Essential+Question+Essay+on+the+River+Essay

**Student: Sabrina Patriciello** Fantastic job on the __River__ essay. Masterfully written and understood. I really enjoyed reading your essay, Sabrina. You've got a distinctive and compelling voice as a writer. Perhaps you did not use many, if any, of thinking process words in your summary of pages 96-132, but you did an insigtful and detailed job of capturing Brian's thoughts and the action in the last quarter of the novel. I''m really, really impressed by the quality of the writing here. Thank you.

A well-deserved 100.
I hope that this will help make up for the "tough time" that you and your G.E.T. group has been having recently. You have handled yourself with grace and maturity in the face of some less mature antics, shall we say? You've got my respect, Sabrina. I'm proud of you. I really am....

Yours,

Mr. Baskin


 * Grading Points Rubric for Essential-Question Essay on __The River__**


 * 1) **Introduction Paragraph:** Thesis/topic sentence; at least three traits stated; explanation of how the essay will proceed.


 * Maximum Number of Points: 10 POINTS EARNED:**


 * 1) **Traits Paragraph:** List the traits; define each trait; provide a brief example from the novel for the trait.


 * Maximum Number of Points: 15 POINTS EARNED:**


 * 1) **Conflict Paragraph:** Description of the conflict at the beginning of the novel; description of how the conflict changes; explanation of what is similar to and different between the two conflicts.


 * Maximum Number of Points: 15 POINTS EARNED:**


 * 1) **Fill-in-the-Blanks Paragraphs on the Thinking Process/Problem Solving:**

Sixty-seven blanks to use the following thinking-process terms: observe or observation; wonder or reflect or reflection; name or naming or identify or identification; consider alternatives or options or considering; predict or predicting or prediction; choose a solution or make a choice or solve or choose; make a plan or prepare a plan or plan; gather resources;

act or do or perform a solution.


 * Maximum Number of Points: 25 POINTS EARNED**


 * 1) **Summary of Paragraphs 97-132 in terms of the Thinking Process**

From twenty to forty sentences summarizing what Brian is doing on these pages using the vocabulary of the thinking process.


 * Maximum Number of Points: 20 POINTS EARNED:**


 * 1) **Conclusion**

Restatement of the message or lesson of the novel; explanation of why this is an important message or lesson to know; description of how the writer of the essay (the student) can specifically use this lesson in his/her life in the future.


 * Maximum Number of Points: 15**

__ River Essay __

By: Sabrina Patriciello You say it would be a one in a lifetime opportunity to survive in the wilderness with nothing but yourself. The truth is it’s not what you think. Brian did it’ coming back //half// alive. He did it once; why not a second time? Time. That’s all that mattered to him. Someone needs Brian’s help. Help. To survive in the wild you’ll need these things: Bravery, trust, and intelligence, well “Creative.” Brian has all the stuff to survive. His partner doesn’t have all the requirements… In the book __The River__ a //man// takes charge and does something. He wouldn’t have been able to do this if he wasn’t brave, trustful, and “Creative.” How ‘ought we learn more about Brian? First of bravery. We would be ‘othing without taking a lit’ charge in our lives, not being afraid to do it, and I mean //nothing//. Bravery means you could be a leader never a follower. Defiantly not a follower. If you’re brave enough you otta’ take control and be able to take care of people. ‘Cuz you’ll know in the end that you’ve don’t the right thang’. Brian did the exact thing I just said. When he was in the wilderness for the second time, God knows why, he was brave enough to take that chance to do it //twice//. This time Derek came with him… He was quite older and was trying to learn from him which ended up in a catastrophe. That man, Derek, had to be taken’ cared of from a boy half his own age. Brian took charge, he knew what to do, he wasn’t afraid. He was somethan’. Brian had the bravery down, but did he have the trust? You gotta’ be able to trust your partner and you need to believe them. Well make believe, you need to have faith. Derek came; he stated what he wanted very clearly, for Brian to go back in the wild with him, which came out of nowhere. Brian didn’t even ‘now him! Brian had it. Brian had trust in Derek. He knew that Derek really wanted to help people, and so did Brian. Brian had trust in Derek, and Derek had some trust with Brian! When they arrived in the “Wilderness” ready to go Derek had some unneeded supplies. Derek trusted Brian’s opinion, to leave everything behind, and he actually left all that stuff behind. Brian trusted Derek when he only took the radio, to call if they needed any emergencies. Derek wanted Brian to share his thoughts, he wanted to learn more about how to survive, and Brian had trusted his statement and started talking more and sharing his thoughts. Trustful. Defiantly. A river raft, making the beds, starting the fires, finding the food, even saving a man’s life! Yea I think ‘dats pretty intelligent for a kid. He knew what would come. He knew the currents, the clouds, and the wind. He’s been through it once, he’ll do it again. With Derek with him he practically had to take //care// of him. Let me tell you, that you would have to be smart to handle that task. He would teach him things from making the beds, to finding food to eat. I don’t want to be a spoiler… But at the end of the book something happens, that makes Brian a hero. He literally saves someone from dying… His partner, Derek, was shocked by lightning and was put into a coma. Now, Brian knows nothing of feeding someone that is paralyzed… So his goal is to keep him safe. Brian believes if he doesn’t get Derek to a hospital soon he will dies of hunger or thirst. Brian makes a raft, out of his hands, makes in big enough and strong enough to hold Derek and himself. He learns that the current is very slow, so he must paddle a 180 plus himself across the river. And guess what he does it! He was smart enough to build a raft, and follow the current very precisely, and… and… save a human being from losing his life. No one, and I mean //no one// could be that intelligent but that’s wrong… Brian was. He is. Brian was stranded in the wild… with another person to take care of! Obviously there’s a problem. The conflict. The conflict throughout the book starts with the gesturing of even doing it again! But that wasn’t the conflict throughout the story. The conflict is that he said yes, and what had happened because of that decision. The consequences… Brian said yes but didn’t relies that he would go with someone else, the would be a lightning storm, his “partner” would got shocked by lighting, the radio would bust, Derek was in a coma, he wouldn’t have to save Derek, he would make a raft, he would carried Derek on the raft to bring him to safety, and that he would do it. He did it! This started by Derek wanting to learn Brian’s ways, to help others, it ended up with Brian helping Derek. So bottom lines are that the conflict was his choice, and the consequences that followed that one remark.


