Post #4: Krista Ramsey Columnist

The article I read by Krista Ramsey was titled Our kids tell the story of why preschool is a must. In the article it talked about how kids are more educated and have a bigger vocabulary if they go to preschool. They also talk about how preschool makes great memories for kids that are starting to go to school and how it prepares the kids for kindergarten. (third column link) 


From this article the best line is "But if it was essential for your kids – if you watched it transform their lives and wouldn't have done without it – how can it be denied to children with so few resources, children who need it so desperately?". This line impacts the reader by making you think about what if you never went to preschool. It helps the reader understand how impactful preschool is on a young child not just helping them learn but also giving them a head start into education. Showing how important it is and how some people can't go to preschool. Even though it might not be required everywhere this quote shows that if kids didn't take preschool, once they get to kindergarten they will behind every other kid. Some things that I observed about this quote's diction and syntax is that in the quote they were many dashes and commas making the quote a very long sentence. Emphasizing how important preschool is.


I think that her writing style is very different because in her article she had entire paragraph that was made up of questions. She said "Did your child benefit from preschool? Would he have done just as well at a caregiver's house? Would your daughter have made the transition to kindergarten as easily without it? Would your grandson have read as quickly had he not gone? Could your niece have developed the same social skills at home?" I found it interesting that she made a paragraph full of questions because she made you think about each question. They all were worded very open minded  questions. In all three articles that I read For better vision, kids need time outdoors, Super Bowl QBs score points for great style and Our kids tell the story of why preschool is a must they each had dashes to emphasize the point she was trying to get across. An example from the first article was she said "In the U.S. alone, the percentage of people ages 12 to 54 who are nearsighted- meaning unable to see things clearly at a distance- rose from 25 percent in the early 1970s to 42 percent now." An example from the second article where she uses dashes is she said "And almost no one dresses up any more for things that were once considered something of an event- dinner at a nice restaurant, religious services, plane flights."




For questions I would have asked her what inspired her to become a columnist writer.

Post #3: text to text connections

I can relate the book The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and The Fault in Our Stars by in both books the plots and themes are very similar. In The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight plot there is a girl named Hadley that struggles through a problem which is being forced to go to her father's wedding and meeting her new step mother after ignoring him for the past year. While she is traveling to London she ends up meeting a guy along the way named Oliver. In The Fault in Our Stars plot there is a girl named Hazel that struggles through a problem which is battling cancer and facing reality of death. To help her go through this her mother decides that the best way for her to make friends is to join a cancer support group where she ends up meeting a guy named Augustus. In both books both of the main characters meet their lover in an unexpected place in the book, making it like a coincidence. Like how Hadley meets Oliver by accident because if she wasn't late for her plane to London she would have never had to take the next flight which was the flight Oliver was taking. For Hazel if her mother never ended up making her go to a cancer support group she would have never met Augustus. In both books each main character ends up falling in lover with their guy instantly.

The books a common theme that is in both of them is love can overcome obstacles. In The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight When Hadley is at the wedding she over hears a conversation that talks about a place that Oliver was going to go to for his wedding. Even though she is at her father’s wedding she immediately takes off to go search for him. This represents the theme example that both books have in common because for Hadley her father's wedding was the obstacle that she was trying to overcome. When she was about to leave Oliver she talks about how she will try to see him again even if she has her father’s wedding. On the plane Oliver was telling her how brave she was for going to her father's wedding. Oliver says "I think it's brave. What? That you're going. That you’re facing up to it. That you're moving on. It's brave."(pg 72).

For The Fault in Our Stars even though Hazel has cancer she spends all her time while she is alive with Augustus. He teaches her that cancer isn't just a disease and you should look as life as a gift not as a challenge that is holding you back from what you want to do. But when she finds out that Augustus is going to die. She tries to make the best of it by helping him with his funeral. This represents the theme because even though Hazel and Augustus are both battling cancer their love for each other doesn't stop them from doing the things that they want. In the book Augustus uses him wish to go to amster damn because Hazel really wants to even though Hazel is fighting cancer and has to bring an oxygen tank with her.

http://tfiossupportgroup.com/ Link to The Fault in our Stars Fanbase page, I would suggest to check it out! :)

Post #2: The most important line from the book so far.

The most important line from The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight so far is When Hadley says "When you're on the other side of it, she says fifty- two years can seem like about fifty- two minutes" (48). During this sene of the book Hadley is getting on the plane to fly to England with this boy named Oliver. When she sits next to this old women she tells Hadley about her own marriage and how time flys and you don't even realize it. How you can easily fall in love in a short period of time and out of love in a long period of time. This quote is important because it shows Hadley that people can fall in love easily even if you just had met them or people can stop loving each other even if they have been together for a long period of time. This quote can relate to her parents' marriage because they were together for 12 years but now her parents are getting a divorce and her dad is getting re married. Later in the book Hadley says "Someone once told her there's a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it's half as long as the time you've been together. Hadley has her doubts about how accurate this could possibly be, a calculation so simple for something as complicated as heartbreak. After all, her parents had been married almost 12 years, and it took Dad only a few short months to fall for someone else"(106). She is about to go to the wedding and is very nervous. She started to think if it was a mistake for going or if it will be worth it.