English 9 Week 2 Optional Educational Activities

Weekly Mindfulness Writing Prompts

Directions: Respond to each of the prompts in a brief paragraph. (Feel free to write more!) These prompts are meant to stimulate the mindfulness part of your brain. Allow yourself the time and space to think through the prompts and answer authentically.

Prompt #1: Out of all the people in your life, who makes you feel the most confident? Explain who this person is to you and why they make you feel the most confident.

Prompt #2: What is your biggest goal and how do you plan to achieve it? Be sure to dream big and give a detailed description of your goal and plan.

Prompt #3: Write about a time you did something you were scared to try. Then explain how you felt afterward, using as many details as possible (try to evoke the 5 senses!).

(To respond to these you can use: 1. Templates in the back of this packet 2. Blank lined pages in the back of this packet)

Weekly Reading and Writing Assignments

Directions: Read and annotate the assigned articles to gain an understanding of the topic. After reading, take the reading quiz at the end of each article. These are meant as a check in, to ensure that you are understanding the main idea of the text. The answers will be given in the next packet, if you want to check your answers. Finally, answer the writing prompts (multi-paragraph response!) after completing the reading and reading quiz.

Topic for Week 2 : Youth Activism

Articles for Week 2: Text#1: “Young people are determined to promote change” by The Washington Post Text#2: “Charlottesville teen goes from targeting a statue to taking on the system” by Jessica Mendoza Text#3: “Student immigrants stage a risky protest at U.S.-Mexico border” by The Los Angeles Times

Writing Prompts:

Prompt #1 - Text analysis and synthesis prompt: After reading this week's texts explain the "big issues" that young people are working to change in the world. Be sure to cite evidence from the sources to support your response.

Prompt #2 - Text to self reflection prompt: How does this topic relate to you as a student and what can you do to make change in your community?

(To respond to these you can use: 1. Templates in the back of this packet 2. Blank lined pages in the back of this packet)

Opinion: Young people are determined to promote change By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff on 03.12.19 Word Count 1,107 Level 1210L

Image 1. Malala Yousafzai talks to more than 6,000 people at ICC Sydney Theatre in December 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. Photo: James D. Morgan/Getty Images for The Growth Faculty

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, met with people from her district recently, but it was far from a routine visit with voters. In fact, they were mostly nonvoters – children in third grade to high school. They carried a large handwritten letter asking the senator to vote "yes" on a resolution favoring the Green New Deal, a plan to address climate change.

"That resolution will not pass the Senate, and you can take that back to whoever sent you here," Feinstein said. She pointed to the high cost of the program and the lack of Republican support. "I know what can pass, and I know what can't pass."

Short and long versions of the video of the meeting became popular, bringing a range of social media reactions, with some accusing adults of turning children into political props. However, many others called Feinstein "rude" and "dismissive." The senator responded that she heard the

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. children and remains "committed to doing everything I can to enact real, meaningful climate change legislation."

Visions Of Bravery And Determination

Children often call on us to be our better selves, urging us by their example to speak up or join a cause.

Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, believes the Children's Crusade, the 1963 children's march in Birmingham, Alabama, turned the tide of the civil rights movement. Law enforcement officers responded to the children as if they were adults. However, "pictures of the bravery and determination of the Birmingham children as they faced the brutal fire hoses and vicious police dogs were splashed on the front pages of newspapers all across America, and helped turn the tide of public opinion," says Marian Wright Edelman. She is the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund.

What gives children the moral authority and boldness to take action for causes? Feinstein's meeting shows that children's voices can sometimes get people to talk more directly about important issues. While some children might simply be following the lead of adults, those who work with children know that kids often ask tough questions and want honest answers.

It is perhaps the honesty and sincerity of children's questions and actions that appeal most strongly. I've heard kindergartners gasp when I tell them about Malala Yousafzai's campaign for global education and that girls don't go to school in many parts of the world.

"It's Our World, Too!"

There is also the persistence of kids, from school age to college age. That persistence can be endearing in children, but it's rarely feasible for adults. Even dedicated adults typically have to return to daily obligations, lacking the time and energy that author Phillip Hoose says are critical to youthful success.

