1. Issue 9 / SEPTEMBER 2012In this months Digital NationThe Cloud, Condensed Best of 2011 ProfessionalFeatured in this issueResources Resource LinksFiction All Good Children, by Catherine Austen MagazineNonfiction Oil, by James Laxer Nowhere Else on Earth, by Caitlyn VernonGraphic Novel On the Turn, by Jay Odjick

2. TEXT2READERA monthly Language Arts program for middleschools, presented by Orca Book PublishersCONTENTSWelcome to Text2Reader41. FictionExcerpt: All Good Children 6 (Focus: reading literary texts for meaning)Exercise 1A: As You See ItReflecting on the Text9 (Focus: responding to literature; making inferences; analyzing; evaluating)Exercise 1B: Write It DownComparing and Sharing 10 (Focus: text-to-text connections; summarizing; evaluating;explaining to a partner)Exercise 1C: Making MeaningExamining Tension in Writing 11(Focus: analysis; making connections; evaluation; reading witha purpose)Exercise 1D: Write It DownTense Up! Creating Tension in Your 12 Writing(Focus: experimenting with elements of style; makingconnections)Assessment Rubric: Writing Personal Views or Responses 132. NonfictionExercise 2A: Before You ReadHarnessing Your Brainpower14 (Focus: prereading comprehension strategies; metacognition)Excerpts: Oil and Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the 15Great Bear Rainforest (Focus: reading nonfiction texts for meaning)Exercise 2B: Looking for Answers 17 (Focus: comprehension; synthesis)Exercise 2C: Asking QuestionsIndustrial Environmental Disasters 18 (Focus: developing powerful questions; analyzing; synthesizing;prioritizing; metacognition) 3. 3. Graphic NovelExercise 3A: Making MeaningReading the Graphic Novel 20 prereading skills; text features; analyzing; (Focus:metacognition)Excerpt: On the Turn21 (Focus: reading graphic novels/visual texts for meaning)4. Digital Nation: People, Tech, News Article: The Cloud, Condensed25 Exercise 4A: Looking for Answers 27(Focus: comprehension; synthesizing; making connections) Exercise 4B: Words in Text 29 Frayer model; dictionary skills; defining words in(Focus: context)5. Readers TheaterAssessment Rubric: Readers Theater31Exercise 5A: Readers Theater32Script: On the Turn (Focus: reading with expression; developing fluency)Exercise 5B: Write It DownGetting into Character 37 (Focus: writing to inform and entertain; working with a group)Assessment Rubric: Scriptwriting38Suggested Resources39Answer Keys40Prescribed Learning OutcomesLearning outcomes for the September 2012 issue can be found on theText2Reader website under the Resources tab. 4. WELCOME TOTEXT2READER Youre a busy professional, and your prep time is a precious commodity. Thats why Orca Book Publishers brings you Text2Reader, a monthly resource for grades 6 to 8 English Language Arts (ELA) teachers. Text2Reader offers high-quality reading selections from award-winning books and engaging activities to help your students make meaning from what they read. Text2Reader speaks to the real-life issues that concern teens today, and reaches students with passages that connect to their own livesincluding Digital Nation, a feature article with accompanying activities based on current issues in the online world. And for you? Weve packaged a bundle of easy-to-use, teacher-created comprehension exercises, reading and writing activities, asessments and opportunities for enrichmentall directly tied to ELA learning outcomes. Its affordableway more affordable than (yet another) set of textbooks. And every class in your middle school can use Text2Reader, for one low price. TEXT2READER at a glanceIn each issue of Text2Reader youll find:award-winning fiction, nonfiction and graphic novel selections;teacher-created reading comprehension exercises that support English Language Arts learning outcomes across North America;a feature article profiling current issues and significant people in the digital world;literacy-based projects, both independent and guided, that focus on reading, writing, speaking and listening, and that support your students in learning to read instructions and complete tasks on their own;numerous opportunities for you to integrate concepts from Math, Social Studies, Science and Health;multimedia and web-based research and exploration;Readers Theater from a bestselling novel or graphic guide;a variety of ready-to-go assessment rubrics, including authentic assessments such as student self- evaluations; andan engaging layout and conversational tone that appeals to your students. Each month, when a new issue of Text2Reader arrives, you can download a checklist of English Language Arts learning outcomes for your jurisdiction and grade from our website (www.text2reader.com). In that checklist, we break down which outcomes are covered in that months issue of Text2Reader. Who knew it could be so easy?4www.text2reader.com 5. How to use this resourceText2Reader arrives as a ready-to-use package and covers all of your ELA outcomes in a fun and engagingway. You dont have to consult a hefty resource guide or plan an entire unit around reaching a particular setof outcomes. Text2Reader does it for you. Even better? Most sections of Text2Reader can stand alone, with-out teacher guidance. You can pick and choose parts of the program or photocopy the entire package andassign it to your students. You can use it in the classroom or send parts of it home as independent study. Andits the perfect solution for those days when youre too time-pressed to planor when a sub covers your class.Text2Reader is a supplementary resourceone that supports you in your goals of teaching students to lovereading, to understand a variety of texts, to think critically and personally about the texts they encounter,and to make meaning by listening, speaking and writing about what theyre reading. It complements andenhances your ongoing Language Arts program.Ok, if its really that easy...sign me up!Text2Reader is published eight times a year by Orca Book Publishers. To subscribe, please visitwww.text2reader.com, call 1-800-210-5277 or email text2reader@orcabook.com.Subscribe to Text2Reader at a cost of $175 per year for your entire school. Each issue may be printed andphotocopied and shared with other teachers in your building.Schools in British Columbia may subscribe to Text2Reader throughLearnNowBC at a reduced rate. Call 1-800-210-5277 for more details. We want to hear from you.What do you like aboutYour annual subscription includes eight issues from the time youText2Reader? What workssubscribe. For example, if you subscribe in September you willin your classroom? Whatwould you like to see inreceive eight issues over the course of the school year. And if youfuture issues?subscribe in November, you will receive all remaining issues for thatschool year plus issues into the next school year. In addition to the Email:upcoming issues, you will receive access to the past issues on the text2reader@orcabook.comText2Reader site and all additional content.An annual subscription also allows school access to the dedicated Text2Reader website at www.Text2Reader.com, which includes additional resources, web links, archived content, Readers Theater scripts and more.Visit www.text2reader.com for more details. If you have any questions, please call 1-800-210-5277.Text2Reader is available as a PDF file. If you require a hard copy, we can do that too! Hard-copy mailout is$225 annually.Text2Reader is the copyright of Orca Book Publishers.Text2Reader September 2012 5 6. 