Cosmo - Vocabulary Enricher - The Cat Ate My Gymsuit - Paula Danziger - Pg 125

Hellooo everyone,
this is the 4th Lit circles meeting and sadly second to last. For this one, I was the Vocabulary Enricher, (in our group known as the Vocab-Man) and marked some interesting words in our reading assignment. Well, there is nothing left to say, here they are!

1. Mobbed
Page 103 Paragraph 3
It means to crowd around someone (usually in a corner) in an unruly way, kind of annoying them.
Sentence: I really disliked how yesterday they mobbed around me

2. Radical
Page 105 Paragraph 3
Relating to or affecting the fundamental  of something far reaching, thorough

Sentence: It was a very radical overhaul of the existing regulatory framework

3. Clobbered
Page 114 Paragraph 6
About to hit or slap someone really hard
Sentence: I got extremely scared and closed my eyes when I almost got clobbered by my mom

4. Conduct
Page 122 Paragraph 4
A special manner of which a person behaves, especially in a certain place
Sentence: My father disliked my friend's conduct

5. Atone
Page 123 Paragraph 1
Make amends and reparation
Sentence: My sister had a certain atone with me, and she wanted to fix it

6. Controversial
Page 105 Paragraph 2
Likely to give rise to a public disagreement
Sentence: I want to join the controversial

7. Sentimental
Page 109 Paragraph 5
Prompted by feelings or tenderness
Sentence: His funeral was very sentimental to my brother

8. Snarl
Page 114 Paragraph 8
To aggressively growl with bared teeth
Sentence: The dog snarled so much we almost cried of how scared we were

9. Neurotic (as in, that person)
Page 119 Paragraph 4
A mentally challenged person with some diseases relatively mild
Sentence: I don't want to become Neurotic

10. Stationery
Page 119 Paragraph 4
Writing and other office materials
Sentence: The principal's office was almost covered in all kinds of Stationery

11. Mink
Page 119 Paragraph 5
A thick North American fur
Sentence: That dress was made of mink

12. Shrugged
Page 111 Paragraph 5
To slightly raise your shoulders, as a form of expressing ignorance, doubt or indifference
Sentence: She rudely shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes

13. Clearance
Page 119 Paragraph 5
The action of being cleared, erased
Sentence: The machine did the job of hallway clearance for the futuristic lady

14. Atrocious
Page 19 Paragraph 6
Horrifyingly wicked
Sentence: My uncle's old shoes looked atrocious

So everyone, those were my words, see you later alligator(s),
Cosmo :D

Hello all. This time my job was the discussion director. We read from chapter 14 to chapter 17. So here is what were my notes and my classmates' answers were to my questions:
Did it surprise you when Joel said that he is a lousy dancer?                                                                
My answer: It did surprise me because Joel is a cool guy and is friends with everybody so somebody must have asked him to dance with him; therefore somebody must have taught him.
Cosmo's answer: Yes, it did.
Gwendy's answer: No, it didn't.
Bernardo's answer: No, it didn't.
Did you feel sad when Joel said that can talk freely only to a few people and that his parents are divorced? 
My answer: Yes, I was kind of sad because it is hard when you can't share your problems with anybody.
Cosmo's answer: I was okay and I read on.
Gwendy's answer: I wasn't crying but I felt a bit sad
Bernardo's answer: I was okay
Why did Marcy drink beer even though she didn't like it?
My answer: She drank it because she didn't want to be the same as others.
Cosmo's answer: She didn't want to feel left out. (peer pressure)
Gwendy's answer: Peer pressure.
Bernardo's answer: Peer pressure.
What do you think who was right when Marcy's mom got upset because Marcy was wearing normal clothes while going on a party?
My answer: I think that Marcy can wear whatever and whenever she wants to wear.
Cosmo's answer: Marcy should be allowed to wear whatever she wants to wear.
Gwendy's answer: Marcy should be allowed to wear whatever she wants to wear.
Bernardo's answer: Human rights.
How did you feel when Joel bought his mom an awful birthday present?
My answer: I felt that Joel was a bit selfish and I didn't like his feelings about his mother because whatever she did she is still his mother.
Cosmo's answer: I found it funny.
Gwendy's answer: Weird, slightly strange.
Bernardo's answer: I felt sad for his mom.