Young people can truly devote themselves to their commitments, whether they include marching, sitting-in or rounding up followers. In the process, they are often able to reach grown-ups who can implement change. In his book "It's Our World, Too!" Hoose also points to the importance of young activists' firmly defined senses of right and wrong, as well as the power of being underestimated and the availability of school as a place to organize.

Children, especially by their teenage years, also display bravery in the face of risk, which is often boosted by their frustration with being under the rules of adults. Hoose took the title of his book from an 11-year-old boy who was told he could not sign a petition to stop the spread of nuclear weapons because he was too young. "It's our world, too!" the boy said, and he started a petition for kids.

Actions Around The World

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg showed many of these impulses when she initiated school strikes last year calling for action to stop global warming. Her persistence, time and energy, as well as the truth of her arguments, brought attention that evades many adults. She sat outside the parliament building in Stockholm every day for three weeks during school hours. Thousands of young supporters staged school strikes in Germany, France, Britain and Australia. Nearly 10,000 rallied in Belgium in February.

Amy Neugebauer is the founder of Giving Square, a youth charity organization based in Montgomery County, Maryland. She told me Senator Feinstein treated the children "like adults to be defensive with, not with the sense that this was a critical opportunity to engage them around why they believe what they do."

Environmentalist Bill McKibben said in The New Yorker that Feinstein had gracious moments with the children, but that she demonstrated "why climate change exemplifies an issue on which older people should listen to the young. Because, to put it bluntly, older generations will be dead before the worst of it hits." He added that means "youth carry the moral authority here."

A similar moral authority was evident during the newsboy strike of 1899. During the strike, young boys got readers and advertisers to boycott the newspapers of publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Not only were the boys well-organized and strategic, but their youth also gave them the advantage of being perceived as David fighting the millionaire publishers' Goliath.

Young People Relate To Their Peers

The Internet plays a role in the reach of children's voices, as young adults have organized protests on Twitter and other social media.

Emma González and her fellow students from Parkland, Florida, worked to get attention for their #NeverAgain response to the deadly shooting at their school. She quickly built a Twitter following of 1.2 million.

Yousafzai, who as a teen was shot by the Taliban for her support of girls' education, has rallied supporters worldwide because of her honesty, passion and determination to change the world. She was shot by a gunman over her education campaign in Pakistan's Swat valley, where she lived.

Young people relate to Malala because of her age and because she speaks with the authority of one willing to risk danger to continue speaking.

"Deeply listen to kids, their ideas, their concerns," Neugebauer said, "because they will make us think and make us better people."

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Karen Leggett is a freelance journalist and children's book author living in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her nonfiction picture books include "Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books" (2012) and "Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words" (2019).

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Quiz

1 What is the relationship between the section "It's Our World, Too!" and "Actions Around The World"?

(A) "It's Our World, Too!" points out similarities between adults' and children's points of view, and "Actions Around The World" demonstrates differences.

(B) "It's Our World, Too!" illustrates how activism among young people has changed over time, and "Actions Around The World" elaborates on this.

(C) "It's Our World, Too!" describes what causes young people to be ideal voices for change, and "Actions Around The World" illustrates effective examples of this.

(D) "It's Our World, Too!" explains problems that children encounter when trying to make change, and "Actions Around The World" shows solutions.

2 Read the final four paragraphs of the article.

What is MOST LIKELY the reason why the author chooses to conclude the article with these paragraphs?

(A) They explore the effects of gun violence on young women activists.

(B) They emphasize the importance of safe and equal education for girls.

(D) They reiterate the power of young people to gather others to join their causes.

3 Read the following sentence from the section "Visions Of Bravery And Determination."

While some children might simply be following the lead of adults, those who work with children know that kids often ask tough questions and want honest answers.

Which of the following explains HOW the author uses rhetoric in this sentence to construct her overall argument?

(A) The author uses a contrast to convey a sense of urgency and demand action from young people in the current time.

(B) The author uses a statistic to provide definitive evidence that public opinion is often against child activists.

(D) The author uses a concession to opinion to then contradicts it based on established firsthand experience.

