Social Awareness Project

Social Awareness Project

Part 1: Reading Response

In Pakistan, there are some unfair laws. Certain TV and music are banned, and so is women’s education. That’s what 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai fights to bring back, as told in the Upfront Magazine article “Malala’s Mission” by Alessandra Potenza. When the Taliban took away the right of women’s education where she lived, she started to speak out. She kept going to school even though it wasn’t allowed. Then on October 9, 2012, when Malala was still only 15, the Taliban found out about her school visits and hunted her down. They found her and shot her in the head. Miraculously, she survived and is now living in England, getting a full education, and still fighting for her rights in Pakistan. For this, she has won the Nobel Peace Prize. This article wants me to know that women should have a good education in Pakistan and other places that don’t allow it.

The author wants me to support women’s education because the article is an interview with Malala. Malala tells the interviewer her opinion on this subject, inspiring me and making me want to think the same. Malala says things like “I’ve seen so many situations in which girls are denied their basic human rights. . . .I realized girls’ education is important, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of it - because they do not want women to [be] empowered.” Ideas like this tell readers that girls shouldn’t be denied these rights, that they should get an equal education to man. It tells readers that they shouldn’t be discriminated and kept from school just because she’s a girl. In the article, Malala uses loaded words like “injustice” to explain what is happening in her country. Injustice is the act of taking rights away, which is a perfect word to describe her plight. This shows that the authors supports Malala and wants us to support her and her cause too.

Furthermore, the author also wants me and other teens to stand up for ideas like this that I believe in. Besides standing up for her beliefs, Malala encourages other people her age to stand up for theirs. She says, “[Some] teenagers think that standing up [for] women’s rights or human rights is not their job to do. They usually consider themselves as people who have fun [and] take selfies, but I think it’s important that teenagers take active roles in speaking up against injustice and inequality.” This shows that Malala wants kids her age to stand up for what they believe in. She wants them to know that their voice makes a difference. This clearly shows that the author wants me to feel this way.

Overall, The authors wants us to support Malala’s ideas for women’s education and speak for our beliefs too. This article made me think about how I have lots of ideas like this, that I’d like to stand up for, but I don’t because I felt as if my voice didn’t count. But Malala was one person and now so many people know about her and support her, maybe me and the kids in my school could do the same someday.

Part 2: Poem

We Are Unique

We are all unique.

Some are black.

Some are white.

Some like guys.

Some like girls.

Some are poor.

Some are rich.

Some live here.

Some live elsewhere.

Some speak the language you know.

Some speak a different one.

But we are all human.

So we should all be respected.

Process:

When I began to write this poem, I wanted to write a first-person poem about gay marriage and gay equality. But then I found it difficult to write, so instead I wrote a poem about a bunch of different things people are discriminated for. I put in gay marriage in, as well as racism, sexism, and some other topics.

Then I decided on how the poem should be written. I don’t really like to write poems that rhyme, because after I write them, I find that they they sound childish and not very well written, even though I spent countless hours on it trying to think of good words that rhyme. So I decided to write it as a repetitive poem, where the beginning of almost every line starts the same. I think writing it this way makes it sound important and more effective. The first line and last two lines, the ones that don’t have the repetitive pattern, help make the meaning of the poem clear to the reader. The meaning is that even though we are all different, we should all be respected equally.

Part 3: Diary Entries

Dear Diary,

Today a law passed saying that people must wear masks when they go outside so they don’t breath in the pollution that’s now plagued America. Many people think the end is coming. I saw a group of people on the way home from school who were collecting money for the American Go Green Project, but I think it’s too late. I think we’ve run this Earth dry. I think it’s dead. We’ve already used up all its oil, chopped down all its forests, slain or at least endangered all it’s animals, and poisoned all its oceans. What more can we do to kill it further?

Sincerely, Suzy Castleton

Dear Diary,

Another nuclear power plant blew up today. This one was in Chicago. That’s some more people with cancer now. They’ll never be cured. The government’s put so much money into useless stuff that they kind of forgot about the medical department. Hardly any hospitals are open anymore. You’d be lucky to find one. Another thing the government forgot to put money into was education. That’s why I don’t go the school anymore. The last thing I remember learning at school was probably the times tables, and I’m 14.

Sincerely, Suzy Castleton

Dear Diary,

I remember watching some old animated movie that had people going up to space to find a new home, and all that was left on Earth was trash and robots. I think that story might come to life now. I heard a rumor today that NASA was building a giant space ship with apartments and stores and other stuff like that. The rumor said it can hold about 1 million people. Funny how that’s just a bit more than the amount of people in this country that are upper class and rich and don’t have to deal with the nightmares that terrorize us, the poor and forgotten. We’re being left to die. Soon, there will be none.

Sincerely, Suzy Castleton

Process:

I really wanted to write a post-apocalyptic diary. Those are really fun to write. I like making them dramatic and having the character refer to things that are relatively modern today as old. For example, The animated movie that Suzy mentions in the third Diary entry is Wall-E. Another thing I like to do in Diary entries is make it seem like the writer is talking to the diary. For example, when Suzy says, “You’d be lucky to find one,” she uses the word “you”, referring to the diary as if it’s a person. It makes the reader feel like he or she is talking with the writer of the diary.

Works Cited

Kuczynski, Paul. N.d. Painting. Earthstonestation.com. 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.

Potenza, Alessandra. "Malala’s Mission." The New York Times Upfront 17 Nov. 2014: Print.