Hatten Nation!

Monday, May 17th Choice Unit Activities

Choice Unit: Day 6
Response Questions

Author:
1. Explain two important ideas that your author has tried to convey so far.
2. Review the opening of the novel. What does the author do to “hook” the reader?

Characters:
3. Who are the main characters? Describe each of them.
4. Are any characters like others you have “met” in other books? How so?

Plot:
5. What is the most important event in the book so far? What makes you identify the event as most important?
6. What theme is emerging in the story thus far?

Setting:
7. Where and when does the story take place? How do you know?
8. Think of a place like the one in the book. Where is it? Describe it.

Mood:
9. What feelings has the reading brought out in you thus far? What about the book makes you feel that way?
10.Has the mood of the story shifted at all? Where and why?

Style:
11. How does the author keep you interested in the story?
12. Describe a scene that lingers in your mind. Find that scene in the book. What about the writing causes the scene to be particularly memorable?

Choice Unit Activity for Thursday, May 13

1. With your group, create a flow map of the events of your novel so far. If possible, include dates and important places with your significant events—this should be a detailed timeline of your novel so far.
2. Each person should choose the single most important WORD from the reading completed for class today. Share your word and explain your choice with your group.
3. Each person should choose the single most important EVENT. Share your word and explain your choice with your group.
4. Each person should choose the single most important PASSAGE. Share your passage and be prepared to explain your choice.
5. If you’re reading Butterflies, Fallen Angels, or Weight of All Things, consider how aspects of culture affect your reading and understanding of the novel. Remember that culture can also mean the culture of war. What elements of culture have you seen present in the novel so far?
6. If you’re reading Slaughterhouse, consider how Vonnegut has utilized a nonlinear narrative format in this novel. What effect does the nonlinear format have on the book and its message? In other words, what does Vonnegut gain by telling the story in this way? Why did he choose to write that way?

The Official Story

Leave your comments about the film and/or the artcle from Friday here.

If you have already posted your comments elsewhere, you do not need to repost them here.

Vonnegut Video

Click on this link to go to the PBS NOW website, and then click on the "watch video now" link to see the video.

Descriptive Paragraphs

Leave your descriptive paragraphs here! (If you've already posted it to another post, that's fine, you don't need to repost it.)

The Social Media Revolution

Watch this cool video on the social media revolution.

My Mother Pieced Quilts

• Read the poem on your own.
  
• Divide the poem into four parts for key word notes
  
• Re-read the poem, adding key words to understand poem
  
• Respond to the following:
  1. Who is the speaker of the poem?
  2. To whom is the speaker speaking?
  3. Describe the speaker’s family.
  4. Describe 4 sources of fabric for the quilts.
  5. Reread lines 51-54. Who are “they”? In what way are they… armed? ready? shouting? celebrating?
  6. Describe the theme of the poem.

Stand up for Congo!

If you'd like more information about what you can do to help people suffering in the Congo, CLICK HERE.

If you'd like to learn more about Omekongo Dibinga, our speaker from yesterday, you can check out his website.

If you missed it, here's one of his videos from yesterday:

Individual Research Letter

Individual Persuasive Letter Based on Research

Assignment:
To demonstrate your understanding of the research process and to engage in a thoughtful analysis of a meaningful contemporary issue, you will write a letter to a publication, person, corporation or organization that persuades them on a specific ethical issue. For your research, examine a contemporary ethical issue tied to current corporate and consumer practices. Although you may research and write about a food-related issue, do not write about the same topic that your group did after watching Food Inc.

Letter Paragraph Organization:
Your persuasive letter paragraphs do not need to follow the PIE format of literary analysis. In fact, business letters are brief, rarely do they go beyond one page of single-spaced type. Click here to see a business letter format for typing.

Your letter should follow this organizational plan:

• Introduction—creative attention device and specific ethical thesis—the point you want to prove. (2 sentences)

• The basic arguments on both sides of the ethical question. Consider the consequences, pros and cons of each position. You may need to include some brief background information. Information in these paragraphs will be supported with in-text citations. Using “according to” or other signal phrases works well in a business letter; however, you may use parenthetical, in-text citations. (2 – 3 paragraphs)

• Conclusion—Based on your research, what is the best ethical response to your issue? In other words, what’s your call to action? What do you want people to do? Why? (1-2 sentences)

Note Taking:
Complete some type of note-taking that ensures you are properly paraphrasing and correctly using direct quotations so that you do not plagiarize. Annotating printouts works well for note taking. Alternatively, you use paper or note cards to capture information without printing it. Just be careful to use quotation marks when you are copying lines exactly.