4 Why did the author write this article? How does the author use logic to show her purpose?

(A) to argue that young people are uniquely suited to becoming a force for change; by including expert opinions while citing specific past and current examples

(B) to explain the historic changes that young people have created in the world; by providing accounts of activism in the word of those young people

(C) to describe the reactions to the recent meeting between young people and Diane Feinstein; by exaggerating the effects of Feinstein's comments on observers

(D) to persuade more young people to take a stand on issues like climate change; by creating a sense of pressure to keep up with the effort of peers in other countries

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Charlottesville teen goes from targeting a statue to taking on the system By Jessica Mendoza, Christian Science Monitor on 08.23.18 Word Count 884 Level MAX

Teen activist Zyahna Bryant wrote a petition in 2016, when she was a high school freshman, asking the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, to remove a statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee. Photo by Norm Shafer/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Life's been a lot busier for Zyahna Bryant since the events of August 12, 2017.

A year before, Ms. Bryant — then 15 — had started an online petition to remove the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from a park in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. It wasn't her first foray into activism: she was just 7 when her grandmother took her to campaign for Barack Obama. As an elementary school student, she quickly realized that she was one of only a handful of black students at the private academy she attended. By the time George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2014 in the killing of Trayvon Martin, Bryant was fully versed in what it meant to be black in America today.

Despite that, she had no idea her petition — which had started as a school assignment — would spur a series of events that would lead to the deadly clash between white supremacists and counterprotesters at the very park where the Lee statue stood. Nor did she realize what effect that one decision would have on her own life and advocacy.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. "Before the 12th, I didn't call myself an activist," she says. "The work just felt so natural and so necessary, more than just me wanting to do it."

Today Bryant's a known figure both in her community and beyond. Vice News has published a profile on her. CNN invited her to participate in a debate on gun control. She's received awards for her community and social justice work, which includes founding the Black Student Union at her own Charlottesville High School. When she spoke to the Christian Science Monitor by phone on a Thursday afternoon — it was her third interview of the day — she was on her way to a meeting of the local school board, where they would announce her new position as student representative.

"My days are crazy, I'ma tell you," she says.

Rather than distracting Bryant, the attention has helped her find her focus. To her — and to many progressive activists, especially local ones — what happened last summer is about far more than taking down a Confederate memorial or even decrying the violence that engulfed her hometown and shocked the nation. It's about reclaiming the story of the city, and elevating the voices of the people in it who are least heard.

Charlottesville's black communities have long suffered displacement and discrimination, Bryant says, pointing to how the majority-black neighborhood of Vinegar Hill was bulldozed in the 1960s to make way for "urban renewal projects." African-Americans still make up the bulk of stop-and- frisk cases in a city where they constitute only 18 percent of the population.

"White supremacy [in Charlottesville] existed way before August 12," Bryant says. "It's not at all anything compared to the racial violence that black people have been dealing with since the beginning of this country."

The past year has prompted a kind of soul-searching that's caused the citizens of Charlottesville no small pain. On the Monday before the rally's anniversary, residents packed the hall where the Charlottesville city council held its bimonthly meeting. Some carried signs that said, "Transparency," "Arrest Kessler" and "Unmake the Illusion" (current mayor Nikuyah Walker's campaign slogan). Police chief RaShall Brackney and fire chief Andrew Baxter fielded questions from council members about safety and security for the coming weekend as some in the audience clapped or hissed. Some asked questions out of turn. Public comments, which came at the end of the meeting, went on past midnight, says Allison Wrabel, a reporter who covered the meeting for The Daily Progress, Charlottesville's local paper.

"Suddenly people who have never been to a city council meeting ... are showing up," says Bryan McKenzie, who also works for the Progress. "People who have never felt they had a voice or never even thought about having a voice — who thought, 'This is just my life' — are going, 'Maybe it doesn't have to be this way.' "

For Bryant, getting that message out to the broader public has become central to her work. Though she's still interested in organizing, she's more focused on bringing to light the long history of white supremacy and racism in the city. She's calling for more resources for community organizers who are leading the charge toward social justice and equality, but whose jobs often don't pay enough for them to make rent. She's urging journalists and others to seek out the advice and stories of local activists of color, many of whom have been organizing for years.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. "The Trump era has diminished the work of so many women of color," Bryant says. "I'm passionate about centering them and making sure they are at the front."

