down a maneating shark. Disaster movies also fall into this category: Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow, Earthquake, Dante's Peak.

Man vs. Society: Gattaca shows a man trying to fit into a future society in which humans are genetically engineered. The Matrix shows characters rebelling against a society in which reality is an illusion.

Keep in mind that all of the types of conflict can be present in the same book or movie. Titanic is a good example of this. Rose is in love with Jack, but at first feels some loyalty to her family's station (Man vs. Self). Jack is in conflict with Cal for Rose's affections (Man vs. Man). Everyone on the ship is in danger when the ship sinks (Man vs Nature). Jack tries to be polite to Rose's upper class friends and family, but he just doesn't fit in (Man vs. Society).

September 8 is National Literacy Day!

Celebrate by telling others about your favorite book!

Some favorites among the teachers here at the Distance Learning Project include these titles:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte


• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Emily's sister!)


• Lord of the Flies by William Golding


• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury


• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett


• Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel


• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver


• The Great Ship of Knowledge by William Bailey

Here are some of the books we're reading for fun right now:

• Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain


• The Art of the Commonplace by Wendall Berry


• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb


• Memoirs of an Antihero by Drew Blank


• Emma by Jane Austen

Reading Tip of the Week: Fact and Opinion

Do you know the difference between a fact and an opinion? In a nutshell, you can't argue with a fact, but you can argue with an opinion.

For example, 2 + 2 = 4. That's a fact. It has always been a fact, and it will always be a fact. No one can change it. It doesn't matter whether you are talk about grains of sand or entire planets. Two somethings plus two somethings equals four somethings. Period. You can't disagree with it, because it's absolutely true. (That's why math facts are called math facts!)

On the other hand, if I say, "Titanic is a great movie," someone - maybe even you - might have hated that movie. That person would disagree with my opinion and have one of his or her own! If you can argue or disagree, it's an opinion.

Think about witnesses in a courtroom. They are only supposed to give facts - what they saw or heard. They are not supposed to give their opinions. They can say, "I saw the defendent take money out of the cash register," because if that's what happened, it's the truth. They can't say, "The defendent is a nice guy," because other people may not agree.

Reading Tip of the Week: DLP Online Book Club

Whether we are reading the latest novel, a newspaper article, or a birthday card, reading is an important part of life. Think about all of the things we read every day: street signs, instructions, recipes, shopping lists, websites, etc.

Reading is not only a practical skill that helps us through our everyday lives; it is also a way to broaden our horizons, to learn about things we may never get to see with our own eyes, and to expand our imaginations.

If you could read about anything you wanted, what would it be? A science fiction novel? A romance? A biography of your favorite singer or an historical figure you wish you could have met? Maybe you're interested in learning more about your ethnic heritage or maybe you'd like to learn more about collecting coins.

Reading is the door to endless possibilities! That's why we've created the DLP Online Book Club. Each session, a new story will be posted. Just read the story and answer the questions. Feel free to read and respond to each other's posts. Discussion is encouraged! In the future, you might even want to recommend stories, books, or articles that you have read that other people might enjoy!

We've moved the book club from it's old site at freeforums.org to the DLP Moodle site. All online students have automatically been registered for the club. Your Moodle user name and password are all you need! Please join me in my online classroom this Friday at 2:00 PM, for a preview of the club and how it works! You will receive a flyer with your Fall 1 materials, that will include more information about both the book club and the webinar.

Reading Tip of the Week: Reading Between the Lines

When we are reading, we must be detectives.

While it's important to pay attention to what's written on the page, it's just as important to read what's not written on the page!

Consider the following reading:

Jim bundled up in his down jacket and pulled his hat over his ears. As he reach for his dented metal lunchbox, he scratched old Fido behind the ear. He grabbed the keys off the table by the door and headed out to his truck.

As he yanked the truck door open, he hoped the old Chevy would start. He slid the lunchbox across the duct taped seat and climbed in, blowing on his hands to warm them. He shifted to neutral, pushed in the clutch and turned the key. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing.

He sighed heavily. He was not looking forward to walking two miles to the mill in this weather. He'd be late and his pay would be docked. Still, he didn't have much choice. He needed this job. It's expensive to get sick, he thought. He glanced up at the bedroom window, noticing the peeling paint on the shutters. He slammed the truck door and trudged toward the street.

Now think about Jim. How old do you think he is? Where is he going? Why is he going there? What time of year is it? What is the weather like on this day? Where does he work? How old is Jim's truck? What is its condition? Who is sick? Is Jim responsible or irresponsible?

We can gather that it is very cold because Jim is bundled up and not looking forward to walking to work because of the weather. It's probably winter.

His dog is old (old Fido), his lunchbox appears to be old (dented, metal), the truck is old (the seat is duct taped, it's got a manual transmission, and it won't start), and his house is old (peeling paint), so it's a safe bet the Jim is older, too.

He's got his lunchbox, and he's concerned about being late and being docked, so he must be going to work. The passage mentions a mill, and that is usually some kind of factory -- perhaps a steel mill.

We know that Jim has to keep working to pay someone's medical bills. That person is probably his wife. Since he glances up at the bedroom window while he is thinking about this, we can infer that she is probably in bed.

We can conclude that Jim is a responsible person because he is willing to walk two miles in the cold winter weather, even though he will be late and have his pay docked, so that he will be able to pay for his sick wife's medical bills.

Remember to be a detective when you are reading!

Reading Tip of the Week: Main Idea

The main idea of an essay or a news article is usually found in the first paragraph. On the same note, the main idea of a paragraph is usually in the first sentence. The main idea is what the story is about. It is the important part of the story that you will pass on when you tell someone about the story you read.

Read the following paragraph and find the main idea.

Mary had a little lamb. It's fleece was white as snow. Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules.

You are right if you thought the main idea was Mary had a little lamb. All of the othe sentences are supporting details that talk about Mary's lamb!