Blog #4: Character Advice

12/10/2017

We just finished our class read aloud of There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar. The main character, Bradley Chalkers, is a very interesting character to follow throughout the story. Even though Bradley appears to be a bully who doesn't care about school or other people, we learn that he actually struggles with his self-confidence and doesn't believe that he has the ability to make friends or do well in school. With the help of his counselor, Carla, and his new friend, Jeff, Bradley learns how to believe in himself and become a better person.

This Week's Prompt:

If you could give Bradley advice for how to maintain all of the positive changes that he's achieved by the end of the story, what would you tell him?
In your response, do the following:

Remind Bradley of some of the great things he's accomplished since we started reading about him.
Give specific examples of what Bradley can do to continue being friendly, working hard in school, and believing in himself. Make sure these examples are realistic to Bradley.
Use your knowledge of the story and of Bradley as a character to elaborate in your response.

I look forward to reading your advice to Bradley!

34 Comments

Finley

12/11/2017 05:34:40 pm

Dear Bradley,
Congratulations on coming so far since the beginning of 5th grade! You have made so many new friends, learned how to be a better peer, have received very good grades, and got a gold star! And you did all of this by believing in yourself. One way you could stay a good peer is you could help others with their work. Doing this would show your fellow peers that you care about them, which could also give you the chance to make new friends. Also your teacher might see how helpful you’ve been, and possibly give you another gold star!
To keep getting good grades, you need to care about your work. When you care about your work, you will try your best, so your work will be even better. In addition to that, you should study, instead of assuming you know everything. If you don’t study, and theres something big you might not know on a test, your scores will drop.
I know that believing in yourself can be hard and scary, but you have to remember all the amazing things you’ve done, instead of thinking about your mistakes. And you have to remember what you're working towards, especially if it's something you really want. That will help you forget about your troubles.
That being said, you don’t have to be perfect. When you try to hard to be perfect, you can get stressed out, and give up completely. And if at first you don’t succeed, try try again!
Sincerely
Finley

Amari

12/21/2017 10:08:52 pm

Dear Finley,
I thought your reading response was very well structured. Also you did a good job staying on topic. In your paragraph you first mentioned that Bradley could stay a good friend by caring others then you gave me a list of evidence on why this would help his classmates. This ended up helping me because you would give hints on what happened in the past. Another reason I liked your reading response blog is that you gave bradley some motivation a the end. This is good because I think it helps you go past expectations on complementing Bradley. And that is why I really liked your reading response I hope you really liked mine just as much! (Merry Christmas)
Sincerely,
Amari

David

12/11/2017 06:54:12 pm

Dear Bradley,

I want to thank you for improving your attitude at school. It really helps the entire class. I actually imagined myself being a part of your class, and I even thought, I was also invited to Colleen's birthday and saw you there! Just because everyone hated you in the beginning doesn't necessary means that there is nothing to want them to become your friend. I mean, kids may be afraid to deal with you, but they would be curious to befriend you, if you allow them. Carla has proved to you that friendship is an important element of growing, and that when you open up yourself to others, you basically improves your attitude and your position toward schooling and people around you. Also, once you started to open up and improving - see, how many kids started respecting you? Not right away, of course, but little by little, from one good action of yours to another.

Of course, I am on your side, and my mom too - saying that because of parents like Colleen's mom find such reasons to turn against a good specialist in school, there are kids that never get enough proper help.

However, this is life, and my parents always say "do not put all your eggs in the same basket", which transferring to the situation will be - do not become too much attached to one person, even if you think she can help you to change and find a harmony with yourself. Carla has become a great example for you, your hero, but it's you, who started to improve and open up to others - so don't give up, don't go back to your original state of mind. Become a better friend with Jeff and Colleen, and maybe some other girls or boys in class. Stop hating Colleen's best friend - Lori, even if you don't like her. If you like Colleen, at least pretend, that you like her friends. In addition yes, Say "Hi" and "Thank you". You don't need to be anyhow religious to be polite. Allow somebody else to help you and you see - people loved being asked for help - and they will help and they will love you eventually. And, you'll be able to move on with your life and go to the middle school, like everyone else in your class. Try to get into better relationship with your parents and your sister. Yes, she is a teaser. But she doesn't mean to be bad to you. She even bought you that small china bear once, when she accidentally broke your rabbit. It's not just your parents and your sister fault that you are who you are... They always tried to help you... so why don't you start teaching your parents the REAL YOU. Learn how to smile... even if nobody can tell if they see a smile or a frown on your face... eventually, if people know your desire, they will understand it.

