section 11- PTSD assignment

It’s to help kids like that that Brannan and her volunteers put together an informational packet on secondary trauma for parents to give to teachers, explaining their battle-worthy idiosyncrasies and sensory-processing sensitivities. They’re common enough problems that the Department of Health and Human Services got in touch with Brannan about distributing the packet more widely.

The author uses a casual claim since the kids have sensitivities the volunteers pit together the secondary trauma packets to be filled out. This is a cause-and-effect circumstance making this the proper claim.

Brannan gave the packet to Katie’s kindergarten teacher, but thinks the teacher just saw it as an excuse for bad behavior. Last fall, she switched Katie to a different school, where she hopes more understanding will lead to less anxiety. Though Brannan hopes Katie will come out of childhood healthy, she still says, “She’s not a normal kid. She does things, and says things. She’s a grown-up in a six-year-old’s body in a lot of ways.”

The author uses an attributive claim because the author is passing along what Brannan said. I also see an ethical/moral claim here when she says, “she hopes more understanding…” she is blaming the schools lack of understanding for adding to her daughter’s anxiety.

She certainly looks like a normal kid when she comes down from her room dressed for tap class.

The author uses a comparative claim here when she compares Katie to a normal kid when she is dressed for dance class.

 In a black leotard, pink tights, and shiny black tap shoes, she looks sweet as pie.

The author uses an illustrative claim when describing what Katie looks like to make us sympathize that she is not a normal kid but tries looks like one. I also see an analogy claim here when she says she looks “sweet as pie,” because she is trying to rank her sweetness on a high level by comparing her to the pie.

“One time, a bad guy in Iraq had a knife and my dad killed him,” she says, apropos of nothing.

The author uses another attributive claim here when they are passing along what Brannan has told her about the man in Iraq.

“Katie Vines.” Brannan is stern but impeccably patient. She doesn’t know why Katie adapted this story about confiscating a weapon from an insurgent into a story about bloodshed, but she isn’t too happy about it. That kind of small talk recently ruined a birthday party one of her classmates was having at Chick-fil-A. Brannan and Katie have a talk, again, about inappropriate conversation. Katie is sorry—God, is she sorry, you can see it in her face and guilty shoulders, but she seems to feel like she can’t help it. Sometimes, at bedtime, she asks her mom to pray with her that her teacher will like her. Once, she asked Brannan to take her to a hypnotist, so he could use his powers to turn her into a good girl.

An evaluative claim is used here when the author refers to Brannan being impeccably patient because she is analyzing the situation and imputing her own judgement. I also see an illustrative claim when the author is describing Katies guilty face and shoulders after apologizing for her behavior to let us sympathize for her.