Essential+Question+Essay+on+The+River

Essential Question on the __River__

Final earned grade is a 58. 1/29/12 Mr.Baskin

**Student: Shane Mason.** **43 points earned. MANY PARTS OF THE ESSAY WERE NOT DONE BY YOU. MAKE THE FIXES EVERY NIGHT UNTIL YOU FINISH IT BY JANUARY 27. MORE WORK, AND MORE CAREFUL WORK IS REQUIRED, SHANE.** **MR. BASKIN**


 * Grading Points Rubric for Essential-Question Essay on __The River__**

**8 points. See my comments. Make fixes!** **15 points full credit--1/29/12**
 * 1) **Introduction Paragraph:** Thesis/topic sentence; at least three traits stated; explanation of how the essay will proceed.
 * Maximum Number of Points: 10 POINTS EARNED:**

**10 points. See my comments. Make fixes! Move this section to the right spot, Shane!** 15 points full credit==1/29/12
 * 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:**

**Zero points. You did not do this. Where is it? Do it, please.** **Still missing==1/29/12**
 * 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.
 * Maximum Number of Points: 15 POINTS EARNED:**

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. 25 points. Good job. Ful credit
 * 1) **Fill-in-the-Blanks Paragraphs on the Thinking Process/Problem Solving:**
 * Maximum Number of Points: 25 POINTS EARNED**

From twenty to forty sentences summarizing what Brian is doing on these pages using the vocabulary of the thinking process. **Zero points. You did not do this**. Stll not handed in-1/29/12
 * 1) **Summary of Paragraphs 97-132 in terms of the Thinking Process**
 * Maximum Number of Points: 20 POINTS EARNED:**

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. **You did not do this. Zero points.** **Partially done=8 points.**
 * 1) **Conclusion**
 * Maximum Number of Points: 15**

The essential question asked by Gary Paulsen in The River is, “How should one behave in the face of overwhelming difficulty?” The answer that Paulsen gives is that to overcome an overwhelming difficulty, one should be brave, determined and respectful. [Delete this: Add another; sentence that elaborates/adds to this answer.] [ Add the sentence from the fill-in-blank about how, in general, you will prove this.] This will be proved by he had to sacrifice his self by saving Derek and he had to go back in the woods and he didn’t want to then there was a storm. __ Put the traits and the conflict paragraphs here, Shane. __ __ Directions __ : Use the below fill-in-the-blank document—either the electronic version or this hard-copy version—to write the main body paragraphs of your essay on __The River__. You have already written paragraphs about Brian Robeson’s main character traits, and you have written paragraphs about how the conflict in the novel changes over the course of the story. You will use all of these paragraphs to build a final essay on __The River__. In effect, all of these paragraphs will be used or “recycled” by you to create your final essay. __ Goal __ : The goal of the below section/essay is to explain step-by-step how Brian Robeson successfully gets Derek Holtzer to safety. You will explain the thinking process/problem-solving process that Brian uses—that Paulsen shows Brian using. You will also provide examples of Brian doing these steps or moments. You may work alone, or you may work with one other partner. You must use a copy of the novel at all times.

You may find an electronic, “online” version of this in: Resources/Baskin Humanities Thematic Units/riverthinkingprocessessay.

Remember, if you use an electronic version of this fill-in-the-blank essay, copy it from the Resource drive to your Humanities folder. Do a “Save as” by adding your name and the date to the file name: Riverthinkingprocessessay[yourfirstand last name and the date]. //__ 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. 9. **Doing or Performing the Solution**: You perform the job or work of actually doing the solution.

The problem-solving process that Brian uses to solve his new conflict is the thinking process. There are nine steps in the thinking or problem-solving process. The first step in the thinking process involves making an observation 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 wonders what it is that he or she just heard or saw or felt or tasted or smelled, etc. Reflecting/ Wondering is the second 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 identify the problem that he or she had just sensed. That is the third moment in the thinking process. Next comes the fourth step in this problem-solving process: Considering alternatives or Options. 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 fifth 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 prediction of what in the future what would most likely happen if each choice, or decision, were selected. Based upon those predictions, the problem-solver choosing a solution. That is the sixth moment in the thinking process. The next, and seventh step, involves preparing a plan of how to put the solution into action. After this, the problem-solver gathers resources or information to use when the plan is done. That is the eighth step. Finally, in the ninth step, the problem-solver actually preforming or does the solution. 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 himself for allowing himself to be talked into going back into the woods to teach survival skills to Derek. Brian starts to feel sorry for himself. But then he stops himself, because he trying to do the right thing, 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 himself. And then he moves on to trying to solve the problem of saving Derek’s life. Brian clearly is wondering/reflecting and considering options 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 alternatives that he has. 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.” So, Brian comes up with a plan to clean up Derek’s waste. We read on page 68 that the resources that Brian gathers are grass and sticks. Then he performs, or does, the solution when he carries Derek’s waste and buries it in a hole. 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 a prediction 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 spoonlike 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 predicting that Derek coughs up the water, Brian doing another problem: Derek cannot drink. At this point, on page 73, Brian doesn’t know what to do. He throws down a stick, which bounces into Derek’s briefcase. 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 saw a river. Brian unfolds the map and he follows the flow of the river. He observes the words “Brannock trading Post,” on page 78. 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 decision. On page 79, we read that Brian calculates that the trading post is about 150 kilometers, or just under 100 miles. When Brian thinks to himself that he could leave Derek and go down the river and bring back help, he is considering 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 choice. 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 choice. 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 performing a solution at the end of page 80 when we read: “He had no choice.” 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 solution when we read, “He needed to build a raft.” 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 tool to cut wood to build a raft. Luckily, Brian observes on page 83 that beavers have felled 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 choice 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 preparing, 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 string firmly in place. At the end of chapter 15, on page 87, Brian must decide if he, in fact, will act on his plan 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, throbbing into his ear, and pokes Derek with his knife, Brian is acting out his experiment. But he is really making contact with his senses. When Derek does not react at all, Brian says, “We go.” Here, he is clearly making a choice. 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 a solution. 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 performing. 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 save both himself and Derek. Brian performing or does his experiment by climbing on the raft and by rockback and forth. He observes that the raft will not tip over. Thus, Brian makes a final choice to act on his solution and push off into the river. Where is the summary of pages 96-132??

The river was a good lesson. I think it was a good lesson by don’t go in the woods to fool around, because something could happened. It can help us in the future. It can help because it can save a life, a tree can fall on somebody, a lot of things. It can save a child’s. I think this is a good lesson because I think it say “don’t go in the woods or by yourself”.

The Character of Brian Robeson

Brian Robeson, the main character in Gary Paulsen’s The River, is Brian, Derek, brains mom. The first character trait of Brian Robesen is his brave. By Brave we mean sacrificing your self. Brian shows his braveness when he saved Derek from the storm.

[Delete this next repeated, sentence.] Brian Robeson, the main character in Gary Paulsen’s The River, is Brian, Derek, brains mom. The second character trait of Brian Robesen is his self confident. By Self confident we mean Brian Knew he could of saved Derek.

Brian Robeson, the third character in Gary Paulsen’s The River, is Brian, Derek, brains mom. The main character trait of Brian Robesen is his smart. By Smart we mean doing stuff on your on and not panicking when he survived in the wilderness.

Brian Robeson, the last character in Gary Paulsen’s The River, is Brian, Derek, brains mom. The main character trait of Brian Robesen is his. By determined we mean knows that he could do it. Brian shows his determined when he survived in the woods.

Where is the conclusion???