You may continue writing to Carla, and send her gifts, like Ronnie the china rabbit, but again - be prepared, that in time, your letter exchange will slow down until putted to the end completely. Also, it's not yours or Carla's fault.. She is now a kindergarten teacher, and she learns how to be friends with the little kids, and she doesn't have as much time for you, as she had, when she had another job at your school. And you also grow and distance from her. In fact, if you continue improving your behavior, you won't be needing her anymore.

Also, good luck! Be a better person and the entire world will be happy to become friends with you.

P.S. I also think, Bradley, that you're wrong saying that Carla and her book changed you. It's really YOU, who started to change, so even if you're no longer meeting with Carla, you are changing for better. Just don't stop. Everything is going to be fine!

Yours Truly,
David

Luca

12/21/2017 08:36:44 pm

Dear, David
I think you did an outstanding job on your blog response about giving Bradley advice. One thing you did well on is your structure because you organize it clearly so I could understand. Also, At the end when you said P.S I thought that was very intelligent of you. One other thing you did well on was elaboration you added a lot of detail to your response. One last thing that you did well was giving Bradley good advice as you stated in the text “Bradley, you're wrong for saying that Carla’s book changed you. It's really YOU, who started to change, so even if you're no longer meeting with Carla, you are changing for better. Just don't stop. Everything is going to be fine!”
Great job David!

Sincerely,
Luca

Alex

12/12/2017 07:46:51 pm

Dear Bradley,

From the beginning of your story there has been some great accomplishments. When I was listening about you, I heard you didn’t care about school and didn’t have friends. But you now have made super accomplishments. One accomplishment you completed was telling the truth. When you first saw Carla, you told a bunch of lies. Like when you said you and the president were on a top mission and you couldn’t tell anybody. Carla knew you were lying because she finally asked you what the secrete was about and you told her. Another lie you told was when you said couldn’t talk about school or else you’ll die. Then once Carla kept pushing you to talk about school, you did. The thing that helped you was Carla never really said you were lying. But towards the end when Carla stopped letting you lie as much you changed. You now know that Carla can’t exactly help you if you're going to lie. How is she going to fix your needs if she doesn’t know what they are? This is one accomplishment you completed.
Another, accomplishment you completed is being kind to others. At the beginning when you said “Give me a dollar or I’ll spit on you,” that wasn’t the kindest thing to say to Jeff the new kid. That’s one of the reasons why all the kids on the playground call you a monster. But still they shouldn’t call you a monster. What the kids didn’t understand was that people can change. Jeff wanted to be friends with you. That’s another reason why you saw Carla. So you could spread kindness and learn to be a good friend. Carla taught you this important lesson. Then finally you became friends with Jeff and you became one of the kindest kids at school.
The last great accomplishment you completed is you believed in yourself. This is a difficult one to achieve. After all the missing homeworks you didn’t do, you changed. Now you’re getting great grades and gold stars. You worked really hard and now it payed off. Before you didn’t even know what page homework was on. Now doing all your homework including the long term book reports. These are some of the accomplishments you achieved.
Now some advice to help you keep telling the truth. You must remember how Carla helped you. At first you weren’t making much progress. But once you told the truth you could express your real feelings. Telling the truth made you a really great student. Just keep remembering how Carla helped you and you’ll start to gain trust and keep on telling the truth to everyone.
Next some advice for being kind to others. Always remember to treat others the way you want to be treated. At the beginning you made people feel terrible about themselves. Think about how are you going to make friends if you treat people poorly. It will be hard. In the middle of your story you didn’t have any friends because of your past. Remember your past and it will help you always be kind to other people.
Last, my advice for you to keep on believing in yourself. Remember how far you have come and how much better of a person you are now. Your family will help remind you what a good person you are and this will help you believe in yourself. Also, always remember the moment when you believed in yourself enough to become friends with Jeff. This is some of my advice for keeping up your great accomplishments.
You should be proud of yourself for your great accomplishments and becoming a better person.