1. FICTION The fiction passage in this issue is taken from All Good Children, by Catherine Austen (Orca Book Publishers, 2011). Heres a summary: Its the middle of the twenty-first century and the elite children of New Middletown are lined up to receive a treatment that turns them into obedient, well-mannered citizens. Maxwell Connors, a fifteen-year-old prankster, misfit and graffiti artist, observes the changes with growing concern, especially when his younger sister, Ally, is targeted. Max and his best friend, Dallas, escape the treatment, but must pretend to be zombies while they watch their free-doms and hopes decay. When Maxs family decides to take Dallas with them into the unknown world beyondNew Middletowns borders, Maxs creativity becomes an unexpected bonus rather than a liability.Now that you know what All Good Children is all about, read the following section from Chapter 1. In thispassage, Max, his mom and his little sister are returning home after attending an aunts funeral in a nearbycity. Max is waiting to be given his Realtime Integrated Gateway (RIG) back after his mom confiscated it fora stupid prank earlier in the week.A RIG is a Web-enabled communicationsdevice similar to todays Smartphones, butwith greater functionality.Its a half-hour shuttle from the Bradford Airport across the National Forest toNew Middletown, but Mom still wont give me back my RIG. Im stuck staring atthe beauty of the Pennsylvania Wilds. I kick Allys foot just for something to do. You will never get that RIG back if you dont stop right now, Mom says so 5loudly that other passengers look our way. I stare out the window like Im notinvolved. There are no cars for rent at the New Middletown station, so we take a taxihome. The drivers id reads Abdal-Salam Al-Fulin. Ive barely buckled up beforehe asks, Did you hear about the speed-rail bombings in the southwest? Over 10 three hundred dead. Theres nowhere safe anymore. We show a guard our ids and drive through the gates of my glorious town.I feel pretty safe right here, I say, but I know Ill feel a lot safer once I get out ofthis taxi. Ally watches a wildlife show in the backseat beside Mom, who stares out the 15 window. Mom was RIG-addicted before Dad died. She uploaded our lives as theyhappened. Now she lets the world blur by.6www.text2reader.com 7. I love driving in this city, the driver tells me. Every road is a straight line. Its energy efficient, I tell him. New Middletown is the most environmentally smart city in the northeast. But they chopped down ten square miles of forest to20 build it. Were big on irony here. I dont like the forest, the driver says. I shrug. Its beautiful. Ive never actually stepped foot in the forest, but I like driving by and seeing all the different shades of green. New Middletown is monotonous. Everything in town is the same age, same style, same color. What we25 lack in personality we compensate for with security. Half the city is bordered by forest and the other half is walled. There are only six roads into town and all of them are guarded. We dont sprawl. We stand tall and tight. There are no beggars or thieves in New Middletown. If you dont have a place to live and work here, you dont get in. This driver probably hates the forest because he has to live there in a tent.30 Over the past twenty years, Chemrose International has built six cities just like this to house the six largest geriatric centers in the world. Everyone who lives or works in New Middletown pays rent to Chemrose. The whole town revolves around New Middletown Manor Heights Geriatric Rest Home and its 32,000 beds. I never get lost here, the driver says as he joins a line of cars traveling north35 along the city spine, past hospitals, labs and office towers. Im surprised you get much business, I say. The city spines are entirely pedestrian, and each quadrant is like a self- contained village, with its own schools, clinics, gardens, rec centers, even our own hydroponics and water treatment facilities. We dont have much call for taxicabs.40 I dont get much business, the driver admits. Mostly I take people away. To where? He shrugs. You go to school here? Sure. Academic school. Lucky boy. What you going to be when youre grown?45 An architect. I dont hesitate. We pick our career paths early in academic school. You going to build things like that? the driver asks me. He points to the New Middletown City Hall and Security Center, which glimmers in the distance on our left. It stands at the intersection of the city spines, in the exact center of town, rising to a point in twenty-eight staggered stories of colored glass.50 I hope so, I say. He snorts. I dont like it. It looks like its made of ice. He turns onto the underpass and City Hall disappears from view. Thats the artistic heart of town, I say. He snorts again. I dont see any art in this city. Never. I dont hear any music. I55 dont hear any stories. I dont see any theater. You can see all that from any room in any building, I tell him. We have our own communications network.Fiction Text2Reader September 2012 7 8. He sighs. You like living here? Of course. Who wouldnt? People line up to get in here. 60 Like me, he says. I line up and wait, I come inside, I drop you off, I leave. Times are tough, I say. Not for everyone, he mutters. He drives up to ground level and heads away from the core. Chemrose spent eight years and billions of dollars building this city just before 65I was born. They laid down the spines and connecting roads like a giant spider building a web. People swarmed here. But they didnt all get in. Shanties and car- parks spread outside the western wall, full of hopefuls who come inside for a few hours to clean our houses or drive us home. They were hit hard by the Venezuelan flu, which wiped out half the elderly and 10 percent of everyone else in the city, 70including my father. The epidemic cost Chemrose a fortune in private funding and public spirit. Mom kept her nursing job, so were fit. We moved from a four- bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment that sits on the fringe of our old neighborhood. Ally and I are still in academic schools, so we have hope, which is a rare commodity these dangerous days. Most people are a lot more damaged. 75 Maybe I will find a bed here when I am old, the driver says with another snort. Turn left here, I say. We cruise through the northeast residential district, past the white estate homes where I used to live, through a maze of tan-on-beige triplexes and brown- 80on-tan row houses, and into our black-on-brown apartment complex. Unit six, I say. The driver circles the complex like a cop, slow and suspicious, passing five identical buildings before he gets to ours, the Spartanas in the apple, not the Greeks. The apartments are memorials to fallen fruit: Liberty, Gala, Crispin, Fuji, 85McIntosh. This is where you live? the driver asks. He looks up, unimpressed. The apartments reek of economy. No balconies, no roof gardens, no benches. Just right angles and solar panels and recycling bins. I used to mock the people who lived here. Now I withstand the mockery of others. I hold out my hand to Mom. She stares at me curiously. RIG, I say. She rolls 90her eyes but gives me what I want. I power up, empty the trunk, drag two suit- cases to the door. Thanks for the ride, I tell Abdal. Good luck. Good luck to you too, he shouts.8www.text2reader.com 9. Exercise 1A: As You See ItReflecting on the TextPut your head together with a partner. Talk about these questions. Thenanswer them in complete sentences.1. When Max says theyre big on irony in New Middletown, what does he mean?2. From what you know about the story so far, what do you predict is the significance of the citys name,New Middletown?3. Whats better: individual freedom and personality, or security in an uncertain world?4. Max observes that if you dont have a place to live and work, you cant be in New Middletown. Look at thisrule from both sides. What are the advantages of organizing a society in this way? What are the drawbacks?5. What might be the reason(s) that art, music and theater arent allowed in New Middletown?6. How does Maxs education differ from yours?Fiction Text2Reader September 2012 9 10. Exercise 1B: Write It DownSharing and Comparing Chances are youve read a book, watched a movie or played a game that introduces a different world than the one we live in. Maybe its a dystopian world (a society in a repressive or controlled state), like The Giver or The Hunger Games. Maybe its futuristic, like The City of Ember. Or maybe its purely science fiction, like Gool or Animorphs. Your job? To explain this world to usand to tell a friend. In the box below, write about a fictional world that you have read about (or watched). What elements does it share in common with New Middletown? What does it share in common with our world as it is today? How