Response to Section 3- Amanda Accaputo

2. What do you think the author, Don Aker, is trying to get his readers to realize about Reef?

I think that Don Aker is trying to get his readers to realize that Reef is not only an angry and mean teenage, but also a scared boy who has trouble opening to others about his problems. If he is too nice and opening, he thinks that people can wlk all over him. He always wants to use his roughness in any situation so cover up the soft side of him. he really isn;t that bad of a guy.

4. What similarities do Leeza and Reef's grandmother share that have an impact on Reefs life?
Leeza and his grandmother
-both make him a better person
-make him happy
-make him feel good about himself
-make him feel like he isn't that lost scared boy anymore

Tweaking

Hello Ladies,

Thank you for posting your work on time!  A few things to consider:

a) Make sure to add your feedback to each other's work
b) if you haven't already, please post or bring in your media work for Friday (Amanda, am I missing part of it?  Are you bringing part in?)
c) Contemporary relevance - make sure to be specific when citing - it's not enough to just list a source at the end, you need to either use "direct quotation" (source) or parenthetical citation (source).  One is word for word, the other is when you've used the idea, but put it in your own words.

Any questions, just ask!

~Ms. G

Section 3 Responses - Michelle Ku

1. Do you think that Reef is really a hard, closed, mean type of person that he portrays himself to be? What type of effect did his grandmother have on him?

1. No I don’t think Reef is like that kind of person because inside he always thinks about his grandma and how she died so quickly. He portrays himself to be a mean person because I think he’s scared to let someone love him like what his grandma did, and then if Reef lets that person into his life, they might just go away/die and leave him hanging. If Reef’s grandma wasn’t there for him, no one would shoe him love. Reef would be even sadder, worse, and I don’t think he would care if his life would be taken the next day.

3. If Leeza and Reef never met, do you think the volunteering that Reef had to do would have still changed him into what type of man he is now?

3. No I don’t think it would’ve changed to him to be the man he is now because if Leeza wasn’t there he wouldn’t have found anyone to connect to in North Hills; which would make him keep everything in and take it out on someone again. Reef would also get into a lot more trouble than he is in now, by making silly mistakes.

Positive - Good work. I like your contemporary relevance topic, self discovery.


Constructive - Spell check your words. Look it over, when your done.

Contemporary Relevance

Teen issue: Self Discovery

        It is very important to discover who are you and who you want to be in life.Once you figure out what you would like to do with your life at a young age, it helps you understand and manage your stressful insights and reactions to life which makes it easier for you to bring about healthier, and positive choices. Being heart-smart is all about taking responsibility for your actions and reactions. Growing in self awareness helps you understand why you feel what you feel and why you behave the way you behave. That understanding gives you the opportunity and freedom to change those things that you would like to change about yourself,and create the life that you would like to live. Without knowing who you are, self acceptance and change become impossible.

Some questions you may think about in order to discover yourself are:

1. What do you like to do?
2. what skills do you have?
3. What skills do you like to use?
4. What's your personality type? 
5. What type of person do others see you as?
6. What type of person do you see yourself as?
7. What do you do best?
8. What are your values?
9. what are you passionate about?
10. What do you think your purpose is?

 Some books that deal with self discovery and that can help you are:

• Lifekeys Discover Who You are by Jane AG Kise

• Teen Self Discovery: Helping Teens Find Balance, Security & Esteem by Doc Childre

Sources Used:

• http://www.amazon.ca/How-Book-Teen-Self-Discovery/dp/1879052369
• http://www.lifekeys.com/

   In the novel...

    Self discovery is a teen issue explored in Don Akers novel, The First Stone. the character that mainly deals with the self discovery is Reef. He starts off as a young lost,confused, and frightened boy; who then grows into a wild, free, unmannerly teenager, which then results to a very changed person from how he was in the start.

    When he was a young boy, everything was pretty good for him. though he didn't have parents to be there by his side, he had his grandmother who loved him dearly.His grandmother was the only one showing him love and showing him the right things to do.  After his grandmother died, his life changed completely. Without having someone guiding him in the right direction to a great life, he was left alone. He didn't have a life plan set out, he didn't know which path to take in life. Having someone there with you from when you are young, and guiding you in the right direction is very important. Having that security and reassurance all results on how your life will turn out in the future.