 * Thinking Process in Gary Paulsen’s __The River__:**
 * How Is The Central Conflict Solved?**

__Directions__: Use the below fill-in-the-blank document—either the electronic version or this hard-copy version—to write the main body paragraphs of your essay on __The River__. You have already written paragraphs about Brian Robeson’s main character traits, and you have written paragraphs about how the conflict in the novel changes over the course of the story. You will use all of these paragraphs to build a final essay on __The River__. In effect, all of these paragraphs will be used or “recycled” by you to create your final essay.

__Goal__: The goal of the below section/essay is to explain step-by-step how Brian Robeson successfully gets Derek Holtzer to safety. You will explain the thinking process/problem-solving process that Brian uses—that Paulsen shows Brian using. You will also provide examples of Brian doing these steps or moments.

You may work alone, or you may work with one other partner. You must use a copy of the novel at all times.

You may find an electronic, “online” version of this in: Resources/Baskin Humanities Thematic Units/riverthinkingprocessessay.

Remember, if you use an electronic version of this fill-in-the-blank essay, copy it from the Resource drive to your Humanities folder. Do a “Save as” by adding your name and the date to the file name: Riverthinkingprocessessay[yourfirstand last name and the date]. //__Steps in the Thinking Process__// 1. **Observation/Perception**: Your senses hear or see or smell or taste or touch something. 2. **Wondering/Reflecting**: You wonder what it could be or what it could mean. 3. **Naming/ Identifying**: You say what the event is or what the problem or difficulty is. 4. **Considering Alternatives or Options**: You list possible options or choices to take in order to respond to the problem. 5. **Predicting**: You take each option and play a “what-if” game with your imagination and your reason. You try to predict what will, or would, happen if each choice were taken. 6. **Choosing a Solution/Making a Choice**: You select the alternative or option that is mostly likely to lead to a successful resolution. 7. **Making or Preparing a Plan**: You put together a series of steps to take to put your plan into action. 8. **Gathering Resources**: You gather together materials or information that you need in order to actual do the solution. 9. **Doing or Performing the Solution**: You perform the job or work of actually doing the solution.