is it different? Use complete sentences, point form, sketcheshowever you want to convey the information! In your summary, be sure to include details about: the worlds physical appearance the way it differs from our own world the people/organisms/droids/little green guys who populate it its reason for existing what you find most interesting, terrifying or disturbing about itOne fictional world Ive encountered is... Take ten minutes with a partner to share your worlds.10www.text2reader.com 11. Exercise 1C: Making MeaningExamining Tension in WritingImagine finding a slingshot. If you hold it in one hand, its not much fun,right? But pull back the elastic and suddenly that slingshot becomes a lotmore interesting. Its the tension that gets yourattention.In writing, as in life, tension occurs when a character wants something different than what he or she is get-ting. It occurs when theres impending danger, when a character is running out of time, or when s/he facesembarrassment. Pretty much any situation that isnt comfortable or where the outcome is unknown will causetension for a character.Weve bolded a few points of tension from All Good Childrenand all this is just in the first four paragraphs!Do you think we missed any?Its a half-hour shuttle from the Bradford Airport across the National Forest to NewMiddletown, but Mom still wont give me back my RIG. Im stuck staring at thebeauty of the Pennsylvania Wilds. I kick Allys foot just for something to do. You will never get that RIG back if you dont stop right now, Mom says so loudlythat other passengers look our way. I stare out the window like Im not involved.There are no cars for rent at the New Middletown station, so we take a taxihome. The drivers id reads Abdal-Salam Al-Fulin. Ive barely buckled up before heasks, Did you hear about the speed-rail bombings in the southwest? Over threehundred dead. Theres nowhere safe anymore.We show a guard our ids and drive through the gates of my glorious town. I feelpretty safe right here, I say, but I know Ill feel a lot safer once I get out of this taxi.Now go back to the excerpt on pages 68. Look for other instances of tension. Underline or highlight them.Circle words that are particularly powerful for creating tension.Choose one instance in the passage where you think the tension is significant. What makes this part sointeresting? Text Tip: Think about some of your favorite storiesfrom Hansel and Gretel to The Hobbit. How do the authors create tension? (Throwing obstacles in the way of their characters.) How do the characters handle that tension? (Freaking out, making mistakes, doubting themselves and eventually overcoming those obstacles.) Fiction Text2Reader September 2012 11 12. Exercise 1D: Write It DownTense Up! Creating Tension in Your Writing pull that elastic back. Waaaaay back. In this exercise, you get to writeTime toa personal recollection about a tense experience. Write a personal narrative using one of the following prompts. Your recollection will read much like a short story, with a beginning, middle and end. Youll develop your problem as the narrative unfolds, and show how you solved the problem in the end. Your most important task is to amp up your writing by adding tension. This makes it interesting! 1. In the passage, we see that Max is nervous and feels unsafe when hes traveling with a stranger in a taxi outside his familiar neighborhood. Write about a time when you found yourself in a situation where you felt unsafe. Include details about where you were and what you perceived to be the risks of being there at that time. How did you overcome that situation and get to a place where you felt safe again? 2. In All Good Children, Max begs his mother to smuggle their family into Canada, where the government isnt bent on controlling peoples minds. But doing so means he has to break rules along the way. Write about a time when you intentionally broke the rules for a higher purpose. Explain the situation or problem you were facing and why it presented an ethical dilemma. How and why did you make your decision? What was the outcome? Text Tip: Check the list below for a few ways to strengthen your writing with tension. Write short sentences with active verbs. Put obstacles in the way of your characters. Make them struggle to reach their goals! Have your characters tease each other, play head games or create problems for each other. Create the feeling that something bad or dangerous is about to happen. Show your characters fear or other negative emotions when they face a problem or situation. Check the links on the T2R website for more ideas on how to spring-load your writing with tension.Remember to look onlinewhen you see this icon. Before you begin, read through the rubric on the following page to make sure your recollection meets the criteria of a powerful, meaningful personal text.12www.text2reader.com 13. Assessment Rubric: Writing Personal Views or ResponsesASPECT NOT YET WITHIN MEETS FULLY MEETS EXCEEDSEXPECTATIONSEXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS (MINIMAL LEVEL)SNAPSHOT The writing addressesThe writing presents The writing is clear, The writing is clear, the topic but is seriously revelant ideas about logical, with someanalytic and shows flawed by problems inthe topic but does not analysis andsome insight. It features logic, style and develop the topic to any development of asome engaging ideas or mechanics. May be very extent. Often vague; central idea. Provideslanguage. short. parts may be flawed by sufficient material toerrors.meet requirements.MEANING presents some ideas; presents a series of sense of purpose; purposeful, with ideas and may be illogical orrelated ideastries to deal withsome individuality,informationinappropriate generally accurate complexitiesinsight; deals with use of detail inaccurate, illogicaldetails, examples and relevant and accurate complexities general- or insufficient detailsexplanations; may notdetails, examples some engaging izations orconclusions connections may be link to central idea and explanations; details, examples omitted or confusing some difficultyincludes some and explanations;making connections analysisincludes analysis,beyond the makes connections reflection, speculationimmediate andor generalizations puts topic in a broaderconcrete beyond thecontext; logical immediate topic generalizations, connectionsSTYLE no sense of fluency or some sentence variety; uses a variety of flows smoothly; uses a clarity,flow; sentences areuses complex sentence types andvariety of sentencevariety andoften short andsentenceslengths types and lengthsimpact ofchoppy or long and conversational language is clear,effectivelylanguage awkwardlanguage; generallyappropriate and varied and effective limited, simpleappropriatevariedlanguage languageFORM often begins with beginning introduces introduces topics and establishes purpose beginning,introduction,the topicpurpose and context in clear middle, end assuming that the ending is often weak, explicit conclusion and often interesting organizationreader knows the formulaic(often formulaic) introductionand sequence topic and context related ideas are logical sequence; logical conclusion transitions ending is ineffectivetogether; may be related ideas are smooth and logical lapses in sequence listed rather than togethersequence; explicit may shift abruptly developed transitions connect paragraphing from one idea to simple transitions;ideas clearly variety of natural and anothersometimes ineffectivesmooth transitionsCONVENTIONS frequent errors in errors in basic words errors in more may include complete simple words andand structures arecomplex languageoccasional errorssentences structures oftennoticeable but do notare sometimeswhere the writer is spelling interfere with meaningobscure meaningnoticeable, buttaking risks with punctuation meaning is clear complex language; grammarthese do notinterfere withmeaningSource: BC Performance Standards Quick-ScaleFiction Text2Reader September 2012 13 14. 