Friday, 23 May 2014

Meeting# 4- Vocab Enricher

Ivana Lalic
Vocab Enricher
The Phantom Tollbooth
221 pages read

Hello Blog readers,
My group read up to page 221, and I was the vocab enricher and these are my words that I choose because I found them difficult, fun and just interesting!



Page and Paragraph
Word
Definition
Original sentence in book
Page 161, paragraph 2
Ominous
Giving the worrying impression that something is bad, that something bad will happen.
For an instant there was an ominous stillness, quieter and more  silent than ever before, as if even the air was holding its breath.
Page 162, Paragraph 3
Disconsolately
Unhappily, hopelessly.
The Humbug noticed the Sound keeper sitting disconsolately on a pile of rubble.  
Page 178, paragraph 3
Stalactites
A tapering structure hanging like an icicle formed of calcium salts by dripping water (Basically icicles!)
Milo squinted into the darkness and saw for the first time that they had entered a vast cavern lit only by a soft, eerie glow from the great stalactites which hung ominously from the ceiling.
Page 170 paragraph 2
Strenuous
Requiring or using great physical strength.
Over the Humbug’s strenuous object, Milo and Tock decided to swim.
Page 180 paragraph 2
Vigorously
In the way that involves physical strength and effort or energy.
He reached into one of the carts and pulled out a small object, which he polished vigorously on his robe.
Page 186 paragraph 4
Arithmetic
The branch of mathematics, dealing with properties and manipulation of numbers.
Simple arithmetic, that’s all. Suppose you had something and added something to it.
Page 198 and paragraph 5
Melancholy
A feeling of sadness: typically with no cause (or reason).
A look of deep melancholy crossedd mathimigcan’s face and his eyes grew moist with sadness.  
Page 212, paragraph 5
Villainous
Relating to, consisting or guilty of wicked or criminal behavior (or you could say something such as a villain).
He punctuated his last remark with a villainous voice.
Page 223 and paragraph 3
Peevishly
In a peevish manner, which means having or showing an irritable disposition.
“There you see” he said peevishly.
Page 212 paragraph
indignantly
Said in an indignant manner, feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment.
“Worth WILD!!!” the man roared indignantly.

Meeting #4

Shai-lee Shay
Illustrator
Finished Book
The Phatom Tollbooth

Hello Everyone, Welcome to my blog post. For this meeting I was the Illustrator, and so I illustrated a part of the 4 pages my group read. My group read 4 pages because we finished the book that we were given. In this picture, you can see the title of the chapter at the top, and surrounded by a brown circle is the name of the book , and the author. In the first picture you can see Milo who finds the Blue letter, that was put instead of the Tollbooth. The letter is addressed For Milo, Who now knows the right way. In the second picture you can see a person opening or holding the blue letter that he got, and on top of that picture, you can actually see what was written in the letter! All of my group members, accept for Nikola who was not there, said practically the same thing about this photo. Hope you enjoyed this Blog Post! See you next time!

S.S

Meeting #4 | Literary Luminary

Hello everyone!
Today I was the Literary Luminary, and I picked out passages from the book the Phantom Tollbooth, up to around page 113. We have one more meeting to go, and we will read until the end of the book, and I will be discussion director.

Milo caught his breath, picked up the chalk, and explained simply "Its on the tip of my tongue."... pg 162/ paragraph 3
In this paragraph, Milo uses a word that is 'on the tip of his tongue' to restore noise in Silence Valley, where no one can make any noise. He had just come back from the palace at the top of the valley, the only place you can speak. He saved a word that he was about to say. In English, the appropriate idiom would be that the word was on the tip of his tongue. Yet, in this paragraph, it was given a literal meaning, and the word on the tip of his tongue is used to set of a rocket shooting noise into Silence Valley. I found this amusing because it is not possible in the real world and also that it actually makes no sense in the real world (or at least the world that we live in - not Expectations.) It also shows how fictional Expectations is.

