Literacy Speaks Volumes

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Lexile 740) Objectives:  TLW identify the narrator of a text. TLW identify the point of view of a text. Writing Prompt: How can you make a new commitment to writing for this new year? Most of the action in the novel takes place aboard the Seahawk , a two masted ship, as it crosses the Atlantic Ocean in 1832. What was happening in the world in 1832? Check out this YouTube video about the Lynx: a privateer boat from 1812.  It is a little over 8 minutes long. The main character in the novel is Charlotte Doyle, a 13-year-old girl of refined upbringing who finds herself aboard a ship with a mutinous crew. What is a "refined upbringing"? What is a "mutinous crew"? Click here to find out. Assignment: read the introduction (An Important Warning) to the novel and then respond to the following questions: 1. Who is the narrator of this novel? 2. What is the point o...

The title of this blog is the title of a short story by Ray Bradbury. The story is set on Mars in the future after an atomic war causes many people to flee Earth in hopes of colonizing a new planet. While on the planet, a nuclear bomb destroys New York City and any space ships that could possibly carry the humans back to Earth. The main character is Harry Bittering who, along with his wife Cora and three sons, are among those most recent inhabitants of Mars. Harry begins to notice some unsettling (to him) changes taking place in his surroundings and to other characters. The cow grows a third horn and the grass becomes purple~but it seems to only bother Harry. The other Earthlings are beginning to refer to a visible mountain range by its Martian name and even his children want to be called by their Martian names. All of this terrifies Harry so much that he begins building a rocket ship to carry him and his family back to Earth. But Harry eventually abandons the idea as his family...