Research:
As you research, remember that you must reference a minimum of three credible sources.

• Credible web sites have a known author (usually one that can be contacted), links that work, few grammatical errors, and listed resources.

• If you use articles from the school’s on-line databases, you are assured that they are credible.

• If you use a source not from the school’s database, create a flow map that shows why you determine the source was credible. See the flow map glued in your notebook.

Final Products:
1. One-page letter (typed, single spaced block formatting, 12-point font, one-inch margins)

2. A properly formatted MLA works cited page

Help Available:

Remember that The Writing Center is open before school and during lunch to assist you. Also, check out the teacher’s blog for links to citing sources and formatting a business letter.

Due Date:

Your letter is due on Friday, April 9; however, you will not receive late points if you turn in the paper by Monday, April 12 at 3:10 p.m.--the last day of the due date window. I will grade the papers that are turned in on Friday, April 9 before the other ones in case you want to take that into consideration when planning your due date.

Things Fall Apart Peer Review

(Thanks to Ms. Roehl for this great activity!)

Writer: Tell your responder what you need from them.

Responder:

1. Write down these questions or concerns at the top of the paper.

2. Read introductory paragraph. How does the author draw you in? Put a Bracket around the thesis.

3. Before continuing your reading, check the topic sentences of each body paragraph – does each correspond to an idea mentioned in the thesis? Underline the ideas in the topic sentences that correspond to the thesis. If you cannot do this, the topic sentences need revision.

4. Read the body paragraphs. Identify the points and illustrations. Put a P and I in the margin by each point and illustration.

5. Evaluate each explanation – does the writer clearly explain how a literary device helps prove the point? Write + or - in the margin next to each E if a discussion of a literary device is evident.

6. Read the conclusion. Circle the section where the author shows how this topic connects to life.

7. Go back to the essay to help the writer with her/his particular questions or concerns. Talk together about them, and come up with a plan for the writer.

An African Voice

Please leave a comment in response to our reading of An African Voice. Your comment should:

1. Include your name and class period
2. Include the quote that you're going to discuss
3. Include 2-3 sentences of explanation of why you selected that quote.

You should select a quote to post that does one of the following:

• is the most interesting/thought provoking quote in the interview
• is, in your opinion, the most important or significant quote in the interview
• has the greatest connection to the thematic ideas explored in Things Fall Apart.

If you can't find your copy of the article, you can reread it HERE.

Don't forget to finish reading the novel this weekend!

Sample PIE for TFA

POINT - Achebe’s sensory imagery and personification portray the earth and the land as a living and often angry being in Igbo culture.

ILUSTRATION/ WITH PLOT CONTEXT - Achebe vividly describes the land of Mbanta shortly after Okonkwo’s banishment from Umuofia. “All the grass had long been scorched brown and the sands felt like live coals to the feet. Evergreen trees wore a dusty coat of brown.. The birds were silenced in the forests, and the world lay panting under the live vibrating heat…[the earth] was angry, metallic, and thirsty” (Achebe 130).

EXPLANATION – The earth has turned from a lush, productive being to a withering and angry soul who is “panting” and gasping for air. The “scorched brown” color, “silence in the forests” and “vibrating heat” create images of earth as a place that resembles hell more than it does earth. The personified earth is also weary as it wears a “dusty coat of brown” and is “angry” and “thirsty.” Okonkwo and the earth meld into one person through these images; both beings are full of angst and hungry for the lush life that they once knew..

Classical Roots--Things Fall Apart

Here's the list of roots that you'll need to know for our first test:

• uni
• sol
• mono
• di
• bi
• du
• tri
• quad
• penta
• quint
• hex
• sex
• sept
• hept
• oct
• no
• dec
• mal
• bene
• vollen
• path
• sym
• en

Ivan's Invocation of the Muse

Check out Ivan L.'s great invocation of the muse that he wrote for extra credit. Nice work, Ivan!