Gabe

12/21/2017 07:16:20 pm

Dear Alex,
Your Response was so good! Something you did awesome was that you did an amazing job organizing your writing. What I mean is that you had you had a paragraph for every change of topic. This was very helpful because I could tell were the topic change which meant I could follow a lot better then if you just made a huge block of writing.
Another thing that I envy is that your writing stayed the same. What I mean by that is that you kept talking to bradley the whole time. To clarify, I had a little bit of a struggle because I kept on getting out of person as in I would sometimes write “he” instead of “you”. But on the other hand out of your immense amount of writing you did not do that a single time.
Lastly I love how there were no mistakes that I could see. This made It very easy to read because there were not any misspelled words that would confuse you readers. Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Gabe

Silas The Boss

12/13/2017 04:05:11 pm

Bradley,
If I could give you one piece of advice, I would say, don’t be afraid to try new things. I’d give you a round of applause for going to Colleen birthday party that was good for you to go to it even though that you haven't been to one in three years. If you don’t have any ideas on what to try, maybe you want to try a sport, like soccer or basketball, like you tried in the book. The reason why I give you this recommendation, is because I know that in the beginning of the book you were stuck in a grudge bubble a bit. Also, you weren’t as afraid to try something new when you were with Carla, your school counselor. So I want to encourage you to start to try new things. So now, I want to let this request sit with you for a bit so that you can think about it. Lastly, I hope that you have stayed awesome.
Sincerely,
Silas The Boss

Sanat

12/13/2017 04:25:06 pm

Dear Bradley,
First of all, great job!! You have come so far since the start of the book. don't you think that going to see Carla benefited you. You have come such along way since the start of the book. A few examples is that you first got a gold star, second you did your homework, third you made some friends,and fourth you got invited to a birthday party. You should be proud of yourself. At the start of the year you had none of these things. You were even considered a bully. you said " give me a dollar or I'll spit on you" to Jeff when he was just trying to be nice to you at the start of the year. But now you say hi to anybody that says hi to you. Plus at the start of the year you would have not gave Ronnie as a present to Carla, you probably wouldn't have given a present to anybody. But you gave Ronnie to Carla, Ronnie was your prized possession, you loved her. But you gave it to Carla, another person you love, so she could be happy and that really shows you have changed a lot. A few things that keep this new you going is just to keep being kind to people and to keep doing your homework so Ms.Ebble will keep giving you gold stars. Also you just keep hanging out with your friends. Just keep doing what you're doing and everything will be all right. You are doing a great job Bradley, so keep it up.
Sincerely, Sanat

Will

12/13/2017 06:02:54 pm

Dear Bradley,

Great job getting a hang of yourself Bradley! Your doing well and I hope you can keep it up. I am going to to tell you how you can keep it up. Three things that you have been doing great are homework, not bullying, and making friends.

First great job with not bullying anymore. You're not going to get anywhere if you bully. When you bullied you were a sad sack. And when you stopped bullying you made friends and could focus on school more. What you can do to maintain not bullying is when someone says something mean or disrespectful ignore them. It helps me most of the time. When you do this the other person will just simply walk away. Another thing you have done great is doing your homework. I love how you stay focused and are determined. For example when you did your book report you owned it. If you keep doing your homework you will enjoy school more and more. Plus if you keep doing your homework the gold stars will keep coming. To maintain doing your homework I would first find a calm and relaxing spot. This helps you concentrate. By doing this you will be more zoomed in and find that you are doing your homework faster. Another tip if you are ever being distracted you can tell that person to stop and if they don't stop move. Lastly nice job making new friends. They'll keep coming if you keep this up. I like how you just be yourself around your friends. That is extremely hard for some people. You have probably made 5 new friends. That's almost more than you have ever had. Let's put it like this a new friend is like a gold star. Every new gold star you get the more happy you get. To help you maintain making friends I think you should keep being friendly. By doing this people will think you are nice and safe to be around. For example if you yell at someone they will be scared and afraid to be around you. If you are nice people will think you are kind and will like you.

