Sunday, September 23, 2012

Nonfiction!


"The Fall of the Hindenburg" is a nonfiction piece that we will be reading this week. Nonfiction (NOT FAKE!) deals with only real people, events or ideas and is narrated from the point of view, or perspective, of the author, who is a real person. It may reflect the historical context of the time period, including references to major social and cultural information. However, not all nonfiction accounts or stories are in written form. Some are recounted in discussions or on news programs.

Talk to any adult in your life (grandparent, mother, father, aunt, uncle, guardian, teacher, cousin... etc) and  ask them about a major historical event they can recall in their life. Maybe they will give you insight into 9/11 or the JFK assassination.... or the first trip to the moon....or the Cuban Missile Crisis... or stories about the Vietnam War or Martin Luther King!  Ask them about the historical context of the time period in which their event takes place. What was going on in the world or the United States at the time?

After your chat with the adult in your life, summarize the conversation and what you learned from their nonfiction account! 

Your summary must at least be 8 sentences long. Read it over with the adult whom you had the discussion with in order to check your work for spelling, grammar, punctuation, run-on sentences etc.


If you'd like, you can research more about the event and include a link to an informative website on your post!


Your post is due no later than Friday at 5pm.

41 comments:

  1. I asked my mom about 9/11. Alcida sent planes to crash into buildings. 2 went into the world trade centers of New York. 1 crashed into the pentagon. the last one was thought to be headed twords the white house. But the passengers of the plane over ran the terrorists and the plane crashed in pennsilvania. thousands of people died or were injured. The leader Osama Bin Ladden was killed years later by the united states armed forces.

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  2. My mom told me about the Challenge explosion. It happened on January 28, 1986. Apparently there was a program that was going to send teachers into space. They were going to launch the teachers up in the rocket ship Challenger. The Challenger was the second rocket made by the U.S.A. The Challenger had several other missions before exploding. The cause of the rocket’s explosion was an O-ring failure at lift off. This lead to another thing which caused the explosion of the space craft. The teacher Christa McAuliffe a member of Teacher in Space Project and to be the first female teacher in space was on the craft when it exploded. It was a tragedy. About 85% of American’s surveyed heard about the incident within an hour. This is the tragedy in my mom’s life that she told me about.


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    1. "Apparently there was a program that was going to send teachers into space." I didn't know they sent teachers up in to space instead of astronauts.

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  3. When my mom and dad were alive there was a space shuttle Challenger that launched and as it was in the air, before it got to space, it exploded! My dad said that he was in his 10th grade class when he heard about it. My mom was in high school as well and when she was in class they got to watch it on TV. This event happened on January 28, 1986. When the shuttle exploded all 7 crew members were killed, including a school teacher. Her name was Christa McAuliffe. She was selected from thousands of applicants to become the first teacher in outer space. Before the launch everyone, including my dad was very excited that a teacher had gotten the chance to go to outer space! My father also said it was very confusing to figure out what happened just at that moment and that it was a very shocking sight. After that the confusion turned to sadness once he realized that the space shuttle had exploded. Before the launch all of the news stations had stories about Christa McAuliffe. People around here felt connected to her since she was from Massachusetts and taught school in New Hampshire. The explosion was caused by a small rubber o-ring that failed.

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    1. The shuttle explosion was a tragedy!Christa Mcauliffe was a regular school teacher who was going to be the first civilian in space. "People around here felt connected to her since she was from Massachusetts and taught school in New Hampshire".It shocked me that she was from Massachusetts.I had posted about the explosion of the Challenger also and my dad was also very shocked and confused at the time.

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    2. "all 7 crew members were killed, including a school teacher." It was tragedy.

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    3. "space shuttle Challenger that launched and as it was in the air, before it got to space, it exploded!" I herd it was rally bad and a tragedy.

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  4. I sat down with my grandmother and talked about the Vietnam war. My grandmother was in high school when the United States became involved in what was called a military conflict. Young boys from Gloucester, and her hometown of Essex, were drafted and given very little training, and were sent overseas to Vietnam. Many of those young boys and close friends of hers never came back. Some were wounded mentally and physically for the rest of their lives. The United States at the time became a country of peace protesters and civil unrest. My grandmother said she was sad and mad because her friends were dying, and the friends that came back were never the same. To this day my grandmother still thinks of all the friend she lost.

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    1. I never knew that the Vietnam war so so bad. I sa some shows about it on the the History Channel. It talked about how we had a massive army. But I thought they all signed up for the army, not drafted. Also I didn’t think people this close to Gloucester were drafted.

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    2. "Young boys from Gloucester, and her hometown of Essex, were drafted and given very little training, and were sent overseas to Vietnam. Many of those young boys and close friends of hers never came back." I never knew that they would let young boys go over seas with very little training!

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    3. "My grandmother said she was sad and mad because her friends were dying, and the friends that came back were never the same."

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    4. were drafted and given very little training, and were sent overseas to Vietnam. Many of those young boys and close friends of hers never came back. Some were wounded mentally and physically for the rest of their lives
      that is soo sad they should have been given more training. If something like that happened to my friend close to me. I dont know what i would do. I know it would be tradjedy for me forever.