Gwendy - Illustrator - The Cat Ate My Gymsuit - by Paula Danzinger. Until Chapter 16

I was the illustrator for today's discussion and the above is the drawing I drew. I did it in four different parts as the two chapters that we read for this time were clearly split into four or five parts. In the following I'll explain the different quarters of the drawing.The whole drawing pretty much represents Nancy's party and what happens after it.

1. First Quarter of the drawing
This quarter represents when Marcy and Joel arrive at the doorstep of Nancy's house. With her there is her boyfriend with a six-pack and it's slightly awkward for Marcy because of Nancy having a boyfriend who's a lot older than her. When the six-pack boyfriend says 's'up.' Marcy shyly says 'Ummm... hi.' It kind of shows that she's not a very confident person in general.

2. Second quarter of the drawing
This quarter represents how weirded out Marcy is about Nancy having beer at her party. She feels even stranger when Joel is completely casual about it. She accepts it, because everyone else has it, including Joel, but I think that if Joel hadn't had any neither would she. She awkwardly pretends not to drink it after she receives it from Nancy's boyfriend which indicates that overall, her experience at Nancy's wasn't great.

3. Third Quarter of the drawing
This quarter tells us of the slightly awkward walk that Marcy and Joel have when they go back to Marcy's home. Marcy asks Joel if he felt comfortable drinking the beer and when he's says 'yeh' I think she feels slightly awkward... When the reach Marcy's doorstep Marcy's hoping for Joel to kiss her but only receives a kiss on the forehead which makes her slightly upset.

4. Fourth Quarter of the drawing
This quarter is Marcy crying on her bed, her mum crying next to her and her dad shouting at her. Marcy's dad gets angry at her dad for not letting her read the funny parts of the newspaper as he has the rights to do it first and when she gets angry at her dad and says she hates him and storms to her room, her mum starts crying. Her dad then comes into her room and starts blaming her for causing her mother to cry. The end to the few chapters we read this time really shows how much Marcy hates her dad.

And that was it! This chapter was rather dramatic!
Bai 

SOWDY FOLKS
(sowdy means sad in my awesome language)
I am sad because I forgot my packet my packet here.

See yo people next time, and I will do my work now.
I promise.

Cosmo - Connector - The Cat Ate My Gymsuit - Pg. 101

So hello everyone! This week I was the connector and my job was obviously to connect the book with myself and how our lives can interact. So I wrote a large paragraph assigned as being the connector. Here it is! :D

So in the beginning of the eleventh, twelfth, actually all the chapters in the reading assignment, Marcy Lewis hates her life (again) and everything seems to go bad more than ever, she just hates it. In the end though, there is little hope for her goals to succeed, and they keep on enlarging as the story goes on. For clarification, her goals are to "free" Ms. Finney from suspension and get her to teach again because she truly, really enjoyed her English classes even with her sometimes strange and unknown ways of teaching. Now I have a connection to this part of the story, where everything goes bad for me and I start to act pessimistic, as when I am the unluckiest guy in the world, (not really) but when I forget to save a project or something. After this part, slowly but surely good things start t happen to Marcy, such as Joel asking her out which is absolutely un-expected and absurd, as with me as well (example, I get a lot done on a day, got some time on a project, you know, good things :D and enjoy your life again).  It's like the tides have turned from negative to positive. She has a nice and tight relationship with her brother, which I stalkerishly can connect as well with my three siblings that I have. Oh yeah, I've also experienced my dad yelling and shouting to e about the things that I'd done wrong. All in all, our lives can really connect, with both positive and negative events, which enabled me to fill up my lines I had to write :D.

