TM READ CONNECT WRITE THINK WRITE … the martial art tae kwon do, which she started practicing at the age of 7. For years, she lost every competition she entered. “It was devastating,”

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FicTion by Roland Smith FirsT-Person AccoUnT Living through a tornado video Surviving Hurricane SandynArrATive nonFicTion The invincible Lexi YoungbergPrimAry docUmenT Letter from a Civil War veteran inFoGrAPhic Prosthetics of the future ArGUmenT essAy Why failure is the secret of success sPeech by Helen Keller drAmA Teen freedom fighters of the civil rights movementinFormATionAL TeXT The Voting Rights Act neWs ArTicLe The Selma March, 1965Poem by William Ernest Henley

resiLiencecoUrAGeAnd

Lexi Youngberg

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4nArrATive nonFicTion Lexi Youngberg, Invincible The amazing true story of a teenager who lost her leg in a boating accident—and came back stronger than ever.

PLUs:

9 PrimAry docUmenT Letter from a Civil War amputee What was it like to be an amputee in 1865?

10 inFoGrAPhic Prosthetics of Tomorrow Need a new heart? Just click print.

12FicTion “Wind” by Roland Smith It takes a storm to teach a girl about the power of community.

PLUs:

17 FirsT-Person AccoUnT Surviving the Storm A young survivor shares insights after a powerful tornado strikes his town.

20drAmA Teen Freedom Fighters How a group of courageous teenagers risked their lives to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

PLUs:

25 neWsPAPer ArTicLe The News of the Week in Review: Strife See how one of the most violent episodes of the civil rights movement was reported in the news.

26 inFormATionAL TeXT The Voting Rights Act of 1965 One of the most transformative laws in American history

Copyright ©2013 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publications Data available ISBN 0-545-64504-2; ISBN 13: 978-0-545-64504-1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 08 16 15 14 13 Printed in the U.S.A. First printing 2013.

contents

As you read the stories and articles in this magazine, think about this question:

hoW do We overcome

obsTAcLes?

Scope • common core reader 3

28ArGUmenT essAy Are You a Loser? Why failure is the secret of success. Seriously.

PLUs:

30 sPeech “Overcoming Obstacles” by Helen Keller Are you up against a terrifying challenge? A famous author and activist explains why you should be happy about it.

32 cLAssic Poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley After a bad day, you’ll want to have this poem nearby.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. –confucius

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W hat is the secret to

success? Loads of

money? Good luck?

Great teeth?

Nope. Wealth, good fortune, and

a nice smile can’t hurt, but many

experts agree that what successful

people have in common is this: They

were once horrific failures.

Take George Washington, who

lost two crucial battles and was

nearly fired before leading troops

to victory in the Revolutionary

War and becoming America’s first

President. Then there’s Steve Jobs,

who developed a slew of failed

products—and even got canned

from Apple—before returning to

revolutionize the world with the

iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

The list of famous failures is

seemingly endless: Pop icon Katy

Perry was dropped by three different

record labels; Nobel Prize winner

essay

Albert Einstein was expelled from

school; basketball star Jeremy Lin

spent his early career sitting idle on

the bench. Many of the world’s most

successful people were once losers,

and though they may have felt

humiliated, lost, and hopeless, they

eventually figured out how to move

forward. That’s the key to using

failure to your advantage: the ability

to dust yourself off and try again.

And again.

And again.

This trait is called resilience,

and it’s what can turn losers into

winners. In fact, experts say that in

terms of future success, resilience

can be more important than

intelligence or natural talent.

Utterly humiliatedSeventeen-year-old Miranda, of

Williamsburg, Virginia, still cringes

when recalling her early experiences

with the martial art tae kwon do,

which she started practicing at the

age of 7. For years, she lost every

competition she entered.

“It was devastating,” Miranda

remembers. Dejected, she decided

to quit, but at her father’s urging,

she reluctantly agreed to give it one

more try. She worked harder and

slowly began to improve, and though

she never became the champion

she’d dreamed of becoming, she

iF yoU Are, GreAT. BEcAuSE STuDIES SHOW THAT TO BE A SuccESS, fIRST yOu NEED TO KNOW HOW TO fAIL.

Are you a Loser?stuck with it long enough to earn her

black belt by age 12.

“I could easily have said, ‘I’m a

failure, I should never have tried,’”

Miranda recalls. “But I’m really

proud that I kept at it.”

The experience taught her that

she could fail—and feel utterly

humiliated and miserable—and still

go on to succeed.

Go Ahead, mess Up It’s no wonder many experts

believe that every kid should

experience failure. Yes, you read

that right: They WANT you to mess

up, because learning to cope with

failure will help you overcome larger

struggles later in life.

