During reading

Check out the questions before reading the passage

Keep the questions in mind

Underline words and phrases that might be helpful with answering the questions.

What are connections?

Connections are links that readers can make between what they are reading and
things they already know about. Making connections deepen our understanding
and helps us bring meaning to the text.
 When making connections, be guided by the following open-ended
sentences.
Text to Self- connecting to your life
- I feel the way the character does in the story when…
- What happened to the character is similar to what happened to me when…

Text to Text- connecting book to book

- The main character, problem, solution, lesson, and setting in this story
reminds me of the text…

Text to World- connecting to events or situations in life

- This story makes me think about… because..
- I know about this because…

*When making a connection, be sure to tell the part you are connecting to and what
your connection is.

Let’s Practice

Read the “Memoir of a High School Student”.

Make text to self, text to world and text to text connections.

Memoir of a High School Student

It was Christmas break the last time I walked out of the old, soot streaked building
that was my high school. I remember that day well, for it was probably one the most
momentous moments of my life. The other students had streamed gleefully out the
door to jumpstart their holidays, their unavoidable return in the following two
weeks seeming distant. Unlike them, I wasn’t ever coming back. I had taken a
second to look back at the school and let myself take in the significance of that
moment. I was moving, in the very middle of my freshman year, and I had felt as if
my life would never be the same. During the Christmas break, my family and I
loaded up our stuff and left that itty-bitty town in south-west Virginia.

For most of the time, I distracted myself from my longing for my old town with the
challenging task of unpacking boxes and getting my room just so. That was fine
for a while, but then my cat went missing. Earlier I had locked her in a bathroom
because I was afraid she would get outside with the doors being opened and closed
as furniture was brought in. I checked on her later only to find her gone.
Immediately thinking the worst, I had run outside and frantically called out her
name until I was hoarse. In that moment, the exasperating cat that keeps me up at
night was the very quintessence of my being. I had started crying for her, for the
people I left behind, and the change yet to come. Losing her made me realize how
much I had just lost in my life. That story, however, ends well. She wasn’t running
wild through the neighborhood like I had thought. Instead, she was still in the
bathroom; I neglected to see her hiding behind the cabinet.

Then came the daunting, the inevitable, new school. My moving affected me
greatest in this way. Thinking back about the first day, it’s like I’m looking at it
through someone else’s eyes; I see a girl standing by the door of the office and
clutching a small silver necklace strung around her neck. If one was to look, they
would see it held an engraving – Close to the heart, together from the start, best
friends will never part. That meant everything to me that very uncertain day. As I
sat in classes where everyone had a face and a name that was unknown to me, I
would touch the cool metal and be reminded of the best friend that missed me just
as much as I missed her. Not only did I not know anyone, but I also was in a class
with only upperclassman. The academics were different in Virginia where some
students took geometry in their freshman year, which I had been in the middle of
when I moved. Those first few days definitely weren’t easy for me, but they did
bring out a strength in me that I didn’t realize I possessed.

It’s been almost a year now since I unpacked the first of the boxes. I’ve discovered
all the nooks and crannies of my new house. I have finally begun accepting that I
am a rebel, and that it’s not just my school’s mascot. Also, I’ve made friends that I
cherish just as much as the ones from Abingdon. However, I do miss things from
before I moved. The memories I have there will always be a part of me, but my future
lies here in Kingsport. I’ll get my first job and maybe buy my first car here. In the
spring of 2016, I’ll even graduate wearing that light blue robe. Beyond that, I don’t
know how much my move will affect me, for life is uncertain. I will just take it as it
comes.

Source:http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/memoir/article/593645/A-Memoir-of-a-High-
School-Student/

Summary

When you summarize, first analyze, and then map out the most important ideas.

1. Analyze and decide what is important. Short

-Go through each paragraph one at a time
-Look for author’s important words, explanation or opinions that provide
information regarding the question being asked.
Long
-Put two or three paragraphs together
-mark important words
 -write important words, explanations or opinions

2. Map it out
-Rewrite the main idea using your own voice
-Replace or add the author’s words, explanations, or opinions

Let’s Practice
Write the summary of Mike Fassold’s “Civil Disobedience”.

Civil Disobedience
by Mike Fassold

Ghandi: Introduction
In protest of the United States’ war with Mexico and its de facto support of slavery, Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862) wrote the pamphlet, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. In it he said, “Unjust laws exist: shall we be
content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them,
and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” He offered a nonviolent option to
the masses to stop the actions of a government. In his case, he hoped to inspire others to join him in not paying
the federal government’s poll tax, thereby forcing the government to fill its jails with law-breakers. The resulting
financial burden of the loss of tax revenue and prisoner upkeep would force the government to end the Mexican
War and take a stand against slavery. While his idea failed at the time, the concept passed to future generations
that would realize the power of civil disobedience.
Ghandi: Early influences
The most famous of all the practitioners of civil disobedience was Mohandas Ghandi (1869-1948). He was born in
India at the height of Britain’s Colonial rule of its “Jewel of the Crown.” Great Britain’s seizure of the once powerful
Asian empire brought great wealth to the colonial power and even greater suffering to the masses of India’s
majority.
In his youth, Gandhi embraced the ideal of the British Empire and worked to capture it power. He even rebelled
against his Hindu beliefs as a teen and sought to capture the power of the British by the eating meat. Ghandi
adopted British dress and sought to emulate the very British that ruled his country. Ghandi left for Great Britain in
his late teens to become a lawyer.
Ghandi: Defeating Discrimination
 After Ghandi’s completion of the bar exam, he returned to India to practice. His law practice was not successful. In
order to find work, he agreed to travel to South Africa where he would serve as a legal advisor to a Muslim
businessman from India. In South Africa he felt the full force of racism and discrimination in his first few days in
the British colony. The South African government passed laws that imposed special poll taxes on workers from
India, required Indians to carry travel passes when traveling, and declared that all non-Christian marriages were
invalid. To combat the racism and discrimination, Ghandi decided to make the oppressor realize its injustice and
inhumanity through nonviolent resistance. After 20 years in South Africa and countless nonviolent protests and
actions, Ghandi was able to defeat the discriminatory legislation against Indians living in South Africa.
In 1915, Ghandi returned to India. For the nest 40 years Ghandi would wage nonviolent resistance against the
superior military force. In the early years, Ghandi concentrated on local struggles… His success in winning battles
against British landlords and local magistrates earned Ghandi a reputation for action. His voice would become a
leading voice for Home Rule in India.

Ghandi: Inspiring a Nation

Ghandi would call for complete non-cooperation by Indians. Ghandi wrote: “The British have not taken India; we
have given it to them.” In early 1930, the Indian National Congress and Ghandi launched a full-scaled nonviolent
resistance in campaign against the British. Ghandi notified the British viceroy that they would break the “salt laws”
(The British maintained a monopoly on the production of salt) in protest over the lack of progress for Indian home
rule. From the middle of March to the early part of April, marchers travelled over 220 miles from Porbander to Dandi.
Once the hundreds of thousands arrived at the beach, Ghandi picked up a handful of natural salt to symbolize the
breaking of the law. To enforce the law, the British arrested Ghandi, leaders of the Indian National Congress, and
thousands involved in the breaking of the law. In order to break the campaign, the British viceroy agreed to host
talk s with Ghandi about Independence. Even though the talks were fruitless and Ghandi was arrested again shortly
after his return, the success of the campaign would inspire India to continue its path of civil disobedience.

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