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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 __

I read //A Tree Grows in Brooklyn// by Betty Smith this summer, and it exceeded my expectations by giving me a better understanding of childhood, family relations, poverty, growing up, importance of education, and city life. This story gave me the perspective of a young girl’s life through her eyes from her childhood to an early adult. In my summer reading proposal, I expressed interest in this book because “it is a classic, I haven’t read very many classics, and I enjoy learning about history” (Summer Reading Proposal). The theme of education spoke to me the most. One paragraph says, “McGarrity…has a lot of money. His wife wears diamond earrings. But her children are not as good and smart as my children... Miss Jackson teaches at the Settlement House and she has no money…She only has the one dress but keeps it clean and pressed…She knows about things…She understands about things…There is that difference between her and Mrs. McGarrity who has so much money but is too fat and acts in a dirty way… Education!… Education would pull them out of the grime and dirt” (Smith 206-207). From playing with her brother on the streets, going to school, graduating, getting her first job, first love, birth, and death, //A Tree Grows in Brooklyn// covers everything one can go through in life – from the beginning of childhood to the beginning of adulthood.

MLA Citation: Smith, Betty. //A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.// New York: HarperPerennial Modern Classics, 2005. You have good insight and support your ideas well using quotes from the text. The challenge is for you to work on the overall structure and focus of your response. Can you choose four strong sentences to keep? Review the structure of the power paragraph please.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Two - A Discussion of What You Gained by Reading Your Book __

As I said in my previous paragraph, through reading //A Tree Grows in Brooklyn// by Betty Smith, I gained a better understanding of childhood, family relations, poverty, city life, the importance of education, people’s perspectives, and growing up.One of themes in the book, learning from your or others’ mistakes, impacted me the most. For example, in part of the story, Mary Rommely tells her daughter Katie to start saving a nickel a day so that one day she could buy her own land. Mary had done this herself but was sold a fake land contract because she could not read the contract. She tells Katie to make sure to read the contract carefully before she pays. Mary Rommely learned from her mistake and believed this is how her child and grandchildren would live a better life than their parents (Smith 86-87). In another paragraph, Katie understands the importance of education -- or lack of -- from her mother and manages to keep her children in school through grade school, despite her financial issues and other struggles. She wanted to make certain her children would get a better education than she and a better quality of life (Smith 151). So, from reading //A Tree Grows in Brooklyn//, I learned that making mistakes is just part of human nature, that we can learn from them and apply that knowledge to improve our lives the next time.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __ // A Tree Grows in Brooklyn // is a good book for girls, since the main character is a girl, but boys could benefit from reading this book as well. This book’s perfect reader would be any girl between the ages 14 and 18 who is interested in learning more about city life, New York in particular, growing up Irish-American, family relations, what poverty is like, the importance of education, and American history in the early 20th century. The tree in the title of the book symbolizes Francie, the main character and her struggle and determination to survive and thrive. She was born premature and poor but fought her way to education, success, and self improvement. The author sums up the story with, “But this tree in the yard— this tree that men had chopped down…this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up its stump— this tree lived! It lived! And nothing could destroy it.” My perfect reader would find this theme inspiring and motivating as she experiences the transition from childhood to adulthood.

You show very nice insight and understanding of this book. I haven't read it, I'm not sure why, but reading your thoughts makes me want to read it. I challenge you to try working within the power paragraph format. This will help you to focus your responses to a prompt and avoid putting in so much that your points are obscured. // An outstanding response to the prompts will include the following: //
 * Scoring: Your three paragraphs will be given one overall grade, and the timeliness of your posts will be reflected in your "timeliness" grade. **
 * A strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the focus on the prompt
 * Evidence that clearly supports the topic sentence
 * 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
 * Mechanics are clean and do not detract from meaning