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by Angelina Litvin is licensed under What made me different? Was la product of my environment? Maybe I lived in poverty and bounced around from school to school after each eviction sent my family on the search for another apartment and my single mother in pursuit of another job Learning in those circumstances would be difficult for any kid. But did that make not smart? Sure, I wasn't an honor roll student, but none of the other kids knew about section 8, HUD housing, food stamps, hotel vouchers, and how to pack everything you own into two black trash bags in under thirty minutes while the sheriff tossed your fumiture out. I knew these things. This qualifies as smart, doesn't #7 But that was life outside of my brain. What was going on inside was the other reason people thought there was something wrong with me. The doctors explained it like this: If everyone has a sack of water around their brain, and lightning strikes, the w absorbs the blow and allows the brain to only receive. charge of electricity, letting you leam safely and normally. My brain was made without the sack surrounding it. I take the lightning-information coming in-head on, I learn from each strike, but not the way others leam new things or process information. This meant that i dissected what I heard or read, seeing how many other words various words. I'd then play with the letters, trading vowels with words in the next sentence to make new words. could n This made reading very difficult and reading aloud nearly impossible. The teachers didn't know COMMONLIT it to do with me. I'd hand in assignments letter from each question was used to enjoyed it, but I always failed. I was always students the teachers had given up on. that had nothing to do with the lesson, but every a story. Id hand in my story and hope the teacher placed in the back of the classroom, the place for salowed to hand in my silly stories and managed [5] But loved I collected them to make Always stories. I had to tell stories.Directions: Read your section. Fill in the organizer (main idea, key details, POV). Teach your section to your group. Notice connections to the other sections. Write your answers on chart paper and be ready to share out loud with the class. This is due before you leave today. No exceptions,Paragraph Main Idea Key Details Bird's POV v. Society's POV the first paragraph
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Below is a filled-in organizer for the first paragraph of the passage you posted.
Paragraph: First paragraph
Main idea
- The narrator argues that being “different” wasn’t because she wasn’t smart but because of her difficult environment and because her brain processes information in an unusual way; others misread those differences as failure.
Key details (evidence / specifics)
- Lived in poverty, moved frequently after evictions, single mother working multiple jobs.
- Knew practical, adult survival things other kids didn’t (Section 8, HUD, food stamps, hotel vouchers, packing everything in two black trash bags).
- Not an honor-roll student, but has real-life knowledge that the narrator considers a form of intelligence.
- Doctors’ explanation/metaphor: other people have a “sack of water” around their brain that softens incoming information; her brain lacks that, so she takes the “lightning” directly and learns differently.
- She plays with language (trading vowels, making new words), which makes reading and reading aloud hard; teachers misunderstood and thought she didn’t try.
- She wrote stories and collected them even though teachers wrote her off.
Narrator’s (Bird’s) POV
- First-person perspective (“I”); she sees herself as intelligent in nontraditional ways.
- Feels misunderstood by adults and teachers; believes her life-experience knowledge and creative way of processing information are valid forms of intelligence.
- Views her language play and storytelling as important and meaningful, not merely errors.
- Understands that her environment made learning harder, but insists that this does not equal lack of intelligence.
Society’s POV (teachers / outsiders)
- Judges intelligence by conventional academic measures (honor roll, reading aloud, standard assignments).
- Interprets reading difficulties, messy assignments, and nonconformity as lack of effort or ability.
- Gives up on students who don’t fit the expected pattern; places them at the back of the classroom.
- Lacks awareness of the students’ home hardships and nontraditional strengths.
Quick suggestion for sharing out loud
- Start with the main idea sentence, then give two strong key details (poverty/moves and the “sack of water/lightning” metaphor) as evidence, and finish by contrasting Bird’s POV vs society’s POV in one sentence each.
If you want, I can condense this into chart-paper friendly bullet lines or give a 1–2 sentence oral summary you can read aloud. Which would you prefer?
Paragraph: First paragraph
Main idea
- The narrator argues that being “different” wasn’t because she wasn’t smart but because of her difficult environment and because her brain processes information in an unusual way; others misread those differences as failure.
Key details (evidence / specifics)
- Lived in poverty, moved frequently after evictions, single mother working multiple jobs.
- Knew practical, adult survival things other kids didn’t (Section 8, HUD, food stamps, hotel vouchers, packing everything in two black trash bags).
- Not an honor-roll student, but has real-life knowledge that the narrator considers a form of intelligence.
- Doctors’ explanation/metaphor: other people have a “sack of water” around their brain that softens incoming information; her brain lacks that, so she takes the “lightning” directly and learns differently.
- She plays with language (trading vowels, making new words), which makes reading and reading aloud hard; teachers misunderstood and thought she didn’t try.
- She wrote stories and collected them even though teachers wrote her off.
Narrator’s (Bird’s) POV
- First-person perspective (“I”); she sees herself as intelligent in nontraditional ways.
- Feels misunderstood by adults and teachers; believes her life-experience knowledge and creative way of processing information are valid forms of intelligence.
- Views her language play and storytelling as important and meaningful, not merely errors.
- Understands that her environment made learning harder, but insists that this does not equal lack of intelligence.
Society’s POV (teachers / outsiders)
- Judges intelligence by conventional academic measures (honor roll, reading aloud, standard assignments).
- Interprets reading difficulties, messy assignments, and nonconformity as lack of effort or ability.
- Gives up on students who don’t fit the expected pattern; places them at the back of the classroom.
- Lacks awareness of the students’ home hardships and nontraditional strengths.
Quick suggestion for sharing out loud
- Start with the main idea sentence, then give two strong key details (poverty/moves and the “sack of water/lightning” metaphor) as evidence, and finish by contrasting Bird’s POV vs society’s POV in one sentence each.
If you want, I can condense this into chart-paper friendly bullet lines or give a 1–2 sentence oral summary you can read aloud. Which would you prefer?
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