In conclusion if you keep up what you have been doing the friends, gold stars, teacher compliments, birthday parties will keep coming. So keep it up and you will succeed.

Sincerely,
Will

Matthew

12/21/2017 06:41:12 pm

Dear Will,
Your fourth RRB was fantastic and fun to read. I also think that you addressed the prompt well. One thing that I liked about your response was your writing saying how Bradley could keep is behaviour without Carla. For example, when you wrote, “And when you stopped bullying people you got friends,” I like that part a lot because it is a lesson to Bradley. I feel that it teaches Bradley a lesson because he probably will not bully anyone now. Another example is “To maintain doing your homework I would first find a calm and relaxing spot.” I feel that is good feedback for doing your homework because even I need a calm place do sit while doing my homework. Once again your fourth RRB was fantastic.
Sincerely,
Matthew

Gabe The Great Green Grape

12/13/2017 07:17:39 pm

Dear Bradley,
Something you can do to keep your good qualities is that you can constantly check in with other people. What I mean is that you could check in with Carla by letter all the time and make sure you don’t start isolating yourself from others. This would make it improbable for you to fall back once again because people will be constantly checking in with you. As in Jeff could constantly with you and would notice if you were to be falling backwards. All in all if you check in with others it would be improbable for you to fall back once again.
But on the other side of things I think taking steps backwards once again would be hard to accidentally do. I think this because you have something you did not have before, which is self confidence. Since you have self confidence now you can easily take those steps forwards again. To clarify, before you had some troubles fixing yourself because of your lack of self confidence. But then you got some and was able to change and you still have the self confidence. All in all you are already pretty capable of saying your the way you are but should still make sure you are not isolating yourself.
Sincerely,
Gabe

Alex

12/19/2017 06:51:34 pm

Dear Gabe,

Your response was well written and thought out. It was thought out and well written because you focused on one topic at a time. First you wrote about the advice then the accomplishments. This helped me understand your response better. Another reason it was a thoughtful response was because you wrote about Bradley’s past and future. For example you stated “You have something you did not have before, which is self confidence”. This helped understand that your writing was about Bradley’s past experiences. You also touched upon how it would be challenging to change your behavior to what it used to be. This why I think your response was a thoughtful one.
Another aspect I liked about your response is it has a lot of elaboration. You were specific in using characters names, like Carla and Jeff, when you told Bradley to check in with others. In my response I only asked Bradley to remember certain parts. You went even further and elaborated on who to specifically to ask. Your elaboration helped me understand your response better.
The last thing I liked was how you made Bradley feel confident about himself. You reassured him that he now has the self confidence to succeed on his own. You reminded Bradley he can take steps forward with his self confidence. That must have made him feel good about himself.
I really liked your response. It was well written, thought out, and had a lot of elaboration on the important parts.

Matthew

12/13/2017 08:23:30 pm

Dear Bradley,
First, you did so many great things in your life of 5th grade. One example is when you tried doing homework. That is awesome and then you got a golden star wow! I bet you if you keep doing homework you will get so many golden stars from your teacher. Another reason why you are doing so great was one you turned Jeff and his gang around. That made me so happy because you got to make more friends. Great job Bradley you have done so many great things.
I know one thing you can do to keep friends. That thing is when someone says hi to you say hi back to the person that said hi to you. Another thing you can do is to play games with your friends. Also some advice is when your doing homework you can imagine Carla and yourself sitting at the round table. You also can imagine her saying “I appreciate you coming to see me.” Then you could pretend your bed is the round table and one of you stuffed animals is Carla. You can also imagine how much good things Carla would say to you about your homework. Also all you need to do is imagine that Carla is right next to you. One last thing is don’t rip up your homework when you handing it in. Also Bradley keep doing your thing.
Sincerely,
Matthew

