Vinnie's LA Blog

This is a blog where I post all if my language arts pieces

Monday, October 29, 2012

Founding America


Author’s Note: This is a piece about all the great thing our Founding Father’s gave us in America.  They were the men that sculpted America and her people.

How did our great country of America come to be?  We started off as a bundle of colonists with no order or leader.  That all changed when our first president and part of the Founding Fathers took charge.  In the upcoming years there was a variety of different Founding Fathers that helped America become the country we know and love today.  They added things like beautiful monuments, freedom, and our amazing  government.  Our country wouldn't be as good as it is now without our Founding Fathers.

One thing our Founding Fathers brought to America were all the monuments, city names, and money.  If we didn’t have our Founding Fathers our money would be really different because either a president or Founding Father’s face is on our currency.    In addition, we wouldn’t have the same cities or states as we do now since most cities are names of our Founding Fathers.  George Washington is probably the biggest influence,  a whole bunch of cities are named after him and his face is on a lot of money.

Another way the Founding Fathers affected us is the way we have our freedom.  They gave us the freedom of speech, political, and many more.  Without that we would be like any other country that has to follow certain rules that the people can't change.  Every day we can choose what to wear and what we want to do that day.  Most people don’t know how good freedom is.

Probably the most important way the Founding Fathers affected us is the government they put in.  Our democratic government is like no other we can actually choose our president and government figures.  Also, like the freedom our president cannot order us around like a bunch of slaves, they can't  put in rules we don't like.  We have a few broken holes in  it, but overall it is an incredible government.

Without our founding fathers, this nation wouldn’t be half as good as it is now.  The founding fathers dedicated their lives to making our country better.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

New Recruits


Author’s Note: This is a writing piece about the cause and effect happening in the book Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse.  This piece also analyzes the climax of the book.  Some things people might need to know about this book are that half-bloods are half god and half man.  They have the powers of the gods and help save Olympus in the Percy Jackson series.

When Percy Jackson and his friends go on a smaller mission to try to recruit two potential half-blood recruits, the job turned into a whole new assignment when a group of hunters, half bloods that run around with bows, and monsters show up.  All of a sudden a mini war is taking place between the hunters, monsters and Percy.  Percy and his crew had to act fast and finish their original mission.

Even though, the battle played a big part in the book the climax took place when the captain of the hunters gets captured and one of the new recruits , Rico, discovers he had underworld powers.  Now Percy and Rico go to rescue the leader of the hunter, they encounter a titan named Atlas who is literally holding the world.  When the leader of the hunters get captured Atlas switch places with her and she is forced to carry the world or else the earth will get destroyed.

This book is very similar to the book Enclave because in the book the two main characters Deuce and Fade have t escape a run-down underground town.  When they escape they find a girl getting beaten on by gang members, so they fight the gang and rescue the girl.  The girl whose name is Teagan tags along with Fade and Deuce like how Rico tagged along with Percy and his friends.  Overall these two great books have the same rescue concept.

Rico eventually battles Atlas and forces him to switch back with the Hunter leader.  Rico joins the half-bloods and everything turns back to normal.  Plus, Rico has a brilliant plan to get back on the titans which applies in the next book.  If Percy hadn’t recruited the powerful  Rico then they might not have rescued the leader of the hunters or created the amazing plan.  

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Battle for War


Author’s Note: I wrote this piece about the main conflict and resolution in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief  

The book I read was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan there were a lot of conflicts like the one between Percy and Annabeth at the beginning or the battle between Percy and his Ad-Hd.  Probably the biggest conflict though is between Percy and Zeus.  The main conflict is how the God Zeus  is falsely accusing Percy for taking his lightning weapon and is threatening to start a war among the Gods.

In the book Percy has  to try and get a weapon that he didn’t steal and has to find it with no knowledge to where it is.  Percy has to think fast to get it because Zeus said in three days he will start an attack against Olympus.  So Percy travels from state to state searching for clues to where Zeus’ Lightning Bolt might be.   Along the way he encounters monster, gods, and also has to decipher clues hidden across the US.

The conflict is in this story is really similar to the movie Over the Hedge because the main character in the movie a raccoon gets falsely accused for stealing a bears food and has to get it back before a certain date.  If he doesn't the bear threatens to start a war between the bear and the raccoon friends.  The whole movie is basically the same as the Lightning Thief but instead of a missing lightning bolt it is the bears hibernation food.

Even though there are so many things wrong the conflict gets resolved when all the clues point to a former friend ,Luke, who stole the weapon all along.  Percy confronts Luke  they both have an epic battle, but  in the end Percy prevails and gets the lightning bolt back to Zeus before he could start a war among the gods.  However, Luke makes a daring escape and starts to plan another way to start war.

In my book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief the main conflict is between Percy and Zeus’ stolen weapon.  When Percy realizes how bad the situation is he steps up and fixes everything.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The Road to High School



Author’s Note: This is a personal narrative piece about the struggles kids face on the way to collage.  I got the idea for this piece when our school had an assembly for anti-bulling.

The road to high school might not be the easiest way to travel, but everyone needs to do it.  Some kids suffer from getting bullied, getting caught  in drugs, or just don't get anything in school.  Also, there are some kids that feel left out because they don't play any sports.  There are many issues in school that nobody can completely resolve.  Even though there are a lot of issues, if kids stay on track and out of trouble, they can overcome these obstacles.  

First off is bullying, a huge problem in every school.  Any kid that gets bullied feels powerless or scared.  As Chris Colfer quoted “When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.” Although every school has countless ways to try to help, almost none of them do.  If the bullied kids tell an adult that talks to the bully, they feel like a snitch; if they don't they keep getting bullied and hurt.  Not only does bullying bring down students self esteem, but it can also lead to kids killing themselves because they don't feel right.  

Although bullying is bad, I don't think it is as terrible as kids doing drugs,which is a problem in most suburban areas.  If a student doesn't like the way they are, they might resort to drugs to make them feel better.  Most times a victim sees another kid doing it, so they think it is all right to do when really it isn't.  Other times they might want to look cool so they start doing drugs to try to impress their friends.  Drugs can affect how you work in school and can sometimes mess up your whole life too.  

Finally, some kids just don't get how to do good in school.  It may be from a messy binder and folder to a disease where they can't learn as well.  Many people could improve in school if they gave a little more effort, like reading  a book at home instead of watching TV.  Or asking for more help in school and taking notes to remember what they learned.  Other people with more severe learning problems might have to get tutored or stay after school to get extra help.  People that struggle now need to do something because they still have high school and collage ahead of them.

Student can overcome most of these challenges in school if they don't get in trouble and stay on track. If you do what you need to do and word hard, you can have a very successful life.