John+Gienau

__//**Creative Connector**//__

Adrift on a Sea of Blue Light by Peter Muilenberg had a lot of moments to visualize with all the nature scenery throughout the chapters. However, on top of this, there is always a theme to connect with behind the scenery exhibited in the text and the pictures illustrated by D.E.Brown. Sometimes it just takes a phrase, sentence, or even a word to make a connection. There could be a connection to your life, another experience you heard of or read about or anything else that is within the realm of possibility. Students will be given the assignment to choose phrases or form of text from the book and make connections. They will be asked to share experiences that correlate to the text and their own past personal experiences. Rubrics will follow; however, in general, students will be expected to investigate interesting aspects of the story such as its setting, what the author describes, and any historical context and make a connection. The questions I propose will not limit the students; they make up their own if they wish. My goal is to foster creativity. Although they will select the topics themselves and will answer them, examples are as follow:

Example one:

Chapter One: After making it into Venezuelan territory there was a hurricane bulleting directly towards them. Peter, Dorothy, Raffy, Diego and Santos opted to shelter themselves in the desolate Islas de Las Aves de Barlovento. While there Peter and Diego want to explore the nature of this island; birds specifically due to Diego having a green parrot. There were manmade traps (invisible synthetic traps) which caused the birds to tangle their own wings and fall to the sea. On page 20 Peter sees that his son Diego was thinking about something and cared enough to ask him. When Diego responded that saying that he would laugh at him, Peter said that he would never do that and they had a talk about his feelings regarding the birds. Please relate these situations to any experience you wish to talk about. Have you ever encountered a situation which your favorite type of animal or pet was in danger? Also, if you don’t want to talk to someone about any sort of __topic__ how would you avoid the situation or how would know who to trust? Here is a picture from the text in chapter one of the birds. If you wish to include visuals (you are not required to but it will __help__!) you can use this for visualization, draw another or explain any visuals if you are not creative!



Example two:

Chapter 13

In this chapter, Dorothy wanted Raffy to interview at a __private school__ in St. Thomas for tenth grade since the previous school in St. John’s ended at ninth grade. The principal at the school wanted Raffy to repeat ninth grade. Raffy didn’t react well to this as Dorothy pleaded her case. Eventually the principal allowed Raffy to take the entrance exams and he did “quite well.” Has there ever been a time in which you were doubted for all the wrong reasons like Raffy was? Also, were you ever judged for the wrong reasons in a similar way which Raffy was? If so please describe the feeling you had and how you reacted. How did it feel to succeed or fail? If you were never in such a predicament please describe what you envision it to feel like or __compare__ it to another person’s predicament or another story! This chapter has no illustrations for you to refer to so please design one yourself using your imagination if you choose to go that route in your explanations.



Example three:

Chapter four

Peter is going into the cave and he engineered this idea with another individual by the name of Mr. G and Peter’s two boys. While in the cave Peter fell and thereafter encountered a tarantula that jumped on his neck and went to his arm. With the scream he let off the other three got him out of the cave. Being that some people have arachnophobia, which is a common fear, I want everyone to think about their own fears (you don’t have to say it out loud). When you read any part of a story about something regarding your fears are you more interested in reading about it or repulsed? Why or why not?

Rubric for Self Assessment:


 * **Criteria** || **1** || **2** || **3** ||
 * **Grammar and Spelling** || Shows frequent grammatical or spelling errors in question development and response || Some grammatical or spelling errors in question development and response || Little or no grammatical or spelling errors in question development and response ||
 * **Originality** || Question development and response shows little to no emotion and creativeness || Although question development and response is well designed some elements lack emotion and creativeness || Question development and response shows emotion and creativeness ||
 * **Capturing reader’s attention** || Question development and response provides little or no engagement for everyone in the class and to any third party source || Question development and response lacks some engagement for everyone in the class and to any third party source || Question development and response is engaging for everyone in the class and to any third party source ||