Volume 4 Issue 2

March

2013

The Heart of Soule, a member of

the Empire State School Press

Association is published

exclusively online and periodically by the students of Soule Road Middle School,

Liverpool Central School District. It is

intended as a vehicle to inform, educate, and entertain the

student body. Opinions expressed

are those of the students and do not necessarily reflect

those of the administration,

Mrs. Caldwell or the adviser, Mrs. Colabello. Have a

story idea? Let your English teacher

know! Writers are always welcome!

8340 Soule Road Liverpool, NY 13039

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www.liverpool.

k12.ny.us/webpages/ srmnewspaper/

Soule Road Middle School

Welcome to The Heart of

Soule Online

Student News

Journal!

J.Zolick

They’ve Been S-T-U-N-G by the BEE!

By: Julie Coggiola

Seventh-grader Ellyn Prusinowski and eighth-grader Emily

Hung are two students who rarely need to use spell check. These students represented Soule Road Middle School by competing in the 2013 Post - Standard/WCNY Spelling Bee. After they won Soule’s own bee they moved on to the regional level, and were among the top 36 spellers in the Central New York area. These ladies showed their spelling ability live on television on Saturday, February 2nd. This local spelling Bee premiered at two o’ clock in the afternoon on WCNY.

Emily Hung is a hard-working student. While her grades are always fairly high, she also excels in many other areas. She is a competitive swimmer for the Liverpool modified team, and is also in Soule Road Middle’s production of Beauty and the Beast, playing the role of a Silly Girl. Hung is also a two-time Junior High All County French Horn player. So it should come as no surprise to most people when they find out she can spell at a high level too. That being said, she still wasn’t as confident with her abilities.

“I had this feeling I wouldn’t get past the first round, but every time I did, I was surprised,” recalled Hung.

Hung also tends to act as her friends’ personal dictionaries. “Whenever one of my friends misspells something, I fix it,” said Hung. “I’m [currently] trying to teach [my friend] how to spell ‘restaurant’!”

The atmosphere of the bees appeared “nerve-racking” to Hung at first, but she eventually adjusted to the situations. Finishing in 23rd place at the Post-Standard/WCNY Spelling Bee, she didn’t seem too intimidated by the environment.

“It was really scary at first,” she said. “But after a while I forgot the cameras were there.”

Hung’s final reflection on the competitions was one that was positive and proud. “It was really fun and I met a bunch of people!” continued page 3

GET READY FOR BEAUTY & THE BEAST

By Catie Kobland Do you like musicals? What about Disney? If you answered yes to either of those questions you should come see Soule Road Middle schools production of "Beauty and the Beast Jr"! This classic Disney movie is put turned in a wonderful live musical experience for you and the whole family to see. Come see the beautiful and talented Alex Taskovski and "Belle" and the skilled and charming Nick Depo as the Beast. Don't forget the wonderful enchanted servants! Julie Coggolia as Mrs.Potts, Caleb Munski as Coggsworth, Louie Falvo as Lumiere, Alex Hill as Madame De La Grande Bouche, Catie Kobland as Babette, and Lucian Chizzonte-Rau as Chip. Don't forget the man trying to win Belles heart! Gaston played by Even Maestri, and his trusty side kick Lefou played by Sam Doyle. So mark down this tale as old as time on your calenders, March 15th and 16th. So come see this wonderful Disney tale on stage!

Heart & Soule/ Volume 4, Issue 2 / Page 2

Among the Betrayed

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Book Review by Faith Amodie Could you ever imagine being arrested or even killed because you were the third

child born to your family? The creative, detailed author Margaret Peterson Haddix has quite an imagination to

write such a story and that’s what she does best--writing science fiction books, like Among The Betrayed. A young girl named Nina Idi has been arrested and put in prison for being caught as a third child born to her parents. Nina lives in a society where a family can only have no more than 2 children. The third child born is to either hide himself the rest of his life or the parents buy the child a “fake ID.” Otherwise they will be arrested and maybe killed. In prison, Nina is fed black bread, very little water, and a few crackers a day. It’s complete torture for her. After days in prison, Nina is pulled from her jail cell and into a fancy room with a guard who works at the prison, known as the Population Police. Nina is asked questions to try to prove her fake existence of Nina and say what her real name is. While being asked, Nina has gotten a hold of the guards ring of keys and goes to unlock a prison cell with 3 little kids Percy, Mathias, and Alia, who are also third children locked up in a underground, cold cell. Nina and the 3 three kids all, uneasily, escape the prison and run away into the woods to hide. Will they be caught or get to safety? Nina is unknowingly put through a serious life or death test. Will she pass?

After reading Margaret Peterson Haddix’s suspenseful book, I have to say it was quite good. If I were to rate the book a 1 to 4 stars, I would give this book a 4. While reading this book, I always knew what was going on because of Haddix’s highly detailed writing. Reading her book was a very easy read and I felt like I was flying through the book. I would definitely read another one of her books again. In fact, the book I just read is a series and next I will probably be reading the book that follows. Haddix’s was really good with thoroughly describing characters, especially when a new character was introduced. For example, when three kids, Percy, Mathias, and Alia were introduced, Haddix’s would describe very well how they looked, dressed and acted. At times, I could feel like I was part of the tragic story. The following quote is from the book which is an example of how she pulls the reader in with her descriptive writing, “Nina remembered how alone she’d felt in her jail cell, all those months ago. Feeling abandoned and betrayed was worse than hunger, worse than cold, worse than the handcuffs on her wrists.” When I finished this book, I thought the ending would’ve ended differently. I was expecting the main character to either be killed or go back to her family and be free.

