Home Studies, Week of 3/12– 3/16/07
1st period: choose and begin reading your book club book. Make at least two intelligent comments (by Monday) on what you're reading using the "comment" button at the bottom of this post. I'll try and have a better forum for your online discussions next week.2nd period: Choose one of the following writers from your book: Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Maxine Hong Kingston, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Rita Dove. Read all the background information and the short story/ poems from the book by Monday. We'll also do a "book club" with presentations next week.
3rd period: Finish reading your Tolstoy story. Write 2 paragraphs in response to the discussion questions to present on Monday. We'll choose and begin reading modern novels on Tuesday.
4th period: continue working on the presentation version of your research paper for your science classes. We'll begin revising those papers once the presentations are done. We'll complete the list of Works Cited as part of the revision, so you won't have to do that until next week (but don't lose your sources!!!) On Thursday night, write a story that involves a St. Bernard and includes all of your spelling words (underline them!) Word list: scientific, excruciating, Calculus, impractical, taciturn, education, expensive, necessary, obnoxious, success
5th period: Write a response of at least 3 sentences to each of the discussion questions to turn in on Friday. Over the weekend, gather a collection of at least three songs you like whose lyrics deal with realizations of the artist or a character the artist has created. Bring them Monday and play the songs for the class (we have a cd player and a tape player, and we can plug speakers into an MP3 player). Make sure to highlight the moments of realization in your presentation and show similarities and differences between the way the narrator of each song handles his/her "epiphany."
posted by Jenny Caudle Crisp @ 1:48 PM
30 Comments:
Test comment for 1st period
I read the ray bradbury book
- I thought it had a lot of metaphors and not every situation was very obvious because of it
- I also think that it is strange that the 2 kids are the only ones that realize that there is something weird going on at the circus
Im reading Alice in Wonderland:
1) From the very start Alice is not paying any attention to her school work nor her sister. She ends up wandering off following a white rabbit that can talk.
2) At first she didn't think a talking rabbit was weird. Then she soon realized what she had just gotten herself into by following that creature.
Jenny here. Please say who you are in your posts!
Mark: Can you give an example of one of those metaphors?
I agree it's strange only the children notice things. Do you think Bradbury's saying something about the nature of childhood?
Jenny again.
Arai: 1: Are you reading Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass (there are two books in the "book" you have; the first is Alice in Wonderland)
2: You also have a book in which a child notices weirdness, but it takes your child a while. Why do you think she thinks there's nothing weird for a while? Do you have a sense yet of Carrol's statement about childhood?
Scott W
I read 1984 by George Orwell
1. It mainly talks about a complex system of controlling the world, like a dictatorship aka North Korea.
2. Every little detail of what a person thinks or says is watched.
hi jenny. this is grant and i am reading 1984. you are lucky that i remembered!
i like the book alot so far...
1st intelligent comment: the government in the story is ridiculous and i am predicting that the main character(miller i think) will start to completely go againbst the government instead of hiding himself.
2nd intelligent comment: i also predict that miller will hook up with a girl. he speaks of not liking young pretty girls and you later find out that his dilike comes from not being able to be with them. i think he is going to meet a girl and they will do the dirty.
jenny this is tommy, I think the idea of Thought Police helps George Orwell to describe how this government works. Also that the party owns all merchandise and calls everything victory so-and-so is like the communists and was inspired by communism.
Jenny again. Sitting in class now, so home study on time people are (drum roll please): Mark, Arai, Scott, Grant, Tommy.
1. I believe Alice is a very careless girl and i predict it might get her into some trouble.
2. Also i think it is funny that she didn't think it was weird a rabbit had a waist coat and a pocket watch.
Allyson: Why do you think Alice didn't realize a rabbit in a waistcoat was weird at first? What do you think made her realize that it was?
Jenny
Mark B-W
-My author is Ray Bradbury
- He wrote the story because the setting is similar to the Waukegan of Bradbury's youth and the two boys portray different sides of his personality.
This is Sam.
I read Something Wicked This Way Comes.
1)I think the fact that they were unloading the train silently has something to do with the fact that it is a Shadow Show.
2)I think the storm salesman took the
"Most beautiful woman in the world" out of the ice.
Scott W,
George Orwell (1903 - 1950) is quoted as saying “First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still failed to reach a firm decision.”
This quote is somewhat of an inspiration for the novel 1984. I says a lot of why he wrote 1984, because he was a policeman for about 5 years. Then he went into poverty and then felt an increased sense of hatred for authority. He also says that his job as a policeman in Burma gave he a sense of the nature of imperialism.
Additional comment: I think Alice didn't want to realize it was weird because she wasn't having any fun and she wanted an adventure.
*allyson
New assignment: research your author and answer two questions: 1) who was my author (as in what kind of person, what formed him/her, something more than just the name)and 2) why do you thing this author would write a book like the one you're reading?
Then respond to one other comment on the blog (preferably about the book you're reading!)
Jenny
This is Daniel,
I read Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury.