See you guys all later.
Cosmo

Gwendy - Summarizer - The Cat Ate My Gymsuit - by Paula Danziger - Pg. 101

Cover of The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

Hey Everyone (Ms. S)
Today I was the summarizer for the four chapters we read of the Cat Ate My Gymsuit.

So here is my summary of the Cat Ate My Gymsuit, a book about a depressed teenager.

Robert, Joel, Nancy and Marcy get called into the office which is slightly surprising as they thought that their secret meetings to retrieve Ms. Finney were in secret. They believed that no-one would snag. Apparently someone had though, and Marcy and friends find themselves walking into an office full of parents and little brothers. It turned out that Mr. Stone had somehow found out about their secret meetings where they were plotting how to get Ms. Finney back who had been suspended by Mr. Stone, the principal. However much the children and (some) of their parents protest, Mr. Stone still gives them a 10-day suspension, and the trial of Ms. Finney's suspension would be during this time.

Marcy, Robert, Joel and Nancy go back to Marcy's home with all their parents. Robert and his mum leave quickly as his mum is petrified of Robert getting into further trouble. The rest of them sit down and Nancy' family shortly leave. Joel and his dad stay for a while until Marcy's mum asked about Joel's mum. This creates a lot of awkwardness as she had not realized that Joel's parents were divorced.

When Marcy's dad comes home he gets extremely mad that Marcy had been 'ganging up' against the school with her friends to try and get Ms. Finney back. He says that she shouldn't stand up for herself that much, and she should agree with the principal as he is, according to Marcy's dad, 'always right.'

As Marcy was invited by Nancy to her birthday party and actually asked out to go there with Joel, her mum forces her to go shopping for a new dress. Marcy feels exceptionally embarrassed as she has to shop in the 'chubbies' section which is especially awkward when a pretty large shop-assistant comes to Marcia and says, 'Oh, don't worry, dear, I remember myself having the situation that you're in right now!' It made Marcia feel a lot worse. She manage to by a purple dress suit and some jewelry and somehow avoids her mum's wish of buying a dress.

The night of the party, Joel comes to collect Marcy to take her to Nancy's house. While Marcy was envisioning a quick goodbye to her parents her father had different ideas. He sits Joel down and asks him about his plans for the future and whether he wants to start a family or not. They finally get going and Marcy apologizes to Joel for having such curious parents.

Anyway...  That was it for these 4 chapters, see you next time :) I didn't like these four chapters as much as the beginning of the book, but I'm looking forward to reading the next lot for next Day 2 anyway as this book is awesome and I strongly suggest it. 

Hello, all. My job was the "Illustrator". We read until chapter 14. As you can see I drew 2 pictures like a comic, though they are not linked.
I wrote what does each picture represent, but if you can't see I'll write it again here in the blog and I'll write a few words more.

The first picture represents Marcy trying to study and be Stuart's teacher at the same time; and Stuart is practicing his handwriting. You can also see Marcy's TV and a drawing.

The second picture represents Marcy and Joel talking in front of Marcy's house. Behind, Marcy's mom is standing and watching them curiously. In the picture you can also see Marcy's house and her garage. In the garage there is a car as you can see and there is a bicycle hanging behind. There is grass and flowers in her front yard.

Howdy Folks,
This week I was the discussion director.  I had to come up with five questions to ask my group.  I will now show them to you fellow readers.

1.  Would you agree that Mr. Stone should suspend Mrs. Finney or not? Cosmo-No because she has very good teaching methods.
Gwendy-No because she inspires the kids.
Maksim-No because not saying the pledge of alliance is not important.
Me-Yes because even if it is not important she should still do it, so logically she is breaking school rules.

2.  Why did Marcy get suspended?  All- for breaking rules

3. Would you agree to protest to get Mrs. Finney back?  Cosmo-No, to lazy.
Gwendy-No, has work to do and the principal decides.
Maksim-No, does not want to get in trouble.
Me-No because it will just waste time, get her into more trouble, and the school board decides.

