More pictures from our field trip to MoCCA...

The artist at the museum gave us a step-by-step workshop on cartooning he showed us in detail, everything from the nose to the knees...

here are some of our drawings!!

Check out Free Comic Book Day on MAY 1st, 2010!

Check out the website. It has all the info you need!

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

Text-to-life connections - - - - - -

For the first two decades of their existence in comic books, superheroes largely conformed to the model of lead characters in American popular fiction of the time. The typical superhero is a white, middle- to upper- class, tall, heterosexual, professional, 20-to-30-year-old male. A majority of superheroes still fit this description as of 2010, but beginning in the 1960s many characters have broken the mold.


Check out this article we read in class:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Archie-Gay-Character-100422.html

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Field Trip!!!

inside the museum!

cartooning workshop

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cartoon-covered walls












































In order to wrap up this cycle of book club and to celebrate the student's hard work we decided to take a field trip to MoCCA in Midtown.

The day started off at school with us exploring the history of comic books in the US and determining what happened in history and how that was reflected in comic books. We then got to select two comic books each that were donated by John Jennison (our favorite comic book artist).

After wrapping up our lesson we walked up to Broadway and Houston to the museum. Upon entering the museum we were blown away with all of the amazing artwork. We got a guided tour of the exhibit and then, lucky for us, we got a personalized cartooning workshop. We all drew at least one character with the help of an actual artist showing us all the different options we could make for the features. It was awesome! All of the pictures turned out great and many of them were hilarious. We promise to post them soon.

Following the museum we headed over to Washington Square Park to get a little taste of the NYU college life. There we read the ending of our novel and discussed the themes that took place in the book. We even took turns making predictions for the sequel that is rumored to be in the making. After that we had a lovely picnic, enjoyed ice cream, and danced to the music the band was making. On our walk home we ducked into Bobst Library to see how huge it was. Overall it was an amazing day and a PERFECT ending to our book club!

Gay- Is it a choice?

Check out this video we found!

Letters to the Characters! (such sound advice from our boys!)

The characters of Hero wrote our students letters asking for their advice! Here's what some of the boys had to say:

Dear Thom,
I think you should just act like nothing happened. Who cares what other people think. The only person that matters is you. If the people who were your friends before aren't now they are not your true friends. They should like you for you and not your sexual orientation. Didn't you want to tell your dad? Well, now he knows but it came out different than you hoped. There are people who will want to be your friends.
-Jeremy

Dear Miss Scarlett,
I think that you really should work on your attitude problem. Because if you be mean to everybody you might not have any friends. You can just try to be nice to people, but if they get you made just try your best to calm down. If you really like Golden Boy you shouldn't push him away. If he treats you different because of your illness just talk to him about it, don't push him away.
-Ian

Dear Scarlett,
I know your trying hard on being nice to people and not intimidating them with you anger. I have been thinking about it and you should apologize to everyone you were mean to, especially Thom. And try to feel better about yourself!
-Melvin

Dear Golden Boy,
You really need help. You need to stop being jealous, it's wrong man, that you call him a twerp. Take my word for it, if you were in Thom's shoes you'll know what to do with your life. Dude, to be closer to Scarlett just talk to her. Ask what the heck is going on? Why have you been avoiding me? Also, talking about disrespect... before you disrespected Thom. You tripped him on purpose, plus that's a sign of jealousy. You're just mad that Thom was there and you weren't to deal with it.

PS- you need a therapist.
-Keith

Photographs and Fun!!!

Typing awesome blog posts!!!

!*!*Rapidly Reading and Tediously Typing *!*!

Journal #10

Remember to keep in mind the KEY COMPONENTS TO AN AWESOME BLOG POST!

Chapter Fifteen

How do you feel about Thom’s first kiss? Do you think it will be a “special” memory for Thom? Or, do you think it was forced and he will regret it?

It was mentioned twice that Thom and Simon seemed “familiar” to one another. Do you think they know each other? If so, how?

Why do you think Dark Hero is following Thom? Do you think he witnessed Thom’s first kiss? Any more ideas or clues on who Dark Hero could be?

Chapter Sixteen

Ruth says on page 211, “I’m not talking about that. That’s not a choice. Don’t listen to the bigots or the zealots; you like what you like.” What is Ruth telling Thom? Do you think that homosexuality is a choice?

Why is Ruth such a great friend to Thom?

What have we learned about Thom’s powers? Can he do more than just heal?

What do Ruth and Thom have in common?

Why do you think that Ruth proposed the idea of Thom being more sympathetic to Scarlett? What do you think Scarlett’s issues are that would provoke Ruth to put forth such a proposition?

We Are Planning Our First Field Trip!

We have invited a local comic book artist, John Jennison, come and help us to story board the climax of our book! He will then escort us the following week to an exhibit at MoCCA where we will examine the history of superheros and how our novel, Hero, fits into that history.

Check out the website of the Museum we will visit!

http://www.moccany.com/

Journal #9

How have Thom's emotions changed from page 186 to page 199? What feelings emerged? What instigated this emotional rollercoaster?