"I'm as tall as can be" - and he grew straight up until all that can be seen of him were his shoes and stockings-" and I'm as short as can be"- and he shrunk to the size of a pebble... (it continues in his way) pg 169/paragraph 1
In the paragraph above, a man on the Island of Conclusion that doesn't know who he is, shows that he can be absolutely anything. Milo, Tock and Humbug all made a decisions that were unjustified, and then they are flown to the Island of Conclusions, where you are taken if you make a judgement with no justification. In the paragraph the man is showing them how he doesn't know who he is, because he can be absolutely everything. I found it amusing because of the many different ways that the different attributes he possessed were represented in many different ways, many of which were quite comical. They were all quite stereotypical, and pretty funny.

"DIGITOPOLIS
5 miles
1600 rods
8800 yards
26400 feet
316800 inches
633600 half inches
AND THEN SOME
"Lets travel by miles" advised the Humbug, "its shorter."
"Lets travel by half inches" suggested Milo, "its quicker."
"But which road should be take?" asked Tock. "It must make a difference."" pg 174/ paragraph 2
This paragraph happens as Tock, the Humbug and Milo are trying to make their way to Dictionopolis, and they come across a sign before reaching it, and they are bemused, not knowing what to do. There were quite a lot of mesurments mentioned, and they were pretty interesting. Usually you don't measure distance in rods or inches or many the other types. It is more typical to have kilometres or miles, which are more easy to deal with. This surprised me, and gave me a whole different outlook to distances. Also, when comparing them, it was obvious that none of them had any idea that they were the same distance, and they had some off ways of comparing them. I thought this was quite funny, and also pretty sad, in a sort of depressing way. I wsa bemused out how they thought that 5 miles is shorter, but 633600 half inches is quicker. *sigh* thats depressing!

""By all means," he replied happily. "There's nothing to it. If a small car carrying three people at thirty miles an hour for ten minutes along a road five miles long at 11:35 in the morning starts at the same time as three people who have been traveling in a little automobile at twenty miles an hour for fifteen minutes on another road exactly twice as long as one half the distance of the other, while a dog, a bug, and a boy travel an equal distance in the same time or the same distance in an equal time along a third road in mid-October, then which one arrives first and which is the best way to go?"
"Seventeen!" shouted the Humbug, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper." pg 177/ paragraph 3
In this paragraph, the Dodecatheon is trying to get some point accross.... and I am sure that no one understands. Humbug shows his amazing unintelligence by answering seventeen - an answer which doesn't even answer the question at hand. I probably would have replied the same in this situation! I was SO confused, and I was just sitting there not really thinking when I read the paragraph. I was confused, and I wonder if the words he said had any value at all, and this impossible math problem has an answer. 

"Very good," said the Mathemagician. "Now add one to it. Now add one again," he repeated when Milo had added the previous one. "Now add one again. Now add one again. Now add one again. Now add one again. Now add one again. Now add one again. Now add--"
"But when can I stop?" pleaded Milo.
"Never," said the Mathemagician with a little smile, "for the number you want is always at least one more than the number you've got, and it's so large that if you started saying it yesterday you wouldn't finish tomorrow." pg 192/paragraph 5
In this paragraph, Milo tries to guess the biggest number in the world, and the Mathemagician shows that there is no biggest number, and definitely one that you can't say. I found this quite scary, because it shows that something so common, such as numbers, is something with such a big range, and a terrifying infinity. Something being infinite is quite scary to me, as it is not something that you can really imagine. It is quite startling really - there is always be a bigger number - just add one!

Thats it for today :)
long post :P
adios!
gemma

Travel Tracer

This week I was the Travel Tracer. The Travel Tracer's job was to pick an event in the chapter/ book and write what happened in it. I wrote about how in the beginning there was a several people coming towards the wall with cannons and then blew up the wall and let all the sound out. Then I wrote about how all the sounds that were ever made came out of the fortress.Then I wrote about how Milo was sad because the Sound Keeper was crying. Here is all I wrote I know it isnt a lot but yeah.
Where the event begins:
The event begins when a several people come and put cannons and aimed them at the thickest part of the fortress wall. They loaded it with gunpowder. Then they shot the cannons.

The key event:
When all parts of the wall fall apart with a huge crash and all the sound that existed when sound were made. There were cries, babies cries, horns, shouting whispering, humming, screaming, crying, talking, and other sounds, they made their way to freedom.

