2 Paragraph Creative Piece

Full of confidence ran through the room. As Athena stood big and mighty. Everyone knew she was trustworthy, even in the most breakneck situations. Anyone else would have takin' it as a compliment, but Athena treated it as if it was gift or a special power given to her. The citizens made her feel felicitated by the valiant expressions made. The support within the people did nothing but emboldened Athena's thinking. The ground shook boisterously as the atmosphere erupted by the amount of faith.

There went the confidence, fighting for dignity as they furiously stomped as the bottom of their feet made contact with the ground. Not for one second they had a sense of being agitated. The reliance on Athena was encouraging. Feeling overwhelmed, Athena led the pack, with an assured expression that was easily noticed.She established a community that felt they could not be defeated.

June 4th Target Skill

Author's Note: This was a 2 paragraph journal entry that was assigned in the Reading Lab. We were asked to demonstrate the Target Skill.

I am demonstrating how the Greek goddess Athena, and E.D. a character from the novel Surviving the Applewhites , both have very similar characteristics. Even though one is involved in mythology, Athena. And one is involved in a normal realistic fiction novel. These characters might be different in many ways, but what isn't different between these characters is that they both represent a role model and someone somebody looks up to.

In the book, Surviving the Applewhites, E.D. is the role model for a teenage boy named Jake Semple. Jake Semple has been in so much trouble in school and E.D.'s  home-school is the only school willing to take him. E.D. has been chosen to change his behaviors and E.D ends up dong just that. Making a teen who seemed to never be able to succeed in school, to a teen that has evolve into a great role model himself. In Athena's time in Greek mythology she is the intelligent one that everyone around her admires. These 2 characters both are dynamic and play big roles, but arguably they play the biggest roles.

May 29th

A Family, Self Changing Situation

Author's Note: This my second text analysis essay and it was written to demonstrate the major value one text can provide a reader to help guide and understand the significance of symbolism. The novel One Million Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica involves a young boy named Nate Brodie who is a big Tom Brady fan and basically admires and wants to follow in Tom's footsteps.

 Butterflies floating around in my stomach like no other, a sense of anxiety tickles as it quickly runs down my spine, nearly 40,000 eyeballs gaze down towards my direction, I was almost getting the chills, hoping this would be a positive outcome. I can not characterize the thoughts encircling in my mind that moment, but I can assure you those very thoughts were stressful, while being ones of excitement. One Million Dollar Throw tells the emotions in effective text evidence a young boy named Nate Brodie is confronted to when he has an opportunity every kid would dream of, but this opportunity is more important to Nate than it would be to your typical, ordinary person. 

One major symbol in the novel that the author described through a text was from the narrator describing Nate's feeling about the game of football. For example, he says " This was always the best of it for Nate Brodie, when he felt the slap of the ball in his hands and began to back away from the center, when he felt as if he could see the whole field, and football made perfect sense to him. " The narrator really pointed out to the reader that football means everything to him. Football, particularly one game, is very symbolic to Nate, representing his dreams, efforts, and determination  This quote from the narrator really helped provide the reader an understanding the value football has on Nate.

Another major symbol in the novel that the author describes through a text is the attitude from Nate's dad has on him. For example he says " Believe in the great Tom Brady had said ". Symbolizing how his dad really believes in his son and is encouraging his son to have confidence in himself. The dad was being a very good role model for Nate and I thought the quote  in particular stood out to me the most. His attitude giving Nate an endeavoring  approach to the situation.

Not only does this symbolize the characters, but also these quotes the narrator put in there really symbolizes the author's message. Analyzing these quotes, I understood that the author's message is to believe in yourself because you need confidence to get through life. So the purpose of analyzing a text is not all about the characters. Especially in this story, it is mostly about understanding the author's purpose for writing this novel. Sometimes, it is better to think about the overall meaning of the novel, instead of just knowing what it is about.

Overall, the purpose of analyzing a text is to give insights to the reader about certain characters from a novel. And this book is a great example of showing not only the feelings and emotions surrounding Nate, but the other characters such as his dad giving quality advice when his son needs it most which really entertains the reader, while informing the significance a text brings to the reader's mind. We can all agree in the novel One Million Dollar Throw is truly a family, self changing situation.