2. NONFICTIONExercise 2A: Before You ReadHarnessing Your BrainpowerTheres more to being a good reader than just being able to decode the wordson the page. Reading nonfiction is a bit different than reading fiction. Andbecause of that, the reading strategies you use will differ slightly too. A. Read the following list of strategies for understanding what you read. Most of them will probably be familiarto you. Which do you use most often? (Wait a second. You say you dont use them? Well, nows the timeto start! The more strategies you have at your fingertips for understanding nonfiction, the easier itll be tofigure out the tough stuff as you advance in school.) 1. Make a list of key words you think are important. Add to the list as you read the passage. 2. In each paragraph, underline the phrase or words that you think capture the main idea. 3. Circle ideas and facts that are new to you. 4. At the end of every section, stop and ask yourself: Can I put what I just read into my ownwords? Could I explain it to someone else? 5. Ask yourself whether you can detect any author bias in the passage. How would you saythis author feels about the subject matter? How does the authors perspective compare toyour own? 6. Pay attention to text features like bolded terms and section headings. (Often headings willgive you a hint to the main idea.)B. Choose two of these strategies. Use them as you read through this months nonfiction passage.C. What surprises you in this passage? Why?14www.text2reader.com 15. This months nonfiction passage is adapted from two books. The main article about the rise of the petroleum industry is from Oil by James Laxer (Groundwood Books, 2008); the sidebar comes from Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest by Caitlyn Vernon (Orca Book Publishers, 2011). Oil explores humans dependence on fossil fuels and looks at how we might success- fully navigate the decline in petroleum stocks worldwide. In Nowhere Else on Earth, environmental activist Caitlyn Vernon assesses some of the threats to the Great Bear Rainforest, one of the most ecologically diverse areas on the planet.The Rise of OilConsidering how dependent the world now is on petroleum consumption, it may come as a surprise tolearn that in historical terms the large-scale use of oil is a recent phenomenon. The modern oil industry hadits origins in Canada and the United States on the eve of the American Civil War. In 1858, the first oil wellin North America was drilled in Petrolia, Ontario, and the following year, an oil well drilled in Titusville,Pennsylvania, ushered in the petroleum age in the US. A decade prior to the drilling of these pioneer wells, 5Canadian geologist Dr. Abraham Gesner discovered the technique for refining kerosene from coal. A fewyears later a Pole, Ignacy Lukasiewicz, figured out how to distill kerosene from oil. That discovery quicklycreated a huge international market for kerosene.Up until that time, the illuminant of choice had been whale oil. Before kerosene became readily available,a gigantic whaling industry operated in various parts of the world, including New England. The whaling 10industrys principal goal was to hunt the huge seagoing mammals who served as a source of oil to light lampsand to provide lighting on the streets of American towns and cities. By the 1850s, the price of whale oil hadreached an all-time high, selling in 1856 for $1.77 a gallon, a price which if translated into todays dollarswould be twenty or thirty times the contemporary price of gasoline. Within a few years, as kerosene replacedit, the price of whale oil plunged (to forty cents a gallon by 1895), and the whaling industry fell on hard times. 15Most whaling operations on the east coast of the US went out of business. The relentless law of supply anddemand was at work. When a cheaper, superior product came on the marketthe price of refined oil wasunder seven cents a gallon in 1895the older, more expensive product was driven out of the marketplace.(One effect of the rise of the petroleum industry is that it almost certainly saved many species of whales fromextinction.) 20Oil did not have a smooth start as an industry. In 1878, Henry Woodward, a Canadian, invented the electriclightbulb and sold the patent to Thomas Edison. As this new invention spread, the demand for kerosene driedup and the oil industry fell into a recession. In the mid-1880s, the industry was rescued, and this time theNonfiction Text2Reader September 2012 15 16. An Oil Spill to Rememberrescue was permanent. The internal combustionengine, which employed gasoline to power auto-25People are concerned that oil tankers might mobiles, was pioneered in Europe by Karl Benz andone day travel the narrow channels off BCs Wilhelm Daimler. In the first years of the twentiethcoast. Whats the big deal? Well, lets look back century, the mass age of the automobile was ush-to a particularly devastating tanker crash for aered in, with the incorporation by Henry Ford ofreminder of why oil and water really dont mix. the Ford Motor Company in 1903. In 1908, Ford 30 One night in March 1989, the Exxon Valdezlaunched the Model T Ford, which sold initially foroil tanker ran aground on a rocky reef in Alaska. $980. Automobiles revolutionized American citiesIt was carrying oil from Alaska to feed the carsand the American way of life, ensuring an ever-and industries of the United States. Sharp rocksrising demand for oil, the black gold that becameripped the side of the tanker open; the oil thatthe indispensable fuel on which the modern world35spilled out would have filled 125 Olympic-sizeran.swimming pools!It was an environmental disaster. Birds coated inoil were no longer able to keep themselves warm, and they couldnt fly. Sea otters depend on their furto stay warm, so when they were covered in oil, they literally froze to death. The otters and birds alsoswallowed the oil when trying to clean themselves, and they died when the oil poisoned them. The oilaffected the plankton, which are food for the salmon and the herring. The whales and animals andbirds that eat herring and salmon also became contaminated with oil, and many died. The oil spill was also a disaster for the people who made their living from the sea. Therewere fewer fish to catch, and no one wanted to buy or eat seafood contaminated with oil. Theprocessing plants and canneries closed, and many people lost their jobs. The First Nations were nolonger able to eat the fish, shellfish, waterfowl and wild animals they depended on for food.Even after a massive clean-up effort, oil from the spill that happened over twenty years ago stillwashes up on shores 700 kilometers (435 miles) away and could take centuries to disappear. Thecommunities and coastal ecosystems have not recovered. The Exxon Valdez disaster taught us that an oil spill can cause severe and lasting damage to therainforest and coastal ecosystems. In 2010, the blowout of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well inthe Gulf of Mexico was a reminder that accidents are bound to happen (even with the best moderntechnology), that cleanup is next to impossible, and that coastal communities suffer as jobs in fishingand tourism are lost.Words in Text: Glossaryilluminant: a substance used to generate visible lightinternal combustion engine: an engine where a fossil fuelis burned inside the engine in a combustion chamberpatent: a grant made by a government that gives thecreator of an invention the right to make, use or sell that contaminated: made impure by the addition of a pollutinginvention for a certain period of timesubstancerecession: a period of temporary economic decline processing: the act of taking a raw material andtransforming it into a packaged, consumable product16www.text2reader.com 17. Exercise 2B: Looking for Answers Answer the following questions using complete sentences.1. In what year was the first North American oil well drilled?2. In your own words, describe how the whaling industry declined during the nineteenth century.3. What event revived the petroleum industry in the late nineteenth century?4. What are some of the concerns about oil tankers traveling the BC coast?5. Describe what happened when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a rocky Alaskan reef.6. How did the oil tankers accident affect the humans who lived