Sheehy English 9

Another edition of Teacher Talk, wondering where some of my students’ motivation goes.

Where has your motivation gone?

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Image Attribution:
Original image: ‘Peter Extends His Hand‘ by: DoubleSpeak

This is the last article you will write about your book, which means it should be written after you have completed the book and should display your best and most complex thoughts. That also means my expectations, grade-wise, will be set a bit higher than they were for the early articles. Attempt to wow me with this article.

You may recall that your main task is to theorize about the best potential symbols and how they connect to the most important themes in the book. Thus, you are writing a reflection-style article about symbols and themes.

Symbols

I know symbols are kind of hard to discuss and find, but once you get the hang of it, I think you’ll find it to be fun. Experts in literature do not have it all figured out – that’s why they love literature so much, there’s more to learn every time one discusses a great work. So the first thing you need to do when looking for symbols is trash the idea that you have to have your book “figured out.”

Instead, I want you to discuss “potential symbols.” You may not know know what the something greater is that the symbol stands for, but if you have read attentively, you will be able to recognize and identify something important, something that may be more significant than it seems at first. You created a list of potential symbols on the wikis, and in your article, I’d like you to extend further – to theorize not only what the most significant symbols are, but what you think they might symbolize. (That is, what is the something greater that your symbol stands for?)

Themes

Your important symbols will bring up ideas and conversations, and the topics of those ideas and conversations are likely themes to the book. Themes, you will recall, are main ideas and concepts explored in a work. What are the main ideas in your book? What questions does the book raise? You may either tie comments about theme into your comments about symbols, or you may tag a paragraph at the bottom of your article, after you comment about symbols.

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Image Attribution:

Original image: ‘walk‘ by: Rick Audet

Original image: ‘Questions‘ by: Tim O’Brien

Writing about setting is understandably difficult for many students (that’s why I require only 250 words for this article), but it’s an essential element to stories and it’s important for you as an intelligent reader to stop and evaluate it thoroughly.

How, though? How do you talk about setting for so long when usually all you have to do is answer the question, “What is the setting?” in four or fewer sentences? One way to talk about setting is to talk about every little tidbit of the setting, and that’s why your groups worked together to list everything you know about the setting in your book. On those pages, I already explained two strategies for extending your thinking:

1. Consider any changes in the setting and what happens in particular places.
2. Also consider how your book would be different if it took place somewhere else.

Those are two of my favorite strategies, and while you do that, don’t forget that setting is more than physical location – it’s also the time, including the time in history. So if I think about The Odyssey, I might consider what happens when the setting changes. For one thing, each time the setting changes, there seems to be a new obstacle for Odysseus to overcome. And if the book had taken place somewhere else – say, for example, the USA during the 1990’s – then Odysseus wouldn’t have been in a culture that cared about the gods and goddesses.

Other strategies for thinking about setting:

• How do the characters feel about the places (and situations the places are responsible for creating) in the story?
• Does the setting play a major role, or is it more of a background element?
• How does the author describe the setting? (In long descriptive passages? In short blips that let you know where and when things are happening?)
• Is the setting clear? If it is unclear, is it unclear for a particular reason?
• What kinds of attitudes do the characters possess as a result of the setting? (For example, if the book is set in Alabama in the 1940’s, chances are the white people would possess significantly racist attitudes towards black people.)

Those questions are not intended as a checklist, but as a help to get you thinking about setting. 250 words is a lot more than the four sentences you’d like to write, but you are very capable of doing it. If you get stuck, please reopen the conversation with your group’s members to see if, together, you can generate more thinking and insight about setting.

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Image Attribution:

Original image: ‘Grand Street: Texting‘ by: Mo Riza

Original image: ‘The Land of Ghosts‘ by: Peter Bowers

Your second article for your book project falls under the cluster called “Character.” One way I find it easy to evaluate a character is to put that character into a new setting and to decide how that character would fit in. The new setting forces me to acknowledge their character traits and to consider how they might play out in different situations.

That is why I like to assign this particular writing challenge, where you pretend one of your characters is a student here at Central and decide how that character would fit in.

I’d like you to consider a main character in your book – a round character, which, you’ll remember, is many sided and has both faults and virtues revealed. While I realize many of your characters are adults, do not let that stop you. Simply pretend that they are your age (but with all the same characteristics they have in the story).