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  5. I sat down with my mom and asked her about 9/11. I asked her how she heard about it and she said that she heard about it on the news. She said she was at our house. She was just by her by her self. She said no one really knew what to do. At first no one knew who it was to do that. But then on the news they said we are under attack.

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  6. I had a conversation with my dad about Hurricane Katrina. He was in New Orleans a few months after the hurricane. He saw plenty of boarded up windows with broken glass. When he was driving down the streets boats were in the middle of the streets. There was a refrigerator in a tree. He even saw a house on top of a car. A lot of houses had piles of furniture in front of their houses.
    Plenty of businesses were closed and some neighborhoods had no people living in them. In conclusion, Hurricane Katrina was a huge tragedy.

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    1. I to think hurricane Katrina was a horrible event in our history. But nevertheless I didn't think it would cause that much damage. "Boats in the middle of the street a refrigerator in a tree." That is destruction. I never knew how bad hurricane Katrina was until now.

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    2. "When he was driving down the streets boats were in the middle of the streets. There was a refrigerator in a tree. He even saw a house on top of a car. A lot of houses had piles of furniture in front of their houses."That hurricane hit hard i cant believe that a refrigerator was on top of a tree.Good Job Matt

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  7. During the blizzard of 78',my grandfather owned an ambulance company and my dad was working for him. Many people were becoming sick and people were trapped with no help because the ambulances couldn't get through the deep snow. What they had to do was use snow mobiles to get to the people. They would hook toboggans to the back of the snow mobiles and pull them through snow (six feet deep)to the ambulances that were parked on the main street and then transport them to the hospital. The reason they had to do this was the snow and snow drifts were six to as much as twelve feet deep. Side streets did not get plowed for a week or more in most situations. The cities and towns had to rely on the Army reserves to come in with very heavy equiptment to open up the streets and highways.That was my dads experience with the blizzard of 78'.

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    1. “During the blizzard of 78', my grandfather owned an ambulance company and my dad was working for him.” Wow I didn’t even know about that blizzard I never knew that they had to ride snow mobiles to get to the sick well your grand father was a amblience driver .

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    2. “The cities and towns had to rely on the Army reserves to come in with very heavy equipment to open up the streets and highways.” its crazy how we didn't get any snow last year but in 1978 the snow was 6ft deep!

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  8. A major historical event in my grandmother's life was the assissination of president John F. Kennedy. She was in her driveway cleaning her car while listening to the radio. Then suddenly the guy was saying how the president had been shot while riding in a convertable with his wife, Jacqueline, and some other guy. The plice found out that Harvey Oswald was the man who killed John F. Kennedy and wounded the man with him. Harvey Oswald shot them from the window of a closed building with some type of riffle. Many people thought there were more people behind the killing then just Harvey Oswald. After being shot the president was brought to a hospital in Texas and was later on pronounced dead. My grandmother remembers watching the funeral on TV and seeing his casket being pulled by white horses. Also that his son who was two or three at the time saluted his father as his casket was pulled by. Jonh F. Kennedy was burried in Arlington cemitary next to his infant son who died while he was president. All in all the assassination of John F. Kennedy was a major historical event in my grandmother's and many other peoples life.

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    1. "Then suddenly the guy was saying how the president had been shot while riding in a convertible with his wife, Jacqueline, and some other guy"Wow it must have been really scary for his wife when this happened !And it must have been so depressing for his wife to see him get assassinated and she was probably scared for the wrest of her life.

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    2. "She was in her driveway cleaning her car while listening to the radio. Then suddenly the guy was saying how the president had been shot while riding in a convertable with his wife, Jacqueline, and some other guy. The police found out that Harvey Oswald was the man who killed John F. Kennedy and wounded the man with him. Harvey Oswald shot them from the window of a closed building with some type of riffle." Wow that must of been scary for his wife to. When you think about if that went the wrong it could of hit his wife or the other guy. That's so sad. "Also that his son who was two or three at the time saluted his father as his casket was pulled by. Jonh F. Kennedy was burried in Arlington cemitary next to his infant son who died while he was president." That's really sad because he had a son that was 2 or 3 when he died.

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  9. Before sitting doen with my dad i researched some events that happened when he was younger and i found a clip about the space shuttle the 'Challenger'.So i sat down with him and he started telling me his expierience.It was january 28,1986 and my dad was in his classroom waitching the shuttle Challenger take off,and what was interesting about this take off was that NASA decided to have a civilian go with the asternauts for the first time in history.The civilian who was ever so lucky to win such a contest was Christa Mcauliffe (a school teacher)a dedicated junior high school teacher."3,2,1 take off"and the shuttle started taking off, for a while the process wasw going well until 73 seconds after takeoff when the Challeneger exploded and all the crew members including Christa Mcauliffe who died instantly after the explosion.Millions of horrified schoolchildren and adults were watching from scgool,home and offices worldwide.It was a tragic event and im glad my dada was able to share it with me. I learned something new that i never knew happened,I'm glad my dad wasn't in the shuttle.The explosion was caused by a small rubber 0-ring that had failed.

