Almost everyone has had the feeling of wanting to be “normal”. However, both “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and “Praying” by Kesha try to convince you otherwise. Fahrenheit 451 talks about the importance of having your own thoughts an opinions, and to not blend in if you disagree. Praying talks about an abusive relationship and how the main character got away from it. In both of these examples, we can see a common theme of being yourself, along with many other similarities.

The theme of being yourself is directly stated in both texts. “Praying” says “You brought the flames and you put me through hell”. “Fahrenheit 451” says “Fool, Montag, fool, fool, oh God, you silly fool…” Both of these quotes show how they are both beaten down and have to get back up again. Both of them do get back on their feet, as shown by this quote from “Praying”, “I’ve found a strength I’ve never known”. And “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be.” These show how both main characters feel better about themselves, whether with the help of someone else or not.

There are a lot of differences between these texts however. For example, the main character in “Praying” is struggling by herself, while Montag in Fahrenheit 451 enlists others to help him get through. Another difference is that the main character in “Praying” is being loud and proud of who she is, while Montag has to fit in with everyone else. The text says “‘Idiot, what are you doing!'” This is Montag’s friend yelling at him for slipping up and telling someone about his struggle. Another difference is that Montag is running away from the city/government and the main character of “Praying” is running away from an individual person. Another difference is that Montag feels belittled because he has to keep his new knowledge a secret, while the speaker in “Praying” feels empowered at the thought of freedom.

In conclusion, both texts share a common theme, even if there are some minor details that don’t match up. Ray Bradbury and Kesha both share their feelings that being yourself is important. Many readers may conclude that you can always get back on your feet after something bad, and that being yourself are both obvious themes in these texts.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel set 100 years in the future. The main character is Guy Montag, who burns illegal books for a living. When he meets his neighbor, his world is flipped upside down. Then he accidentally reads part of a book and realizes that they are good. He struggles throughout the book to not give away his secret and stay alive. A main theme for this book is that it’s hard to keep big secrets to yourself.

In the beginning of the book, Guy has no problems or secrets to keep. Later, he accidentally reads a book when burning someone’s house down. He thinks that the book is amazing and steals it, even though it is illegal. He struggles to keep it a secret, and you know this because when he goes home that night, Bradbury describes his wife’s suspicion. The next day, Guy wants to stay home and see what the big deal is about books, so he’s going to call in sick. Just as he’s about to call, his boss Beatty knocks on the door. He proceeds to give Guy a big lecture on how it’s OK to feel guilty every once and a while about burning someone’s house down. He also says “Every fireman gets an itch,” referring to books. Guy gets the feeling that Beatty is on to him and almost cracks, asking, “What if, theoretically, a fireman brought a book to his house?” Beatty shows that it would be OK, and Guy feels more at ease, even though he almost gave his secret away.

There are a lot of things towards the middle of the book that show that he has many secrets. Later, his wife finds the book that Guy hid. He tells her about 20 or so other books that he’s stolen to get it off of his chest, which may get him into trouble. On page 75, Guy is on the bus and loses it when everyone is talking about a new shop. The book says “The people who had been sitting a moment before, tapping their feet to the rhythm of Denham’s Dentifrice, Denham’s Dandy Dental Detergent, Denham’s Dentifrice Dentifrice Dentifrice, one two, one two three, one two, one two three.” This long run-on sentence shows a sense of urgency, and losing one’s mind. This shows that he is going insane from keeping this huge secret from everyone. On page 80, Guy tries to prove his point to Faber saying, “But let me tell you my plan”, and recruits him to help. And on page 95, Guy absolutely loses it. His wife is having some friends over, and while they’re talking, Guy decides they’re all insane and grabs a book. “But Montag was gone and back in a moment with a book in his hand.” He proceeds to read the book in front of the three guests and makes them believe he’s insane.

Now, it is a fair point that maybe Guy is just really bad at keeping all secrets. However, he has been able to keep many secrets. One example is at the beginning of the story, he doesn’t tell his wife that Clarisse, his new neighbor, doesn’t fit the mold. She talks to much and is really weird, but he doesn’t tell anyone. This proves that Guy is capable of keeping secrets, it’s just that some secrets are harder to keep than others.

At the end of the story, Beatty discovers Guy’s secret and shows him by quoting books that he’s read, and the other firemen don’t suspect a thing. Guy starts getting sweaty and shaky, and Beatty confronts him about it.  After Beatty confronted Guy he says “God, what a pulse! I’ve got you going, have I, Montag?” This shows that Beatty is very aware that he is making Guy nervous with his quoting and that Guy is having trouble not showing it. Basically, the next 20 pages or so is: Guy gets his house burnt down, he kills Beatty for doing it, he’s chased after by the mechanical hound, and he gets away. He meets a bunch of kind homeless people outside the city and they invite him to join their group. Guy says, “I don’t belong with you,” said Montag, at last, slowly. “I’ve been an idiot all the way.” He acknowledges that he hasn’t been good at keeping secrets. After he joins the group, the city gets bombed by the country that they’ve been at war with in the background. Guy feels more at peace now that he can say whatever he would like to his new friends, as shown on page 157. “…they would begin to talk, or just say the things they remembered, to be sure they  were there, to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them.”

