Reflection - All My Sons

1. The different about reading a play is that a play is more flowing, and fun to read because there are more dialogs and monolgues, and they are more interesting than just reading a story with no dialouge between the people. In addition, the dialogues and monologues taking you inside to the plot and you can understand better the thoughts, feeling and behaviors of the characters. 

2. The most interesting character in the play was Joe. If Joe wasn't there, there was no story. Joe made the plot more complicated, he was manipulated. The family's value was above all, and also, he created an interesting and surprising end.

3. Comparing and Contrasting were shown in the comparing between the couples: Sue and Jim, compared to Lydia and Frank. We saw how different they are and one couple has more  warmth and love than the other. In addition, we saw the conflict between Joe and Chris, one is more idealist and keeping on the justice's value, while to the other, the family's value is more important.  Inferring was shown in act 2, for example, Sue who talked behind the back of Chris, we can infer that she's hypocrite. And Uncovering Motives show the motives of the character to their behaviors. For example, Joe offered to Steve a job, why? Because he doesn't want hard feelings and bad relationship between the families. All these thinking skill helped me understand the character's behavior. 

Chris's Letter

December 30, 2013

Dear diary,

Yesterday, Annie came to visit here. Now, she's sleeping, and hasn’t come out from her room yet. I'm so excited she has come here. We used to write letters to each other, and finally she came. People around are talking about her visit here. Actually, I'm pretty scared from my mother's response to the fact that Annie and I are going to get married soon. My father, however, will be happy for me.

I'm in love with Annie, and I have great feelings for her, I can't keep her out of my mind, she's there all the time. I want to kiss her and tell her how much I love her, but I have something in my mind. I think about Larry, and it makes me feel guilty that I "stole" his girlfriend. What am I supposed to do? That's why, I think, my mother will not want us to get married.  Annie is so important to me, and I don't want to lose her, but the thoughts about Larry are killing me.

No matter what, I will keep fighting for our love. Since we started writing to each other, I have seen the light in her; I can see how she's a good person. I have been thinking about it a lot, maybe she's still thinking about Larry? Maybe she's with me because I remind her of him. I should stop thinking, my thoughts are foolish.

I'm still waiting for her to come out from her room, and then, we will talk in a quiet place with no interruptions. Finally, my dream comes true, to kiss her. Wish me luck!

Well done!
(97)
Daphna

Bridging - All My Sons.

Arthur Miller is an American playwright, who was born in New York City. He's known for his successful plays. His father had a garment factory, but then, he lost everything and it changed Arthur's life. In his plays he writes about social and political issues that are often concerned with the personal response to the pressures exerted by family and society.In addition, in his plays he focuses on the responsibility a person has to take for his actions and moral corruption caused by materialism and greed.

In the play "All My Sons", Arthur's father's factory, reminds on the one hand, Frank's business, to sell suits for men. On the other hand, it reminds us of Joe's plant. Joe was used to excuse what he did and to claim that if he didn't sell the cracked cylinder heads, his factory would be closed. Also, he claims that he did it for his family because he was afraid of the fact that he wouldn’t have money to support his family.

The themes and issues that Miller writes about are related to the play. Joe excused his crimes with the fact that he did everything for his family and didn't take responsibility for his actions. However, Chris believes in social responsibility and claims that Joe must care about the society he lives in, they had conflicting views. He even thought about the option of extraditing Joe. Because Joe didn't take responsibility and only cared about his money, it led to a tragic end, to moral corruption – 21 pilots died because he sold the cracked cylinder heads. Chris, was an idealist. Chris showed us the beautiful side of the society, he showed us the justice. For example, when Chris said that he wanted to jail his father. 

In conclusion, the information helped me understand better the situations, in which each character was under pressure. It helped me to understand better the point of view of the characters and why they behaved the way the behaved, everyone had his own point of view and behaved in the way he felt. It also helped me understand how the society and family affect people.  

Well done!
(100)
Daphna

 

A Letter Of Complaint

15 Ben Gurion

Ramat Gan, Israel
November 1, 2013

Mr.and Mrs. Eti and Gabi Rotter
The managers of Castro company
Castro Ltd.
21 Ort 

Bat Yam, Israel

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Rotter,

Recently the prices of your products have raised by more than 30%. The prices' increase is unnecessary and I would like to express my dissatisfaction with your prices.