The problem-solving process that Brian uses to solve his new conflict is the thinking process. There are nine steps in the thinking or problem-solving process. The first step in the thinking process involves making an observation or a having a perception. This means that a person senses an event. At this moment, the person who sensed the event does not know what it is. Thus, he or she naturally reflects or wonders what it is that he or she just heard or saw or felt or tasted or smelled, etc. Reflecting/ Wondering is the second moment in the problem-solving process. Often, this leads the person to investigate further the event that was sensed or observed. If enough information is available, the person will name the event or identify the problem that he or she had just sensed. That is the third moment in the thinking process. Next comes the considering alternatives or options step in this problem-solving process: Considering alternatives or Options. That is the fourth moment in the thinking process/problem-solving process. Once the person has listed the possible alternatives, then a decision must be made as to which alternative or choice is most logical. The next step, the predicting step, in the process of making this decision is often what we mean when we use the word “thinking.” But really what most often happens here is that the person engages in a mental “What-if game.” Basically, this means that the person tries to make a prediction of what in the future what would most likely happen if each choice, or decisions, were selected. Based upon those predictions, the problem-solver selects a solution. That is the sixth moment in the thinking process. The next, and making a plan step, involves preparing a plan of how to put the solution into action. After this, the problem-solver gathers materials or information to use when the plan is done. That is the eighth step. Finally, in the ninth step, the problem-solver actually preforms or does the solution. On page 66 of __The River__, we clearly see an example of the third step in the thinking process: identifying or naming the problem. Here, on page 66, we learn that Brian has a name for Derek’s problem. He says that Derek is in a coma. Shortly, thereafter, on page 67, Brian starts to feel angry at him for allowing himself to be talked into going back into the woods to teach survival skills to Derek. Brian starts to feel sorry for himself. But then he stops himself, because he feels, or hears himself acting babyish and immature. On page 67 he says, “Listen to me… If I were talking out loud, I’d be whining. Derek gets hit and I act like I’m the one getting messed up.” Derek stops himself from feeling sorry for him. And then he moves on to trying to solve the problem of saving Derek’s life. Brian clearly is wondering/reflecting and considering options on page 67 when he thinks, “Could he stay here with Derek for a week or ten days and wait for them? Could he not stay? What choices did he have?” Brian is listing all of the different choices that he has. At the end of this chapter, after Brian senses the smell of human waste; he identifies that Derek has “soiled” himself. Brian chooses a solution when he says, “It had to be done. He had to clean Derek, take care of him, and take care of another human being.” So, Brian comes up with an idea to clean up Derek’s waste. We read on page 68 that the resources that Brian gathers are grass and a stick. Then he performs, or does, the solution when he carries Derek’s waste and buries it in a hole. The thinking process/problem-thinking process continues. In chapter 13, on page 71, Brian is clearly reflecting or wondering when we read that “He spent the morning trying to remember what he knew” about comas. At the top of page 72, Brian makes a prediction about how long he thinks Derek can survive. We read, “But Brian was sure Derek could not go that long without water…. Somewhere he’d heard or read or seen that the human body couldn’t go that long without water.” So, Brian makes a “small spoon like holder out of birch bark” and pours water down Derek’s throat. Here, Brian has used resources and has acted on his part. When he saw that Derek coughs up the water, Brian had another problem: Derek cannot drink. At this point, on page 73, Brian doesn’t know what to do. He throws down a stick, which bounces into Derek’s briefcase. When Brian sees the briefcase, “as if for the first time” he is making a prediction. When Brian says, “What have you got in here?” he is wondering/ reflecting. When Brian opens up Derek’s briefcase, he finds the map of the wilderness area where they are. On the map, he sees a river. Brian unfolds the map and he follows the flow of the river. He observes the words “Brannock Trading Post,” on page 78. When we read that Brian thinks to himself, “There would be people there…. A trading post would have people” we know that he is making a prediction. On page 79, we read that Brian calculates that the trading post is about 150 kilometers or just less than 100 miles. When Brian thinks to himself that he could leave Derek and go down the river and bring back help, he is selecting the options. But then, he predicts that wild animals might attack or eat Brian. Brian decides that he cannot leave Derek. Here, he is making a choice__.