Lilah

12/13/2017 09:40:00 pm

Dear Bradley,
I am extremely proud you. You have proceeded to improve so much throughout the plot of There’s A Boy In The Girl’s Bathroom. You have been an amazing character to watch develop.
First, there are so many great things you have accomplished. Your accomplishments include: seeing Carla the guidance counselor and starting to greet and listen to her, doing your homework and schoolwork, and making friends. For example, in the beginning of the book when you first met Carla, she said kind things like, “It was a pleasure meeting with you, I appreciate you coming to see.” At that point in the story, you wouldn’t say anything, you'd ignore Carla. As a result of your efforts, by the end of the year you were greeting her back and not ignoring her. Also, in the beginning of the book, you never did schoolwork, homework, and you even scribbled in and tore up library books. In contrast, by the end of the year, you did your math homework, you did an essay on the book you were reading, and you did a math test that got hung up on the wall and even got a gold star! Last, early in the book everyone hated you because of you were the “big bully”. However, you show people that you have changed and you turn your worst enemy into your best friend. You even get invited to a birthday party!
In addition, I have some advice for you that should help you in the near future. First, to make sure you continue being a great friend, keep being kind and considerate by thinking before making comments, staying open to new ideas, and being willing to compromise. Additionally, try talking to the people that spend more time alone - maybe they have been looking for a great friend and have been too shy to introduce themselves. Also, to make sure that you still work hard and do well in school, try to always listen to directions and ask for help when needed. Try your best to think in a positive mindset about your work, and use your best effort. Last, to make sure you are always believing in yourself, if you feel bad about yourself or you feel worried about something, talk it out. Always remember that you are an awesome boy. Although Carla pushed you to change to be a better kid, you are the one that changed you.
I hope you find my ideas helpful! You are a remarkable kid and have done an amazing job developing into a better behaved boy.
Sincerely,
Your friend, Lilah

Selina

12/18/2017 04:10:23 pm

Dear Lilah,
You did a splendid job on your response!!!! I absolutely LOVE how you explained how Bradley changed over the past few months. I also liked how you wrote what Bradley’s accomplishments in your response! I would’ve never come up with that idea. You’re so smart! Also you gave Bradley such awesome advice! In my opinion, your response was excellent!
Your friend,
Selina

Jack

12/14/2017 04:42:53 pm

Dear Bradley,
You are a great person and I loved reading your book. You have some very strong traits. Let me also give you some advice to help you keep all the great progress you made over the book. I will also praise you because you have done a lot of good things recently.
First, I will compliment you on all the great stuff you achieved. First of all, great job doing better in school. At the begging of the year you were getting Fs but now you got an A, and the teacher loved your book report. This just shows how much you can improve if you try. Secondly, nice job becoming a better person. You got a gold start, you were nice to people, and you stopped lying. Not only is it just good to be a good person, but, is more fun. People even trusted you to go in the halls alone. And people opened up to you and you opened up to them. That leads me to my next compliment. Good job getting all those friends. Especially Carla, by being her friend you learned how to treat someone kindly. Also, great job getting invited to that birthday party. By the way, I think Karen likes you. As you can see, since the last year, I think you've improved SO much.
Now, I'll give you a little advice about how to keep all this progress you've made. To start off with, stay smart, and try hard in school. This is important for many reasons. One reason is that if you do bad and get held back again you will have to find new friends, and that will be hard. Second, is just good to be smart and it opens many opportunity’s. Also, you need to do good in elementary school, so you are prepared for high school, which gets you into college. My next piece of advice is stay a good person. Remember everything that Carla taught you. Don't lie because then people won't trust you, and don't bully people because then they will hate you. Finally, socialize with people. First, it’s just fun to do. But, people will like you if you talk with them and if you socialize a lot you will become more popular. Also, when you socialize, you learn many important life skills like, how to communicate, how to make friends, and, how to be not "awkward." To sum it up, if you follow my tips, things will keep going great.
In conclusion, you are a great person, and stay that way. I hope my tips helped you and I know you will do great. Have fun in your book!
Sincerely,
Jack