Yesterday, I arrived to the Castro's store at the mall and I found out that the prices were more expensive than they were before, and I couldn't buy myself anything. In addition, there were barely discounts on the products. Since I'm a student and I don't work, I can't afford to buy expensive clothes, as many families who don't have any money to buy these expensive clothes. Moreover, the winters' collection is out of fashion and looks like last winter's collection. Therefore, why should I buy this collection if it already had been last winter and it is more expensive?

Since I'm not satisfied, I would like to offer some suggestions for improvement. First of all, if you want to earn more money, you should raise your production, the more you expand the output, the more you earn money. In addition, you should open more shops because Castro is a big company that is very successful and it has a great demand. I'm sure you will handle this to my satisfaction and do your best for your customers.

I look forward to your reply,

Yours truly,

Marry Smith.

This is much better. Well done!
(95)
Daphna

Volunteering

Over the years we can see that students are exposed to the great idea of volunteering. Unfortunately, not all the students volunteer. Indeed, we see an increasing trend in the issue, however, there are not enough students who want to volunteer.

One day, when volunteers from the community center came to my school, they showed us the options of the groups that volunteer in the community center. The group I liked  most was the music group. And then I understood that students connect more easily to something they like. One of my suggestions is that students volunteer in groups they like because if you don't like and love what you are doing it's not worth it. You will not have any pleasure or, you will be unsatisfied. Also, if you want to have more fun in your volunteering you should have some friends that are close to you.

In addition, students that volunteer are given great respect from the school on their volunteering. They are given a certificate of appreciation from the school, therefore, it's one of the things that makes students want to volunteer. It's important to give feedback to the students because then, they do more and that appreciation motivates to volunteer. In my school, every year there is an event that measures academic achievements but also volunteering accomplishments. Students enjoy the satisfaction of volunteering, but also the appreciation from the school because they contribute to their community. 

To conclude, volunteering is beneficial for students, because students can make new friends and contacts. Also, it increases their social and relationship skills and it gives a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

This is much better. Well done!
(93)
Daphna

Post Reading

To be caught red-handed is when you feel like the world would end in a ew minutes,allegedly.
When you are caught, you feel guilty, something inside of you is not relaxed, you feel so embarrassed that you want to disappear in that moment. 

I was caught in eleventh grade. It was a Math class and we were supposed to have a test a week later. In the class I saw some papers placed on the teacher's desk. At first, I thought it just some papers and they were not supposed to be so important. But then, I found it was the Math test, that was supposed to be in a week. I told my friend who was sitting next to me, together we planned a plan how to take it form there. The plan was that I would delay the teacher and my friend would take the papers quickly. It worked until the next day. The teacher said that if nobody would admit, everybody would be punished. She knew it is us, she just wanted us to admit it. At first we both lied but then, we admitted and I learned a few important lessons.

The first lesson was that I couldn't succeed on my own because I could know the answers
and then get a fake grade. The second lesson that I have learned is that no matter what, never lie! When I lied I felt so embarrassed and nervous because of two things: the first thing was that the teacher knew it was me. The second, was that I lied and inside I felt so ashamed and guilty.

We were punished and we deserved it. Sometimes when you do things you have to think a thousand times before you do it. 

80
Daphna

Poem of exercise 3

You didn't flush the toilet,

you never clean the room,

you didn't take out the 

garbage I bet,

and also you left toothpaste

on the sink I presume.

You are never doing homework,

and you broke me a cup,

so please do me a favor,

and grow up!
Excellent! I love it (and the picture....)
Daphna

Letter to the editor

   15 Ben Gurion

Ramat Gan, Israel
September 2, 2013

The Editor
"Haaretz" news paper
21 Zalman Shoken
Tel Aviv, Israel

Dear Editor,

I read your article and it was very interesting. There are a lot of schools that use tests to evaluate the students' academic achievements. For example, these tests exist in high schools and called Bagruiot. In my opinion, this is not the right way to evaluate students' academic achievements.

"Intellect shouldn't be graded, education is not about measurement, but about learning" that is what Yair Lapid said and it's true. Everybody is different.  Everybody is different in their qualities, and intelligence. Everyone has a talent or something he's good at in a different way than the other. These exams or any other tests do not give a chance to realize the individual potential. You can be excellent in one subject but weak in another. In addition, the tests make a competition between students, all they want is to get a better grade than others.Sometimes there is too much competition which students don't focus on their real goal, learning, they just want to "win"  the competition.

