Saturday, May 23, 2009

Alyssa's Spiel on Textbooks

I HATE texbooks. A lot. To be more specific, I hate the questions in textbooks. It seems like they are always really really stupid and off-subject, especially the essay/written response questions. To prove my point, I've provided a few examples from my lit book, and you can decide if they're made up or not.

Example 1:
In the story, "My Grandpa Died and it Made Me Really Sad," a boy's grandfather dies and he is very depressed. What could have happened to prevent the boy from feeling so sad? Write a 10-sentence paragraph to explain your answer.

Example 2:
The story, "Priscilla Is the Way She Is" is about a girl who is different from the kids in her school. If Priscilla were from Mars instead of Illinois, how would the story change? Please use a 10-sentence paragraph to properly explain your answer.

Me: Teacher, do we really have to answer these questions?
Teacher: (not paying attention, chatting on Facebook) Hmm....? Oh, um YES. You absolutely MUST do all the questions to receive full credit... Oh, look! It's Joanna Martin! I went to high school with her...

Example 3:
"Life and the Changes That Happen in It" is a story about a person who has a life-changing experience. Write about a life-changing experience that you've had and include details in a 10-sentence paragraph. If possible, use all of the vocabulary words included for this selection.

List of Vocabulary Words:
1. equanimity
2. victuals
3. defalcate
4. osteopath
5. tautological
6. hidebound
7. froward
8. hermetic
9. nocuous
10. erstwhile

Example 4:
In, "My Friend Cliff," a girl jumps off of a cliff and nearly kills herself. In a 10-sentence paragraph, write about a severe injury or near-death experience you've had. Include details tto describe the pain and suffering you went through. If needed, you may use a dictionary to find more words to use.


That's all for today, folks. I'll be here all week- or longer.

6 comments:

Molly said...

Nice vocabulary words! Sorry about the textbooks. They don't get a whole lot better, from my experience.

lissylouhoo said...

That stinks. I was hoping it was just people thinking middle school students were too dumb to handle real questions.... oh well.

smlltwngrl said...

oh my gosh. you should write in an opinion column to a newspaper!! you'd be so good at it!!

lissylouhoo said...

you think so, meg? i never thought of that, but it sounds kinda fun!!

lissylouhoo said...

(sill thinking about it...) I guess I am pretty opinionated...

smlltwngrl said...

yeah.. I'd bet you'd get paid a ton! ;) sorry it has taken me so long to reply. :)