Margaret Peterson Haddix was born on a small farm in Washington Court House, Ohio. When Haddix graduated, she had degrees in English/Journalism and English/Creative writing and history. Before she had published her first book she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Haddix has written over 25 great, detailed books. A few of her books include Running Out of Time, Don’t You Dare Read This, and Just Ella. Some book series she has written are Shadow Children, Missing, and 39 Clues. Haddix’s talent with writing books has been honored by New York Times Bestseller Award, the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. In addition, American Library Association Best Book Award, Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers Award, and she has won over a dozen more readers choice awards. Haddix is presently living in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, Doug, and their two children.

! Spelling Bee CONT PAGE 1

“My mom helped quiz me on the words,” she said. “Usually, I would write down the words [from the word list] so I could see my mistakes. I had a whole color coding system going on, and my study lists were a mess by the end!”

It was hard for Prusinowski to learn the words in the beginning. She said it was hard to choose one word that stood out as difficult above all the others, due to the fact that all the words were challenging.

Prusinowski recalled how “Some were really hard at first, but if I studied a word hard enough, it became a lot easier after a while.” Nevertheless, this seventh grade speller did recollect the word “contrivance” as being “particularly hard” to spell.

Prusinowski finished in 22nd place at the regional spelling bee. She and Hung both stayed active until the fourth round. Prusinowski spelled the word “terrapin” incorrectly, and Hung spelled the word “backstein” incorrectly.

Generally speaking, they both believed being a member of all the bees was a positive experience. “I got to meet some new kids which was really cool,” said Prusinowski in a reflection of the incident. All in all, they both agreed that being involved in these spelling competitions “was really fun!” !

Students Take the Chill Off as Part of 8R Winter T.H.A.W.

By Alex Hill It’s the dead of winter and the weather stinks. Definitely time for a winter thaw! So what do a singer, writer, high school principal and retired history teacher all have in common? Each represented the roles of a “thinker,” “history-maker,” “artist,” and “writer,” as part of closure for the 8R students research based project called “T.H.A.W.” After students chose their own subject to research they had a chance to listen to speakers Tom Henry, Maria Desantis, Sean Kirst, and Tony Davis who all visited to discuss what character traits are needed to be successful in their fields. Students took notes on each of the special guest speaker’s presentation which were held on January’s half day. At the end of each presentation, students could ask questions (and some even sang for Maria DeSantis). The T.H.A.W. project had several different parts. Some students on the 8R team participated in an extra project to bring their research subject to life size. Throughout the hall, figures like Walt Disney, Coco Chanel, and Harriet Tubman hung with extra symbols to represent different parts and moments in the figure’s life. Third and fourth grade students from SRE visited for a tour of the subjects and after a short presentation by each 8th grader, they voted for J.R.R. Tolkien, by Angelina DeLucia as their favorite. ____________________________________ Continued page 1

Ellyn Prusinowski, more commonly referred to as “Elly” by her peers, also showed exceptional spelling skills at the bees. She also takes part in various extracurricular activities as well, such as the school musical, the school yearbook club, and the SRM show choir. Elly also plays flute in the SRM band and guitar outside of school. Like Hung, Prusinowski’s grades are above average as well, therefore making it logical for her to be a speller of her caliber. She wanted to develop a better spelling ability, but enjoy herself at the same time.

“I just did it because I just wanted to do something fun where I would also learn a lot. I definitely learned tons, and it was so much fun,” said Prusinowski.

Before the Soule Road Bee, every participant got a word list of particularly challenging vocabulary that could be asked in the bee. Prusinowski studied this list thoroughly in preparation for the competition and essentially made up her own system, with help from her family.

The 8S team of Soule Road Middle went mute during each class on the half day of January 25th. “Why?” you might ask. This day of silence was all done in preparation of the rapidly approaching state tests. Kids walked into the classroom and were immediately hushed by peers who had read the board. “No talking today.” Each classroom in the pod had this message phrased differently, but the intention still was the same. Most kids didn’t know what was going on as they were confused by why there was to be no talking. By the end of the day, most kids understood what the goal of this day had been based off of all of the various activities the teachers had the students partake in. The activity done in each class was completely different. However, each one had a common medium: we had to read and follow directions to complete the task. We had to complete the activity on our own and couldn’t ask any questions what so ever. Sound familiar? These are the exact same conditions the state test has. No asking questions, no talking, and all reading, writing and following directions. Each teacher reinforced our ability to follow directions in a different way. In Social Studies, we were taking notes with a twist. We had to follow the directions to take the notes properly. Some directions included: drawing a box around your answer, writing a block on the second line of the paper, flipping to the back to answer a certain question, drawing a heart by the answer and putting a star by your name. If we didn’t follow directions, it would have been obvious. In Science, we were making a graph based off of a previous lab’s data. If we skimmed through the directions and didn’t read carefully, like many did, we would have made a graph using every scrap of data we collected. That would’ve taken a long time to plot those points. Reading the directions helped us to pick up on the key words. Some key words included, bar graph, average of the data, and “make a key” for the graph. Many did not read directions until Mrs. Schulz went around and underlined those words..

In Spanish, we were drawing monsters using a set amount of arms, legs, heads, and body parts (all of the body parts being in Spanish of course!). Without reading carefully, students may not have picked up on key details that described the body part that had to be drawn such as ugly, long, small, girl, and boy. Without these, the monster would have been incorrect. 8th grader Abby King agrees that this was a new, fun way to get across the point of reading directions, “I thought it was definitely a change from an ordinary school day. For me, it wasn’t too boring because we were doing different activities in different classes. I liked this idea thoroughly!” she said. Teachers won’t always be there for us to help comprehend something, especially on the state test; learn how to read directions, look for context clues and eventually you will find your answer, on your own.

Heart of Soule/ Volume 3, Issue 2/ Page 4

No Talking Allowed! 8S Team Takes a Break and

Learns How to Read Directions By Evan Maestri

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