Reading+Minute

Reading Minute 1: Poetry
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 * Q. What is the mother's main message to her son?**

Mother to Son

Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up And places with no carpet on the floor- Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps <span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">“Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. <span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Don’t you fall now- <span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">For I’se still going”, honey, <span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">I’se still climbin”,

<span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Reading Minute 2: Non Fiction
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 * <span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Q. What happened on the Team Endurance Camping Trip? Give 2 main events and 1 detail about each event. **

<span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Reading Minute 3: Fiction


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 * Q. Why do the pots "double up with laughter"?**

<span class="style_3" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13px;">Reading Minute 4: Non Fiction
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<span style="color: #463c3c; font-family: HoeflerText-Regular,'Hoefler Text','Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">**Q. Do cell phones belong in school? Explain your opinion.**

You have a cell phone in class. You forgot to turn it off, and it is ringing. Your teacher looks at you. Do you answer the phone? Do you let it ring? Do you turn it off, hoping your teacher forgets he heard it? As you read the article, ask yourself:

Are cell phones toys or necessities? Do they belong in school at all? Many schools have banned their use in class. The ringing upsets lessons. Some students may play games or send text messages when they are supposed to be paying attention.

Maybe school leaders just need to communicate cell phone rules better and take phones from students who do not use them correctly- or maybe not. Some schools have had to ban cell hone technologyaltogether. Why? Students have used cell phones to cheat on tests. The phones can be expensive and easy to steal, so crime can rise when phones are allowed.

Some people suspect that cell phones interfere with learning on other levels as well. Students use them to transmit text messages to friends. Texting is quiet, but it is hard to prepare a text message and listenclosely to a teacher at the same time. People who text leave out letters to save time and space, and that habit may hurt the users’ abilities to spell and write well.

“The ability to write successfully is probably the most important skill for kids to learn tin relationship to job success,” according to a doctor at Baylor College of Medicine.

“If texting inhibits them from learning how to write articulately, then it could be a real problem.”

What do you think? Do problems that can result from cell phone use outweigh the benefits? If you have ever seen someone texting in a roomful of people, you know he or she may not be talking or listening to the people nearby. Texting allows people to be connected, but the communication takes place at a distance.

GOOD SIGNALS Cell phones have many good points. Many people say they cannot get along without their phones anymore. The need to communicate seems to be growing. During much of the twentieth century, many homes had one phone. Family members took turns using it. Cell phones help us reach out much more than we might otherwise. Because texting is easy, people are writing one another more than ever.

Transmitting text messages lets you make contact when friends and family cannot talk with you directly. It feels good to get and send text messages, and messages made with preparation show that you care. What could be wrong with something that make you and others feel good?

Phoning It In Maybe phones and related technologies belong in schools, as tools of education. The media have started using text messages for ads. Movie companies send messages that tell what is new at movies. Radio stations text listeners. What if teachers sent homework reminders this way?

With wireless connections, some phones let you find directions when you get lost. you can look up important facts. Cell phones have many uses that were invented only recently. Should schools be teaching students how to sift through the bad uses and get the most from the good.

What is next after text? Early cell phones were almost as big as shoeboxes. As time has passed, though, cell phones have gotten smaller. Have you ever seen someone you thought was talking to herself and then realized she was on a hidden phone? Cell phones continue to shrink and take on more uses.

What might be next? Some people think we will have chips implanted in our brains that we will be able to use to do what cell phones do. You might be able to transmit messages to other people. Given that phones are used for advertising already, you might have a constant stream of ads running through your head?

Will communication technology become even more part of us? If so, should school be teaching the right way to use it? Are schools right to ban this technology? What do you think?

=Still I Rise= BY [|MAYA ANGELOU] You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.
 * Reading Minute 5: Poetry **
 * Q. What is the authors main message in the poem?**

Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.