in the area?7. What products can you think of that are made from oil? Nonfiction Text2Reader September 2012 17 18. Exercise 2C: Asking QuestionsIndustrial Environmental Disasters In All Good Children, Max likes to watch a reality show called Freakshow, where disfigured contestants square off in an MMA-style smackdown. Hes got his money on Zipperhead, a 22-year-old with scars from a long-ago surgery that separated him from a conjoined twin. Heres a little clip from the book: Two of this seasons contestants are from New Mexico. Thats a rarity. Usually everyone is from Freaktown. I cant remember the real name of the place its been called Freaktown all my life. It was christened twenty-five years ago when two transport tankers spilled untested agricultural chemicals on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River. No one cared much until the birth defects showed up: conjoined twins, spinal abnormalities, missing limbs, extra limbs, enlarged brains, external intestines, missing genitals, extra organs.When the same defects appeared in the babies of agricultural workers all over the country, the poisons were taken off the market and the shoreline was cleaned up.It came too late. Even today, one in three babies born in Freaktown has deformities. Nobody visits the city anymore. Strangely enough, nobody ever leaves the place either. Freaktowns a fictional place, of course. But similar tragedies have occurred on smaller scales in our real-life world. Youve read about the Exxon Valdez and the explosion of BPs oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. What other environmental catastrophes have you heard about? Jot a list on the lines below. Head to www.text2reader.com for links to a few more human-caused environmental disasters throughout history. Read these in preparation for the next section. Join up with a partner or small group. Use Asking Good Questions on the next page to help you develop a list of questions about industrial environmental disasters and their consequences for humans, animals and the environment. Use these questions as a springboard to a deeper discussion with your whole class.Text Tip: Asking questions helps you learn better. Health care research shows that teachingpeople to develop good questions helps them take better care of their bodies by getting theminvolved in the way health care is provided to them. Similarly, good questioning helps to developstudents ability to brainstorm, prioritize and reflect. In other words, asking questions makes yousmarter!18www.text2reader.com 19. Asking Good QuestionsThink about some of the questions that came up as you read the websites on industrial disasters. But beforeyou grab your laptop and partnerdid you know there are actually techniques for developing goodquestions?1. Your first step is to engage in a question free-for-all, similar to a brainstorming session. The rules are asfollows: Ask as many questions as you can. Do not stop to discuss, judge or answer any of the questions. Write down every question exactly as it was stated. Change any statements into questions.2. Now, to get at the really interesting conversations, you want to be asking open-ended questions. Workwith your group to improve your questions. Toss out the closed-ended questions and keep the ones that willdeepen the discussion. Text Tip: An open-ended question cant be answered with a yes or no, or with a short, tidy answer. Things like Do industrial disasters have a negative impact on the surrounding environment? are called closed-ended questions. Broaden it out a bit.3. Choose the three questions you most want to explore further. Write them in the spaces below.4. Reflect on this task. How is asking questions about a topic different than doing research on that topic? Whatdo you like about it? (With thanks to the Department of Education at Harvard) Nonfiction Text2Reader September 2012 19 20. 3. graphic novel This graphic novel excerpt is from On the Turn by Jay Odjick (Healthy Aboriginal Network, 2007). In On the Turn, Brianna finds herself falling in with a crowd of gamblers at her new school. Before long, shes winningand losingbig. Shes hooked. And shes having trouble finding enough cash to feed her gambling habit. When Brianna gets caught stealing from her little sister, she is forced to face her problem. In this segment, Briannas family has moved to a new communitywhich means the kids have to start all over again at new schools. Exercise 3A: Making MeaningReading the Graphic Novel Before You ReadGraphic novels use words and pictures to tell a story, right? But theres so much more to it than that. Here aresome tips to get the most out of your graphic novel experience:1. The pages of a graphic novel are broken up into panels. Each panel provides pictures, and often words, thatmove the story along.2. The panels are read in sequence, from left to rightjust like you read a regular book. (Got manga? Thenread from the back of the book to the frontand from right to left!)3. Graphic novels arent just comics. They tell a full story, with a setting, plot and characters that develop asyou go along.4. Pictures in graphic novels often tell us more about the story than a regular film can. Sometimes they evenunmask the meaning of the words. The expressions on the characters faces, their body positions and thesound effects all add to the words to make the story richer. (BAM! Did that get your attention? Since graphicnovels are a silent medium, all noise has to be created visually.)5. Much of the story is told in dialogue through speech and thought bubbles. Each bubble has a tail, to showyou whos talking. To figure out the order of whos saying what, read the speech bubbles from the top of thepanel toward the bottom.6. When the author needs to add a characters inner speech, or extra information to help the story, he or sheuses a caption. Captions are in boxes, and they can be inside or outside the panel.7. Sometimes words are bigger or darker or different in the captions or speech bubbles. This shows howthey should be read (i.e., with an icy tone, in a frightened tone, etc.)20www.text2reader.com 21. Graphic Novel Text2Reader September 2012 21 22. 22www.text2reader.com 23. Graphic Novel Text2Reader September 2012 23 24. After Reading With a partner or in a small group, work your way through the following questions. Jot your answers in the space below the questions, and share them with the class afterward. 1. The story leads off with two captions. How do these captions help us as readers? 2. Explain how the author/illustrator creates sound effects in the fourth panel. 3. Look at Brianna in the fifth panel. How would you describe her emotions? How do you know? 4. How can we tell how Brianna is feeling in the seventh panel? Explain. 5. In the panel where Brianna and her sister are in bed, what can you tell about the way Kerri speaks her first word? What technique did the author/illustrator use? 6. How does the way you read the graphic novel excerpt differ from how you read the fiction and nonfiction passages? Which type of text took longer to read? Why do you think that is? Which seemed to be the easiest? Do you change your reading speed according to how complex the information is?24www.text2reader.com 25. 