This was the first truly "independent" day of our Literature circles unit.

Sm. group/lit. circles schedule:
Tuesday, 1st 40 min: A Lesson Before Dying, 2nd 40 min: Cold Mountain
Thursday, 1st 40 min: Red Badge of Courage, 2nd 40 min: Slaughterhouse Five

For those students reading Red Badge of Courage or Slaughterhouse Five, this was a workday.
Individual work: reading, study questions, journalling, character lists and quote gathering.

LITERATURE CIRCLES
Student led: discuss questions & predictions, find/discuss quotes that show characterization or emerging themes.
Teacher led: act as moderator for discussion, collect study questions, teach quote explication (students take notes).

Quick reminders:
You are expected to be IN CLASS everyday. If you know you will be gone, talk to your teacher, then turn in assignments by email (the day they are due) or before you leave. If you miss a class (unexcused), ALL study questions and journal entries are due by the next class period. Missed Lit. circle discussions may require additional makeup work, at the teacher's discretion.

It is the expectation of the teacher that students will read OUTSIDE of class on a regular basis, using classtime for discussions and written work. It will not be possible to stay caught up if you do not read outside of class.

Upcoming due dates:
April 6: Quote explication due
April 16/17: Theme One-pager due

TODAY: We did a Levels of questions/levels of answers activity (whole class), focusing on reading between the lines, and making connections to life, outside of your individual novel. We also practiced answering the same question at the three different levels.
Examples were provided. This activity should help you to read more thoughtfully, write better journal entries and demonstrate a deeper understanding of the novel in your character essays.
See Mrs. Evans to make up this assignment if you were gone.

SPRING BREAK!!! March 23-27

Although you are not required to do any work over break, it is HIGHLY recommended, if you chose to read A Lesson Before Dying or Cold Mountain, to read (see your reading schedule bookmarks).

Have a great break!

Poetry literary era presentations were conducted and graded. Absent students need to see Mrs. Evans for an alternate assignment and to schedule a presentation time outside of class.

Notes on the four novels, connecting them to Realism, Modernism or Postmodernism were taken/discussed. Each student is responsible for understanding only how the novel THEY chose fits in one or more of these literary eras.

Briefly:

• Red Badge of Courage is a realist novel.
• Cold Mountain and A Lesson Before Dying were written in the Modernist tradition, though they were both written in the 1990's.
• Slaughterhouse Five is a postmodernist novel.

See Mrs. Evans for the more detailed version! (Yes, this will be something you must be able to discuss and demonstrate, later in the unit.)

Today we covered the "short list" of characteristics for the literary eras of Realism, Modernism and Post-modernism (see below).
Features of Realism (link)

Features of Modernism (link)

Features of Post-modernism (link)

For the second portion of class, students worked in groups of three to determine the meaning and literary technique in the poem assigned to them. Presentations were begun in 7th period. All remaining presentations will be completed at the beginning of Thursday's class.

Directions for the activity and presentation rules:

Literary Styles: Realism, Modernism and Postmodernism

The Procedure:

1. Get a poem from the teacher

2. Each member—read through the poem silently.

3. Read the poem aloud as a group (share this responsibility).

4. Discuss with your group what you think the topic of the poem is (one word ideas like “Death,” “War,” “Love”).

5. Write down any words/phrases/metaphors that you do not completely understand.

6. Use a dictionary/thesaurus/other people to find definitions for the unfamiliar words/phrases—write these down.

7. CHOOSE ONE MEMBER TO READ THROUGH THE POEM AGAIN (ALOUD).

8. Discuss exactly what your group thinks the poet is saying about the topic you discovered in step #4. (This should be a phrase or sentence—this is the THEME of the poem—something like “There are horrors worse than death,” or “Love is an illusion”).

9. Paraphrase the entire poem: rewrite it in a prose form—using everyday language.

10. Think about what other messages—other than the primary topic and theme, are in the poem. Write down your ideas.

11. Write down what you think the title means. Why do you think the author chose this title? Write down your response to this question.

12. Decide which literary era your poem belongs in, based on the definitions we reviewed. Check your answer with the teacher.

13. Write down at least three specific ways that this poem conforms to the characteristics of the literary era it represents. Consider form, language use, message as you answer this question.

14. Write down each group members personal reaction to the poem—NOT “I like it,” etc., but phrase your answer in terms of the aspects you have examined—language/message/tone/form).