Miranda would agree. Today, she’s

finally winning medals—in Irish step

dancing. When she first started, she

was bad at that too. However, her

experience with tae kwon do had

built up her emotional strength, so

she no longer saw her mistakes as

failures, but as a part of the process

of achieving success.

Miranda is just one individual

in a long line of people to grasp

that concept. One of history’s

proudest failures was

inventor Thomas Edison.

According to legend, the

first 1,000 times that

Edison tried to create a

light bulb, his invention

didn’t work, so he kept

experimenting until he

finally found a way to build

one that did.

“I didn’t fail 1,000 times,”

Edison later said. “The light

bulb was invented with 1,000 steps!”

Good ol’ hard WorkSo what about you? Are you a

successful failure? Say you do poorly

on a math test. Do you think, “Oh,

my teacher just hates me” or “Oh,

I’m just terrible at math”? People

who don’t know how to fail well tend

to blame others for their mistakes

or give up without trying. They are

often insecure and might feel as if

the whole world is against them.

After all, it takes a lot of confidence

to admit your own shortcomings.

Part of being successful means

having the courage to take a good,

hard look at yourself and identify

ways to do better next time. Well,

that and a bit of patience; sometimes

it takes a while to get where you

want to go. Just look at basketball’s

breakout star Jeremy Lin. For years,

he was overlooked by coaches.

Once, he was even called “the

weakest player on the team,” but

when he finally got a chance to hit

the court for the New York Knicks,

he surprised everyone. He was

fantastic, unstoppable, and now he’s

one of the most promising young

athletes in pro basketball.

How did he do it?

Lin spent hundreds of hours with

coaches and trainers, arriving at

practice hours before his teammates

to do extra drills. In other words, he

relied on good, old-fashioned hard

work and perseverance.

So next time you fail a test, strike

out at bat, or sing off-key, cheer up.

With the right attitude, you could be

onto something truly great. •


TORMENTED!dr. mArTin

LUTher KinG Jr.the civil rights hero who was harassed, jailed, and spied on

EXPELLED!ALberT einsTeinthe mega-genius who was kicked

out of high school

CUT!Jeremy Lin

the superstar athlete no NBA

team drafted

DUMPED!KATy Perry

the pop princess dropped by three

record labels

DISSED!TAyLor sWiFT

the country music star who was

bullied in middle school

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“Finding a Joy in Overcoming Obstacles”By Helen Keller

I can remember the time before I learned to speak—how

my thoughts used to beat against my fingertips like little birds

striving to gain their freedom. Of course, it was not easy at

first. . . . One can never consent to creep when one feels an

impulse to soar. There were so many difficulties along the way,

so many discouragements; but I kept on trying, knowing that

patience and perseverance would win in the end.

And while I worked, I dreamed dreams, the pleasantest of

which was of the time when I should talk like other people,

and the thought of the pleasure it would give my mother to

hear my voice. . . . So I want to say to those who are trying

to learn to speak and those who are teaching them: Be of good

cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that

may come tomorrow. You will succeed if you persevere, and

you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles—a delight in climbing

rugged paths, which you would perhaps never know if you did

not sometimes slip backward. Remember,

no effort that we make to attain

something beautiful is ever

lost. Sometime, somewhere,

somehow we shall find that

which we seek.

—Helen Keller to the American

Association to Promote the

Teaching of Speech to the Deaf,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

July 8, 1896

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Though she could not see or hear, Helen Keller became a highly accomplished writer and speaker.

reading & reflectingRespond to the questions below using text evidence from the essay “Are You a

Loser?” and the speech “Finding a Joy in Overcoming Obstacles.” Go back and reread sections as necessary. Continue on a separate sheet of paper if you need more room.

Do you think it’s important to experience failure? Defend your claim with examples from “Are You a Loser?”, Helen Keller’s speech, and your own life.

WriTe An ArGUmenT essAy

1 Summarize the central idea of each text.

_____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 What character trait do both Helen Keller and the people in “Are You a Loser?” have in common? Explain.

_____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3Helen Keller said, “No effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” What did she mean? Find an example

from “Are You a Loser?” and explain how it supports Keller’s idea.

_____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


speech

Poem


InvictusOut of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

—William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) wrote “Invictus” while hospitalized after treatment to save his right leg; his left foot had already been amputated because of disease. How does the poem reflect his attitude toward recovery?

Explain the meaning of the final two lines of “Invictus.” What other lines in the poem express the same idea?

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Documents

TM READ CONNECT WRITE THINK WRITE … the martial art tae kwon do, which she started practicing at the age of 7. For years, she lost every competition she entered. “It was devastating,”