The events ended:
Everything was normal again. The soundkeeper was sad but all was back to normal but milo was sorry.

Meeting 4# Connector

Djordje Keserovic
Connector
Phantom Tollbooth
223/256
My connection to the book is the part where Milo is next to and looked inside the cannon. I also did go and see a cannon. I saw the cannon in Kalemegdan. I saw all of the cannon that were there and I also looked inside most of the cannon. They were not that active as the one in the book. This cannon was not ready to fire,like the in the book. THe difference is that i also noticed is that the cannon in the book was alot smaller and thiner. THe cannon that i saw was alot larger and fatter.

Meeting #4 Literary Luminary

Robert Duff
Literary Luminary
The Phantom Tollbooth
256/256


There are only two sentences and reasons because we only had one chapter left to do it on and there were only two interesting sentences.
Today I was the Literary Luminary, and my job was to to find any funny,interesting or puzzling paragraphs or sentences, and including my thoughts and reasons for why I chose that sentence. These are my the interesting sentences that I could find in the last chapter of my book.

1.       “‘I've been gone for only an hour!’ he cried in amazement, for he'd certainly never realized how much he could do in so short a time.”
I chose this sentence because it relates to our lives and we say it as “Time flies when your having fun.” It relates that you don’t ever have any reason to look at the time when your doing something you enjoy.

2.       “And yet, even as he thought of all these things, he noticed somehow that the sky was a lovely shade of blue and that one cloud had the shape of a sailing ship. The tips of the trees held pale, young buds and the leaves were a rich deep green.” and "Well, I would like to make another trip," he said, jumping to his feet; "but I really don't know when I'll have the time. There's just so much to do right here."

I chose this sentence because at the start of the book it said that Milo didn’t really enjoy anything and here it explaines that you should take the time to enjoy what’s around you and something that you know might not be around forever.

Meeting #4 Discussion Director :)

1.       Have you ever met anyone like the characters in Wisdom? If so, who?
Me: I have not met people like in the book, there are people similar, but I find Wisdom a place with much smarter and more practical people than reality. 
Robi: No.
Shai-lee: My little brother, when he says yesterday he means tomorrow, and vice-versa. He mixes words up so it’s the opposite of the actual meaning. So he is like the dirty bird.
2.       Do you have new found things to do after reading this book, and discovering all of these things?
Me: Yes, but I already have so many things to do, I’ll just try to fit it all in.
Robi: I have too much to do, so no.
Shai-lee: No because I already am doing a lot of things, I don’t have a boring life.  
3.       What would your reaction be when you found the tollbooth gone?
Me: I would be very upset, and I would take a long time to realize all the great adventures I could have without it.
Robi: I’d want to know where it went, I would also look for people who were bored like I was and try to find out if they had tollbooth and use it before they did.
Shai-lee: I would be really shocked, after reading the letter I would be happy for the other who will go through that experience and I would hope that they changed afterward.
4.       Would you have gone back to reality like Milo did, or would you have stayed?
Me: I would have stayed a little longer, and when I got really homesick, I would go back, if the people of Wisdom would allow me.
Robi:  I would try to stay a bit longer, because I would miss my family.
Shai-lee: I would go back to reality.
5.       Would you have the courage to fight the demons?
Me: In reality, no, but I would try to help as much as I could not fighting.
Robi: Yes, if I had weapons.

Shai-lee: No, I am seriously scared of every-single-thing in this world

Thanks, I hope you enjoyed!

KF

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Meeting #3 - Discussion Director

Shai-lee Shay
Discussion Director
The Phantom Tollbooth
252 pages read

For the 3rd meeting, my group and I had, I was the discussion director. My job was to come up with questions, that would make my group think about what they read, and have a discussion about it. This was our discussion:

1. What was going through your mind when you were reading this book?

Robert -"I thought it's an interesting story because it took place in another universe and it had problems different than ours."

Nikola  - "I was thinking about the book's application to reality and how characters in the book have similar traits to real life people."

Kai - "I was thinking that their world is basically the opposite of our world, but the same."