First off, it is a little confusing to understand because of all stories and examples given. For example, when the author was first describing the guy who was selling lighting rods, he was said to be like a storm. All of those metaphors are complex.
Secondly, I felt strange reading that the boys would completely trust this weird stranger and follow what he told them.
I’m reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. The novel takes place in the future where mankind is under attack by an alien force called “buggers”. Ender is a six year old boy who is selected among many others to go to “battle school” to be trained to fight off the buggers.
It is a science fiction novel written in 1985 and takes place at an unknown time in the future.
this is grant. i think tommy is correct and the government using words like "victory" to describe things is a very communist way of doing things. and also having things like the two minutes of hate where they just have people go crazy and yell at the person on the screen who is an enemy of the government.
Mark B-W
-Quoted metaphor from book:
"They stood now, a boy with corn-colored hair and a man with moon-white hair, a boy with a summer-apple face and a man with a winter-apple face."
-The only thing it implies about the nature of childhood is that children are more observant and are more likely to believe the strange things they see than adults. They also believe that the there is a more mysterious explanation for the bums in the night than just wind and trees.
Scott W,
"jenny this is tommy, I think the idea of Thought Police helps George Orwell to describe how this government works. Also that the party owns all merchandise and calls everything victory so-and-so is like the communists and was inspired by communism." I would agree with tommy here in the sense of the "victory" products. I would also agree with Grant about the Two Minutes Hate.
1. One day Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was asked to entertain Alice Liddell who was 10 yrs old, and her 2 sisters. They were traveling in a rowing boat on their way to a picnic and Charles told them a story of a girl named Alice who fell down a rabbit whole. Alice liked the story so much she asked Charles to write it down for her. And that is how the book Alice in Wonderland came about. Also Charles published this book under the pen name Lewis Carroll.
2."Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer.There has been much speculation that Dodgson used psychoactive drugs, however there is no direct evidence that he ever did. It is true that the most common painkiller of the time—laudanum—was in fact a tincture of opium and could produce a 'high' if used in a large enough dose. Most historians can infer Dodgson probably used it from time to time to ease the pain of his arthritis, since it was the standard domestic painkiller of its day and was to be found in numerous patent medicines of the time, but there is no evidence he ever abused it or that its effects had any impact on his work. There is no factual evidence to support a suggestion that he smoked cannabis. However, many people regard Alice's hallucinations in the Wonderland, when surrounded by teas, mushrooms and smoking insects, as references to psychedelic substances"
*Allyson
Matt read Something Wicked This Way Comes...
-1st comment from Friday's h/w: I've noticed the abundant usage of similes and metaphors that appear in the beginning of the book to introduce the characters in a more dramatic way.
-2nd comment: I think the story is becoming more of a horror story mixed with some fantasy here and there. When the boy's teacher gets lost in a mirror maze she sees a younger self in the mirrors and depicts the fear during the transition to adulthood.
1) Lewis Carroll was asked to entertain Alice Lidell and her sisters. So he told them a story about a girl named Alice and her adventures after she fell through a rabbit hole.
2)Lewis Carroll's real name is Charles Lutwidge Dogeson. He was an author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and a photographer.
3)Alice seems determined and almost naive about how shes acting in chapter one. Shes determined to get into the garden...she continuously experimenting with things to see what will work for her to get into the garden. I think it was naive of her to just drink the bottle of whatever it was...and to eat the cake. She has no idea where she is, or where that stuff came from; it could've been poisen
Those of you reading 1984: think about propaganda:
1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
2. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.
3. the particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement.
Is the government of the book 1984 using propaganda?
Jenny
The author of Ender’s Game as I noted is Orson Scott Card.
His original inspiration for writing it, as he indicates in the introduction came a lot from The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov, as well as the American Civil War. The story started out as a novelette in Analog Magazine in 1977. He later developed it into a full book. The book is a sort of political commentary taking place in the future where the opposing sides are the United States and the opposing alien force, the Buggers.
this is grant. george orwell is a guy. he was born in india. he was born a christian. he is most famous for writing 1984 and animal farm. both of these books are very politically based. as a young man growing up he seemed to be very intelligent by most. he started writing while he was in school and continued doing so until his death in 1950. the author wrote 1984 to criticize radical methods of government like stalinism, and fascism. orwell is a good guy.
Ray Bradbury is one of those "rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think." He has over five hundred published works, including, "short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, and television scripts." Many say that his words are remembered forever. He has the ability to relate his writings to both young and old people.
From aboutraybradbury.com
Matt is posting a comment about sir Ray Bradbury.
1. Ray has written many books about fantasy and often relates them to dreams and personal experiences from his childhood mostly. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a perfect example of childhood experiences
2. Why? ^^^ that and also i personally think that Mr. Bradbury started his childhood with some substances to jump start his imagination... other than that, he just had a weird dream and put it on paper.
This is Sam.
It is said that Ray Bradbury's writing changed the way people think. He has written more than five hundred published works. His best-known and most well-liked books are The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He was awarded the National Book Foundation's 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the National Medal of Arts in 2004.
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