The tests might help students, however, they also can make a difficulty for them. As it is Written above, students  are not given a chance to realize their true potential in tests. Therefore, my suggestion is also to give them projects with grades that might help them get better grades than the Bagruiot or any other tests. I'm sure the projects will improve students' achievements.

Sincerely yours,

Marry Smith.

Better, Good work.
(88)
Daphna

Bridging - As I Grew Older

Langston Hughes was an African-American poet. In his poetry he tried to captivate the hearts of his people and to capture their experiences and their emotions. Also, in his poetry he was proud of the fact he's black and wrote about his African heritage. In addition, he was a leading figure of the "Harlem
Renaissance", which believed that African-American art, music and literature could bring to equality and integration.

The poem "As I Grew Older" is about racism. The poet is black and he has a dream to "smash" and "shatter"  racism and get equal rights. It's written that Langston is proud of the fact he's black and expresses this -pride in his poetry. In the poem "As I Grew Older" he says "I'm black" and not ashamed to say it. In his poem he says that he wants to "smash" the wall  (racism) and he needs help. "Help me to shatter this darkness", he is helped by his people in the "Harlem Renaissance" and they together try to "shatter the darkness", it means to shatter the stereotypes and the racism by their writing, poetry and art.

In my opinion the speaker in the poem is really the poet because  the fact that we have, Langston is black and he said in his poet "I'm black". Also, he works hard to prevent racism and smash the wall to find his dream, his dream to shatter the stereotypes. The occurrence in the poem reflects events in the life of the poet because the poet tried to integrate in the society and to break the racist laws and get equality as white people

In conclusion, Langston tried to break racism together with his people and to get equality as (reflected in) the poem, when he tried to break the night and break the wall.

How can poetry be taught?

The way teachers teach poems or literature today is to take a poem or story, read it before the class and then try to analyze them. Teachers do it all the time and don’t understand why the students get angry. In my opinion, poetry should be taught in other ways.

Teachers teach us literature or poems to enrich our language and develop our thinking abilities, intelligence and skills to analyze the poems. The teachers don't understand that all the students want is to understand what the meaning of the poem or the story is. Poetry should be more fun and you can't always find what it means. If we analyze the poem the meaning competing with the poem itself and all we do is try to understand only the meaning and not the explore the poem. 

In addition, the teacher wants the students to analyze the poem the way he understands it and the students can't express themselves. If the students analyze the poems or the stories they get angry all the time and they won't concentrate in the poem only its meaning , because they will always worry what  is the meaning of the poem . In my opinion, teachers should allow students to express themselves more, and not analyze every little thing.

In conclusion, teachers analyze every little thing and they have to do it less. Also, they shouldn't deal all the time with what the meaning is and they have to allow the students to express themselves too. 

A Summer's Reading - Reflecion - p.49

1. I really enjoyed reading the story because I didn't wanted to stop reading him It was interesting and the message was suitable for everybody. Also, I liked the idea when the writer changed sometimes the name of Mr. Cattanzara to "change maker" it gives to the story a lot of thoughts why the writer does it. In addition, the story sounds real because we all can be in situation that we are embarrassed and ashamed to admit in something and then keep lying about it. Like George in the story, to my opinion nothing would happen if George were telling the truth.

2. These skills helped me understanding the story by knowing what the motives of the characters to their behaviors are.  In addition, the skills helped me to understand the relationships between actions or events in a text for example, the results of George's action I that he tried finally to pick up his education. One more example is when George lied, he did it because he was embarrassed to admit he didn't have a job.

3.  If I know the characterization of the character I can infer what his personality also, I can infer how he or she will behave.  For example, George's sister, Sophie is known as someone who likes to read you can infer that she's intelligent. In addition, she cares about the house and it means that she's responsible. Characterization gives us information about the character and we can infer what it tells us about the character.

A Summer's Reading - Post Reading - p.49

Dear Mr. Cattanzara,

I have wanted to write you a letter for a long time, however, I didn't know what you would say. Maybe you would be mad at me or maybe not, but I have to say that I'm sorry about lying to you. I know it was wrong, also, I learned from my mistakes. I understood my lie helped me with nothing, therefore, I stopped lying. Remember that time when you saw me reading the books in the library? since that time, I couldn't stop reading. You wouldn't believe me but I'm a reporter  in the "New York times" and I asked them to send to you a newspaper every day.