Shai-lee - "I was really confused while reading this book , but I also wanted to read more all the time. I was drawn into the book, and I couldn't stop reading it."

2. Predict something about the next section of this book.

Robert - "I predict that Milo is going to explain his journey to people, or become wiser in the real world, and become less bored.

Nikola - "I predict that Milo will return home, and come back as a more logical and intelligent individual."

Kai - "He will keep the story to himself, and the characters will show up in the real world."

Shai-lee - "I think that in the last chapter of this book, Milo is going to go back to where he came from, and live a non-boring, happy life." J

3. What did you think about how in digitopolis, they did everything opposite from us? They ate when they were full, they went to sleep when they were not tired etc...

Robert - "I was really confused why they ate food to make them hungry when they were full, because that doesn't make sense."

Nikola - "I felt that their logic was very good, because they saved up precious money and resources. Monetary system."

Kai - "I thought that their concept made sense, but it wasn't logically possible."

Shai-lee - "I thought that it was really confusing, because it's kind of weird, but it was also interesting, because it's cool to see new ways of doing things."

4.Which demons did Milo and his friends meet?

Robert - "Milo and his friends met the demon of useless tasks, the big glob, and the demon of bad advice."

Nikola - " I agree with Robert's answer."

Kai - "I also agree with Robert's answer."

Shai-lee - "Milo and his friends met the terrible trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit, who had no eyes, mouth, nose, or any other face feature. They also met the demon of insincerity, who doesn't mean all the bad things he says. He also describes himself as a very scary monster, but he is actually not. Another demon they met was a giant who was scared of everything."

5.  How did you feel about rhyme and reason returning? Did you learn anything from the book?

Robert - " I felt joy that the land would be better and more in unison. I learned don't waste you time, appreciate what you have."

Nikola - "I felt that the death of many was not worth two individuals, Rhyme and Reason. I learned that every moment on earth is worth it's length in platinum."

Kai - " I didn't get there yet."

Shai-lee - "I felt really happy because the whole book actually led to this part, and it was very exciting. I think I learned a lot from this book. One thing I learned is that every single thing we do affects the world. When a speck of dust falls on the ground, the world weighs a little bit more, whenever you smile, you bring joy to everyone around you, when you are sad, people around you will not be able to feel joy… and so on. I also learned that you should never do nothing. Never do nothing, and never do something that is boring, or useless. Never doubt life. "

And that was our discussion!
I hope you enjoyed this blog post :-)

SS



Thursday, 15 May 2014

Meeting #3-Illustrator

Ivana Lalic 6B 
Illustrator  
Phantom Tollbooth
#160 

Today we had a group discussion, and I was the illustrator so I showed my drawing. We were all suppose to read up to page #160 and do our jobs. For our next discussion we are suppose to read up to page #224. This is my drawing and description (It has black around it because I "framed it"). 

  
I was suppose to draw something, so I decided I would draw something that I really liked. So what I drew was doctor Kakofonous A. Dischord. You might be wondering who he is? Well, when Milo, Tock, and the Humbug were walking through the woods they saw this little wagon, it was colorful and just amazing to them so they thought it was a carnival wagon. Milo then had no idea were they were so they came closer to the wagon because they needed some help and instruction. When they came really close they heard all these noises and Milo asked Tock "what are all these noises?" and so the doctor heard and said come in, come! And so Milo, Tock and the Humbug came in. Doctor Kakofonous A. Dischord is a very weird person, he has enormous *elephant ears* and was wearing a lab coat and weird glasses. The doctor is very intelligent, smart and friendly.So first he introduced him self and of course you must also be wondering the same question Milo asked "What does the A stand for in your name" he said to the doctor. The A stands for "As loud as possible". You may also be wondering what kind of doctor is he, he is a sound-doctor (A specialist in noise) . He works with all kinds of noise-from the loudest to the softest, and from the slightest annoying to the terribly unpleasant. He brings noise or once did to the city. Since suddenly nobody was nice and slowly and slowly nice noises disappeared, everyone only wanted loud and bad noises!

