Task#1
Sydney McFadyen saw the sniper. He was perched on the roof several building down. She let her gaze fallow the trail of the sniper’s aim. She followed it until she saw that he had his sights aimed at the German Nazi Lieutenant standing in the middle of the street. Something in Sydney clicked, snapped her into action to move. Before she was fully aware of what she was doing she had bolted into a dead run across the street and rammed full force into the soldier knocking them both to the ground.
Pop, pop.
The bullet that was meant for the lieutenant hit the cobbled street kicking up dust where he had once stood. They were both laying on their sides when she turned her head to meet the startled gray eyes of the soldier.
Suddenly the lieutenant rolled and covered her with his body as more shots rang out. The Nazi troops started to give return fire as more French rebels gave off shots of their own.
Ping. Ping, ping, ping.
Bullets were hitting the side of the jeep to the right of them.
It was then that Sydney started to have a hard time breathing. The pressure on her lungs was stating to become unbearable. She realized that the soldier on top of her had his elbow in her ribs.
It probably wouldn’t be quite as bad if he was using that same arm to prop himself up just enough in all of the commotion to shout orders to his men. With each movement he made Sydney felt his elbow dig deeper into her side, causing tears to spring to her eyes.
Just as suddenly as it started the gun fire stopped. It was eerily quiet now with no one wanting to make a single movement for fear of the gun fore to start again.
Hugo Von Wolf pushed himself up a bit further whipping his head around to face Sydney. His face was filled with concern and anger “Geht es dir gut?” he bit out. Sydney didn’t speak German but form the look on his face and the fact that what he said was directed as a question, she had a feeling that was wanting to know if she was alright. I would be if you would get your elbow out of my ribs she though indignantly. When Sydney didn’t respond, he repeated the question with more force expecting to be answered. Instead of giving him one she took both of her hands grasped his elbow and gave a shove. The officer moved to her left falling back on the cobble stone street. Sydney rolled back to her right side with her back to him, she was heaving as she gasped in as much oxygen into her lungs as she could.
It was then that he realized his mistake. No wonder she didn’t respond, she couldn’t breathe much less speak he thought to himself wincing. “Geht es dir gut?” he asked Sydney again this time with a much kinder time to his voice. Sydney turned and looked at him with a quizzical look on her face “I’m sorry. I don’t speak German” she said with a very distinct American accent.
It was then that he noticed the scrape on her left cheek that she had earned for knocking him to the ground; saving his life.
Task#2
In the article Read, Write, Teach by Linda Rief she quotes her work with Douglas Kaufman. It is a list containing different aspects that are needed for a teacher/ student writing conference to go well. Personally I fin lists very helpful and I was not disappointed when I read this one. I appreciate all of the time and effort that both Rief and Kaufan put into creating these steps. Usually when I sit down for a meeting I can get flustered and forget everything that I wanted to say. The thing that I fond most poignant is that not all of the steps are needed at one time and that sometimes the most important step is to listen. For me these will be helpful in my future classroom and I plan on saving these.