Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Last Long Way fishbowl

Big improvement on our last outer circle discussion!  It was great to see an abundance (like that vocab. use?) of comments from a variety of people.  Good work using  the threaded comments to organize the discussion.

Here are a few things I would like us to work on in our last outer circle discussion:

1.  Avoid question constructions that begin "do" or "does" and result in yes or no response.
2.  Remember, this is a formal writing assignment.  Capitalize, punctuate, etc.
3.  Do not link a Texans' picture to your profile; only Broncos' pictures are acceptable.
4.  Explain why you think what you do, i.e. "I think X because..."

Happy posting!

63 comments:

  1. Why has Ishmael shared all this information with the nurse so far?

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    1. Because he has no one else to talk to.

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    2. I think it is because he either likes her, or sees her as a motherly figure.

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    3. He knows what he has done is wrong and wants get better

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    4. Because he has no on else to talk to like Austin said, but also cause i think it makes him sane again

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    5. I think Ishmael realized that he had nothing to lose when he started to open up with the nurse.But, it took him awhile to do so.

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    6. He tells the nurse everything because he feels as if he can trust her and she is someone he can tell everything he is feeling to, he has to get it out.

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    7. I think Ishmael feels like he needs someone to share his thoughts with because he has lost his family, he has no one to share his ''adventures'' with.

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    8. I think Ishmael opens up to the nurse because she doesn't judge ishmael for what he has done. In the book it say that ishmael felt like she meant it when she said it is not your fault.

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    9. I think that he has wanted to let that information out for a long time but hasn't had any one to talk to. Also I think that he likes the way the nurse doesn't judge him and truly wants him to get better.

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  2. Why does Ishmael hate the people that are trying to help him?

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    1. maybe because he doesn't trust them do to all the violence he has been through in his life

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    2. I agree with Ben, he can;t trust them. It is hard for him to trust anyone in this situation, he could be killed by anyone and they could kill anyone.

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    3. I think it's because he feels he doesn't need help because when he was in the army he mostly treated his pains without other's help all by himslef.

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  3. What causes Ishmael to think that he is better than civilans?

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    1. Isabel- Ishmael thinks he's better than the civilians because the army has brainwashed him into thinking that he is superior to everyone else.

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    2. Ishmael may think that he is better than all the civilians because he is most likely thinking back and how he got his scars mentally and physically and how he is better off than the rest of the people because he has been through the best and the worst.

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    3. he has been taught by the army to make people think that they are better than every one

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    4. As my classmates have said, the army has brainwashed them. He thinks that because he was a soldier and has killed people, he should be highly respected.

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    5. I agree with Scott, he has been taught that he is superior than everyone else. If he is superior to them then it is easier to kill them, you can't kill someone as easily when they are stronger and more powerful than you. Ishmael is not superior to these people he has been brainwashed and changed into a different person.

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    6. To him the civilians don't know anything. They don't know what it was like to actually fight in the war. At a couple points in the book he calls them sissies.

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    7. He thinks this because that's what the army has brainwashed him to think. Also I believe they want all of the soldiers not only to think that they are better then civilians but better then everyone. This ensures that when they go on ambushes, etc. that each soldier will be fighting to their best abilities.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Do you think that Ishmael will ever be able to love the music aging (give textual evidence)?

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  6. When Ishmael and the other children have nightmares, why do they all wake up in the soccer field? What makes them go there and not somewhere else?

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    1. I also wondered this and had an idea. It is to get away from everything and all the thoughts that are making them crazy.

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  7. how do you cope with knowing that you took someones life

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    1. JD- In Ishmael's case I think that when he was in the moment, he didn't have any feelings for that person he killed, due to the fact that he was in a war. If Ishmael didn't kill he would be killed.

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    2. i dont know how to cope with that. Ishmeal is doing it through drugs

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    3. i don't think it possible to cope with the fact that you took someones life.