4. DIGITAL NATION PEOPLE, TECH, NEWSIf youve used Google Docs, uploaded videos to YouTube or signed up for a Hotmailaccount, congratulations: your head is firmly in the cloud. This month, Digital Nationtakes a good, long gander at cloud computing: what it is, whos using itand where doesall that information go?The Cloud,CondensedIt used to be that you stored your songs on a CD ordrive or other storage device in your homelike,an mp3 player. Now you can access your playlists say, a USB stick or an external hard driveyouwith your SmartPhone. You used to have to print offsave it to a remote database. These storage systemsphotos or attach them to emails to share them with are called servers and are maintained by thirdother people. Now you can upload them to Face- parties. When youre ready to retrieve your infor-book or Picasa. Back in the day, if you were work- mation, the server sends it back to you (or lets youing on a group project, everyone would make theirchange files on the server itself) through a Web-changes to the hard copy, which required a lot ofbased interface.passing paper back and forth and merging multiple No matter what kind of data it stores, everychanges to the same document. Not anymore: weve cloud provider needs to house all of its equipmentgot Google Docs. somewhere. Some storage systems are small and Nowadays our information exchanges are dont take up a lot of space. Others are huge andinstantaneous, thanks to the cloud.can fill warehouses. These data centers are scat- tered all over the world, from Boston to BombayWhat is the cloud, anyway? and beyond. The cloud is the Internet itself. And while cloud It would be pretty crazy to store all of yourcomputing isnt exactly new (Flickr and Yahoo Mail important information on just one server, though,have been around for years), were hearing a lot right? For this reason, cloud providers make suremore about it now, in part because of the popularity your information is recorded onto many comput-of websites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.ers. This is called building in redundancy. Most In cloud computing, you send your files throughproviders will also have servers connected tothe Internet to a storage system outside your com- different power supplies. So if Toronto suffers aputeroften even outside your country. So insteadblackout, Berlins servers will likely still be work-of storing information to your computers hard ing, meaning your information wont be lost. Digital Nation Text2Reader September 2012 25 26. Some cloud providers, like Google Docs, offerBut wait. Is that a thundercloud I see?their services for free. Others, like Dropbox, let Nothings perfect, and cloud computing is noyou have a certain amount of storage space for free, exception. Some people worry that with all theand then if you fill that up you can buy more. redundancy and access to information in the cloud, we might lose privacy. For example, what happens when Company X stores its data in the cloudand Ireland: Not just then goes out of business? Who owns that data?potatoes anymore Can the cloud provider delete the businesss files Ireland has popped up as from its servers to free up space? a really good place to stick Concerns about privacy might not be a big deal data centers. Its ideally for regular people whose biggest secrets are who located between Europe theyre crushing on and how much they dislike it and North America, and when their BFF talks with her mouth full, but what its naturally cool climate about governments and health care providers? offers a more sensible way How do police departments work together to catch to cool hot equipment than criminals if the criminals can track their manhunts using air-conditioning. in the cloud? Other risks posed by cloud computing: hackers can pull information off of data center servers, or worse yet, break in and take the servers themselves.The Only Cloud People Actually LoveIts also possible that a cloud company could go out of business and leave millions of people with-Cloud services tend to be subscription-based, out access to their information. And some peoplewhere you pay for what you use, or you buy worry that because not every country has the samea certain amount of time to access the pro- kinds of privacy and security laws, the security ofgram. Either way, its cheaper than buying your data could be compromised.expensive software to run the programs youwant.Businesses love cloud computing becauseThe Silver Lining For the most part, doing business in the cloudthey no longer need a big IT department to is pretty safe. First of all, users of any program arefix software bugs, maintain programs or keep supposed to read the End User Licensing Agree-track of software licenses; thats all done by ment (EULA) before they click accept. (You dothe people who operate the cloud service. do that, dont you?) Cloud storage companies areAnother reason people love the cloud is be- careful to protect your data through encryption.cause it offers limitless storage. You dont Requiring users to log in using a password andhave to worry about losing your CDs or data user ID also increases security, and ensures no oneports. Backups and saving are frequent. else can access your files. You can access your information from any- Reliable, convenient, cheap and accessible fromwhere in the world, on any computer, just by anywhere in the world, the cloud makes informa-logging into the program youre using. And tion storage and exchange easier than ever before.with cloud computing, multiple users can ac-cess the same documents, meaning you cancollaborate efficiently with WAY less paper.26www.text2reader.com 27. Exercise 4A: Looking for AnswersAnswer the following questions using complete sentences.1. Explain what cloud computing is in your own words.2. Where do cloud providers keep the equipment required to provide their services?3. Explain the measures cloud providers have taken to keep users information safe.4. What are the advantages of cloud computing?5. Explain some of the possible downsides of cloud computing.6. As you see it, how has cloud computing changed the world for the better?7. How have you used cloud computing in your own life? Digital Nation Text2Reader September 2012 27 28. Exercise 4A: Looking for Answers Choose the best response for each question about the passage. 1. Before cloud computing, information was: a. shared instantaneously and efficiently b. saved onto hard drives and external storage devices c. the IT departments problem d. at risk of being lost e. b and d 2. In cloud computing, files are sent through:a. serversb. data centersc. cloud providersd. the Internete. third parties 3. Data centers are: a. where a providers physical equipment is located b. where cloud companies work c. located around the world d. a, b and c e. a and c only 4. Cloud providers back up users data in a process called:a. data centersb. redundancyc. an interfaced. subscription 5. Among the advantages of cloud computing are that: a. its cheaper than buying software b. maintenance and repairs are done by the cloud provider c. storage is unlimited d. all of the above e. a and c only 6. Some people worry that:a. every country has the same kinds of privacy and security lawsb. hackers will encrypt users datac. cloud computing puts our privacy at riskd. power outages will jeopardize data28www.text2reader.com 29. Exercise 4B: Words in TextIn this exercise, youve got choice. Select one of the following options tohelp you explore some of the new terminology from this months DigitalNation article.Option A: Explore a single term using the Frayer Model1. Working with a partner, choose one of the following terms from The Cloud, Condensed: interface redundancy collaboratecompromise2. Use the Frayer model on the next page to organize information about this term. Write your chosen termin the center of the Frayer model. In the appropriate spaces, record: a definition of the term (use a dictionary or a website like VisuWords.com if you like) facts about the term (from the article and from what you already know) examples of where or how this term would be used non-examples (you can use antonyms if you like)Option B: Create a glossary of terms1. Select six of the bolded terms from The Cloud, Condensed.2. Using a print or digital dictionary, locate the definition for three of these words.3. Write the definition for each word.4. Use each word in a sentence of your own creation.5. For the remaining three terms, define each of them in context. (That means using the words, sentencesand other information that surround a given word to figure out what it means.)6. Use each term in a sentence of your own creation. Digital Nation Text2Reader September 2012 29 30. Frayer ModelDefinition in your own wordsFacts/characteristics30www.text2reader.comTermExamplesNon-examples 31. 