2012 READING LIST

"Lighting a Pathway to the Future"                                                June 2012

Dear Parents,

I am  inviting students to engage in reading experiences that will provide them with a firm foundation for the 2012-2013 school year.

There is no question that one of the most valuable components to your student's academic success is reading. Students who are strong, avid readers are generally good students and competent test-takers. Mrs. Ferdjani is committed to doing all she can to develop her students’ reading skills and help them discover the life-long pleasure reading can bring to their lives.

Each student in grade 6 – 11 is required to read a total of three books during their summer break.

Students and parents are required to sign the honour statement at the bottom of each report to receive credit for the summaries.

Students and parents are encouraged to establish individual reading goals to aid students in their time management. Both reports, with signatures, will be due the first week of school.

The success of any program is the direct result of parental support and involvement.

I encourage you to look over the book list and help your child get started on their summer reading in July. I realize this program requires extra effort from both you and your child. It is just such effort that will reap academic benefits in the life of your student.

I look forward to the continued partnering with you in this effort to help your student reach his/her given potential.

Sincerely,

Students will be expected to turn in their 3 summer reading reports/forms during the first week of school, Sept. 10-12.

List of Books

1.     My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

2.     A Thousand Never Evers by Burg Shana

3.     Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Stone Tanya Lee

4.     Counting on Grace by Winthrop Elizabeth

5.     Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

6.     Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan McCarthy

7.     Tangerine by Edward Bloor

8.     The Secret Life of Bees by Kidd, Sue Monk

9.     Buddha Boy by Koja Kathe

10.                       HOOP DREAMS: A TRUE STORY OF HARDSHIP AND TRIUMPH BY BEN JORAVSKY

11.                       The Joy Luck Club by Tan Amy

12.                       And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

13.                       On The Devil's Court by Deuker Carl

14.                       Rebecca by DuMaurier Daphne

15.                       Beanball by Fehler Gene

16.                       The Greatest Muhammad Ali by Myers Walter Dean

17.                       Sunrise over Fallujah by Myers Walter Dean

18.                       Begging for Change by Sharon G. Flake

19.                       Chains by Anderson Laurie Halse

20.                       The Keepers' Tattoo by Arbuthnott Gill

21.                       The Guinea Pig Scientists : Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine by Dendy Leslie .A

22.                       Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Dionne Erin

23.                       The Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle Arthur Conan Sir

24.                       Fire from the Rock by Draper Sharon M.

25.                       The Red Necklace : A Story of the French Revolution  by Gardner Sally

26.                       Once by Gleitzman Morris

27.                       The Absolute True Diary of a Part -Time Indian by Alexie Sherman

28.                       Thirteen reasons Why: A Novel by Asher Jay

29.                       Proof: A Play by Auburn David

30.                       Charles and Emma : The Darwin's Leap of  Faith by Heiligman Deborah

31.                       The HouseKeeper and the Professor by Ogawa Yoko

32.                       A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Beah Ishmael

33.                       Zeitoun by Eggers Dave

34.                       City of Veils by Ferraris Zoe

35.                       Fall of Giants by Follett Ken

36.                       Chronicle of Death Foretold by Garcia Marquez Gabriel

37.                       A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini Khaled

38.                       Unaccustomed Earth by Lahiri Jhumpa

39.                       Atonement : A Novel by McEwan Ian

40.                       Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Sides Hampton

41.                       The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Skloot  Rebecca

42.                       The Book Thief  by Zusak Markus

43.                       Cutting for Stone by Verghese Abraham

STUDENT READING FORM (Three Books)

TITLE:_____________________________________ NUMBER OF PAGES:________

AUTHOR: _________________________________

1. Summarize the story (plot) in one or two paragraphs (100 words minimum).

2. What is the theme or purpose of the book? In one or two sentences discuss the main point (lesson, moral) of the book.

STUDENT:_______________________________ DATE:________________________

PARENT:________________________________ DATE:________________________

Why should I care about malaria? Radio Public Service Announcement

In the time it takes to read my speech on your radio station, a child will die of a preventable disease called malaria.

Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite that lives in the stomach and saliva of certain mosquitoes. After an infected mosquito bites someone, the tiny parasites can enter the person’s bloodstream. Within two weeks the person gets sick, with symptoms that resemble a cold at first but can lead to death.

Today, my niece would have celebrated her 30th birthday if she had not died of malaria in Niger. My sister-in-law lost her baby because of malaria. Malaria is a leading killer of children under 5 in Africa. In fact, an African child dies from malaria every 30 seconds.