 

The setting of the story is unclear, but it is definitely set in the future. My best guess is more than a hundred years in the future because the technology is very advanced and thing are very different there then they are now. The location is in the USA probably, because everyone speaks english and talks the way we would talk today. The weather seems to be similar to where I live, which is midwest USA.

Guy Montag is the main character, and he’s a fireman. In this book, that means he sets books on fire, because they’re illegal. In the first few pages, Guy is on his way home from work when he meets the new neighbor, who turns his world upside down. Now Guy is stuggling to come to grips with the fact that he sets fir to books, he kills people, and his life is a lie. Things that influence him are his wife, who always needs the new most expensive thing, the new neighbor, who introduces him to new ideas, and his boss/co-workers, who he’s not entirely sure he can trust.

Picture this: You are sitting at your desk, surrounded by other students, all of them blankly staring at their computer. You look up at the clock, and time is crawling along. You sigh and look at your computer to see a passage about a paragraph long, with a fill in the blank question next to it. Knowing how important this test is, you reread the paragraph many times. You hesitantly hit what you think is the answer and look at the next question. This goes on for another half hour or so, until the screen pops up with the number 954.

This is what happens three times a year to the average middle school student. The SRI, short for Scholastic Reading Inventory, is a reading test the determines your ability to comprehend reading. Many students hate this test to their core, because it’s so stressful. Avery, an eighth grade student, says that “It’s really boring and stressful. I wish we didn’t have to take it.”  Schools tends to put a lot of pressure is put on students to increase their lexile, which is the unit they grade you with.

The format of the test is also something students hate. Once the test starts, you are put on a screen with a paragraph and a question to the side. Students are supposed to read the text and answer the question. It’s supposed to be a comprehension test, but many people take it as a vocabulary test. Even if you understand the article perfectly, if you don’t know the words that you can answer with, you’re in trouble. One student says that the vocabulary is stuff that even adults don’t know. She also said” Sometimes I thinks the computer just picks random words and throws them in as answers.”

However, an article from the Dilllon school district in South Carolina states that “The options for all of the items in the SRI were written to be at or below the reading level of the passage.” It also says “The level of reading of the statement and the four options is controlled to ensure that their difficulty level is easier than the most difficult word in the passage.” To put it simply, the other argument is that the vocab is at or below the level of the passage, so if you are having trouble with the vocab, the article is too hard.

Your lexile level determines a lot of things, such as what class you are put in, grouping, what book you’re assigned, and more. Teachers determine if you have a high lexile by looking at a chart that Scholastic Reading puts out. This is what is looks like:

So if you’re in sixth grade and you have a lexile of 1174, you are most likely going to be put in an advanced group, especially if you do well on the Istep. If you have a lexile of 793 in sixth grade, chances are you won’t be an advanced group. Many students wish to get into advanced classes because they either find the normal ones boring or they want to learn more. This warrants extra stress.

Another thing is that the SRI doesn’t account for content of the books, just comprehension level. This means that there are books that could be a seventh grade lexile, but have things that may be too mature for a seventh grader, or things that a parent may not want them to read.

There is also the factor of whether or not the test is fair. For example, there are many smart students who are good readers and have good grades, but they have ADD/ADHD or just have trouble focusing. This is a kind of test where you sit in one spot for an hour and answer boring questions. This makes it very difficult for even the most focused person to stay on track, let alone someone who has trouble focusing regularly. One student who has ADD said that she finds the SRI really “unfair for people with trouble focusing. Those people, even though a lot of them are super smart, get put in lower categories because they couldn’t focus.”

On the other hand, however, this method of deciding reading levels has been thoroughly researched by people from all across the USA, and has been proven to work. There are over 35,000 books that have been assigned Lexile levels and new books are added each month. And the reason students take the test in the first place is to find books that are your reading level. It helps you know that you shouldn’t read “Legend of the Sleepy Hollow” just yet, because it would be too difficult.

And some students, like Abby, don’t really care. She says, “I don’t really care because no one checks out books that are their lexile level anyway.” Another student says, “I mean, I find it boring, but I don’t care. It doesn’t stress me out or anything.”

Many students hate the SRI. A few students think that taking it is fun, if a little stressful. And others think it’s a necessary evil. There are many different opinions on this test, and no two views are the same.  What do you think? Is it necessary, or unfair to make kids endure this test?

Picture this: You are sitting at your desk, surrounded by other students, all of them staring at their computer. You look at yours, and see a passage about a paragraph long, with a fill in the blank question next to it. Knowing how important this test is, you reread the paragraph many times. You hesitantly hit the answer and look at the next question. This goes on for another half hour or so, until the screen pops up with the number 1283. This can’t be right! You went down! Now your entire week is ruined.