One thing that hasn't changed for Bryant in the past year is how she feels about the statue that started it all. Though it was shrouded in a black tarp for a while after last summer's rally, these days the monument looks much the same as it did when Bryant first published her petition. In July, a local judge signed an order indefinitely extending an injunction that protects the city's Confederate monuments while the lawsuit plays out in court.

"It needs to go," she says. "There's no way you can contextualize years of racial terror. No platform for white supremacy."

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Quiz

1 Which statement BEST describes the significance of Zyahna Bryant's work as an activist?

(A) She is a student advocate for urban renewal projects.

(B) She works as a journalist to publicize the work of other black activists.

(D) She is a community organizer whos fights for change on a city level.

2 Which option BEST explains how Bryant sees Vinegar Hill and stop-and-frisk cases as interacting with the history of Charlottesville?

(A) Vinegar Hill and stop-and-frisk cases are exceptions to the general trends related to discrimination in Charlottesville's history.

(B) Vinegar Hill and stop-and-frisk cases are examples of the widespread displacement and discrimination in Charlottesville's history.

(C) Vinegar Hill and stop-and-frisk cases were the first events that inspired Bryant to explore racism in Charlottesville's history.

(D) Vinegar Hill and stop-and-frisk cases were contrasting events that illustrate both the activism and the violence in Charlottesville's history.

3 Which quotation shows how the citizens of Charlottesville have begun to participate in democracy?

(A) "Charlottesville's black communities have long suffered displacement and discrimination, Bryant says, pointing to how the majority-black neighborhood of Vinegar Hill was bulldozed in the 1960s to make way for "urban renewal projects.""

(B) "The past year has prompted a kind of soul-searching that's caused the citizens of Charlottesville no small pain."

(C) ""Suddenly people who have never been to a city council meeting ... are showing up," says Bryan McKenzie, who also works for the Progress."

(D) "She's urging journalists and others to seek out the advice and stories of local activists of color, many of whom have been organizing for years."

4 Which answer choice BEST describes Bryant's reaction to the recent media attention she has gotten?

(A) Bryant has been honored by the attention and claims that she has only been successful because of the local activists of color before her.

(B) Bryant has been pleased by the attention and has taken a step back from community organizing to think about how to use her spotlight.

(C) Bryant has used the attention to sharpen her focus on making change through awareness and to support those fighting for social justice.

(D) Bryant has used the attention to gain more signatures for her petition against the statue and to campaign to have it removed immediately.

5 How did Zyahna Bryant's petition contribute to a significant historical shift?

(A) It encouraged others to protest the representation of racist history in Charlottesville.

(B) It resulted in violence that became the subject of national news stories.

(D) It inspired more students to participate in city council meetings.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 6 Which answer choice BEST explains why the author wrote this article?

(A) to describe the work and influences of a young social justice activist who is becoming increasing prominent in Charlottesville

(B) to explain why and how a young activist worked to get support for her petition against a Confederate statue in Charlottesville

(C) to argue that city leaders in Charlottesville should not delay in removing the Confederate statue in Bryant's petition

(D) to persuade readers to explore the history of discrimination in Charlottesville that led to a deadly rally last year

7 Which question about Zyahna Bryant would MOST clarify how her work will continue to make a historical impact?

(A) How was Zyahna Bryant nominated for student representative of the school board?

(B) How is Zyahna Bryant using her publicity to center the work of women of color?

(D) How are others in Zyahna Bryant's community participating in the debate about the monument?

8 Why does the author include the opinion of Bryan McKenzie?

(A) to provide evidence that Bryant's activism has been getting a lot of attention from national news organizations

(B) to persuade readers to take more action against racism and discrimination in their own communities

(D) to elaborate on the way that the events of last August 12 have affected the people of Charlottesville overall

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Student immigrants stage a risky protest at U.S.-Mexico border By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela staff on 07.25.13 Word Count 873 Level 1150L

"Dreamers," wearing their school graduation caps and gowns to show their desire to finish school in the U.S., march with linked arms to the U.S. port of entry where they planned to request humanitarian parole, in Nogales, Mexico, Monday, July 22, 2013. AP Photo/Samantha Sais

NOGALES, Ariz. — Lizbeth Mateo paid her tuition on Sunday for Santa Clara Law School, before classes start next month. On Monday, she emailed the school. “I’m letting them know I may not make it in time,” she said.