Malaria kills more than 1 million people every year and each year between 350 million and 500 million people are infected with malaria.

Yet these deaths are preventable, and malaria is treatable!

Malaria is preventable. The easiest and cheapest way to prevent malaria infection is through the use of long-lasting insecticide treated bed-nets (LLINs) which can last up to five years. Bed nets create a protective barrier against mosquitoes. They prevent mosquitoes from biting at night, when the risk is highest.

The nets prevent mosquitoes from biting, and also kill mosquitoes that land on the nets. Let us not forget that a bed net can cover more than one person and can last up to five years. For 10$, we can provide a bed net and the training to go with it. 

Malaria costs Africa at least $12 billion in lost annual GDP. Therefore, if we prevent malaria infection, this money can be used to promote education and school meals in primary schools. 

Malaria can be prevented and treated through a comprehensive approach that involves long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, eliminating mosquito breeding areas, selective indoor residual spraying, medicines for treatment, and education. This similar approach had been used by the U.S.A and Panama and it worked. Both countries have eradicated malaria from their land!

Malaria is a resilient foe that continues to kill our children and adults in Africa.

By working together, we can make a difference and we can save lives. Governments, individuals, and different funders of malaria operations in Africa must continue to work closely in order to fight malaria and to eradicate malaria. If we all stay united against malaria, we will win the fight!

Let us not forget that 40% of health resources are used to treat malaria and malaria costs Africa $12 billion annually. Almost 2000 people die in Africa daily from malaria and children under 5 account for 85% of malaria deaths.

Every 45 seconds, a child dies of malaria! It is not acceptable! For just 10$, you and I can provide a life-saving mosquito net to a child at risk, protecting that child from contracting malaria for up to five years.  Remember! Malaria is preventable and treatable.

WHY MALARIA IS AN IMPORTANT AND URGENT ISSUE ?

WHY MALARIA IS AN IMPORTANT AND URGENT ISSUE ?

•    91% of all Malaria deaths occur in Africa
•    85% of malaria victims are young children in Africa
•    Malaria can account for up to 40% of public health expenditures
•    Fighting malaria is key to improving maternal and child health
•    There are 247,000,000 annual cases of malaria worldwide
•    Every 45 seconds a child dies of malaria
•    Trials of insecticide-treated mosquito nets have found that they reduce child mortality by 20%
•    Mosquito nets are highly cost-effective, as cost-effective as measles immunization
•    Malaria No More has distributed 2.6 million mosquito nets in 13 African countries to cover over 5,000,000 people
•    Malaria No More stands as a case study of how aid can change
•    Malaria costs Africa at least $12 billion in lost annual GDP
•    Malaria affects 5 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals
•    In 11 African countries, childhood mosquito net use has increased 10x in the past decade

Letter to Members of Congress Urging them to take interest and action on MALARIA

I am the mother of two boys (21 and 17) and I live in Cotonou, Republic of Benin (West Africa). I am a middle school and a high school teacher at the English International School.

I am enrolled in the Malaria Griots Project launched by One. The spring 2012 group of Griots is one of the most diverse groups we have ever had with passionate advocates from all around the world and we are committing to be One voice to make MALARIA NO MORE!

I am writing to urge you to support the progress which has been made in the fight against malaria. 

As President George W. Bush stated in 2007 proclaiming April 25th as World Malaria day, “as a compassionate nation, we are called to spread awareness about malaria…and we are called to act. That’s what compassionate people do. When they see a problem, they act.” 

As president Obama stated before the Ghanian Parliament, “We are called to act by our conscience but also by our common interest, because when a child dies of a preventable disease in Accra, that diminishes us everywhere. And when disease goes unchecked in any corner of the world, we know that it can spread across oceans and continents.”

Under the National Malaria Eradication Program, malaria was eliminated from the United States in 1951. If we get the necessary help from the U.S, similar success can be achieved in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Dr. David Bowen, CEO of Malaria No More, malaria must be eradicated in Africa for the following reasons: (1) Malaria hurts macroeconomic growth in Africa; (2) Malaria is imposing costs on families that are already living on the very edge of survival; (3) Malaria negatively impacts childhood cognitive development.

We must tell the U.S. Government that saving lives from malaria is their priority just as the President’s Malaria Initiative was started by George W. Bush in 2005 to protect women and children in Africa form malaria.

We must tell congress that malaria kills and that simple actions like nets can save lives!

I know you share my desire to help end malaria in the world. I am writing to urge you to take action and not to cut the international programs that fight malaria in the fiscal year 2012 budget.

