Pun Intended: Class Log & Discussions

Idea...

Wednesday: We read sections 2 & 3 of chapter 1 in Johnny Tremain.  We filled out a simple reading guide called "synthesis notes" as we read.  Don't forget to go back and fill out the column we left blank!

Thursday: We went down to the library to finish sections 4-6 of chapter 1.  We had some really simple questions to guide our reading.  Some of you guys read alone while others formed reading circles.  I really enjoyed all of the British accents I heard today!  I hope you guys break them out again for whole-class reading.

*THOUGHT BANK*

I know there are some students who need some extra help keeping up with work/class reading/organizing stuff.  What if I offered a lunch period/some after school time once a week that I would be available for some guidance/help catching up?  I'm going to be busy with the swim team on Mondays and Wednesdays in the near future - so how would a Tuesday or a Thursday sound?

Not my fault...

Typepad was down yesterday when I was ready to update, so here is all the excitment you may have missed:

Tuesday: We read A Long Way Gone, got some svocabulary out of the way, then began reading Hemingway's short story, "Big Two Hearted River."  We also finished up our group projects involving "A Modest Proposal" and the concept of satire. 

Today: We watched the movie Paradise Now and continued to think about literature/art with a social conscious and/or message.  The remainder of the hour was spent looking at grades and make up work.  Vocab test tomorrow, and all work due, also. 

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts

Just in case some of you thought my coconut story from yesterday was completely fictional, I have pictorial proof.  See below.  (Sound random?  We were reading A Long Way Gone on Monday morning, and the narrator spoke about eating coconuts.  Having tried to break one open with friends JUST THE NIGHT BEFORE - I decided to weigh in on the difficulties of coconut eating).

Anyways, back to the matter at hand.  In class today we continued reading ALWG, then took a look at other literature-with-a-cause.  We read Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce Et Decorum Est."  We paired this with a side of Picasso's "Guernica," compliments of the Toronto Star and its article about the UN covering the famous image during the announcement that the US would invade Iraq back in 2003.  If they were really afraid that the image would inspire anti-war sentiments simply from its presence in the room, then talk about the power of the paint brush!  IE the artist's message, IE all artists, writers, etc.  Go literature!  We followed this up with a nice course of Walt Whitman and his "Song of Myself," which helped us write our own "Name" poems.  This is a lesson that will be continued later this week.  After the interim we concluded with some nice vocabulary and our reading of the play Lysistrata.  Wow I'm tired!  Too bad raw coconut milk, as I so bitterly discovered, is sour and gross.  I guess it's "pass the orange juice" for my evening refreshment.