Joe's Advantage - DWA

Author's Note: In this essay I tried to attempt I can use a quote/text in a particular story and analyze how it represents the entire book, sort of like symbolism.

 Imagine that you are about to solve one of the best mysteries in the history of baseball, while making thousands of dollars. You are able to get autographed baseballs from a baseball legend that doesn't even exist in the modern day era. You are able to meet the people effected by the Great Depression and see their reactions, even though they still don't even exist in the modern day era. One of all the mystery novels one could read " Babe and Me " by Dan Gutman is the most enchanting.

Dan Gutman used very effective text in this baseball novel. I noticed very specific text evidence of symbolism. The text evidence from the quote " You have a power son, that no one else in the world has , use it ", represents take advantage of your advantages you have in life because you never know what you can bring to the world. For instance, the main character Joe Stoshack has a collection of baseball cards from the early 1900s, which he is able to travel in time of the baseball cards. Joe has a Babe Ruth baseball card and he is able to go to the year 1932.

Arguably, the greatest baseball mystery was if Babe Ruth called his home run during Game 6 the 1932 World Series. Joe is able to solve the mystery by using his baseball card and attends Game 6 of the 1932 World Series. He watches Babe Ruth during his at bat, point to the center field bleachers, then the very next pitch Babe Ruth hits a home run there and Joe discovers that he did in fact call his home-run. Not only was Joe able to solve the best baseball mystery, but he was able to meet Babe Ruth himself and get autographed baseballs that he could sell in the modern day era and would be worth millions of dollars. So the quote from Joe's dad really helped his son understand the importance of taking advantages in life.

The text though however, symbolizes that you should understand and realize when you are giving a special gift or power , to take advantage of it. Most people reading the story won't realize that that is a message from the author that he purposely put in there. The symbolism in the text gives the read a much deeper, more clear understanding of not only the characters, but the message the author is trying to have the reader understand throughout the text. I strongly encourage the next time you read a book, try to find a quote that symbolizes the entire meaning of the story.



A Different Thought

A Different Thought

Author's Note ~ this shows how the point of view the book is in can cause the reader to feel different opinions of some of the characters.

Darryl looked at him green-eyed, showing the envious he can't hide. He scurried to his father's car immediately after batting practice ended. He left with a jealously frown on his face, wanting to take his frustration out on the kind Hutch.

Supporting the creative scene, The Big Field point of view is written in Hutch's point of view. Hutch's point of view is that Darryl is jealous of him because he got nominated team captain on their baseball team. Also, in Hutch's point of view it shows that Darryl is sort of a nasty type of guy.

 Understanding Hutch's point of view, from Hutch's perspective, the reader gets the impression that Darryl is a very jealous guy. For instance, from the part where Hutch gets nominated team captain. Hutch got nominated team captain and Darryl didn't, which then the story lead to Darryl went and sat on the bench by himself. He sat on the bench by himself and mostly ignored everyone around him including his baseball coaches. And then left batting practice without saying a good-bye to anyone.

 While the impression gives the reader different opinions, If this story was told in Darryl's point of view, though, we wouldn't think he was a jealous guy. Instead we would think that all along Hutch was the one jealous. Perhaps we would see that Darryl is a very kind and carrying person to everyone because Darryl wouldn't want everyone to see that side of him that Hutch shows. Now I will show a creative scene of what the book would be like of it was in Darryl's point of view.

Arriving to batting practice, Hutch stared at me in an angry fashion. I kept continuing to stare until suddenly he looked away. I had a bad feeling he was going to get me back somehow and I wasn't looking forward to whatever was going to happen. Hutch seems to have this look in his eyes that he's mad at me, but I am not going to worry about it because it is just a jealously thing. And I don't hang around people that are jealous.

After fully understanding the concept, this book is a great example of showing how just putting the book in a different point of view can cause you to think differently towards the other characters. There are not just jealously type point of views. There are multitudes of different point of views.

Bradley Center Heroic Finish

Bradley Center Heroic Finish

Author's note: This is my creative writing piece about a memorable finish in a Marquette basketball game. FYI, this did not really happen. The story takes place in 2002, when Marquette superstar Dwyane Wade and deadly three-point shooter Steve Novak convert a memorable play for their loyal fans.

