RUNicsHM15

1. Complete the chart below comparing the narratives of the three stories. ... || Assignment America ... || Elephants Under Pressure ... || (How does the story start?) || Gus gets an assignment in class to bring in a picture of what he's most thankful for. || A dog and and an elephant get to know each other as friends || The amount of elephants in this world is decreasing greatly by poachers. || (What has changed?) || The closing situation is Gus taking a picture with the turkey and makes it what he is most thankful for. || The closing situation is when they are reunited from the seperation. || The closing situation is the humans continuing to learn about elephants so both of them can stay safe and so no one gets angry. ||
 * || Happy Thanksgiving Gus
 * What is the opening situation?
 * What is the problem of challenge that is posed? || Gus has many things he is thankful for, and he can't figure out which one to choose. || The dog has a spinal cord injury causing them to not be able to hangout as they usually do. || Humans and elephants need to try to get along. ||
 * How is the challenge resolved, if it is? || He makes a friend at the farm that is a turkey. || The person taking care of the dog brought the dog out to see the elephant every day for a few minutes. || Elephants are not kept near humans. ||
 * How is the closing situation different to the opening situation?
 * Do you see the story from one character's point of view? How is this achieved? || I see the story in the point of view of Gus. This is achieved by him being the main one in the conflict. || I saw the story from the dog's and elephant's point of view. It was achieved by the feelings and emotions shown by them throughout the story. || I see the story from the elephants point of view. This is achieved by all the bad things elephants have to go through while everyone knows they are good animals. That thought causes me to see the story from the elephants point of view. ||

2. Think about the author of the book Elephants Under Pressure:
 * 1) What was the subject? What was being compared?- The subject was the humans and elephants trying to get along and the decreasing amount of elephants. Humans and elephants were being compared with all the feelings and emotions between them.
 * 2) What symbols did the author use?- The author used symbols of trying to achieve peace and love between humans and an animal. Some of the pictures show humans going against society by them killing innocent elephants.
 * 3) What words stand out? Why?- The words that stand out are poachers, stress, and extinct. Poachers are the people making the amount of elepahants go down. Stress is the effect of the humans and the elephants not getting along well. Elephants becoming extinct might become reality soon with the hunting of them.
 * 4) How do some words get you to look at characters or events in a particular way?- Some words, such as starvation, get me to look at the elephants in a way that I know why they have been angry toward the humans. The humans have been starving some of the elephants causing them to attack.
 * 5) Are there any words that have more than one meaning?- Some words that have more than one meaning are friends, poachers, and elephants. "Friends" doesn't just mean people you love and admire. It also means someone you can trust and have by your side. Humans and elephants don't have this quality yet. "Poachers" also means killers, hunters, or murderers of elephants. "Elephants" also means friendly animals unlike some of the humans thinking they want to hurt or kill them.
 * 6) Was the voice formal or informal?- The voice was formal and understanding.
 * 7) Was the voice correct for the content?- The voice was correct and fit well into the story for the content.
 * 8) What is the most important sentence or word in the book?- "Researchers now know that many elephant attacks come from herds that have been poached" is the most important sentence in the book. I think poachers have been the main cause of the struggle to get along between the elephants and the humans.

3. Think about the producer and writer of the video clip Assignment America:
 * 1) What was the subject? What was being compared?- The subject was the unusual relationship between the dog and the elephant. They were compared by being different animals, but nothing can keep them apart. They said that humans should be the same way.
 * 2) What symbols did they use?- They used symbols of love and passion for other species. They said that humans need to try to get along with other things as the dog and elephant did. They showed a symbol of pain and suffering. They showed the emotions and feelings of the elephant when the dog had a spinal-cord injury. Lastly, they showed a symbol of protection by saying that the dog and elephant protected each other and cared for each other.
 * 3) What words stand out? Why?- "Excuse", "inseparable", and "relationship" stand out to me. "Excuse stands out to me because this world is full of excuses and not answers. "Inseparable" stands out because people's relationships in this world need to not be broken. "Relationship" stands out to me because we need to have a relationship for this world to get along and strive for the best.
 * 4) How do some words get you to look at characters or events in a particular way?- Some words get me to look at a character in a different way by feeling the emotions and feeling they are suffering from. The kind and loving relationship between the dog and the elephant made me look at those two things as nice and caring.
 * 5) Are there any words that have more than one meaning?- Friendship has more than one meaning. It is someone you love and also someone you trust. Excuse means to try to lessen the blame with an answer to your problem, but it also means to release someone from duty.
 * 6) Was the voice formal or informal?- The voice was formal teaching about a relationship between two different animals.
 * 7) Was the voice correct for the content?- The voice was correct for the content being nice and friendly.
 * 8) What is the most important sentence or phrase in the video?- "Humans need to try to develop these relationships with other species as the dog and the elephant did" was the most important sentence in the video because it is important for humans to have animal friends too.
 * 9) How did reading Elephants Under Pressure give you a better understanding of the story in Assignment America?- Elephants Under Pressure described the bad relationship between humans and elephants. Assignment America described two different species getting along. They relate by showing that if a dog and an elephant can get along, a human and an elephant can get along.

4. Answer the following questions using examples from this assignment.
 * What are similar reading strategies that can be applied to different subject areas and to different media?- Some similar reading strategies that can be applied to different subject areas and to different media is skimming, finding the main idea first, cause and effect, making inferences, and comparing and contrasting. All five of these reading strategies will help you increase your speed while still keeping good comprehension.
 * How can visual clues help to decode the meaning of the story?- Visual clues can help to decode the meaning of the story by giving you hints of what the text is about. You can look at the actions and words in the picture to help you understand the text.
 * How does the sound track (audio clues) add to your understanding of the story?- The audio clues in the story added to my understanding of the story by giving me ideas of if the part of the story is happy or sad. There were happy parts with soft audio clues, and there were sad parts where the feelings and emotions were demonstrated through audio clues.