 In D. Dischord's lab as I call it he had many potions, animals even a companion called Dynne, who he found lonely sitting and crying in a trash can (so he adopted him). He has many jars filled with weird objects and noises. So he found out that Tock and Milo suffer from a condition called "Lack of Noise". That all seemed very weird to Tock and he said there is no such illness called "Lack of Noise". So the doctor replied (This is the best part for me it' ironic) "Of course not, that's what makes it so difficult to cure. I only treat illnesses that don't exist; that way if I can't cure them, there's no harm done! 

Milo, Tock, and the Humbug found out that the doctor had to leave so the doctor asked them were they were going and of course they replied "To Digitipolis" and just when Tock was about to continue his sentence Doctor D told them that that's wonderful because they would have to pass through the "Valley of Sound" (if they wanted to get to Digipolis) ! So Milo, Tock and the Humbug left following the road.....  

So when they came to the *Valley of Sound*......

MEETING #3- ILLUSTRATOR!


DATE: XV/ V/ MMXIV
ROLE: ILLUSTRATOR
PAGES READ: 252
BOOK:  "THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH" BY: NORTON JUSTER

Hello dear blog readers! Well, my picture, as you can see, did not copy very well..... But anyways, this time I was the illustrator. I was supposed to make an illustration regarding a specific scene from the book. I named my picture, "Demon Run", because at one point in the book, when Rhyme and Reason are escaping from the demons, they get chased by them. In this scene though, I only drew bug, tock and Milo, because I felt that they were the true main characters of the book. As you can see, there are something like big worm like creatures in the sky, and these are actually just some demons. As you can see, next to Tock there is a short creature, and that is the demon, who is not actually a demon. The tall guy with no face at the back is the demon of Useless tasks, and he is also pursuing his enemies.

My comrades, assessed the picture and I think all of them liked it. I think Kai was the one who really showed that she liked it the most. Robert and Shai-Lee also seemed very satisfied with the picture. Here is how I think about other roles in my group:

1. Robert. His word choice was very interesting, and he was the word enricher. He wrote 8 words, so I honestly wished that he put in more, but I do understand on the other hand that there are no really new words in the part of the book that we just read.
2. Shai-Lee. She was the discussion director. She asked some very good questions, and they were not only related to the part of the book that we were supposed to read, but about the whole book itself. I just wish she could have maybe made here questions a little bit more specific, but very good overall.
3. Kai. She was the literary-luminary. Her job was to find interesting phrases or sentences from the book, and write about them. She chose some very puzzling phrases, which I personally fround very interesting!
This weeks winner is....... SHAI-LEE SHAY! She made a marvelous group of questions and I was very impressed with her high-quality work.
**** I caught up with the rest, and I am ok now. As you might know, last time I mis-interpreted how much we were supposed to read, but that issue is know solved****
Thank for reading my short blog post, and I am sorry for the small amount of text included. My role was not something I could write about too much, but next time I will increase my word amount! NL

Meeting #3 Vocab Enricher

Robert Duff
Vocabulary Enricher
The Phantom Tollbooth
252/256

This meeting I was Vocabulary Enricher and in the definition and sentence column, the definition is at the top of the box and the sentence I created is at the bottom. I found the definitions in the Collins: Canadian English Dictionary. Here are the words I found interesting:

       Page, Paragraph                Word              Definition & Sentence

Page 193
Paragraph 1


Dreadfully
In a dreadful way.

I'm sorry i'm so dreadfully late

Page 201
Paragraph 2


Ominously
Portending evil or harm.

That is a very ominous bunch of dark clouds.

Page 198
Paragraph 6


Melancholy
A gloomy state of mind.

He has an occasional look of melancholy in his eyes.

Page 203
Paragraph 3


Glumly
A feeling of dejection.

He was sitting there feeling glum.

Page 204
Paragraph 3


Maliciously
To be spiteful, Spitefully

Both she and her husband are subjected to maliciously false accusations.

Page 209
Paragraph 2


Amiably
Friendly, Sociable

That was such an amiable thing to do.

Page 219
Paragraph 6


Conspicuous
Easily noticed

You made a very conspicuous error in your presentation.

Page 237
Paragraph 2


Loathsome
Causing feelings of disgust

Also, they both loved loathsome, grotesque characters