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    4. There's no real way to cope with knowing you killed someone but to talk about, and I think that is what Ishmael is trying to do with the nurse.

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    5. @ JD
      i Couldn't personally ever cope with killing someone i would feel too guilty but Ishmael may cope with killing someone because as he said in chapter 14 he said that he could cope with killing someone by remembering that they killed his family and such.

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    6. I think that in a time of war you feel that killing is justified, so you may not have feelings toward the person that you are killing. That may lessen the pressure that ou put on yourself and coping with it may be easier.

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    7. I think that is it impossible for a person with actual feeling to forget and move on from taking someone's life. I know that I would have no idea how to cope with killing someone. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I took someone's own life. Yet I think that Ishmael will be able to cope with it because he has lost his humanity throughout this war. It is what he had to do to be able to stay alive throughout all of this.

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  8. @Class
    Why was the nurse so generous to give Ishmael the Walkman along with the music he likes?

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    1. @ Angelo
      She probably wants to be able to trust him so the can be better friends and she may also give those things to him to console him for losing rap music for that long time.

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    2. The nurse feels sorry for him because he was forced into the war as a child solider. Giving Ishmael the music obviously brag back old memories that he had lost before.

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    3. She probably wants to be able to trust Ishmael and possibly for Ishmael to trust her

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    4. She feels bad that a 13 year old has lost everything. she is trying to help him get back.

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    5. I think she is trying to help restore his childhood.

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  9. So he could be able to remember how life was before the war and so he could recover peacefully

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  10. Why do you think Ishmael never knew his uncle as a child?

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    1. Probably because he lived so far away from his uncle that he never really got to see him or that the uncle just never was really part of the family

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  11. how can u rebuild when you have no one to turn to

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    1. I don't think that you can ever have nobody to turn to, there is always someone to turn to, whether it be someone you know or maybe you don't know them.

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  12. @ Class
    What motivates Ishmael to keep going?

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    1. the fact that he wants to see his family

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    2. I think that Ishmael believes he will be able to go out and fight again and that may be what drives him through tough times.

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    3. Ishmael has seen the light at the end of the tunnel so many times. Like when he almost got to reunite with his family. But because he has not yet reached that light he probably wants to keep going deep inside.

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    4. Ishmael is motivated to keep going by the fact his uncle is their and the nuurse which give him hope and can start trusting people.

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  13. If ishmael goes to live with his uncle do you think he will ever fell part of that family?

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    1. I don't think Ishmael will feel part of the family because he has already lost his real family, and lost his family in the military(not actually blood related family members).

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    2. No because he lost his family in a way he will never forget. he will never feel apart of a family again.

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    3. No, I think at this point, he is more independent because he can take care of himself.

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  14. The lieutenant is a man that Ishmael can trust with his life. He is viewed as a father figure by Ishmael, I think. Do you think that the lieutenant will always be there for Ishmael or will Ishmael lose him just like everyone else? Why?

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    1. @ Madison
      Its very hard to say if he will loose him or not but if something were to happen due to fighting he could possibly loose him because of the constant war between the rebels and the military.

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  15. Will Ishmael ever fully recover? What would make him recover from such a bad experience?

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    1. I don't think that Ismael will recover 100% because he has seen sop much violence in his life so far that in the future it may come back to haunt him

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    2. I don't think that Ismael will ever fully recover. He has taking peoples life and seen more bad thing in such little amount of time at a young age that he will never be able to recover.

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    3. I believe that he will recover but he wont be the way he was before the war, cause he has seen thing and done thing that are not really easy to recover from

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    4. @ Matt
      Ishmael could fully recover mentally but it would be extremely hard for him to do so because he has seen the worst of the war in a first hand point of view. Physically he will never recover due to scars that he has gotten.

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  16. @Class
    Do you think that any other child soldiers are beginning to feel the same pain and anguish that Ishmael is feeling for his actions?

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    1. Yes, at this time they have to have lost the effects of drugs by now and I think they are trying to get back to their old lives.

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