She could be late because of a protest at the U.S.-Mexico border. Mateo, who is 29 and came to the U.S. illegally at 10, flew back across the border. She was protesting the thousands of people deported over the last five years as the government tries to improve and enforce its immigration system.

Mateo and two other young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children protested on Monday in Nogales. They asked to come legally across the border they crossed in secret years ago and had avoided most of their lives.

The immigration debate has focused on how a bill now in Congress might affect about 11 million people who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas. Mateo and other protesters say

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. the debate is missing those already expelled from the country. Statistics show deportations went up from just under 300,000 in 2007 to about 400,000 in 2011.

Asking For Humanitarian Parole

The protest group on Monday grew quickly. About 30 others joined the activists at the U.S. border, taking them by surprise. The immigrants, organized by the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, planned to ask for humanitarian parole, which would let them into the country, or asylum if that failed.

Six other immigrants who had returned to Mexico more than a year ago joined the three protesters. The nine were questioned and transferred to a holding facility in Florence, Ariz. Activists who spoke to their lawyer said that they were denied humanitarian parole, and that immigration officials would consider their request for asylum while holding them in Florence.

Immigration officials wouldn't comment on Monday’s events, and have said before that people had to meet standard immigration requirements to enter the country. The protest draws attention to the troubles of children who came to the country illegally. Many have grown up and gone to schools in the U.S. -- like Mateo, who graduated from California State University, Northridge. They hope to keep a connection to their pasts without fear of losing their futures in the U.S.

With Mateo were Marco Saavedra, 23, of New York and Lulu Martinez, 24, of Chicago. Both came to the United States when they were 3 years old.

Saavedra, who graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio, says he’s American in every way, except for having legal papers. He said his 60-year-old grandfather, who lives in Mexico, makes a dangerous trip each time he visits relatives in the United States. “Why does it have to be almost a death sentence every time he wants to go see his daughters?” Saavedra asked.

At Considerable Risk

Wearing graduation caps and gowns, Mateo, Saavedra and Martinez chanted “undocumented, unafraid” as they paraded Monday from Nogales, Sonora, to Nogales, Ariz. They were joined by five other young immigrants, also dressed for graduation. Unlike the original trio, who had traveled to Mexico to make a political point, four of the others had voluntarily left the U.S. years ago because life had become too difficult. The fifth was deported.

“They are insane, but my respect is with them,” Luis Leon, one of the five, said of the other three. “Nobody throws away 20 years of their lives for someone else.”

Leon came to the U.S. when he was 5, and had been living in North Carolina. He returned to Mexico in 2011 because he thought U.S. lawmakers would never fix the immigration system, and he regrets that now. He’s tried to return to the U.S. six times but without success.

As they headed for the border, the eight immigrants were joined at the last minute by another who had left on his own before. As word spread, as many as 30 more young people showed up at the border, but their status was not clear.

By returning to Mexico voluntarily, the three immigrants have put themselves at considerable risk. Under an immigration reform package backed by the Obama administration, young immigrants

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. deported could apply to return to the U.S. But immigration experts say those who leave voluntarily would not have that option.

Hard Crossing Remembered

Mateo, Saavedra and Martinez are old hands at activism and civil disobedience. Saavedra once occupied an immigration facility in Florida, and was detained. Mateo joined a sit-in at the Tucson office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The authorities gave Saavedra and Mateo the chance to apply for a program which lets those who arrived as children stay in the U.S., at least for now. Both turned it down and said they want their cases judged, to put a spotlight on the immigration system.

Mateo remembered crossing the desert with her mother to enter the United States 19 years ago. “I’ve never been as thirsty as then,” she said.

