So far my active reading is going okay. I have never done it before so I am not used to it and not sure what to really highlight besides quotes I like and stuff that seems important and I don’t know what to write in the margin besides names. So far what is going well for me is highlighting parts that seem important. Stuff that I am struggling with though is what quotes are important, yes I can pick out one’s I like but I never really understand which one’s are important until our class discussions.
The strengths of A Long Way Gone are that it is important to history and tells this man’s story and it also lets the world know what he had to go through. A weakness of this book is that at times it can be boring to read. A strength of The House On Mango Street is that all of the chapters are interesting. A weakness of this book is that the chapters are kinda short.
A theme I have realized in A Long Way Gone is not to take what you have for granted. This is important to understand because everyone now takes what we have for granted and almost like they should be given everything. We take everything for granted, family, electronics, money, food, everything. Beah said “One evening we actually chased a little boy who was eating two boiled ears of corn by himself.” (Beah, 2007). Reading this quote made me think of what we take for granted, these boys had nothing, not even food and still went on, if anyone nowadays weren’t even allowed on their phone for 30 minutes they would complain until they could get on it again.
Thanks Emaleigh and the skill you are talking about is discerment as you seek to find out what is most and least important in the reading. I think discussion is always going to be a big part of that, and that's why I encourage you to continue and finish your active reading in class during our conversations. I still learn so much too from the different perspectives. I like the theme you wrote on as it's one of the major challenges of life: I think we must be grateful and give thanks as it brings everything into perspective!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your theme. Sometimes you feel like this story can't be real because its hard for us to comprehend how any of this is even possible. Everything is taken away and he has nothing and he never thought this was gonna happen to him either. It's a good point to point out.
ReplyDeleteHi, Emaleigh. I also agree with your theme for A Long Way Gone. Everyone takes everything for granted these days.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your theme choice, that is something that is always in the back of my mind when I'm reading A Long Way Gone. I don't think we realize that these events are happening in our world right now since it happens so far away.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that The Long Way Gone can be boring at times, even though it's interesting. It's just not the type of book I would read on my own.
ReplyDeleteYour theme was right on point to be honest I am in the category of taking everything for granted myself. Its crazy because you really don't know you are until you think about it.
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