River

**Mr. Baskin on 1/17/12**
**Grading Points Rubric for Essential-Question Essay on __The River__**

**Maximum Number of Points: 10 POINTS EARNED:** **7points.** Jennifer: "...courageous....This will be proved by providing examples from the novel. Make these changes, JS, please. courage’s. This will be proved by surviving in the woods for fifty for days with only a small hatchet.  +3 on morning 1/31/12
 * 1) **Introduction Paragraph:** Thesis/topic sentence; at least three traits stated; explanation of how the essay will proceed.

**Maximum Number of Points: 15 POINTS EARNED:** **14 points. Good job. Fix the run-on sentences.** **+1 on morning 1/31/12**
 * 1) **Traits Paragraph:** List the traits; define each trait; provide a brief example from the novel for the trait.

**Maximum Number of Points: 15 POINTS EARNED:** 7 points. This needs much work. Describe what the conflict is at the beginning when Derek visits Brian, when they get to the wood, and then after Derek is hit by lightning. How does the conflict change? +8 points. Sixty-seven blanks to use the following thinking-process terms: observe or observation; wonder or reflect or reflection; name or naming or identify or identification; consider alternatives or options or considering; predict or predicting or prediction; choose a solution or make a choice or solve or choose; make a plan or prepare a plan or plan; gather resources; act or do or perform a solution. **Maximum Number of Points: 25 POINTS EARNED** **23 points. Good job. Some errors. Needs paragraph indents.**
 * 1) **Conflict Paragraph:** Description of the conflict at the beginning of the novel; description of how the conflict changes; explanation of what is similar to and different between the two conflicts.
 * 1) **Fill-in-the-Blanks Paragraphs on the Thinking Process/Problem Solving:**

From twenty to forty sentences summarizing what Brian is doing on these pages using the vocabulary of the thinking process. **Maximum Number of Points: 20 POINTS EARNED:** **12 points earned. Needs to be two or three times the length. More summary. More use of thinking process words.**
 * 1) **Summary of Paragraphs 97-132 in terms of the Thinking Process**

Restatement of the message or lesson of the novel; explanation of why this is an important message or lesson to know; description of how the writer of the essay (the student) can specifically use this lesson in his/her life in the future. **Maximum Number of Points: 15** **Only 7 points. reread your entire essay after you revise the first parts. YOU NEED TO REMEMBER THAT A CONCLUSION ALWAYS HAS AT LEAST THREE MOMENTS. AND EACH MOMENT NEEDS AT LEAST TWO SENTENCES. THE FIRST MOMENT: WHAT HAS BEEN PROVED? THE SECOND MOMENT: WHY IS THIS MESSAGE OR LESSON IMPORTANT?** **THIRD MOMENT: HOW CAN YOU OR ANYONE USE OR APPLY THIS LESSON IN LIFE? HOW WILL YOU USE IT, SPECIFICALLY, IN YOUR LIFE?**
 * 1) **Conclusion**

Jennifer Sabatino Humanities 11/29/11 6C The River Essay The question that Gary Paulsen asked in the book was how should one behave in the face of overwhelming difficulty? The answer to that is to overcome an over whelming difficulty, one should be smart, persistent, strong, and courage’s. This will be proved by surviving in the woods for fifty for days with only a small hatchet. Brian Robeson, the main character in Gary Paulsen’s The River, is brave, courage’s , smart, persistent. The main character trait of Brian Robeson is his B ravery. By B ravery I mean that when he was going down the river it was scary , but he just wanted to get there. Brian shows his bravery on page 115 when he goes down river. The second main trait is he is smart, because he thought to look in Derek’s brief case and he found a map. Smart means you know a lot of questions and you get good grades. The third main trait is persistent; he is persistent by being determined to get down the river. Persistent means to be determined to get something done. The last trait is strong. he is strong by not giving up and standing up for himself to accomplish this journey. Strong means like u won’t cry you won’t give up in anything.