WHAT will end Malaria deaths?

Trying to eradicate malaria may be less beneficial than trying to control it! It is indeed important for the U.S. to invest in malaria control because “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” 

Today’s best weapon against malaria is the mosquito nets! Long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets last up to five years and act as a first line of defense. The mosquito nets create a barrier against mosquitoes at night and they also kill the mosquito on contact.

Long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets (LLINs) are the fastest way to prevent malaria infection. In the war against malaria, the U.S. must invest in foreign aid which will help African countries to spread insecticide treated nets.

Malaria killed 655,000 people in 2010. Ninety-one percent of malaria-related deaths occur in Africa, the majority of whom are children under 5 years of age. Most of these deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, and in areas of high malaria risk, there are an average of two malaria-related deaths per minute. 

 Malaria costs Africa $12 billion annually and in Africa, 40% of health resources are used to treat malaria! In the 21st century, malaria is not acceptable! We must work together in order to control the disease. 

It takes more than a village to fight malaria! Ending deaths malaria requires the following: U.S. foreign aid, African governments being more responsible, the NGOs, and individuals, like you and me, to educate families and communities about the effectiveness of distributing nets. 

Education is the key to prevention! We must educate people about how to use the nets and why the nets work and how to follow up to make sure the nets have been correctly installed.

To fight malaria, we need insecticide-treated nets because we all know how mosquito netting treated with insecticide is aiding the battle against malaria!

Malaria is one of the world's most demanding public health problems. It kills around 1 million people a year and of an estimated 247 million cases of malaria in 2006, 86 percent were in Africa. Therefore, we need all the help we can get in order eliminate this elusive and ever changing killer disease from our ancient African nation!

According to Pedro Alonso, from the University of Barcelona, who led a study using data from 8,000 children and infants in Tanzania, Mozambique, Gabon and Ghana, "controlling malaria is not about using one tool or another," he said. "It is about using all the tools that we have now, and new tools that we can develop, to reduce the intolerable burden of this disease."

According to David Schellenberg of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, “insecticide-treated mosquito nets were a mainstay of prevention.”

Separately, the U.S. Academy for Educational Development reported  that a 10-year-long U.S. government funded mosquito net project in Africa had helped deliver 50 million bed nets to people in seven countries for free or at partial cost. The project had also created enough incentives for private companies to decide to invest $88 million to expand their mosquito net businesses.

Mosquito netting is one of the safest and simplest ways to avoid this dangerous disease, malaria! It is said that Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, slept under a mosquito net. There is no doubt that mosquito nets are an important part of malaria prevention and as we said earlier, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Therefore, we need to put all our efforts on spreading mosquito nets around regions which suffer from this killer disease. If we educate people about the importance of bed nets, we can get rid of half the malaria deaths in Africa. We must reduce malaria by distributing long-lasting insecticide-insecticide treated nets.

According to the World Health Organization, insecticide-treated mosquito nets can reduce malaria infections by about 50 percent and cut child deaths from the disease by about 20 percent. The nets are effective because malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in Africa are generally active at night.

We must never forget that malaria causes more than a million deaths a year and kills an African child every 30 seconds!

UNICEF: Malaria testing and treatment in Ethiopia

"JANGWA, Ethiopia, 25 November 2009 A steady flow of parents and children make their way to the Jangwa Health Post in Dembia District, seeking treatment for malaria. The rainy season has recently ended, creating ideal breeding conditions for malaria-bearing mosquitoes here in Ethiopias Amhara region.

Two health extension workers, Mantegbosh and Alemtsehay, sit outside the wattle-and-daub health post, testing villagers for the Falciparum plasmodium, a dangerous strain of malaria found in Ethiopia. They use UNICEF-supplied rapid diagnostic test kits and treat their patients with drugs supplied by UNICEF.

In partnership with members of the Roll Back Malaria initiative, UNICEF has been working with the Government of Ethiopia to cut malarial morbidity and mortality in half by 2010, and another 50 per cent by 2015.

Since 2005, UNICEF Ethiopia has helped to distribute about 20 million insecticide-treated bed nets in malaria prone-districts such as Dembia. Health extension workers make sure that the nets are used properly and that stagnant pools, where mosquitoes breed, are drained."

Sustainable Development

Growing populations and industrialization have made environmental pollution a big problem around the world!

In this picture, you can see a "gohoto" woman who goes door-to-door buying plastic bottles and all kind of containers to recycle them. In Rep of Benin, we have thousands of women who do this recycling job.