Poetry Presentation Roles:

Each group will do a short presentation on their poem. Each member of your group will take on the following responsibilities:

Person #1:

Read your poem aloud to the class (with feeling and emphasis, not flatly). Practice until you feel like you can enhance the meaning of the poem with your verbal presentation.

Person #2:

Write and present to the class a short speech (representing a paragraph or two) that explains what your group believes the poem has to say—describe the major theme and any minor themes you found (NOTE: use your answers to #4, 8, 10, 11, and 14 for the information you need to create this mini-speech).

Person #3:

Explain to the class what literary era this poem/poet belongs to and HOW you know this (point out characteristics from the Literary Era sheets and point to the poem’s message about how life works). Then demonstrate, referring to and quoting lines or phrases from the poem, HOW the poet uses the poetic form to convey his/her message about life. (NOTE: use parts of your answers to #4, 5,6, 8, 10, 11, and 13 to show the way the language “works” in this poem.)

We began a new unit today. After checking out books, we discussed the goals and expectations.

Academic Contracts, an intregral part of this unit, are due Wednesday, signed by both the student and a parent/guardian.


Technical issues with some documents--check back soon for downloadables!

We are finishing the book “The Things They Carried.”

As we read “The Lives of the Dead” we focused on:

Chapter 22 “The Lives of the Dead”

1. O’Brien spends a long time telling about his childhood friend, Linda, who died of cancer. When a schoolmate keeps trying to yank off Linda’s red hat, O’Brien wants to intervene, but he doesn’t. He says:

“For me, though, it did matter. It still does. I should’ve stepped in; fourth grade is no excuse. Besides, it doesn’t get easier with time, and twelve years later, when Vietnam presented much harder choices, some practice at being brave might have helped.” (234)

Discuss what O’Brien means by this passage. Where else in the novel does he show it?

2. Was this chapter a good finishing chapter for this book and why?

When we finished (it took most of the period), we filled in character charts and turned in answers to the two questions above.

Questions were collected (but NOT the character charts) at the end of the period.

Reminder: character notes and books will be turned in on Thursday, the day of the test.

Today we reviewed the week (see below) and then students read "In the Field" (p.162) in pairs or alone.

"In the Field" is a retelling of the incident with Kiowa drowning in the muck next to a river in the middle of a nighttime bombing/fight. Again, Tim O'Brien demonstrates his belief that no one person is guilty or wrong by themselves, but that all the soldiers were complicit in acts of cowardice and atrocity simply by being there. In this story, Kiowa's death becomes the responsibility of Lt. Cross, whereas in "Speaking of Courage," O'Brien describes it as Norman Bowker's fault and then takes the blame himself.

The point O'Brien seems to be making is that no one is guiltless in war. This also continues his theme about truth, that "story truth" is more true than happened truth. O'Brien never does explain who was actually, physically to blame for Kiowa's death.

Unlike "Speaking of Courage," "In the Field" is told in the 3rd person and (among other things) we finally see some redeeming qualities to Azar, the callous and immature soldier who loves to make crude jokes and blow things up.

Reminders:
All LATE work from this first unit is due by Friday, March 13 to receive credit.

The unit test will be on THURSDAY, March 12th. Character notes are due before the test. Please bring your books that day, as we will return them to the library after the test.

This is also your last reminder about the "Westside" Poetry Contest. Entries are due this week.

We completed Journal #5 for TTTC:

Read the following quotes. Pick ONE and respond to it—whatever comes to mind (free associate).

"If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie." Chapter 6, pg. 68

"Well, that's Nam. Garden of Evil. Over here, man, every sin's fresh and original." Chapter 7, pg. 80

"I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth." Chapter 18, pg. 179

After writing for 10 minutes, all journals were collected (1-5).

As a whole class, we reviewed the requirements for the thematic project (due NEXT class!!):
You will create a new book cover for The Things They Carried, which represents ONLY the theme you have chosen to discuss (bravery & courage, the effects of war, truth, or the savior motif--TAG option). If you use any images from digital/internet sources, you must CITE those sources on the backside of your cover design. Your name should also be on the back, not the front.

Stapled to the re-designed cover will be your paragraphs detailing a major theme in TTTC. Remember, I am asking you to focus ONLY on the body paragraphs. You are not creating an introduction or conclusion for this assignment.

Organizational strategies for each theme/motif were discussed in class.

The majority of class time was devoted to writing/revising the paragraphs students had already begun. Teacher feedback was provided as needed.

At the end of class, we watched two video clips from Learn360: one about the effect of photographic images on the sensibilities of the American public and a second clip on the pivotal year of 1968. Connections were made to the book.