4.  What do you think will happen to Nancy and Marcy in the future?
Cosmo-They will be neutrals.
Gwendy-Best enemies.
Maksim-Will not answer, already read the book, does not want to spoil.

5.  Do you think that Marcy ad her friends will succeed to Retrieve Mrs. Finney?
Cosmo-They will succeed.
Gwendy-They will fail.
Maksim- Wont say, read the book.
Bernardo-I hope they fail, because I want this to be the first book where someone finally fails.

Thank you for reading,
See you people in class.
Swegmaisterioman out!!!!

Howdy Folks,
For this week I decided to pick the "Illustrator".  I drew a chubby girl watching a movie.  I drew this because in one of the pages the girl says that her teacher would let the kids watch movies during class.  Sorry it is upside down, I scanned wrongly.  So as I was saying here you have a chubby girl,placing her head on a pillow.  Also the teacher put up a movie on the projector.  In the back there are some windows that have the shutters shut on them.

Cosmo - Discussion Director - The Cat Ate My Gymsuit - Paula Danziger - Pg. 53

So, hi everybody back for post number 2 of my literature circles book, The cat ate my Gymsuit. This time 'round I was the discussion director and I made up some very interesting questions interacting with my group members. I made 5 questions as discussion director.

Question 1: So imagine you were Ms. Finney, and you were inspected heavily and questioned on your ability of teaching while being new to the school? Well I would feel awkward, annoyed, misunderstood definitely sad maybe too because as a new teacher you're kind of supposed to be respected. Gwendy's response was that she would have felt hated, Berny would have felt extremely sad if he were standing in Ms. Finney's shoes, and Maksim would feel different and discriminated, which is absolutely right.

Question 2: Why would Marcy's father exactly act so mean to her? Well, Gwendy stated a possibility that he found his job terrible, and the stupidest thing he ever did, so he might have been in a grumpy mood. He might have some salary issues that he wouldn't be able to afford family's needs. Berny added that he might be angry to have a "chubby" child, Marcy.

Question 3: What will happen to Joel and Marcy in the future? Are different " events" going to occur? Maksim plainly said that they were going to be friends, while Gwendy hoped that they would get married because they indeed were a very cute couple, like she cited. Berny was awkwardly staring at us the whole way through, so that was funny.

Question 4: Why do you think that Smedley was created? Well lets have a flash-back. Marcy felt awkward about school, and really disliked it at one point, but Smedley was a club to help kids like her, and make them feel more comfortable about all sorts of STUFF. So that's probably why. Gwendy added that it would help kids face their issues and problems, and Berny made the connection to Psychologists...

Question 5: When Ms. Finney got fired, what would be the action students take, (or will there be any)?
I personally think they would rebel against the principal and the school board or something similar and my whole group seemed to have agreed.

So, this was my post of the discussion director, and see you all next time,
:D CK (Cosmo)

Gwendy - Vocabulary Enricher - The Cat Ate My Gymsuit - Pg. 53

Cover of The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

Hi Ms. S, so today I was vocabulary enricher for The Cat Ate My Gymsuit. I came up with 14 words that were slightly more puzzling. In the following I will write the word, write the definition, write the sentence from the book that included the word a sentence that I make up that include the word.

1. Pg. 25 Par. 1 - Anonymous - Of unknown name/authorship
Sentence from book - My anonymous letters to the student council suggestion box were ignored.
My sentence - The book was written anonymously and no-body knew the author's name.

2. Pg. 26 Par. 1 - Shrunk - To grow smaller
Sentence from book - "What are you doing? Getting your heads shrunk?"
My sentence - The cat shrunk when it was afraid.

3. Pg. 26 Par. 3 - Tranquilizer - A drug that has a calming effect
Sentence from book - They'd get into a fight and she'd start to cry and then go get a tranquilizer.
My sentence - Do you think that using tranquilizers is just as bad as any other drug?

4. Pg. 32 Par. 2 - Compositions - The act of combining parts to make a whole
Sentence from book - Every Monday we had to hand in compositions.
My sentence - The composition of those two elements creates something strange.