    Reef made the wrong decisions in life. Making the wrong choices in life got him into a lot of trouble. He hung with the wrong crowd, started doing drugs doing crimes, he was doing the things that he thought was best for him to survive in life. When ever he would make the wrong choice, he was never responsible for his actions. The only time he had no choice but to live up to his consequence was when the judge gave him a choice between community service or jail time. Of course he chose the volunteering instead of jail time because then when he was done, he could go back out and do the same thing that he was doing. Instead of coming out the same lost, rude teenager, he was changed. Someone in the hospital had changed his views on a lot of things.


    Leeza was the cause of Reef's self discovery. She was the reason why he has changed into the better man that he is now. She helped him realize that what he's been doing all of his 17 years of life have been wrong. He has noticed the wrongs in his life and he made a change. Once you are self aware, you can make that positive change within yourself that you want to make. As Reef goes around telling the grade schools about his story, he starts to understand himself as to why he was acting the way he acted in the past. Understanding his past behavior, he was able to change what had caused him to be that way in the first place and start being the well off man that he wished he was from the start.

Section 3- Questioning and Ctitical Thinking- Sophia Fagan

1. Do you think that Reef is really a hard, closed, mean type of person that he portrays himself to be? What type of effect did his grandmother have on him?
2. What do you think the author, Don Aker, is trying to get his readers to realize about Reef?
3. If Leeza and Reef never met, do you think the volunteering that Reef had to do would have still changed him into what type of man he is now?
4. What similarities do Leeza and Reef's grandmother share that have an impact on Reefs life?
5. If Reef grew up with a father and a mother, do you think that he would have still chosen the wrong path that he did without two parental figures in his life?

Character Analysis

Chad 'Reef' Kennedy

Quotes

 1.       He’d tried to tell Owen about her a couple nights ago, tried to tell him who she was, what she was like. But Owen had looked at him like he’d suddenly grown an extra head, and he’d felt like a moron even bring it up. Changed the subject. Because he really didn’t understand it himself. Had never felt like this before. ( Aker 185)

·         This quote is talking about Reef wanting to tell Owen about the new girl in his life that he met at the hospital named Leeza. He wants to tell him about her but he doesn’t to show the guys that he has a soft spot. He still wants to be the tough guy. If he shows Own that a girl is starting to have an effect on him, then Owen and the guys will look at Reef differently because Reef is known as the tough guy you don’t want to mess around with.  Also it shows that Reef himself doesn’t quite know how or what he is feeling for Leeza because he hasn’t encountered someone like that in his life.

2.       “Jesus, Scar, whaddya want me to do? Visit her? Hold her hand? What’s done is done … Ain’t nothin’ I can do about it now. Even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.” (Aker 36)

·         When Reef  tells Scar this, he is kind of hiding his true feelings about what he did to the girl in the car.  He is once again being the tough guy who doesn’t give two cents about anyone else but himself. He doesn’t care that he has caused someone very serious injuries. That’s the type of person he is showing off to everyone. Deep down, Reef does care. He does want to go visit her and tell her that he is sorry for putting her in the situation that she now has to get used to for a long period of time.  If he were to show people that soft side of him that he has covered up very well, then people can say a lot of things about him without having to worry about getting hurt after saying them.

3.       That person had never known his father, a boy not much older than himself who had gotten his mother pregnant and then run off. Nor had that person known his mother, a deaf girl whose shyness had kept her prisoner within herself until the boys attentions had drawn her out and then betrayed her. She’d wasted away barely pushing the scrawny baby out of her body before leaving it herself. That baby became the focus of his grandfather’s anger: the reason for their poverty, the justification for every drink, the root of every rage. That baby became the frightened, angry boy who lost his grandmother to a disease he couldn’t see, the boy who was then shunted from one foster home to another, one school to another. (Aker 222)

·         This basically sums why Reef is the person he was before meeting Leeza. He never had a father, nor did he know his mother. His grandfather wasn’t a male role model for him to grow up the right way.  The only one Reef truly had been his grandmother, whom he had lost to a disease (cancer). Having only one supportive person in your life when you’re younger makes it even harder for you to choose the right paths in life. Clearly after his grandmother died, that’s when things started to go downhill for him.