Hazel

12/14/2017 04:57:34 pm

Dear class,
I know we just read, “There’s A Boy In The Girls Bathroom” and I have advice for Bradley. If I were Carla, I would say the same things she said in the book. In the book, Bradley gets into a fist fight with Melinda. If I was in the book, I would tell Bradley, “Try not to get into fist fights. They hurt people and they will not want to go near you.” I think that will help because no one will be your friend if they find out you punch people. Another piece of advice for Bradley would be, “Do your homework and you will get great grades and maybe even a gold star.” This will help Bradley with doing good in school and people might start to see the good in Bradley. My last piece of advice would definitely be, “Smile at people.”. This would be my biggest piece of advice because smiling makes everyone happy. I mean, who doesn’t want to smile and be happy? I know I want to. Those are my pieces of advice for Bradley. I hope you do the same.
Sincerely,
Hazel

Anthony

12/21/2017 07:26:58 pm

Dear Hazel,

You Did a great job on your response, and a great job giving Bradley advice. You had a good response and it wasn’t huge. You did a good on your advice to Bradley because you backed it up with a reason why Bradley should or not do something. You even said some things Bradley probably already knew, but it would be a good reminder for Bradley. That is all I need to say.

Sincerely,
Anthony

Selina

12/14/2017 05:45:24 pm

Dear Bradley,
Some advice I want to give to you to maintain your good schoolwork is that take your time on schoolwork. Usually when people take their time on schoolwork, they get terrific grades. Remember when you did your book report? You took your time on it. You got a wonderful grade and even a GOLD star! To take your time on schoolwork, make sure you have enough time. Then, find a good place to do work with no distractions. Lastly, work quietly and think about the questions on the paper. Look over it again and check if you got it all right.
Some other advice I want to give to you to maintain your friendship with Jeff is to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. It’s what they like most about you. Don’t try to pretend to be someone else.
Believe in yourself, Bradley. You could do amazing things if you just believe in yourself. Like when you did your book report, you believed in yourself and you did an amazing job. If you keep on doing this, your life will be a bliss.
Sincerely,
Selina

Lilah

12/21/2017 10:08:51 pm

Dear Selina,
I really enjoyed reading your response to our fourth blog. You did a great job on it! I agree with all the advice you gave to Bradley Chalkers from, There’s A Boy In The Girl’s Bathroom. You obviously worked hard on your blog, and your work definitely paid off.

There is so much about the blog you did well. First, you addressed the prompt directly and fully. For example, the prompt told you to remind Bradley of some of the great things about him, give examples of what Bradley can do to continue being a good friend, and tell Bradley how he can keep doing well in school. In response, you followed all the directions and you wrote detailed advice to Bradley. Also, you have a clear structure that makes your writing easier for the reader to read and understand. For example, you had a new paragraph for each part of your writing. You also had a concluding sentence that gave closure to your blog post. In addition, you elaborated on your ideas in a way that helped the reader understand more about the points you were trying to get across.

Clearly, you did a fantastic job of responding to our fourth blog. Your advice was great and it made total sense. I enjoyed reading and responding to you.

Sincerely,
Lilah

Brayden

12/14/2017 05:47:38 pm

Dear Class,

As you know, we been reading the book There is a Boy in the Girls Bathroom. Bradley was a bully but now he’s doing well. For example, now Bradley is doing his homework. Before Bradley was refusing because he thought it was terrifying. Also Bradley is engaging in conversation. When Jeff would say hello, Bradley would start up a conversation.

If I had the opportunity to speak with Bradley I would share with him that doing really well. Specifically, he’s showing a lot of courage by doing his homework as this doesn’t come easy for him. Also he hasn’t his homework ever except for 5th grade. I would let Bradley know to continue to be kind and supportive to friends and family because doing these things will help him make friends and do well in school, which by the way is his goal.
Sincerely,
Brayden

The amazing guy (Anthony)

12/14/2017 07:13:46 pm

Dear Bradley,

You have done a great job of being nice and making friends. Like when you were about to fight Jeff but put those fist down and shook his hands. And how you got so nice you got invited to a party. If you want to continue this nice streak you better follow some of these things. One of the most important things for you to follow is that you should not try to change not even a little bit to go back to fighting because you might annoy your friends and make them mad at you. Also don’t only try to just be friends with Jeff and his gang, try to make new friends to because in your future your friends may have moved away, or maybe you moved away and it's good to now how to make friends. And to continue being friendly, the best thing to do is to be their for your friend when they need it, like maybe one of their grandparents died and their really sad you have to be there for them. I think I all I need to say.