Thom's has Adjectivitis! HELP!

21 Types of Superheros!

TrAcKiNg OuR rEaDiNg SkILlZ (Skills) :o)

Who, What, WEAR???

Journal #8

Read through the discussion questions below. You have seen them before on the worksheets for Monday and Wednesday's lesson, but we have not yet had a chance to talk about them. Choose one and write a response. Your response should be about 15 sentences, but by no means does that have to be all!

Chapter 9: Discussion Questions

1. How does the beginning of Chapter 9 show Thom’s desperation and loneliness? Why does Thom feel this way?

2. We have heard many predictions about who Dark Hero/the Man in Black could be: Thom’s mother, Thom’s father, Goran, and Thom even thinks it could be someone from the League following him as a sort of “security check.” Who do you think Dark Hero is and why? Why do you think Dark Hero is following Thom?

3. On page 137, Thom’s dad says, “Certain things a young man needs these days to get ahead…And I intend to give you all of them. Things are finally looking up.” What do you think Thom’s dad meant when he said this? What things does a young man need? Do you think Thom’s dad will be able to give Thom everything he needs? What about emotional support?

4. How do you see Thom’s relationship with his dad developing or progressing?

Chapter 10: Discussion Questions

5. Throughout the novel, Thom continuously describes Goran’s look as a “piercing stare.” Why is Thom always so focused on Goran’s expression? How does Goran’s expression make Thom feel? Why do you think Goran looks at Thom in this way?

6. Through Thom’s narration we know a lot about his own feelings during his one-on-one basketball game with Goran, but we do not know what Goran was thinking? How do you think Goran felt? Do you think there were tensions between the two? What are they learning about each other while playing the game?

7. How did Thom’s view of Goran change at the end of the chapter? What instigated this new outlook? What has changed between them since their first interaction?

Journal #7

How did you feel about today's activities? Do you think they helped to improve your understanding of the reading?

What do you think you have learned from today's practice with intonation and pausing?

How are you going to apply this to Friday's reading?

Journal #6: Thom's relationship with his father

What can we infer about Thom's relationship with his father based on this conversation and what we know about their relationship so far?

How is this interaction different from past ones?

How with this conversation affect their relationship in the future? Do you think they will be more open with each other? Why or why not?

Journal #5: Discussion Reflection

How did you feel about Ms. McDowell moderating the discussion and you as a class leading it? What went well and what could be improved? Do you have any suggestions for next time?

What was the most interesting part of the discussion for you? What did you learn? What new ideas do you have as a result of the discussion?

Journal #4: The Influence of Homophobic Comments

In sticking with our prior topic, how do homophobic comments affect the people around them? How did the homophobic comment from our last reading affect Thom's coach? Do you think his coach recognized that he was influenced by that comment? Why or why not?

How do homophobic comments affect you? Are you aware the damage? If so, what does it cause you to think or do? If not, why do you think they may not affect you?

Remember each of your entries needs to be PROOF READ for capitalization, content and spelling and the response should be a minimum of 15 SENTENCES.

Journal Entry #3: The damage of homophobic comments

In today's reading "the Gary Colman look-a-like" made a very hurtful and homophobic comment to Thom. What was this comment? How did it damage Thom? How did it affect the the rest of the people in Thom's life (his father, his coach, his teammates, etc.)?

Have you ever had a hurtful comment made to you? How did it affect you long term? Other than just making you angry at the moment, did it cause other peole to look at you differently? If so, how?

Please write a minimum of 15 sentences.

Journal Entry #2: Getting to Know Thom

So Thom is our protagonist in this story. What have we learned about him so far? What are some challenges and struggles he faces in his daily life? What are some challenges and struggles that you have in common with him?

It is important early on in a story to start making predictions and inferences as to what will happen next. Let's look at what we already know and have that guide us towards making a guess about what will happen.

Journal Entry #1: Examining our own differences

How are you different from other people? How do you respond to people that are different from you? Can you identify and extreme manifestations of conflicts between people because of their differences? What might those differences be? Please give examples!

HERO IS THE WINNER!

After meeting for the first time yesterday, and putting it to a vote, our book club decided to read the book Hero. This is a story about a young man who has super hero powers and is marginalized by society because he is gay. Through reading this book, discussing its themes, reading additional articles and blogging we hope to better understand and empathize with some of the challenges gay individuals face in our society. We also hope to develop the capacity to be more understanding and tolerant with people who are different from us in general

Our essential question for the unit will be: How can we learn to put ourselves in other people's shoes so we can be more understanding and empathetic?

Welcome! Post inspirational reading quotes!

Welcome to our new blog! We are a group of students from the Lower East Side. We have combined our love for reading and our love for technology to create this awesome site. It is our hope that through reading and blogging about what we read and discuss, we will become stronger readers and hopefully inspire other students to become stronger readers as well.

You can help us out! Do you know of any inspirational reading quotes? If so please post them to our comment box below!

Thank you so much and we look forward to this awesome journey!