She described how they drank from rank pools of water and how her mother pulled and pushed to keep her going north. Eventually, they settled in Los Angeles.

If she is deported, Mateo said she wouldn't try to cross the border. She said she couldn't go through that again.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Quiz

1 Which of the following would make another good title for the section "At Considerable Risk"?

(A) "Protesters Chant Undocumented, Unafraid"

(B) "Protesters Put Future At Stake To Prove A Point"

(D) "Protesters Not Able To Return To U.S."

2 Select the paragraph in the section "Asking For Humanitarian Parole" that DOES NOT support the main idea of the article.

3 Based on information in the article, which of the following would be LEAST likely to change U.S. immigration laws?

(A) Continued protests by illegal immigrants.

(B) Action by Congress to change immigration rules.

(D) Immigration reform backed by the Obama administration.

4 According to the article, why did Mateo fly back to Mexico?

(A) She wanted to join a large protest going on in Mexico.

(B) She was going to be deported so she left voluntarily.

(D) She went for a vacation and decided to join the protest.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Journal Prompt #1

Out of all the people in my life, ______makes me feel the most confident. One reason is because ______. For example, ______. Also, ______. That is why ______makes me feel the most confident.

Adapted from Kate Kinsella Journal Prompt #2

My biggests goal is ______. The first step to achieve my goal is to ______. Then, ______. Next, ______. Finally, ______. That is how I plan to achieve ______.

Adapted from Kate Kinsella Journal Prompt #3

Something that I did that I was scared to try was ______. In the beginning I ______. Then, ______. After, ______. Finally, ______. Afterwards I felt ______.

Adapted from Kate Kinsella

Name ______Block ______Date______

In the ______titled ______

(text type) (title)

______(author’s full name) (citation verb)

(topic)

One “big issue” that young people are working to change in the world is ______(1st big issue)

In ______

______presents ______(author’s name)

(topic)

that ______

(text evidence)

The author points out that ______(text evidence)

Adapted from Kate Kinsella

This is significant because ______(elaborate on text evidence)

Another (important/fundamental/critical) ______“big issue” is ______

(2nd big issue)

According to ______(source or author’s name)

(text evidence)

This (data/evidence) ______shows ______

______

(elaborate on text evidence)

______“big issues” that

(conclusion starter) young people are working to change in the world are ______

(restate issues)

Adapted from Kate Kinsella

Name ______Block ______Date______

Prompt #2 - Text to self reflection prompt: How does this topic relate to you as a student and what can you do to make change in your community?

(topic) relates to me as a student by ______

Something that I can do to make a change in my community is ______

One way I can accomplish is by ______

My own relevant experience as has made me aware that ______

(relevant personal connection)

As an illustration, ______(relevant personal experience)

This (proof/evidence) ______shows that ______ (elaborate on personal experience)

In conclusion, ______relates to me as a student by ______(topic)

Adapted from Kate Kinsella ______Answer Keys for Week 1 Packet

ANSWER KEY> Adolescence and the Teenage Crush by Dr. Carl Pickhardt 2012

1. RI.2 PART A: Which of the following best describes a central idea of the passage?

1. There is a greater pressure on teenagers to have crushes than on any other age group. 2. Puberty and developing identities are the main reasons teenagers are more prone to have crushes. 3. Crushes are incidental, or insignificant, to ordinary adolescent development. 4. Adolescent crushes are matured expressions of love; it is a common myth that they are not. 2. RI.1 PART B: Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Part A?

1. “After all, it is an early approximation of love. While it lasts it is seriously held, so it should be seriously treated.” (Paragraph 2) 2. “There is a great outbreak of romantic crushes and gossip about them (“Guess who likes who?”) in middle school.” (Paragraph 4) 3. “…early adolescence and the separation from childhood has caused young people to want to act more grown up, and sexual maturity from puberty has motivated them to act in more young manly and young womanly ways.” (Paragraph 4) 4. “Most romantic crushes don’t last very long because once the object of the crush becomes better known, magic of the other person soon wear off and the ideal falls away.” (Paragraph 9) 3. RI.3 How does Dr. Pickhardt describe and/or differentiate between the three types of crushes? Cite evidence in your answer.