Sincerely,
Anthony

Sanat

12/20/2017 04:07:53 pm

Dear Anthony,
That was great advice you gave to Bradley and I totally agree with you. Bradley has done a great job being nice and making friends. He did exactly what Carla wanted him to do. Also I agree with you that if he wants to keep this up than he is going to have to make new friends and he will have to be nice to his old friends. He cannot go back to the old Bradley and get into fights. All in all I totally agree with what you said and think you did a great job.
Sincerely, Sanat

Hazel

12/21/2017 06:16:13 pm

Dear Anthony,
Fantastic blog! I loved how you stated the general idea and then explained your thinking of what would happen. For example, in your blog you said, "Also don’t only try to just be friends with Jeff and his gang, try to make new friends to because in your future your friends may have moved away, or maybe you moved away and it's good to now how to make friends." It was long, yet you gave me many examples of what would happen. Another thing I liked about your blog was you said all the things he did when he was a bully but how he changed them through his years. It would probably make him feel good about himself. One thing you could have proof-read a little closer because at the end you said, "I think I all I need to say.". I think you meant to say, "I think thats all I need to say.". Otherwise, everything was marvelous!
Sincerely,
Hazel

Amari

12/14/2017 08:43:59 pm

Dear Bradley,
You have done SO many things that have changed the way that people look at you. For instance one of the things that really pleased some of the people at your school is that you started to be a kinder person. Also something you did that made other people like you more is not beat people up. This is good because, well it’s just not good to beat people up. Something you can do to keep your behavior up is maybe participate a little more. This will help because it will get kids more used to you talking. Also to keep your good behavior streek you could do an after school activity. You should do one because it helps you get to know more people, in some cases get more fit, and improve your knowledge about things. Well, hope you enjoyed my advice.
Sincerely,
Amari

Finley

12/18/2017 04:20:11 pm

Dear Amari,
You gave some very good examples of things Bradley accomplished. But what I enjoyed the most was all the examples you used for why Bradley should do an after school activity. This was my favorite thing you wrote because you stated more than one reason of what he could get out of doing an after school activity. If I was Bradley, then I would have been completely convinced to do one. I also really liked your introduction. When you wrote , “...changed the way that people look at you,” I thought that was a good summary of what the main change was in the book. I also enjoyed some of your word choice, including “streak” and “pleasure.” These words stuck out to me because I realized that you could have written something else, but it wouldn’t have sounded as good. I hope you enjoyed my praise!

From
Finley

Ava

12/14/2017 09:46:17 pm

Dear Bradley,
In the beginning of the book you were known as a bully. You didn’t do your homework and you were rude to other kids. But now you’ve come so far, you have a whole group of friends and you got a gold star. I know you’re worried that since Carla’s leaving you’ll go back to your old self. But here’s some advice to keep being kind. Think before you speak. Words are a very powerful thing. They can help but that can also hurt, so think before you say something. Another piece of advice I have is do the right thing. For example during the beginning of the book when you first me Jeff, you told him “give me a dollar or I’ll spit in you.” Jeff was probably worried because he gave you the dollar but was scared what would happen if he didn’t. Instead of saying something rude like that you could have a conversation about a certain topic you like instead of threatening him for money.
So Bradley don’t stress, just keep following the advice Carla and I told you to do and I think you’ll be fine.
Sincerely,
Ava

Adie

12/14/2017 09:59:49 pm

Dear Bradley,
I just finished reading your book,it was so good. To keep you going, here are most of the great things you have accomplished. Since the beginning of the book you have became a great person. Here are some examples.
First, when Jeff was going to beat you up, you stuck out your hand and shook it like Carla taught you to. After Jeff didn’t beat up you, instead Jeff shook your hand . That shows even when something bad is going to happen,there is always a way to make someone happy.
Also, you started to do your homework. You got 100% on your math test, and you got a gold star. This shows that you now care about your school work. You are a great student.
Last, you made friends. This happened because after when you were being nice to Jeff, other people wanted to be your friend. This shows that you care about people, and when you do, more people will want to be your friend.
This the things that are now great about you.

