High Interest Question

Do you feel as though teenagers who read more do well in school oppose to teenagers who never read?

Why Should You Read More Often?

Ethos- reading can prevent Alzheimer's disease. When you read a book it reduces stress and puts you in a better mood. 

Pathos- people who read are more likely to vote, exercise, and be more cultural. Reading is also very therapeutic. Reading makes you a better writer and expands your vocabulary. It makes you feel good when you read a book and in return, other people around you feel good. 

Logos- if you read more, you are more likely to get ahead in your career and you are most likely to learn something new. 

The Question: Ban Technology?

If parents were to ban technology from their children it would have both positive and negative effects. In our 21st century, we use technology for just about everything. Our phones can house credit cards or gift cards, upload checks to bank accounts, you can even scan an item in the store and get its price. Technology can be a good thing; laptops have webcams on them which is ideal for websites such as Skype where people can video chat across the country. If parents banned their teenager from having a phone, what would they use in case if an emergency? You know most phones have a tracker inside them which the police department can locate a person down if they are next to their phone? If a teenager did not have a phone to call or text their parents that they needed help then it would make it that much harder for them to receive help. Although technology has its advantages, it also has its disadvantages. More and more teens are becoming addicted to social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. 75% of the population has an online profile. Students spend most of their school days not paying attention to the teacher but to their phones. And when they get home they are not doing homework but scrolling through Tumblr. Staring at a screen for too long causes health problems and poor eye sight. So I think too much technology is a bad thing but to have it there is a good resource to have! 

Magazine Analysis

The magazine that I choose to analyze during class is J-14. When I did the Fry Graph, it estimated that my magazine is written for people between the ages of 16-17; ironically "J-14" is short for "Just 14". It goes to show that even if a magazine has a lot of pictures and colors, it can still publish articles that attract older audiences. The Fry Graph for estimating Reading Ages estimated the average reading average of my magazine between 16-17 years of age. It is kind of ironic that the magazine title is "J-14" and is targeted for young teens. The magazine had a ratio of 30 advertising pages to 80 magazine-related information. It goes to show that even if a magazine is full of pictures it is still relating to the subject that it is trying to get across. The student next to me had a magazine about volleyball which had a ratio 24 advertisements to 26 volleyball related items.

Citation for Charts

Sacco, Al. "Mobile WorkHorse." CIO. CIO, 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/aap-6-months-2013-2-500x369.png
(This was just a picture with no link to the website, no author or anything like that.)

Owen, Lauren H. "Ebooks Made up 20% of the U.S. Consumer Book Industry in 2012, up from 15% in 2011 — PaidContent." PaidContent. PaidContent, 15 May 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

(Did not actually pay for the content...It was just the blog title) 

How Does Music Effect You?

Music is something that is of high interest to me. I incorporate music into my daily life, it is playing when I am in the shower, doing homework and even when I am in the hallways. In our society, today’s music is always changing. The topic of music impacts each individual person on a different level and since music is such a big part of my life, I was wondering how it affected other people. I asked some students of Norton High School a question: How do students feel like listening to music while doing their homework helps them in comparison to the students who feel like it does not?

​The experiment that I conducted was pretty plain and simple. It was just three questions: Do you listen to music while you do your homework? Do you listen to certain types of music for different subjects? How does the music help you complete your work? For the students who do not listen to music while doing their homework I had them list two reasons why they do not listen to music while they complete their work. I interviewed seven students and they all felt the same about the topic. Six out of seven people that I interviewed said that they did listen to music while they did their homework. “’It helps me focus,”’ One student Lauren wrote “’ When I’m not in the mood to do it.”’ Another student said “’It keeps me awake.”’ The one student who said that they do not listen to music stated: “’It distracts me and keeps me from completing my work.”’ When I re-looked at my data I saw that there was no difference between the males and females on their opinions in the subject. So from all this data I gathered, I came to the conclusion that the majority of students like to listen to music while doing their homework.

​When I asked the students if they listen to different types of music for different subjects I got a wide variety of answers. One student said “Country for every subject.” And two other students did not specify what genre they listen to but it is the same for all subjects. So every person is different when they come to music. Some people like to listen to music while they complete their work and some do not.

How do students feel like listening to music while doing their homework helps them, in comparison to the students who feel like it does not?