This is what happens three times a year to the average middle school student. The SRI, short for Scholastic Reading Inventory, is a reading test the determines your ability to comprehend reading. Many students hate this test to their core, because it’s so stressful. Schools tends to put a lot of pressure is put on students to increase their lexile, which is the unit they grade you with.

The format of the test is also something students hate. Once the test starts, you are put on a screen with a paragraph and a question to the side. Students are supposed to read the text and answer the question. It’s supposed to be a comprehension test, but many people take it as a vocabulary test. Even if you understand the article perfectly, if you don’t know the words that you can answer with, you’re in trouble.

Your lexile level determines a lot of things, such as what class you are put in, grouping, what book you’re assigned, and more. Teachers determine if you have a high lexile by looking at a chart that Scholastic Reading puts out. It is just a big graph full of grade levels and numbers, to tell you if you are proficient for your grade.

So if you’re in sixth grade and you have a lexile of 1174, you are most likely going to be put in an advanced group, especially if you do well on the Istep. If you have a lexile of 793 in sixth grade, chances are you won’t be an advanced group. Many students wish to get into advanced classes because they either find the normal ones boring or they want to learn more. This SRI test puts a lot of unneeded pressure on students.

There is also the factor of whether or not the test is fair. For example, there are many smart students who are good readers and have good grades, but they have ADD/ADHD or just have trouble focusing. This is a kind of test where you sit in one spot for an hour and answer boring questions. This makes it very difficult for even the most focused person to stay on track, let alone someone who has trouble focusing regularly.

On the other hand however, this method of deciding reading levels has been thoroughly researched by people from all across the USA, and has been proven to work. There are over 35,000 books that have been assigned Lexile levels and new books are added each month. And the reason students take the test in the first place is to find books that are your reading level. It helps you know that you shouldn’t read “The Book Thief” just yet, because it would be too difficult.

Many students hate the SRI. A few students think that taking it is fun, if a little stressful. And others think it’s a necessary evil. There are many different opinions on this test, and no one’s opinions are the same.  What do you think? Is it necessary, or unfair to make kids endure this test?

Sometimes, if you haven’t been able to get away from your friends for a while, you need something fun to get rid of the stress. Some FWCC choir members figured out an easy way to do that on their trip to North Carolina, to the annoyance of everyone else!

Over the summer, the Fort Wayne Children’s Choir (FWCC) went on tour to North Carolina. They attended a camp with other singers at a college, and had a dorm building to themselves since they are such a large group. The dorm building they were in had three floors, with the girls on the top and bottom floors and boys on the second floor. Also on the second floor was the common room, where choir member hung out when they were bored.

One night, at about 10:00, a few choir members and a few parent helpers were in the common room. Everyone was just sitting around, so one of the parent helpers, Mrs. Darnell, decided to show everyone a cool party trick she knew. So she took an acorn out of her pocket, and to everyone’s surprise, blew into it like it was a whistle! “That’s so cool!” exclaimed Sydney. All of the kids who were in the common room agreed, and immediately jumped to learn how to do it.

Showing them how to correctly place their thumbs on the acorn to whistle, Mrs. Darnell attempted to teach everyone. Sydney, one of the choir kids, got it to whistle in a matter of minutes. Lillian took a little more time, but she got it in a few minutes too. Delaney was struggling a bit more, and had to enlist Sydney to help her. After a while though, she got it too!

After some awesome (if headache inducing,) acorn whistling, Delaney walked upstairs, ready for bed. But as soon as she got up the stairs, she turned around, lightning fast, and ran back down. “The echo is super loud!” she told everyone in the common room. “Everyone upstairs can hear us!” They immediately stopped.

A few people (primarily Sydney and Lillian) taught some of the other campers how to whistle acorns. And as it spread, more and more people started to hate the acorn whistling. Everyone was so exasperated with it that there was a designated spot to whistle, so they wouldn’t bother anyone.

Even after the FWCC’s tour was over, Delaney, Sydney, and Lillian continued whistling acorns, and teaching others how to to it as well. To this day, if you ever want to learn how, want to contact someone from far away, or relieve stress in a funny way, if you ask them, they’ll teach you!

The last book I read was “The False Prince”. It takes place in a fictional world where Prince Jaron died at the hands of Avenian pirates. Years later, one of the kings consultants takes three orphans, including Sage (the main character), to train them to be “Prince Jaron”. So Sage and the other two orphans all have to learn how to be princely, and try to go along with the plan. The thing I like most about this book is that it’s very unpredictable. There are many plot twists throughout the story.

The book I chose from the library that I’m reading now is “The Lighthouse Land”, by Adrian McKinty. I chose this book because the cover looked really interesting; it is a picture of a glowing lighthouse with what look like pirate ships made of ice surrounding it. The other thing that interested me about it was the back summary. This book so far is about a boy named Jamie who was living a horrible life in New York City, after having cancer in his arm and having to get it amputated. But then a rich family member dies in Ireland and they inherit a lighthouse. When Jamie and one of his new friends take a closer look at the light house, they discover something amazing. If you want to know more, you should read the book! So far it’s really good!

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