5. readers theaterOn the Turn,by Jay OdjickOn the following pages youll find the Readers Theater script for this issue. Want more? Go towww.text2reader.com for additional Readers Theater scripts.When youre doing Readers Theater, its important to remember that its a reading exercise. Youre notexpected to memorize your lines! Take plenty of time to rehearse. Use vivid intonation andgestures to liven up your part. Props? Costumes? Up to you.Read through the scoring rubric below. This will help you figure out how youll be marked. Buteven more importantly, itll give you tips on how to create the most powerful Readers Theaterperformance you can. Assessment Rubric: Readers Theater Level 1 Level 2Level 3(Approaching) (Meeting) (Exceeding) VOLUME Speaks too softly (or Usually speaks loudlyConsistently speakstoo loudly) for enough for audience to loudly enough foraudience to hearhear audience to hear CLARITYMany words pro- Most words are pro-Words are pronouncednounced incorrectly,nounced correctly andcorrectly and are easilytoo fast or slow; are easily understoodunderstoodmumbling READS WITH Reads with little or no Usually reads with Consistently reads with EXPRESSION expressionappropriate expression appropriate expression READS IN TURNRarely takes turns on a Takes turns accurately Takes turns accuratelyconsistent basison a somewhat consis-on a consistent basistent basisCOOPERATESDifficulty in working Sometimes works well Consistently works wellWITH GROUPwith others with otherswith othersReaders Theater Text2Reader September 2012 31 32. Exercise 5A: Readers TheaterOn the TurnThe following scene is adapted from On the Turn by Jay Odjick (Healthy AboriginalNetwork, 2007). Cast of Characters (in order of appearance):NarratorMom: Briannas momBrianna: an aboriginal teen whos irritated about having to move to a newcommunity; she falls in with a group of kids at school who like to gambleKristy: an Ojibway girl who befriends BriannaGwen: a friend of KristyMegan: a friend of KristyGamblers #1, 2 and 3: studentsReese: a guy at school who runs poker games Scene Summary Briannas family has just moved. She and her little sister are both starting at new schools this year. Brianna feels anxious about starting over with in an entirely new group of people. When Brianna bumps into Kristy, she meets her first friend at school. Unfortunately, Kristy and her pals get their kicks from gamblingand before long, Brianna finds she wants in on the action.Mom: So? You guys excited to start at your new schools on Monday?Brianna: [sarcastically] Yeah. Stoked.Mom: Whats the problem, Brianna?Brianna: Are you kidding me? Where do I start? How about us moving to a dump whereI dont know anybody? Or having to share a room with my little sister?Mom: Weve been over this already. Its not just YOU. We all have to do our part.32www.text2reader.com 33. Brianna: Ive heard about enough of this. Its always the same thing. Im going to myroom. [laughs bitterly] Sorry. I meant OUR room.Narrator:Brianna loved her little sister, but she felt frustrated at having to uproot her lifeand leave her old community. For little Kerri, it was an adventure. But forBrianna, it meant having to start all over again. Shed find out soon enough howeasy it was to settle in: she was about to start at her new school the next day.Brianna: [bumping into Kristy] Oof.Kristy: Hey! Watch it!Brianna: S-s-sorry. I wasnt watching where I was going.Kristy: Its okay. Hey, you aboriginal?Brianna: Yeah, Algonquin.Kristy: Cool! Me too! Ojibway. Im Kristy. This is Gwen, and this is Megan.Gwen Hey.& Megan:Brianna: Hey. Names Brianna.Kristy: Sucks being the new kid, huh?Brianna: [looking around] Totally.Kristy: You a senior?Brianna: Yeah. One more year, thank god. [nodding at Kristys iPod] Hey, cool iPod. What size is it?Kristy: Four gig.Brianna: Nice!Kristy: What size is yours?Brianna: I, uh, I dont have one. Readers Theater Text2Reader September 2012 33 34. Kristy, Gwen You dont have one?? & Megan: Brianna: [defensively] Hey, I dont have a rich family, okay? Gwen: Well, neither do any of us. Brianna: Well, I just assumed, judging from your nice clothes and stuff. Kristy: Nah. I bought this myself. Brianna: How can you afford stuff like that? Kristy: I won a big pot. Brianna: A big pot? Kristy: Yeah. A big pot. Lets hook up at lunch time. Well show you. Narrator:At lunch time, Kristy, Megan and Gwen caught up with Brianna at her locker. Kristy, Gwen Hey, Brianna! & Megan: Kristy: You got any money? Brianna: A little. Its for my lunch. Kristy: Oh. Wellcome on, the game will be starting soon. Narrator: The girls walk outside. Groups of people crowd around a couple of picnic tables where a game of cards is being played. Brianna: Whats going on? Kristy: Theyre playing hold em. Brianna: Hold em? Kristy: Texas hold em. Poker! Cmon! I want to get in on one. Narrator: As the girls approach the tables, they can hear the players talking to one another.34www.text2reader.com 35. Gambler #1: Ten of diamonds on the turn.Narrator: Kristy introduces Brianna to Reese, one of the guys who runs the poker games.Reese: Well, well. Here to lose a little cash, Kristy?Kristy: Not today, Reese. Im feelin it.Reese: Deal you in on the next round.Kristy: Cool.Reese: Whos your girl?Kristy: This is Brianna. Shes cool.Reese: [to Brianna] Sup?Brianna:Hi. [turning and whispering to Kristy] How much money is that on the table?Kristy:About seventy-five bucks.Gambler #1: Raise it five.Brianna: Seventy-five dollars?!Kristy: Thats nothing. Ive seen some pots at two fifty, even three hundred.Reese: I see your five and raise you twenty.Gambler #1: [sighing] I fold.Gambler #2: [irritated] I fold.Gambler #3: [throwing cards down] Damn. Im out.Reese: [laughing and collecting the cash] Now thats what Im talkin bout, son!Kristy: OK, now deal me in.Narrator: After the game, Kristy and Brianna walk back to class. Readers Theater Text2Reader September 2012 35 36. Brianna: How much did you lose? Kristy:[shrugging] Only about forty bucks. Stupid Reese. I beat him a few times, but he rarely loses. Brianna:Do you always lose so much? Kristy: Sometimes more, but it all evens out in the end anyway. You gonna try it? Brianna:I dont know how to play. Kristy: [giving Bri a playful push] I can show you at my place. Its easy.36www.text2reader.com 37. Exercise 5B: Write It DownGetting into Character From reading the script for On the Turn, you know that gambling is only one possible problem that can undermine the integrity of young people at school. In this exercise, youre going to think critically about some of the other pitfalls of sharing the high school experience with a group of same-aged peers.1. With a partner or in a small group, brainstorm a few issues that face teens at school today. Examples wouldbe falling into a group thats stealing or doing drugs. But as you well know, there are plenty more!2. Choose one of these issues.3. Engage in a quick role play where you and your partner(s) assume different characters. At least one of thecharacters is facing a problem related to your chosen issue (for example, your main character is at a partyand is being pressured into joining a drinking game). Flip the script and do another role play where yourcharacter behaves differently. Do it again. This helps you to get a feel for the issue and for the different ways aperson might react when faced with a problem.4. Write a script around one character that shows how this issue affects him or her. Make it real, like whatwould happen in your world.As you write your script, keep in mind the following: it should have three or four parts so there can be engaging dialogue between the characters that shows how the problem develops your main characters problem should be apparent to the audience so theyre not left guessing what the issue is every line of dialogue should push the plot of the story further ahead, build suspense, or develop your characters personalities your main character should be presented with the problem and try to find a solution. You dont necessarily have to solve the problem by the time the script ends (for example, you may choose a cliffhanger ending instead that leaves the audience wondering what s/hell do) your script should be at least two pages in length use staging instructions so readers know what kinds of voices and expressions to use consult the rubric on the following page to guide youReaders Theater Text2Reader September 