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Given the nature of the 2011 summer reading program, you had significant autonomy in selecting the books you would read. While you were responsible for completing a proposal, you were not given other assignments to complete over the summer. As indicated on your proposal form, you are required to write a letter to your 2011-12 Language Arts teacher that demonstrates your thoughtful reading of your book. We have chosen to break this down further into three focused "Power Paragraphs" for two reasons, one, to introduce you to the idea of a power paragraph, and two, to assist you in covering all aspects of the assignment.

__ Prompt for Paragraph One - A Reflection of Your Choice __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Wednesday, 8/24 **

The book, //Water for Elephants//, was recommended to me by several friends. I really enjoyed reading this book because it told a story about what life was like for people who were part of a circus, I never imagined what life would be like in a circus; it was much more difficult than I would have guessed.. Life was even dangerous for many of the people in the circus; an example of this was the practice of throwing people off the train in the middle of the night if there was no longer room for them, or if they could no longer be paid for their work. I thought the book created a colorful portrait of life in a circus and for this reason I enjoyed reading it.

While reading //Water for Elephants//, I was able to learn about what life was like for people in the circus and I realized how lucky I am. Unlike many of the characters in the book, I don’t have to wake up early in the morning and pitch large tents or have to worry about being thrown off a train at night while I’m sleeping. While reading this book, I was able to see how fortunate I am to live in a safe home and to not have to work extremely hard all day, nearly every day. After reading this book, I have a different perspective on how difficult life is for some people and I am thankful that my problems in life are not so difficult.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Sunday, 8/28 **

I thought that //Water for Elephants// was an excellent book because of how different it was from the other books I have previously read; in particular, I have never read a book about life in the circus. While reading this book, I learned about what life is like for the people that perform in and help set up a circus. I believe that many people would like this book, because it has many moments of action, suspense and romance. I would suggest this book to anyone who is a young adult or older because while some of the material is not appropriate for children, the book is both informative and entertaining.


 * Scoring: Your three paragraphs will be given one overall grade, and the timeliness of your posts will be reflected in your "timeliness" grade. **

// An outstanding response to the prompts will include the following: //
 * A strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the focus on the prompt Be sure to focus on the prompt right away in your paragraph (review the last paragraph)
 * Evidence that clearly supports the topic sentence Try to incorporate specific details from the reading to support your points
 * Correct use of internal citations and a properly formatted MLA citation for your book (put this citation at the end of paragraph one)
 * Strict adherence to the Power Paragraph format Good job sticking to the format, the limited sentences can be frustrating
 * Mechanics are clean and do not detract from meaning