The conflict in the story is that Derek gets hit by lighting and Brian has to figure out what to do. He first found out that Derek is in a coma and if he waited for the plane to come Derek would probably not make it. He remembers about Derek brief case and they were a map inside of it and it said there was a trading post not that far so he decided to make a raft. He finished making the raft. Then he left and went down the river. Another problem was that he had to face many obstacles go down the river, like the waterfall, he got up to a waterfall he didn’t know what to do he went down and then fell off the raft and he didn’t know where the raft was and Derek. He saw the raft like a mile away so he swam all the way there and then found the trading post. //__Steps in the Thinking Process __// 1. **Observation/Perception**: Your senses hear or see or smell or taste or touch something. 2. **Wondering/Reflecting**: You wonder what it could be or what it could mean. 3. **Naming/ Identifying**: You say what the event is or what the problem or difficulty is. 4. **Considering Alternatives or Options**: You list possible options or choices to take in order to respond to the problem. 5. **Predicting**: You take each option and play a “what-if” game with your imagination and your reason. You try to predict what will, or would, happen if each choice were taken. 6. **Choosing a Solution/Making a Choice**: You select the alternative or option that is mostly likely to lead to a successful resolution. 7. **Making or Preparing a Plan**: You put together a series of steps to take to put your plan into action. 8. **Gathering Resources**: You gather together materials or information that you need in order to actual do the solution. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">9. **Doing or Performing the Solution**: You perform the job or work of actually doing the solution. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">The problem-solving process that Brian uses to solve his new conflict is the thinking process. There are nine steps in the thinking or thinking-solving process. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">The first step in the thinking process involves making an understanding or a having a perception. This means that a person senses an event. At this moment, the person who sensed the event does not know what it is. Thus, he or she naturally reflects or reflects what it is that he or she just heard or saw or felt or tasted or smelled, etc. Reflecting/ Wondering is the thinking moment in the problem-solving process. Often, this leads the person to investigate further the event that was sensed or observed. If enough information is available, the person will name the event or answer the problem that he or she had just sensed. That is the third moment in the thinking process. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">Next comes the naming / identifying step in this problem-solving process: Considering alternatives or Options. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">That is the fourth moment in the thinking process/problem-solving process. Once the person has listed the possible alternatives, then a decision must be made as to which alternative or choice is most logical. The next step, the predicting step, in the process of making this decision is often what we mean when we use the word “thinking.” But really what most often happens here is that the person engages in a mental “what-if game.” Basically, this means that the person tries to make a predicting of what in the future what would most likely happen if each choice, or decision, were selected. Based upon those predictions, the problem-solver solves a solution. That is the sixth moment in the thinking process. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">The next, and thinking problem step, involves making a plan of how to put the solution into action. After this, the problem-solver gathers research or information to use when the plan is done. That is the eighth step. Finally, in the ninth step, the problem-solver actually works or does the solution. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">On page 66 of __The River__, we clearly see an example of the third step in the thinking process: identifying or naming the problem. Here, on page 66, we learn that Brian has a name for Derek’s problem. He says that Derek is in a coma. Shortly, thereafter, on page 67, Brian starts to feel angry at him for allowing himself to be talked into going back into the woods to teach survival skills to Derek. Brian starts to feel sorry for him. But then he stops himself, because he thinks, or hears himself acting babyish and immature. On page 67 he says, “Listen to me… If I were talking out loud, I’d be whining. Derek gets hit and I act like I’m the one getting messed up.” Derek stops himself from feeling sorry for him. And then he moves on to trying to solve the problem of saving Derek’s life. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">Brian clearly is wondering/reflecting and considering alternatives on page 67 when he thinks, “Could he stay here with Derek for a week or ten days and wait for them? Could he not stay? What choices did he have?” Brian is listing all of the different options that he has. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">At the end of this chapter, after Brian senses the smell of human waste; he identifies that Derek has “soiled” himself. Brian chooses a solution when he says, “It had to be done. He had to clean Derek, take care of him, and take care of another human being.” <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">So, Brian comes up with a way to clean up Derek’s waste. We read on page 68 that the resources that Brian gathers are grass and stick. Then he performs, or does, the solution when he carries Derek’s waste and buries it in a hole. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">The thinking process/problem-solving process continues. In chapter 13, on page 71, Brian is clearly reflecting or wondering when we read that “He spent the morning trying to remember what he knew” about comas. At the top of page 72, Brian makes an estimate about how long he thinks Derek can survive. We read, “But Brian was sure Derek could not go that long without water…. Somewhere he’d heard or read or seen that the human body couldn’t go that long without water.” So, Brian makes a “small spoon like holder out of birch bark” and pours water down Derek’s throat. Here, Brian has used resources and has acted on his plan. When he saw that Derek coughs up the water, Brian has another problem: Derek cannot drink. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">At this point, on page 73, Brian doesn’t know what to do. He throws down a stick, which bounces into Derek’s brief case <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">. When Brian sees the briefcase, “as if for the first time” he is making an observation. When Brian says, “What have you got in here?” he is wondering/Reflecting. When Brian opens up Derek’s briefcase, he finds the map of the wilderness area where they are. On the map, he finds a river. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">Brian unfolds the map and he follows the flow of the river. He observes the words “Brannock trading Post,” on page 78. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">When we read that Brian thinks to himself, “There would be people there…. A trading post would have people” we know that he is making a prediction. On page 79, we read that Brian calculates that the trading post is about 150 kilometers or just less than 100 miles. When Brian thinks to himself that he could leave Derek and go down the river and bring back help, he is planning the options. But then, he predicts that wild animals might attack or eat Brian. Brian decides that he cannot leave Derek. Here, he is making a prediction. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">At the very bottom of page 79, we read, “What if he took Derek with him?” Here, Brian is using “what-if “thinking. Once again, this is the step of making a prediction. On page 80, Brian makes numerous predictions: “If he stayed, Derek would die of thirst…. If he made the run…at least there was a chance.” Finally, Brian makes a solution at the end of page 80 when we read: “He had no choice.” <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">At the beginning of chapter 15, Brian calculates that to float down the river would take thirty-five or forty hours. On page 82, he chooses a decision when we read, “He needed to build a raft.” <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">Shortly after that, on page 82, Brian names or predicts a problem. The problem is not that he lacks wood, but that he lacks a knife to cut wood to build a raft. Luckily, Brian observes on page 83 that storms have fallen trees, and the trees are the right size to make a raft. He thinks, “It’s like I hired them.” Here, Brian is making a statement to use the trees cut down by the beavers. In fact, we read in the next-to-last paragraph on page 84, “He had a plan…for what he was going to do.” On page 85, Brian actually makes, or does his plan. He weaves together the large and small pieces of wood cut down by the beavers, and he cuts strips of leather from his jacket to hold the logs firmly in place. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">At the end of chapter 15, on page 87, Brian must decide if he, in fact, will act on his wish of bring Derek down the river on the raft. So, Brian goes through a process that looks a little like a scientific experiment. He thinks, “… if there was the slightest, tiniest change in Derek…Brian would call off the trip and hope for the best.” When he looks into Derek’s eyes, measures his breathing and his heartbeat, talking into his ear, and pricks Derek with his knife, Brian is acting out his experiment. But he is really making predictions with his senses. When Derek does not react at all, Brian says, “We go.” Here, he is clearly making a fact. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">In chapter 16, the thinking process/problem-solving process continues. On pages 92 and 93, Brian slowly drags Derek down to the raft, which is in the river. He places Derek onto the raft. But just before he pushes off into the river, Brian has a sudden thought, “What if they came unexpectedly?” Here, Brian is both wondering/reflecting, considering options and making a prediction, because he is realizing that rescuers might come to check on them suddenly. So, Brian goes right to the step of choosing an option. He decides that he has to write a note to rescuers just in case they show up. Brian writes the note. He is acting or planning. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">And then, on pages 94 and 95, Brian performs one last “scientific” experiment. He tests the raft to see if it is seaworthy, whether it will hold both himself and Derek. Brian tests or does his experiment by climbing on the raft and by moving back and forth. He knew that the raft will not tip over. Thus, Brian makes a final decision to act on his solution and push off into the river. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">In the pages ninety seven through one hundred and thirty two Brian is going down the river. To try to find the trading post he keeps looking back to see how Derek is doing he checks his pulse and heart beat and talks to him. He knows he won’t respond back but he just tells him we will make it. Brian can here the waterfall coming up that is step one in the thinking process **<span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">Observation/Perception **<span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">that is when your senses hear, feel, touch, smell what is around him. Then he uses the thinking process to figure out what to do. He first lists his options then decides what one will work to get down the waterfall he is **Considering Alternatives or Options** the 6th step in the thinking process. The last thing he did was step nine he is Doing **or Performing the Solution.** So he decides to try to get something to hold on t but it doesn’t work and they go down the river. He falls off the raft and he hits his head on a rock when he gets up he doesn’t know where Derek is. He keeps swimming to find him he finds him he stops and thinks for a minute. He feels Derek’s heart beat and it is still going. He sees the trading post and there is a dog on the dock. When he gets there, there is a boy he runs away and gets his parents. When he gets back his parent’s help him and Derek out of the water Brian is crying but he made it. <span style="font-family: 'Segoe Script','sans-serif'; font-size: 27px;">The River taught me a lot .This will help me a lot because if a plane crashes and I get stuck in the woods. I will know what to do and not to freak out. I proved that to never give up in yourself because if you do then you will probably never accomplish much i//n life//. Like when Brian had to figure out how to get down the river and he had to make a raft he first tried something that didn’t work. Then he did something he thought that the beavers chopped up wood so he found some. The point is that he never gave up trying to figure something out to get them down the river. This lesson is important because if he didn’t do that he wouldn’t be down the river with Derek and he would die. I would use this lesson in my life because if I was stuck in the wilderness and I needed those skills. They would be useful to me.