Reporter for D.A.K News

Hello Toronto! 

Sophia Fagan here on the D.A.K News, In tonights discussion, I will be telling you about a teen with whom I had a private conversation with. His story starts off a bit sad, goes into some confusion and finishes with a fairly good end.

Today i met with the one and only biggest bad boy in town, Chad “Reef” Kennedy. Reef is 17 year old teenage who has not had the best a teen could possibly have. He thought his life was pretty sweet at the time. Not having anyone running after you or telling you what to do and what not to do, and getting away with crimes. But little did Reef know once you are caught, you have to pay for the consequences. In his situation, the consequences were not to his liking. He has found himself in court numerous times and had gotten away with whatever he has done, but this time, what he has done was too big of a crime to let it just go away.

Reef is a very angry boy. Not only is he angry, but he is also scared, kind and caring guy; though he won’t admit it to anyone. Not even him. He wants to be known as someone who you can’t break. He always has to be the tough guy in every situation no matter what. He thinks that if he shows any act of kindness, then he is being a, as he phrases it “Pussy.” If anyone is that, then they aren’t a man. Reef wants to be a man.  He is his own man and no one can tell him what to do or how to do it.  

From what Reef tells me, he is a very changed man. There has been a lot of changes made in his life all because of this one particular girl named Leeza. She  is the main reason why Reed if the type of man he is now.  His goal was to become a better person. And he achieved his goal.  He reached his goal by learning from his mistakes. Leeza helped him learn by not talking to him again. You may be wondering how not talking to someone again can help one learn from their mistakes. Well, if there is someone in your life that you care very much about, and you told them that the reason why they are in that bad spot right now is because of you, how do you think they would react? Not in a positive manner, I can tell you that! They will stop talking to you depending on what you did and the type of person they are. But, if they were to ignore you, how would you feel if you know that nothing you can say, no matter how many times you said sorry, can change their mind? What if you were never able to talk to the one that had the most impact on your life? That would be learning from your mistakes. You would definitely not want to lose someone that special to you a second time.

                Now, that Reef has had that whole life changing experience, he is a new man. He has changed for the better, and is choosing the right paths in life. Now, he is going around in grade school’s telling kids about his story. Informing them on how he made a wrong mistake in his life, and how they can avoid that mistake and choose the right way in life.  I know for a fact that he has a great future ahead of him. All the best to you Reef!

Elizabeth 'Leeza' Hemming

 Quotes

1.       "Besides, i suddenly realized that I've spent the last three weeks thinking about nothing else. I want to put it behind me and move on. No sense dwelling on something you can't change, is there?" (Aker 182). 

•          Leeza is telling Brett that with the last three weeks that she has spent with Reed, she feels that there isn’t much of a need to tell Reef how she came into the hospital and why. She thinks that it isn’t as important to tell him anymore since what happened to her was in the past she can’t change the past.

2.       But something had stopped her, some part of her that couldn’t forget the rock and the windshield and the cars that slammed into her, sounds that she still heard sometimes at night, still made when the nightmares came too close, got too real. (Aker 223)

•          Leeza wanted to call Reef and see how things were doing with him but just remembering that he was the reason as to why she in that rehabilitation center made her not want to call him anymore. She only remembered the bad things that he had done. The mistake he had made. She didn’t think about who was the one that made her forget about the accident, or the person who made her feel like there was still hope, the person who made her see outside of her disabilities. She never thought of Reef as that person. She only thought of him as “He’s the reason why I’m in here.”

News reporter James Franco

James Franco: This just in, a young women named Elizabeth Hemming, also known as Leeza was just witnessed in a horrible car crash. Witnesses say that they saw a young man on top of a bridge that threw what seemed to have been a rock, into her windshield causing her to lose control of her vehicle and causing other cars to crash into hers. Reporter Dave Singh on the scene says that she will be suffering major injuries. Some people think that she is dead. All we can do is hope for the best.  Let’s get a better look at the accident with Dave on scene, Dave.