From,
Adie

Ava

12/21/2017 09:33:23 pm

Dear Adie,
In your letter to Bradley, your praise was very good. It has evidence from the text. It also had lots of detail. I also liked how you told Bradley all the amazing things he’s done, and not just telling him what to work on. Lastly what I think you did well on was how you gave a lot of evidence.
Sincerely,
Ava

Paoli

12/15/2017 02:01:02 pm

Dear Bradley,
You have made a lot of improving with your actions during the fifth grade school year! You started out as a boy that did the worst things and know look at you! If you keep this up, you will get alot of a gold stars on test’s you take. Although you’re know doing good in school now, Carla isn’t at Red Hill school anymore. Just think of it like she’s STILL there. I know you’re really upset that Carla is gone, but in your heart, she’s calling your name and telling you to ace tests and make a lot more friends besides these boys that are always playing basketball.

I love how at your first birthday party at Collines house, you didn’t hesitate too bad and
You didn’t think you were doing something wrong. And no one should think that there doing something wrong at a birthday party! You’re supposed to just have fun at a birthday party! Poor Jeff though. He got a doll’s dress as a prise. But I loved how, at the birthday party, when you came in first place after all the races, but you were actually having too much fun to notice! Normally, if you were like the Bradley you were at the beginning of the book, you would’ve just been an a mean Bradley and said mean things.

Overall, you have made the most improvement out of any student I’ve met, or seen before. And i’m also a huge fan of you because you play with your stuff animals… I do too. I know a lot of things have been hard for you, but you have made a lot of improvement over you’re fifth grade school year! Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Paoli

Gnarly Silas

12/18/2017 03:36:40 pm

Dear Paoli,
Your 4th Reading Response Blog was Great. I really liked it. You writing was very well structured, and I like how when you changed the topic, you made a new paragraph. Your use of commas was great. You put commas in all the places you needed to, which really let me pause for a second or two, to think about what you wrote a bit. I just have one question for you though, which is what was you advice to Bradley? I just got a bit confused. In summary, you're Reading Response Blog was awesome, and much better than mine.
Sincerely,
Silas

Luca

12/18/2017 08:35:10 am

Dear Bradley
You had made great improvement over your 5th grade year. One reason is, you kept on trying to get friends and trying to learn new things. Also, you work hard to get gold stars and Carla is trying to help you by talking to you and make you do what's right.

I have really good advice for you and it could help you a lot. One thing for your homework is, when you work hard and you believe in yourself you can finish your homework make new friends, and you do all that without bullying people. One thing for being friendly is, if you be friendly to other people maybe they will start to hang out with you and you could get a gold star if you turn your homework and Ms. Ebel will be proud of you. One thing for being polite is, be more polite to other people so they don't run away and tell on you. Also, if you be more polite people will be polite to you. There are some of my examples for making you a better person.

Sincerely,
Luca

David

12/21/2017 04:47:19 pm

Dear Luca,

You've done a good job giving examples of how Bradley may improve even without Carla's help, instead of coming back to his original bullying attitude.

Yes, I agree that working hard on his homework will help Bradley a lot. Also, I think, that being friendly is essential for everyone, and friendly kids are more likely to get new friends than bullying kids. Do the things to others that you want others do to you, be polite and gentle, and be sincere to other kids problems and you'll see how they look at you next time. If Bradley will continue the same path, I am sure, in a year, nobody will even remember how bad he was, and admire him for what his will become. Do you think so, Luca? Bradley will be just like any other boy of his age in a year? let's hope he will.

And Luca, you're such a good friend, that I think if Bradley meets you one day, you'll be able to help him to become a better person.

Sincerely,
David

Jack

12/20/2017 03:33:10 pm

Dear Sanat,
I think you did a great job on your response. I would love to praise you because you did so many things right. Let’s start!
First of all, I'd like to complement your intro. It was very clear, letting Bradley know what was going on, but you also kept it short. Also, since you made a short intro when I was reading it I didn't get super confused. Secondly, you gave specific examples. This shows that you actually know what you are talking about and it also stretches the text. The next thing you did, I loved. It was that you compared your good examples to the beginning of the year. This shows readers how much Bradley improved, and it makes him feel good about himself. As you can see, I think you did a great job.
Sincerely,
Jack

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