5. Pg. 33 Par. 2 - Propaganda - information or rumours deliberately spread
Sentence from book - Another time, after studying what propaganda is all about we made up 1-minute television commercials.
My sentence - The propaganda campaign expressed lots of false information.

6. Pg. 34 Par. 1 - Satire - the use of sarcasm or irony
Sentence from book - Another time, we talked about humour, satire and parody.
My sentence - She spoke with satire in her voice.

7. Pg. 35 Par. 1 - Trench Coat - a waterproof overcoat. 
Sentence from book - He wore a trenchcoat and a cap, and had a pipe.
My sentence - It was so rainy, I had to wear my Trench Coat.

8. Pg. 35 Par. 2 - Defective - having a defect or flaw
Sentence from book - I'd like to introduce you to my friend, the defective detective.
My sentence - the machine was so defective that it wouldn't work.

9. Pg. 38 Par. 2 - Derivation - the act of being derived ( to receive or obtain from a source or origin.)
Sentence from book - The derivation of that philosophy obviously was influenced by a group of loquacious siblings.
My sentence - The derivation of my surname is Japanese.

10. Pg. 38 Par. 2 - Loquacious - talking a lot or speaking freely 
Sentence from book - The derivation of that philosophy obviously was influenced by a group of loquacious siblings.

My sentence - She always talked so much, she was so loquacious, it was annoying. 

11. Pg. 38 Par. 2 - Erudite - characterized by great knowledge
Sentence from book - It made no sense but it sounded erudite.
My sentence - One of the factors in Divergent is called Erudite, symbolizing knowledge.

12. Pg. 39 Par. 1 - Recuperate - to recover from sickness or exhaustion
Sentence from book - We figured that Ms. Finney must be sick or taking a mental day off to recuperate from teaching us.
My sentence - He recuperated bravely after two years of cancer.

13. Pg. 42 Par. 1 - Syndicate - a group carrying out transactions
Sentence from book - When we got to the gym I went up to the gym teacher and told her that I had been mugged on the way to school by a syndicate specializing in stolen gymsuits.
My sentence - As the law was syndicated internationally then every country should be happy with it.

14. Pg. 51 Par. 1 - Gushing - to flow out or issue suddenly
Sentence from book - As I sat down, my mother started gushing. 
My sentence - The water was gushing very violently.

I found that the few chapters that we read for this weeks literature circles had far more advanced words that the last time we prepared for literature circles. Berny had great trouble coming up with some words as the vocabulary was certainly not as rich as it was in these chapters, which is kind of strange. 

Hi, everybody. In the part I read happened a lot. My job was the "Summarizer". The book is called "The Cat Ate My Gymsuit" and the author is Paula Danzinger. My group and I read from 5th to 10th chapter. Those chapters talk how things got worse at home and school. Marcy's father was yelling at Marcy almost every evening and he was accusing her of everything. Then Ms.Finney started not coming to school. Marcy and her friends weren't worried at first but then Mr.Stone came in an English class and announced that Ms.Finney is suspended and that she won't be coming to school anymore. Everybody got upset and started asking why isn't she coming back, but Mr.Stone refused to answer any other questions. Joel and Marcy stood up and tried to talk to Mr.Stone but he didn't want to hear about it. Then Marcy got mad and used a phrase that Ms.Finney taught her. Mr.Stone called Marcy to his office and had a talk with Marcy. He said how she changed much, how she wasn't bad like that before and then he told her not to do such things anymore which meant that he forgave her and gave her an another chance. Joel, Marcy and some other students started making a plan how to get Ms.Finney back.
Key points

1. Thing got worse at home. Marcy's dad yelling all the time and accusing her of everything
2. Ms.Finney started not coming to school, no worries yet
3. Mr.Stone's speech in the English class, everybody gets upset
4. Mr.Stone's speech in his office
5. Joel and Marcy started making a plan how to get Ms.Finney back