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    1. "73 seconds after takeoff when the Challeneger exploded and all the crew members including Christa Mcauliffe who died instantly after the explosion." It took such a short time for the challenger to explode!

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  10. I asked my mom and dad about 9/11 they said it was a very scary time for them and everyone else. At the time they were both in Boston with me to meet my family for breakfast. All of a sudden they looked at the TV and saw the first plane hit the twin towers. At first my family thought it was a horrible accident but when the second tower was hit they realized they were under attack. My mom said she thought it was the end of the world and everyone was going to die, she was so scared. They watched in horror as all the tragic events unfolded until it was finally over. This what my mom and dad experienced during 9/11.

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    1. Your family must have been really scared. "My mom said she thought it was the end of the world"

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    2. "At the time they were both in Boston with me to meet my family for breakfast. All of a sudden they looked at the TV and saw the first plane hit the twin towers. At first my family thought it was a horrible accident but when the second tower was hit they realized they were under attack." Wow! that's crazy i would be so scared if i were them. 9/11 was a huge! tragedy.

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    3. Wow! That sounds really scary. It must have been sad especially how they were in a restaurant, and surrounded by other people who could of had loved ones in the buildings! If I was your mom I would probably think the same thing.

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    4. I would've thought that the world was going to end to when that happened and if I was there.

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    5. "They realized they were under attack." I agree that this was a very scary time for your parents and everyone else. My dad also experienced 9/11 and he also agrees that this was a very scary time in U.S. history. I enjoyed reading this story that you shared.

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    6. "All of a sudden they looked at the TV and saw the first plane hit the twin towers. At first my family thought it was a horrible accident but when the second tower was hit they realized they were under attack." I can't imagine how scary that was To watch the planes hit the Twin towers.

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  11. My dad was with his boss Douge and his brother, looking at blueprints when douge's wife came in the room screaming." There's a plane crash! There's a plane crash!" They thought she was crazy until they turned on the t.v. and on the news live was the September 11th 2001 plane crash footage. To this day my dad says it was the most horrific thing he had ever seen in his life.

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  12. 9/11 was an extremely scary day for everyone around the world.About 3000 people were killed in the plane hijackings.I actually remember the day quite well even though i was only like 4 months old but I remember being at a department store with my mom.She was buying me a brand new carseat when she saw it on the news on one of the tv monitors.She made us go in to the car without even buying a car seat.She rushed me out to the car and turned the radio on and started listening.Then she held so tight i thought she was going to choke me.Then she started driving home checking on me every 2 seconds.She just kept saying to me oh i love u so much oh how could this have happened.

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    1. “extremely scary day for everyone around the world” it was when when the suicide bombers of alcada flew there plains into the world trade center and over 2000 people died that tragic day.

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    2. "9/11 was an extremely scary day for everyone around the world.About 3000 people were killed in the plane hijackings"

      It was very scary for every body

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  13. I asked my mom about 9/11 and she said she was at a meeting with my dad I was with my aunt at the time and i was three years old and my aunt and I were watching TV and all the sudden a news broadcast came on the TV and she was shocked my mom called and asked if she knew what was going on. My dad called my uncle because he was in New York that day but luckily he was already going back to his house it was very shocking.

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    1. "My uncle was in New York that day but luckily he was headed home it was very shocking."Tat must have been very scary when you heard that story you must have fainted!

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  14. It must have been horrible explosion. A small rubber ring causing a terrible explosion. "I'm glad my dad wasn't in the shuttle". It's good that your dad wasn't there.

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  15. I talked to my dad about 9/11 and he said that it was a scary time. At the time I was only 1 years old. My parents were watching the news when all of the sudden it had said that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. At first my parents had thought that it was just another plane crash until the second plane hit and the third had hit the pentagon by then them new that it was no accident that the planes crashed. The planes had been hijacked! Over 3,000 people had died that day. 227 had been civilians and 19 hijackers. My dad says he remembers the day of 9/11 and how scary and memorable it is.

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  16. I talked to my grandfather about 9/11 and he said that it was a horrific day for the whole country. My grandfather was watching the news channel when the news people metioned the first plane crash nto the World Trade Center. Then he heard about another plane hit the pentagon. One day later he heard that another plane was heading for the White House but the passengers overpowerd the terrorist and the plane crashed somewhere in pensylvania. Years later President Obama sent out a team of specailized armed forces i think they were called Seal Team Six, to kill the mastermind behind the terrorist attacks, his name was Osama Bin Laden. In the year 2012 they accomplished their mission.

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  17. Have you ever wondered about who you would change lives with for a day? If you could be anyone, who would you choose? You could be someone famous or anyone you want. If I could change lives with someone for a day I would be a famous singer. I would be Selena Gomez. I would want to be Selena Gomez because she is not only a good singer, but she is also a really good actor. It would be awesome to be her. Just imagine how exciting it would be to sing in front of a million people from all over the world coming just to hear you sing. Plus she is an amazing actor so she is probably going to auditions. In my opinion I think being a famous singer for a day would be a great opportunity.

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