English 9 Honors Blog

Please respond to each of the questions below.   Responses should be  at least one paragraph .  Number your responses so that it is clear which question you are answering.   1. Military school obviously benefited author Wes Moore. What did author Wes Moore go on to do after exiting military school?  Do you think there were any other paths that could have set him on the straight and narrow? 2. Prisoner Wes Moore continued to proclaim innocence, saying he wasn’t there for the robbery. Do you think the author believed him? Did you believe him? Do you think he should have been sentenced to life in prison? 3. At one point, author Wes Moore asks prisoner Wes Moore, "Do you think we are all products of our environments?"  How would you answer this question? 4. Prisoner Wes Moore says that we are either products of our environments or products of our expectations.  Which is it?  What about you?  (Are you more a product of your environment or...

Please respond to each of the questions below.  Responses should be  at least one paragraph .  Number your responses so that it is clear which question you are answering.   1. Outside of his family, who warned author Wes Moore about the bad path he was on? (police officer after he got caught tagging) Did Moore heed this warning? For how long? Why didn’t the change stick? 2. Author Wes Moore states, “Later in life I learned that the way many governors projected the numbers of beds they’d need for prison facilities was by examining the reading scores of third graders.” (p. 54) How did reading this make you feel? Why? 3. What allowed author Wes Moore to go to better schools than prisoner Wes Moore?  (What kinds of sacrifices did his family make?) 4.  How did Tony try to dissuade prisoner Wes Moore from following his illegal path? Why did it work or not work? 5. At the end of this part of the reading,  Sargeant Austin gives author Wes Moore a ma...

Please respond to each of the questions below.  Responses should be at least one paragraph .  Number your responses so that it is clear which question you are answering.   1. What drove author Wes Moore to write to the prisoner Wes Moore? Why do you think prisoner Wes Moore wrote back to the author? 2. What was the fate of author Wes Moore’s father? Do you think his father might have survived under other circumstances? 3. Author Wes Moore states, “Soon it became clear that the Riots were about more than the tragic death of Dr. King. They were about anger and hurt so extreme that rational thought was thrown out the window – these were people so deranged by frustration that they were burning down their own neighborhood” (19).  Does this “deranged frustration” make sense to you? Are there places in today’s America that feel like this? 4. Author Wes Moore talks about the Bronx in the 1980s and early 1990s as an apocalyptic place to be with drugs, burned out buil...

Starr pledges to "never be quiet" ( Chapter 26, p. 444 ). After reading this book, how can you use your voice to promote and advance social justice? Reflect on how you and your community discuss and address inequality.  Please make sure that your comment is at least 200 words. ( Questions issued by publishers .)

Chris and Starr have a breakthrough in their relationship --- Starr admits to him that she was in the car with Khalil and shares the memories of Natasha’s murder (Chapter 17). Discuss why Starr’s admission and releasing of this burden to Chris is significant. Explore the practice of “code switching” and discuss how you might code switch in different circumstances in your own life.

Once again, I would like you to respond to two prompts (at least 150 words each).  Here they are: 1. Once news of Khalil’s shooting spreads across the neighborhood, unrest arises: “Sirens wail outside. The news shows three patrol that have been set  ablaze at the police precinct...A gas station near the freeway gets looted...My neighborhood is a warzone” (Chapter 9, 136-139). Respond to this development and describe some parallels  to current events. 2. How do you think Starr would define family? What about Seven? How do you define it?

Respond to BOTH of the prompts below:  Each response should be at least 150 words. 1. As Starr and Khalil listen to Tupac, Khalil explains what Tupac said “Thug Life” meant. Discuss the meaning of the term “Thug Life” as an acronym and why the author might have chosen part of this at the title of the book. In what ways do you see this is society today? (Chapter 1, p. 17) 2. At the police station after Starr details the events leading up to the shooting, the detective shifts her focus to Khalil’s past. Why do you think the detective did this? Discuss Starr’s reaction to this “bait” (Chapter 6, pp. 102-103).

Post the prompt assignment you chose, the title of your piece here, and also a link to it (a link to it on the YWP website). Do not post your actual piece here.