Sing to me of the boy, Muse, the boy of many miles
whose destiny in the instrument with many strings was battered, once he had left
the Asiatic capitol of Hong Kong.
Many times, he has encountered pedantics and acquired their skill,
yet the delicacy of the keyboard, strung with passion and love
was underestimated by him whose goal was to only satisfy his parents.
Even the greatest of instructors could not vitalize the passion it takes to play the piano, hard as he strove--
the boy's selfishness and myopicness obliterated hope from his forefathers.
Competition after competition, the boy played from the hands, but not the heart,
until that faithful day where his teacher had finally become weary.
Launch out on his story in every language, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
so that others may not suffer the same fate as the boy.
By now,
he had grown to become a pianist, not a great pianist, but in fact just a pianist.
His income depended on his failed skill.
Until that day where passion was magically injected somehow by a friend from the North, Canada.

Questions For John Hillcoat, Director of The Road

Check out the following Q & A with John Hillcoat regarding the challenges of filming The Road!

Questions For John Hillcoat, Director of The Road

Quarter 2 Extra Credit Opportunities

You may complete one of the following for extra credit in Quarter 2. I will make another option available at the end of the quarter. The assignment is due by Friday, December 4th.

The Road: Movie vs. Novel
The movie version of The Road will be released by the end of November. As an extra credit opportunity, you should attend the film with a parent/guardian. Then complete the following steps in order to earn up to 5 extra credit points. Trust me; these seemingly small assignments do make a difference in your overall grade for the quarter.

1. Go to the theater and watch the movie, The Road. You will need to attend this with a parent/guardian.
2. Save your ticket stub to submit with your paper.
3. Create a detailed double bubble comparing/contrasting the movie to the novel. Each bubble requires a specific example from the film and the novel.
4. Write a one-page, thoughtful observation about the most striking similarities and differences between film and movie. This must provide evidence that you considered both texts carefully. Do discuss at the end of your paper, which version of the story you preferred and why. Offer specific examples.
5. Ask the parent/guardian, with whom you viewed the film, to hand write his/her comments/reflections about the film on the back of the page and to sign the paper.
6. Submit this by Friday, December 4th.


Invocation of the Muse
Your Task: Imitate the first sixteen lines of The Odyssey, imagining that this is the opening to an epic about your life.

Procedure:

1. Begin with an invocation to the Muse: “Tell me, Muse…” or “Sing to me, Muse…” or similar.
2. Include epithets about yourself and the other characters of your epic.
3. Give a snapshot of your quest.
4. Include a bit of “formal-sounding” language. The idea is to play with Homer’s language in order to become more comfortable with it.
5. Describe the setting. Make the setting sound grand in scale.

Example:

Tell me, Muse, about the man of many miles,
Who many times dashed as he ran through the streets of Santa
Monica. He saw the Fatigue of his teammates and knew their pain.
On the course, he too suffered great pains within his lungs,
Yearning for the finish line, and his teammates’ success.
He could not guide his team to victory, though he wanted to:
His teammates had lost the race because of their laziness.
The slackers had disregarded the wise words
Of the well-traveled coach Cady, who knew the path to victory.
Tell the tale for us, beginning with the previous day,
Sometime after the piercing bell had sounded.
When all the others, seeking refuge from the torments of school
Had fled, light-footed to the safety of their homes.
Yet he alone, longing for the final mile and his own return,
Wan confined by sound-minded Coach Cady, who strives for excellence,
To the fenced-in, crimson rubber surface that was his training ground.

(Ethan Hutt, qtd. in Jago, Carol. Classics in the Classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004.)

Second hour wordle on father/son relationship

First Hour's Wordle on the Father/Son relationship

Nelson's wordle story

In second hour, Nelson wrote the following story using the words from wordle. It is essentially the plot of The Road, which he wrote without reading the book!

"In a post-apocalyptic earth, a father and son were on a road to the sea. The two of them had to face a cannabalist civilization with only a pistol. With only each other's comfort to help them, survival seemed bleak, but as time went on, they faced the constant horrors and the landscape altered by fire and a cataclysmic event. With faith, the sun rising and setting, somewhere to the south, they kept going."

Um, you rock Nelson. Nice job!!