Ten years have passed since the lie which brought me thanks to you to the top. I wanted to thank you for pushing me continuously and believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. Also, I wanted to thank you for bringing me skills for life, for example, how to deal with
my life. I wanted to thank you for pushing me to the top. Thanks to you I have all the things I have wanted for years: a private house, a girl to be with, a job. It's all happened thanks to you.
Tell me how I can repay you.

Remember the time when you were drunk and you asked me "how are all your books coming?" well, now I can tell you with no hesitation that they are fine. I achieved my goal and had been reading books for two months. Then, I picked up my education and when I bought a new house I also bought a library with a lot of books. Too bad we haven't spoken since I left the neighborhood. I couldn't speak with you because I felt guilty because the lying

You have no idea what I found. Your name of work is "change maker" but if you really go deep into it you'll understand that you changed my life. I didn’t want people to feel pity for me and because of that I left the neighborhood and picked up my education. I can also tell you about a really good book called "A summer's reading" you have to read it.
I expect to return an answer back.

Thanks for everything!
George.

p.48 ex.F+G:

1. George dropped out from school he didn't want to study hard, he didn't like the idea that the teachers tell him what to do. In addition, he was very lazy, he didn't have patience and he had a lack of motivation.
2. George told to Mr. Cattanzara that he's going to read a hundred books because Mr. Cattanzara saw him walking alone at night in the neighborhood and he was embarrassed and ashamed to admit that he doesn't work or study in school.
3. George avoided from walking past Mr. Cattanzara's house because he knew that if he would meet him maybe he would ask about the hundred books that George hasn't read and he would find out that George lied and he won't read any books.
4. It means that Mr. Cattanzara doesn't want George will be like him. Probably George was like Mr. Cattanzara when he was young and he didn't study or work and he was lazy and now he's stuck in the poor neighborhood and he doesn't want the George will be like him, he wants that George will study or work, or even move to another city. Mr. Cattanzara wishes for him a better life and it really shows that Mr. Cattanzara cares like it's written in the story.
5. Mr. Cattanzara told this rumor because he doesn’t want that people would think George is a liar. In addition, he really cares about him and maybe he understood that the respect from the people makes him feel better and stronger therefore, he told this rumor. That people will respect him and be friendly to him.
G-
1.George and Mr. Cattanzara have some things in common but there is also a difference between them.
Both live in the same poor neighborhood. Both stay away from the house at nights, Mr. Cattanzara reads his newspapers or gets drunk and George walks alone at night in the park. Both of them do nothing with their lives. The difference is that George is younger than Mr. Cattanzara. In addition, Mr. Cattanzara has a job as a change booth and George doesn’t have a job. Moreover, Mr. Cattanzara reads while George doesn't read.
2. The short term effect is that he felt guilty with himself, therefore, he didn't go out from his room, didn't want to speak to Sophie, he had an argument with her and because he felt guilty he went to the library started reading the books to feel better and even tried to pick up his education. The long term effect of the lie is that he will always get respect from the people in the neighborhood and a nice regard.
3. I didn’t find the story is satisfying because I wanted to see what happened if the lie would be discovered and what George will do after this. In addition, I thought that George will try to read at least a few books and the story would end that I will find that George read the whole hundred books.
4. There are two meanings to the name of the story "A summer's reading". The one meaning is that someone is going to read a lot of books in the summer. However the writer wanted to use the name as absurd because George didn't really read the books and it's ironic because the name of the story is "A summer's reading but no one reads any books. 

A Summer's Reading - Bridging

    It is known from the background that there is similarity between the characters in other stories of Bernard Malamud and the story "A Summer's Reading". In addition, there is also similarity between George and Bernard Malamud. In the story, George is described as someone who tries to achieve a lot of goals and change his life for the better and make them more significant for himself. Bernard's goal was to attain the American middle class dream ,probably he was poor, like George and George's goals connect to Bernard's dream, to strive for a better life: to pick up his education, to have enough money, to have a girlfriend and to have a nice house.

      Also, it is known from the background that Bernard is someone who often writes about immigrants, like George in the story. George always walked at night to the park and wandered in the neighborhood. The loneliness shows how isolated George was, just like Malamud's other characters. There is a connection to the text because George didn't have any friends, he dropped out of school and the only friend he had was Mr. Cattanzara. Moreover, Bernard wrote about awkward and isolated people, like George who was alone, and isolated from society.

The information about Bernard told me more about the characters and changed my understanding because I understood that the writer writes about the characters who are poor and hope for a better life. Like himself and it means that the awkward and poor characters in his stories reflect his personality and show his personality.