1. Answers will vary; students should review the text and provide an objective summary of the three types of crushes mentioned in the article. The three types include romantic, identity, and celebrity crushes. Firstly, Dr. Pickhardt points out that celebrity crushes involve little to no interpersonal contact between the two parties and therefore deals almost entirely in constructed fantasies. This is the major difference between celebrity crushes and the other two types—which Pickhardt spends the majority of the article exploring. “Teenage crushes,” Pickhardt asserts, differentiating between the two, “can be of the attraction (romantic) kind and of the admiration (identity) kind” (paragraph 13). Romantic crushes involve romantic attraction and infatuation with another person; identity crushes can experience romantic or sexual feelings, but according to Pickhardt, these feelings are more a by-product of rather than a component to the crush. Identity crushes develop as a result of modeling one’s self after another. The object of an identity crush is to change one’s self in order to become more like the idolized person; the goal of romantic crush, in theory, is to Answer Keys for Week 1 Packet establish some form of romantic attachment. Nevertheless, all three types of crushes involve the projection of and desire for certain idealized traits onto another individual: “In all three cases, the young person largely projects onto another person idealized attributes the admirer highly values and wants to be associated with” (paragraph 2). 4. RI.3 How does the concept of “idealization” contribute to the author’s key argument regarding crushes?

1. The author argues that most crushes are idealized and therefore cannot be considered real love. 2. The author argues that crushes, romantic or identity, involve the projection of idealized traits that a person values and desires onto another person (i.e. the crush). 3. Idealized celebrities and celebrity crushes can give teenagers an unrealistic understanding of individuals; this makes it more difficult for them to accept flaws. 4. Idealized relationships in popular media encourage adolescents and teenagers to seek out romance, causing them to have more frequent crushes. 5. RI.6 Which of the following statements best describes the author’s point of view on how parents should react to their children’s crushes?

1. Parents should discourage crushes, especially celebrity crushes and risky identity crushes. 2. Parents should encourage crushes, respect the child’s boundaries, and not monitor in any way the adolescent. 3. Parents should inform their children early on that crushes aren’t often serious—even if it feels like it—so that the adolescent will be able to face possible rejection more easily. 4. Parents should support their children’s feelings, but be aware of the possible risks or fallout that come with crushes.

ANSWER KEY> Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare c. 1593

1. RL.2 PART A: Which statement best describes a theme of the play excerpts?

Love makes people more willing to change and face obstacles. Children should be obedient and not go against their parents’ wishes. Grudges are easy to overcome, to forgive, and to forget. People’s fates are set in stone and cannot be changed. 2. RL.1 PART B: Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Part A? Answer Keys for Week 1 Packet “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes / A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” (Lines 5-6) “The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, / And the continuance of their parents’ rage, / Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove” (Lines 9-11) “What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, / Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part / Belonging to a man.” (Lines 22-24) “Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d; / Henceforth I never will be Romeo.” (Lines 33-34) 3. RL.5 What purpose does the prologue serve in the text?

It updates the audience on the current state of the feud. It informs the audience of past and future events in the play. It discusses the reasons behind why the two families hate each other. It outlines the themes of the play by describing them. 4. RL.3 How does Juliet’s monologue in lines 15-31 affect Romeo?

He is shocked by her insistence that he give up his name. He regrets being a Montague but resigns himself to being apart from Juliet. He is willing to give up his family name in order to be with her. He falls more in love with her and convinces her to marry him. 5. RL.4 Explain the figurative language Juliet uses in lines 25-26 and how it relates to a theme of the excerpts.

Answers will vary; students should explain the figurative language used in lines 25-26 and how it contributes to the theme of identity within the excerpt. In the scene, Juliet laments the division between herself and Romeo, kept apart by their family names. She questions the power and use of names when she asks, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet” (Lines 25-26). The rose mentioned in line 25 can be compared to one’s identity. Likewise, the smell of the rose represents part of what makes a person who they are. The name for a “rose” does not create or alter the flower’s scent, just as a person’s name does not dictate who the person is fundamentally. Answer Key included for Week 1 Packet (March 24)

The Answer Key for this packet will be included in the next packet.