Dave: Thank you James, we are now here on scene with the parents of Elizabeth. Mrs. Hemming, how do you feel about your daughter getting in this accident?    Do you worry about her   health?

Mrs. Hemming: I’m frightened for my daughter! I don’t know what to think! What idiot would throw a rock at moving cars! Why would someone do that! Especially to my baby girl, the only one I have left!

Dave: What about you Mr. hemming?

Jack Hemming:  I am terrified. I really hope that she will be well. Whoever is the reason for her injuries will pay for this in court. She does not deserve this.  My wife doesn’t deserve to lose another daughter.

Dave: Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Hemming, we will get back to you later on when she is doing better.

*Months later – Leeza in Rehab*

Dave: So Mrs. Hemming we are back, here to check on the health of your daughter Leeza. How is she doing?

Mrs. Hemming: Thank you for coming Leeza is doing just fine thanks for asking, she is healing slowly but well. She is in a lot of pain but before you know it she won’t be feeling a thing.

Dave: That is great. So what can you tell us about Leeza? How is she doing here?

Mrs. Hemming: Leeza is a great child, she is now my only daughter, she lost her younger sister at a young age. She didn’t grow up with a father. Her dad and I separated when they were young. I tried to make her have everything she wanted. I wanted he to go in the right direction in life. She is very smart and independent. In this rehab center, she is doing just fine. It was hard for her to get used to things in the beginning. Getting used to all the moving around was really hard for her because of all the pain she was in but everything seems to be all better now according to her. She has met this boy named Reef who seems to have taken her mind off of all her pain.  Until she found out that this Reef character was the cause of her accident and the reason for her being in the rehab center. She was very upset when I told her that he was the reason why she was in here. She hasn’t talked to him since. I know that a part of her wants to forget about what he’s done, but she can’t. All of her injuries are his fault; I made it very clear to her. She is a nice forgiving person but this is the one time she can’t forgive him. I don’t blame her either.

 

Sophia's Response to Section One and Two

Questions & Answers 

   
Section One
6. Was Reef’s punishment fair?
I do not think that Reef's punishment was fare. He nearly killed someone while still sober, there is no excuse for his faulty actions. There is no reason for someone to throw a stone at fast moving cars. It is a dangerous and stupid choice that was made. 
 3. Why is it that Reef never lets anyone new into his life?
 Reef never let's anyone new into his life because he doesn't want to get hurt again. He also doesn't want to be left a lone again that's why he has his own little family with his friends. When one got hurt he was very scared because loosing Jink would be like losing his grandmother all over again.

Section Two
2.What do you think Don Aker’s motives were when he paired up Reef and Leeza at the rehabilitation center?

  I think that Don Aker’s motives when he paired up Reef and Leeza were to prove to people how different someone can appear. Though people make mistakes, they shouldn’t be defined by them. Leeza had no idea who Reef was, and she liked him. He made her feel better, he gave her hope. He gave her something to think about other than the accident. But, when she found out that he was the reason why she was in that state, she looked at him totally differently. I think Don Aker was trying to tell everyone that you should forgive people for their mistakes, because it’s not who they really are. A rush of adrenaline, or a moment of anger can cause someone to do something really stupid that they wouldn’t do if they were in the right state of mind.

5.     How do you think Reef feels after meeting Leeza, and vice versa

  I think that after Reef met Leeza, he changed into a new person. He always wanted to be with her, because he’s never met the type of person she was before nor had he felt that way about anyone. He suddenly felt guilty about all his previous actions. He became bothered with lying. He realized how fragile life is, and how bad some people have it. He could relate to her, because they have so much in common. And I think that’s how Leeza feels too. All day she would think about nothing  but the accident. But when she met Reef, she realized that dwelling on something never makes anything better. She decided to embrace the things she was able to do with an upbeat attitude, because that’s how Reef made her feel.