Blog Post Exemplars

Exemplars from Last Year

Here are some exemplars from previous blogs.  I consider these to fulfill the criteria set out in the rubric for this assignment. 

Also, note how these students have integrated their quotations.  They make a point, provide the quotation, then follow the textual support with a sentence that links the quotation to their initial point.  Always remember to explain yourself fully.

 

Hero 

In my book, I see the main character Fiona as the hero of the story. Fiona trains, search, and rescue dogs and she is on the search and rescue team as well. This is heroic to me because she goes out, sometimes for four days at a time in the woods to search out lost hikers. She also helps with a crime case where a serial killer has a live victim hidden in the forest and she searches in the wild to find the victim. I think these actions are heroic because she will go out at night, of her  own will, and search for people for days on end. That to me is self sacrifice.  One time when Fiona is out on a search she says, "no matter how bad the conditions, no matter how tough it gets, I tell myself to keep going. Do you want to know why? Because in most cases, the victims are going through way worse than I am (Roberts, The Search 153). Fiona is also honest, brave and strong. These are all main characteristics demonstrated by heroes.

 
Refusal of the Call

In the book, POP by Gordon Korman, we are introduced to the main character, Marcus. During the summer, Marcus and his mother move to a new state where he is unfamiliar with any of the places or individuals. When he arrives to the new town, his only ambition is to make the football team as the quarterback player. Every day for multiple hours, Marcus trains prior to the tryouts, in order to maximize his ability. Marcus makes the team as a back up quarterback and when he isn't needed, he is trained as a linebacker. The Coach of the team soon realizes that Marcus's real strength should be as the main linebacker.  Marcus plays most of his high school football games as a linebacker and at the end of  his senior year, he is offered a  scholarship as a linebacker; however, he declined the offer. Everyone thinks he is crazy but Marcus sees himself as a quarterback and isn't willing to accept that others think he should  be a linebacker. This is a significant part in the novel because a football scholarship is considered a novelty to members belonging to any team and there is very few given out.   Marcus responds to this reaction by others when he professes, "But here, two thousand miles from home, there was a real shipwreck, a real hope. A choice big enough to change our lives forever" (Korman 65).   Marcus knows he risking a lot by not taking the scholarship and he may regret it down the road because the scholarship is a one in a life time opportunity. However, Marcus can't find it inside of himself to make a decision he doesn't really support.