Cleaning up the trash of a "throw away," consumer society, in addition to its industrial waste, is technologically challenging! 

As I told my students, environmental degradation is not unique to the 21st century. 

The Roman Empire, for example, deforested large expanses of Africa and western Asia, and later Westerners have decimated or eliminated countless animals and plant species! 

The Thames River, which intersects London, was used as the main sewage dump for one of the largest cities in the world! The stench from the river was so terrible that members of Parliament could smell the pollution from their open windows!

In the mid-twentieth century, the river emptying into Lake Erie from Cleveland, Ohio, was so polluted from industrial waste that it actually caught fire!!

Driven by poverty many poor countries in the poor South have accepted chemical and industries that have not been accepted in the rich northern nations.

We must call for stricter regulations or the outright banning of such operations! 

Risks of long-term health problems and pollution or starvation of our families....are these the only choices left..

A poor South which already struggles with rapid population growth, high unemployment, and the need for EDUCATION, people fleeing the countryside in search of a greener side, in search of better lives in urban areas, or emigrate,....often illegally to seek jobs...

We need to find solutions to our environmental problems. We need to adopt a national system of soil and water conservation!! 


We need to fight for environmental protection, poverty reduction and human development. We need to mobilize the students worldwide on issues of sustainable development.

EMPATHY To Understand is to forgive

Empathy: the ability to get inside another person's feelings and worldview

Empathy is a form of insight because it involves the ability to get beyond weird opinions or people to find what is meaningful in them.

Thomas Kuhn said that intellectual empathy is essential if "we are to make sense of ideas that we too quickly reject because of our own assumptions."

Students have to learn how to open-mindedly embrace ideas, experiences, and stories that might seem strange! They need to see how habit can block our understanding of another person's understanding!

Empathy, the ability to walk in another's shoes, to leave one's own responses so as to grasp another's, try to understand another student, people, culture......empathy

To detach ourselves...to see more objectively....Empathy is the act to trying to find what is sensible, meaningful in the actions of others....even if these ideas are puzzling...odd...or alien...

Empathy requires respect for people different from ourselves! to be open-minded, respect their point of view, develop historical empathy for people living at different places and times.

UNDERSTANDING

John Passmore said, "There are many different ways of understanding, overlapping but not reducible to one another and, correspondingly, many different ways of teaching to understand." (The philosophy of Teaching. 1982, p. 210)

 You only understand a topic if you can teach it, use it, prove it, connect it, explain it defend it and read between the lines!

Piaget wryly noted years ago that egocentric persons have only one point of view, theirs! 

Unfortunately, most often we can hear this sentence which says, "You just don't understand." 

When we truly understand, 

• we can explain
• we can interpret
• we can apply
• we have perspective (can see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears!)
• we can see the big picture
• we can empathize
• have self-knowledge

We must be able to perceive prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding!

To understand something is to see it in its relations to other things!

Indeed, to understand something is to see it in its relations to other things! How does it operates? How does it function? What consequences follow from it? What causes it?

We need to go beyond the information given to make inferences, connections, and associations!

A middle school student who can explain why steam, water, and ice, though superficially different, are the same chemical substance has a better understanding of H2O than someone who cannot!

Students should be able to transfer their abstract knowledge into giving good accounts that provide a useful framework, logic, and telling evidence to support claims!

Understanding is thus not mere knowledge of facts but inference about why and how, with specific evidence and logic, insightful connections.

Going Green, Holidays and Sustainability

During the holidays, people shop, travel and eat much more than they should, and their carbon footprint goes higher! 

How can we diminish the Holidays carbon extravaganza....by traveling using the least dirty means of transport (rail, if you can), sharing eco presents and making a meal with organic, local produce that excludes MEAT.

To make holidays a truly joyous time for all people in our planet, it is important to look at ways one can go Green! 

Going Green is about picking and choosing the right products that are made from recyclable materials rather than artificial plastics or some other non-recyclable material as has been the case for many consumers products which we can find in stores. 

Buy Paper as Opposed to Plastic Bags Like the one pictured Here!

During holiday time, you should be shopping for materails which protect and preserve the environmental quality for both today and future generations. Do not choose products which are made from petroleum based substance. 

It is up to us, consumers to look for items that are made from recyclable leather, cardboard wood, etc...When you are shopping for your hoildays, it should be the time for showcasing how you are truly going to make a difference when it comes to protecting the environment, a discerning eye for what you buy and how it impacts the environment of all individuals.