2012 37 38. Scriptwriting RubricASPECTNOT YETMEETSFULLY MEETS EXCEEDSAPPROACHINGEXPECTATIONSEXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONSEXPECTATIONS(MINIMAL LEVEL) STORY problem is simple or problem is realistic problem is evident and problem is well developed38www.text2reader.comDEVELOMENTunrealistic storyline is predictable well developed and thoroughly explored by development of the series of events without series of related events; storyline is engaging andcharactersproblem problem or resolution focus may wander; ending somewhat unpredictable believable events, but often general flow of the story often loses focus; ends weak events develop logically unpredictable; ending mayabruptly to a believable ending have a twist or cliffhanger CHARACTER SPEECH simple language; may be conversational language, language is varied; clear language is varied; the clarity, variety andinappropriate or confusingwith some variety; may feeling that these words are sense of true conversation isimpact of languagein places seem stiff or inauthentic at being spoken evident clear sense of the character dialogue is non-times dialogue creates forward dialogue drives the story spoken wordsensical or fails to drive character dialogue ismomentum, with each part forward, engaging readersstory forward evident and conveys theadding information orwith revelations that helpstoryemotion to the scene to build out the scene andproblem FORM & STYLE little sense of audience some sense of audience sense of audience clear awareness of sense of audience script is too short or long script is too short or long script is two to three pages audience length of script staging instructions are staging instructions are in length script is two to four pages in staging instructionsabsentsimplistic and do not add staging instructions are lengthto the scene appropriate and add staging instructions develop texture to the scene and enhance the scene andthe characters interactions 39. Want to know more about the topics covered in this issue of Text2Reader?Heres a list of resources related to what we covered in this issue of Text2Reader. Visit the T2R website foreven more Web links.FictionBobet, Leah. Above. Arthur A. Levine, 2012.Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008.Gee, Maurice. Salt. Orca Book Publishers, 2009.Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Bantam Books, 1993.NonfictionBurns, Loree Griffin. Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam & The Science of Ocean Motion. Thomas Allen, 2010.Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. Rodale Books, 2006.Hirshfield, Lynn. Girls Gone Green. Puffin, 2010.Sivertsen, Linda. Generation Green: The Ultimate Teen Guide to Living an Eco-Friendly Life. Simon Pulse, 2008.Suzuki, David and Kathy Vanderlinden. Eco-Fun: Great Experiments, Projects and Games for a GreenerEarth. Greystone Books, 2001.FilmInvasion of the Body SnatchersThe Stepford WivesFuel (environmental documentary)WebGambling Addictionshttp://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/gambling.htmlTeen Ink Environmental Resourceswww.teenink.com/Resources/EnvironR.phpText2Reader September 2012 39 40. Answer Key for Exercise 1A: As You See ItReflecting on the Text1. Max means that its ironic for his city to boast about being environmentally sound when the city planners chopped downthe forest in order to build it. His comment hints that this way of thinking isnt uncommon in New Middletown.2. Look for answers that include some relation to the word middlethat its mediocre, average, middle-of-the-roadandthe word new, meaning its a fresh start or way of paving over the mistakes of the past.3. Answers will vary according to student opinion. Look for solid reasoning behind either stance. Individual freedom isimportant for self-expression and exercising our human rights; security is valuable in an uncertain world, to protect usagainst forces of evil, disaster or economic hardship.4. The rule that people must have a home and a job to live in New Middletown helps to keep the city orderly. There wouldbe no homeless people and no unemployment. The streets would likely be somewhat safer and cleaner. The citizens wouldnthave to deal with guilt as they go about their business with hungry people on the streets. There are really no drawbacks tothis kind of rule for the residents themselves, although it would likely intensify competition both inside and outside the city.For the people who are shut out of the city, their opportunities are limited drastically by being denied convenient access topotential job markets. Gaining a footing is even harder, as any job an outsider acquired would require a longer commute untils/he was able to find a home inside the city.5. Access to the arts implies support for free thinking. The arts help us develop our creativity, exercise our freedom of self-expression and often cause us to challenge the status quo. The administration of the city would likely feel that allowing itsresidents to enjoy music, theater and art would jeopardize its control of citizens behavior.6. Max attends an academic school where he is being specifically trained for one job upon graduation. In contrast, whilemany of our current schools are academic in nature, others are vocational. More commonly, both are integrated within thesame school facility. No one is required to choose their course of study in elementary school, and we graduate with a wealthof choice and options ahead of us. We are not locked into any one career.Answer Key for Exercise 2B: Looking for Answers1. The first North American oil well was drilled in 1858.2. The whaling industry declined as the price of petroleum-based oil became cheaper. Supply and demand was at work: askerosene became more prevalent and cheaper, the demand for whale oil fell and the whaling fleets were forced to pull upanchor.3. In the mid-1880s, Karl Benz and Wilhelm Daimler invented the internal combustion engine, which breathed new life intothe fossil fuel business.4. BCs coastal waterways are narrow, and oil tankers are not immune to crashes. Fragile ecosystems are at risk in the eventof an oil spill.5. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground, it gushed out enough oil to fill 125 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Thousands ofanimals suffered and died as a result.6. The oil contaminated the fish and shellfish that were harvested in the area. People didnt want to buy contaminated sea-food, so the canneries and processing plants shut down and people lost their jobs. The First Nations couldnt eat the fish andanimals they depended on for food, either.7. Answers vary (there are dozens, and students can find them using the link provided), but can include: plastics, furnishings,clothing, shoes, jewelry, pens, computers, backpacks, yarn, baby lotion, etc.40www.text2reader.com 41. Answer Keys for Exercise 4A: Looking for AnswersShort Answer1. Cloud computing uses Web-based programs to manipulate and store data. Information is sent through the Internet to aremote storage location provided by a cloud company, and can be accessed and changed at the users convenience.2. Data centers. These are located in different areas all around the world. Data centers can be quite small or very large.3. Cloud providers back up data on many servers (redundancy), and they make sure their servers arent all running on thesame electrical grid. Data is encrypted to discourage hackers. Users must log in with a username and passwordand theyresupposed to read the End User Licensing Agreement so they know what theyre signing up for.4. Cloud computing is cheaper than buying software; it makes data transfer instantaneous; many people can collaborate onone document at the same time; storage is limitless; and cloud providers do all the maintenance and repairs for the programs.5. Cloud computing could put our privacy at risk; there are concerns about what happens to information when no one onthe outside seems to want to take responsibility for it; servers can be hacked or stolen.6. Answers will vary.7. Answers will vary.Multiple Choice1. e2. d 3. e 4. b5. d 6. c Text2Reader September 2012 41