Rambunctiously cheering from the edge of their seats, the faithful Marquette fans sounded like a heard of elephants. They felt enthusiastic about their team. Lead by the one and only Dwyane Wade. In the current situation, Marquette was up by 8 with 3:56 remaining. The Marquette fans knew who was going to win. They always had confidence in their team like no other. While the other team, UConn had different plans. They wanted to win just as much as Marquette did. So this battle wasn't over yet, but Marquette fans felt it was. The Marquette players knew there was pressure on themselves, but weren't going to let it get in the way. Marquette coach Tom Crean motivated his players to calm down during the timeouts down the stretch.


Karon Bradley, Marquette's guard, was to inbound the ball. After the whistle, Karon whipped it into the hands of who other than Dwyane Wade. Dwyane Wade jogged down the court with the basketball in his hands. He was being defended by Uconn's Caron Butler. Dwyane did a series of crossovers including his most deadly move, the killer crossover. Caron Butler however, was one of the better defenders in college basketball. Steve Novak was standing in the corner behind the three point line. Hoping Dwyane could possibly get him open and swing it to him to close the game. However, Steve was being guarded by Uconn's  shooting guard Ben Gordon. Steve managed to get open and Dwyane Wade handed it off to him. Steve now was waiting for a pick from Dwyane Wade to brake him loose and make the 18 foot jump-shot. Dwyane couldn't make that happen and coach Tom Crean had to call a timeout to re talk things over.


After the timeout, coach  had Dwyane Wade to inbound the ball and Steve still in the back corner behind the three-point line. Then the referee blew the whistle. Dwyane Wade made a quick lop to the hoop, but bounced off the rim and landed in the hands of Caron Butler. Caron rand up the floor and launched a long three and banked it in off the glass. Now, it was just a 5 point game. Then it was Marquette's turn. Dwyane Wade got through the middle and shot a little floater that ended up not going in. Uconn's power forward Emeka Okafor got the rebound and got the ball up court to Caron Butler. Dwyane quickly got back on defense, but was too late and Caron launched another three and same result as before. Now, it was just a 2 point game with 1: 27 remaining. Another timeout taking by coach Tom Crean.


Steve Novak now was the in-bounder. After the whistle, Steve through a pass intended to Dwyane Wade, but got stolen by Ben Gordon. Ben Gordon ran with all his power down the court and layed it in and the game was tied with 1:13 remaining. Then came Marquette down the floor. Another missed shot from Marquette and Uconn with another rebound. Timeout Uconn with 0:52 remaining...... Emeka Okafor was to inbound the ball and gave it to the red hot Caron Butler. Caron Butler did a left to right crossover on Steve Novak and pulled up for the go ahead shot. Caron managed to get it in. Now, those confident Marquette fans just a couple minutes to go, were not there now. In fact, the stadium was dead silent except for the music blasting in the arena during the timeout by coach Tom Crean.


Dwayne Wade and other teammates walked on the floor with disappointment in their eyes. They were ashamed that they gave up this lead in a game that was controlled by Marquette for most of the game. Coach Tom Crean had Karon Bradley to inbound again and Dwyane Wade to stay at mid court to catch the past from Karon. Dwyane Wade got the past and slowly dribbled toward the defender Caron. Steve Novak in the corner behind the three-point line as usual. Dwyane attacked Caron with the killer crossover and it worked. He git past him and drove towards the middle. Then glanced over everywhere to see who to past to. Uconn's players came toward Dwyane Wade and didn't pay much attention to Steve in the corner and Steve was able to get open. Dwyane fired it to Steve and Steve with no hesitation launched it up and the ball bounced on the front of the rim and slowly, but eventually went in. The crowd came alive again and were full of excitement. They were so proud of their team and all went home leaving with pleased smiles.

Cole vs Brian - Character Comparison

How are Cole's and Brian's situations different?

Author's Note: This is a compare and contrast chart, comparing Cole from Touching Spirit Bear and Brian from the book Hatchet. This also will be showing how they are similar. Overall, I think they're more similarities between these characters, then differences.

Cole's situation	Same	Brian's situation
Not attacked by wild animals	Scared/Frightened	Attacked by wild animals
Becomes a better person	Survival	Struggling to find food supply
Learns something/lesson	both at risk for death	Sad/Hopelessness
	Attempting to escape