Please, consumers, try to find products that are GREEN :)

Hepatitis What Causes Hepatitis

Hepatitis is characterized by the destruction of a number of liver cells and the presence of inflammatory cells in the liver tissu.

 Hepatitis A, B, and C  

A person can develop hepatitis if they contract one of the viruses that can cause liver inflammation, or as a result of exposure to substances that can cause hepatitis.

The word hepatitis simply means an inflammation of the liver without pinpointing a specific cause. Someone with hepatitis may:

• have one of several disorders, including viral or bacterial infection of the liver
• have a liver injury caused by a toxin (poison)
• have liver damage caused by interruption of the organ's normal blood supply
• be experiencing an attack by his or her own immune system through an autoimmune disorder
• have experienced trauma to the abdomen in the area of the liver

Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B (also called serum hepatitis) is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV can cause a wide spectrum of symptoms ranging from general malaise to chronic liver disease that can lead to liver cancer.

HBV spreads through:

• infected body fluids, such as blood, saliva, semen, vaginal fluids, tears, and urine
• a contaminated blood transfusion (uncommon in the United States)
• shared contaminated needles or syringes for injecting drugs
• sexual activity with an HBV-infected person
• transmission from HBV-infected mothers to their newborn babies

Hepatitis C

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by direct contact with an infected person's blood.

The hepatitis C virus can be spread by:

• sharing drug needles
• getting a tattoo or body piercing with unsterilized tools
• blood transfusions
• transmission from mother to newborn
• sexual contact (although this is less common)

Signs and Symptoms

Hepatitis, in its early stages, may cause flu-like symptoms, including:

• malaise (a general ill feeling)
• fever
• muscle aches
• loss of appetite
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• jaundice (a yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes)

 Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C are all contagious.

 http://kidshealth.org

World Food Day 2011Take Action For Children

I was born in Niger and I grew up between Niger and an oasis in the Sahara Desert. Water and food have always been important issues in my community. I used to walk five times a day to fetch water and food was very scarce during my childhood in the oasis.

I run an Amnesty Youth Club. I teach teenagers about important issues, such as lack of water, hunger, child labor, human rights, death penalty, empower women, and many other subjects. 

I am enrolled in the Hunger and Agriculture Griot Course launched by One and WFP. 

 

This fall, One and WFP-USA and the Griot students are campaigning for foreign assistance funding in the Cogressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2012. 

Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

I believe that by educating students about hunger, importance of water, and human rights issues, they will be ready to fight for a brighter future. 

 The students and I are selling bags  made locally by an artisan. These bags are made with local fabric and on the bags we can read, 1 sac = 15 repas (1 bag = 15 meals). 

 The students and I will donate the money to a school in a remote rural area where most of the students do not go to school because they are hungry.

In this area, they prefer to work in the fields instead of going to school. 

With the money,we will offer one school meal a day in order to attract more students to school. If we can do it for 3 months, it will be wonderful! 

1 bag = 15 meals World Food Day 2011

We live in a world of plenty, but one in seven will go hungry today. 

To celebrate World Food Day 2011, the EIS Amnesty Club and Mrs. Ferdjani are selling bags tonight in order to raise funds to help children have one meal a day in school. 

Bags are made by a local artisan and 1 bag = 15 meals. 

People living in poverty have limited access to food. Within families living in poverty, women and children may have less access to food than men. 

Remember! Food keeps children in school! Please don’t forget to buy your bag today!

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”

Food keeps children in school!

"As long as poverty, injustice, and gross inequality exists in our world, none of us can rest!"  Nelson Mandela said “Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.”

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, that is the sound of a child dying…every five seconds a child dies due to poverty! And usually that child hasn’t even reached the age of five!

I was born in Niger and I grew up in Niger. I have seen many hungry and thirsty children during my childhood. My grandparents lived in an oasis in the Sahara Desert and I used to walk five times a day to fetch water.  I have witnessed children, women, and men who had no access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food.  I have witnesses devastating poverty and I saw starvation and hunger up close. 

This fall the U.S. House of Representatives advanced a bill that would slash foreign aid by 31 percent! Please take action which can help hungry children and families around the world. Tell congress not to slash the foreign aid budget. Just over 1 percent of the US budget goes to foreign aid. 

 Please, urge the Congressmen to support the international programs that fight global hunger in the fiscal year 2012 budget, to urge them to create a circle of protection around programs for hungry and poor people in the United States and around the world. 

We want to urge the Congressmen to support Senate Level-funding of foreign assistance accounts in 2012, especially for programs like “Feed the Future” and emergency aid.