I chose to do my non fiction review on Phineas Gage A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. This book intrigued me right from the title and flipping through the pages of the book made me realize that the pictures helped bring the words to life. This book is geared toward ages 9-11 year olds and can serve as more than just a true story to them. Along with it's real historical images, it also provides a glossary, an index and a resource list. Books like this can seem very hard to comprehend for students who are not naturally familiar with science and the vocabulary involved. This book provides extensive learning opportunity in case they need clarification on something specifically talked about.
So who was Phineas Gage? He was a railroad construction foreman in Vermont. In 1848 he was blasting rock when all of a sudden a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. The miraculous part is that he survived this horrible accident which led to a brain science case being done on him. Even though he survived, he still was a changed person. This book tells the story of his life changing even while filling in some knowledge about how the brain works and what makes us who we are.
The book reviews the full story of Phineas Gage and what happened to him the day his life was almost taken. There are drawn out pictures of where the iron bar went through his head. There is also extended information about bacteria and infection and how that danger is highly taken into consideration as well. The second chapter walks through the doctor's discoveries through the operations. The book shows a real life picture of who was in the room during the operation and evaluation. The book also talks about the different parts of the brain and what they control. Diagrams and drawings are provided to give students a visual. Each part labeled on the diagram can be found in the glossary. The book later talks about how they put Phineas Gage back together and how this single event in time changed not only history but science and the understanding of the brain. Stories like this are often looked at as tragedy and as true as that may be there are wonderful discoveries that came out of it. Phineas Gage will not only be known as the man that survived the iron rod through his skull. His story was much more than that.
What is a thoughtful Journal Entry?
A thoughtful journal entry can have many aspects within it. Sometimes a journal entry can be as simple as writing down your thoughts and how you feel about something in particular. It can be connecting what you learned to your own life experiences. It can be memories triggered. It can allow open ended questioning. Journal entries can be brain storming your ideas for a project of some sort. Journal entries are a great therapeutic element as well and something that students may not race to but when finished they may find themselves soothed and relaxed. Journal entries are simply gathering your thoughts questions, answers and anything in between and even more. The sky is the limit.
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