__ At the very bottom of page 79, we read, “What if he took Derek with him?” Here, Brian is using “what-if” thinking. Once again, this is the step of making a prediction. On page 80, Brian makes numerous predictions: “If he stayed, Derek would die of thirst…. If he made the run…at least there was a chance.” Finally, Brian chose a solution at the end of page 80 when we read: “He had no choice.” At the beginning of chapter 15, Brian calculates that to float down the river would take thirty-five or forty hours. On page 82, he chooses a raft when we read, “He needed to build a raft.” Shortly after that, on page 82, Brian names or identified a problem. The problem is not that he lacks wood, but that he lacks a tree to cut wood to build a raft. Luckily, Brian observes on page 83 that beavers have felled trees, and the trees are the right size to make a raft. He thinks, “It’s like I hired them.” Here, Brian is making a plan to use the trees cut down by the beavers. In fact, we read in the next-to-last paragraph on page 84, “He had a plan…for what he was going to do.” On page 85, Brian actually starts, or does his plan. He weaves together the large and small pieces of wood cut down by the beavers, and he cuts strips of material from his jacket to hold the wood firmly in place. At the end of chapter 15, on page 87, Brian must decide if he, in fact, will act on his plan of bring Derek down the river on the raft. So, Brian goes through a process that looks a little like a scientific experiment. He thinks, “… if there was the slightest, tiniest change in Derek…Brian would call off the trip and hope for the best.” When he looks into Derek’s eyes, measures his breathing and his heartbeat, looking into his ear, and cutting Derek with his knife, Brian is acting out his experiment. But he is really making a prediction with his senses. When Derek does not react at all, Brian says, “We go.” Here, he is clearly making a fact. In chapter 16, the thinking process/problem-solving process continues. On pages 92 and 93, Brian slowly drags Derek down to the raft, which is in the river. He places Derek onto the raft. But just before he pushes off into the river, Brian has a sudden thought, “What if they came unexpectedly?” Here, Brian is both wondering/reflecting, considering options and making a prediction, because he is realizing that they might come to check on them suddenly. So, Brian goes right to the step of choosing a solution. He decides that he has to write a note to rescuers just in case they show up. Brian writes the note. He is acting or taking action. And then, on pages 94 and 95, Brian performs one last “scientific” experiment. He tests the raft to see if it is seaworthy, whether it will hold both himself and Derek. Brian engages or does his experiment by climbing on the raft and by leaning back and forth. He knows that the raft will not tip over. Thus, Brian makes a final decides to act on his solution and push off into the river. Brian and Derek take off. Brian tries to find the current, he relied that if he stays straight hill get the current. In Brains words the raft was in a jungle. Brian would stop every hour, from paddling, and he would take a ten minute brake. If he haven’t had done this he would not be able to continue paddling. The raft goes 8 miles per hour. Brian was tired, and his hands were sore from the wood, but he was so determined. He kept moving. He is on the raft for the first night, he has a quick dream about his mother telling him to let go, and everything will be alright. Its morning and there is no current. None. //Nothing// seems to move, as Brian said. In the water Brian sees a beast, a //monster//. But he just ignores it and keeps paddling. Brian starts to think that Derek got was stupid enough to get hit by lightning, he should be gone. Just //gone//. Brains words. No! He screams! He shouldn’t be gone! He believes that they will go all the way together. Thankfully after another night, they start moving. They were moving. Brian, for some reason, was so thankful he said it out loud. Another prayer. He believes the map he has is not accurate, because they’re where not moving fast enough. He thinks the trading post might not even still be there, where he was going. He just follows his gut and keeps going. He thinks Derek is dehydrated so he stops and takes a half hour to make a cover for the boat to cover some of Derek’s body. Derek has a thought that time is as important as food. They start moving really fast. Like I mean moving. They were hauling… a waterfall! No. But they were going to go down a chute. Soon the raft became into a wild animal. The water took over. The water was in control. They make it to the chute… and then “Whunkk!” everything was crazy. The waves the rushing water. He was plunged he was hit he had no control. He thought he would die. He was //ready// to. He was being taken downstream and he hits his head on something hard. He had no though what so ever. He wakes up with the glaring of the sun in his eyes. Brian was bruised and nearly choked to death. What about Derek? He thought. He had forgotten about him… Brian thinks that Derek had floated down stream; he struggled to remember what had happened. He finally gets it. The wave. He couldn’t think straight. He didn’t know if Derek was still on the raft or not. He started swimming. He was looking for the raft and nothing. He just couldn’t find it. He kept swimming every muscle in his body was on fire until he became the river. He almost swam right past the raft. The raft, he had caught up to the raft! But no Derek… He kept looking with hope. “Shoes?” Derek’s shoes! He had found him. Is it too late? Derek looks gone, dead. Derek couldn’t have been dead! Just asleep he kept reminding himself. He kept paddling and paddling… until he could see a small dock, with dogs barking. The strong men, with strong hands started to help. Brain did it. Words from Brain himself, it was //over//. Brian did it once… and then he did it twice. He needed 3 things and he got it. He’s brave, trustworthy and smart. He did all these things people wish they could do. He’s a //hero// to many. He saved himself, he saved someone else, and he saved millions of other lives. He inspired and taught people how to survive in these tragic harms. He was born to help, he was meant to be stranded in the wild, he was brave enough, he was smart enough, he was trustworthy enough, he //was//.