Then, pretend your character has now begun to attend Central High School. Please describe to me what she would be like if she were here at Central. With whom would she be friends? What would she be like in class? What would your reaction towards her be? Consider everything you can and paint a picture for me of what your character would look like as a student in our class.

As you write, remember to reference the story. That is, if you say your character would be a loud-mouthed class clown, defend your claim with an incident or detail in the story that makes you confident you’re right. Also, realize that many of your characters are dynamic – you may want to reference their changes in your character sketch.

Please write your entry to be, minimum, 300 words in length.

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Attribution:

Original image: ‘Student in Class‘ by: foundphotoslj

Another weekly podcast, this time lending an open metaphor. I invite you to lend me the other end of it . . .

• Teacher Talk 3

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Attribution:

Original image: ‘The Silvas’ Christmas Tree I‘ by: Anderson Silva

Music: Kcentric’s Roaches (Keep It Down) By: Abhi S.V. Retrieved on November 30, 2007

The first assignment for you to complete as you read your book is to predict what you think will happen. In one sense, predicting is an easy thing to do, since it’s hard to be criticized for being wrong when you’re trying to predict the future. Who among us can predict the future with confidence?

In another sense, though, it’s not that easy, because you want to predict well, to make logical sense; you want to predict the future based on what you know from the present, not separate from it. If a weatherman came on TV and told us it was going to be 98 degrees tomorrow (Dec. 15), we wouldn’t believe him unless he could explain what he’s seeing in the present that makes him think it will be so hot. Or, to jump into the sports world, if an ESPN analyst predicts that BHSU is going to win the NCAA Tournament in March, we’d think he was a looney who should be fired, because his prediction ignores the current information that suggests otherwise.

All that said, how do you make your predictions legitimate, and how do you stretch them out to 250 words? The key is to base your predictions off what you know so far. You’ve read a quarter of your book, so explain what you know, and then project from there.

There are two basic ways to organize your article. One is to say, “These are some key things that have happened so far” and list them. Then, having said those things, you transition to a batch of predictions: “Having said those things, this is therefore what I think will happen.”

Another way to organize this article is to explain and predict one element at a time. This would be like saying, “Here is one detail I’ve read so far, and here is what I predict will happen, given that detail.” From there, you move to the next detail, and so on: “Here is another detail I’ve read, and what I think will occur based on that detail.”

Still having trouble understanding how to arrange it? Maybe this diagram of those two ways of writing will help you.

One important tip I want to mention is that you do not want to over explain what you know and end up summarizing everything you’ve read for us. That’s boring for us to read, especially for the people in your group who have read the same thing and are well aware of what happened. The point of your article is to predict, not summarize. I would think that around half your article should be devoted to predictions and not explanation of plot events that have happened.

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Attribution:

Original image: ‘And We Have A Fast Moving Front Of Funky Grooves Approaching The East Coast…‘  by: Alex Erde

Original image: ‘let-me-out!‘  by: Esther Simpson

Now that you’ve read “The Necklace” and discussed its irony, I’d like you to consider the main character in the story, Mathilde Loisel. While I realize she is an adult, I’d like you to pretend that she is your age (but with all the same characteristics she has in the story). Further, pretend she has now begun to attend Central High School. Please describe to me what she would be like if she were here at Central. With whom would she be friends? What would she be like in class? What would your reaction towards her be? Consider everything you can and paint a picture for me of what Madame Loisel would look like as a student in our class.
As you write, remember to reference the story. That is, if you say she’d be a loud-mouthed class clown, defend your claim with an incident or detail in the story that makes you confident you’re right. Also, don’t forget that Madame Loisel was a dynamic character – you may want to reference her change in your character sketch.

Please write your entry to be, minimum, 250 words in length.

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Attribution:

Original image: ‘something I didn’t leave in a hotel!‘ by: Marta Crowe

Another weekly podcast, this time wondering about expectations.

• Weekly Gab 2

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Attribution:

Original image: ‘Elements of Light‘ by: Fort Photo

Music: Kcentric’s Roaches (Keep It Down) By: Abhi S.V. Retrieved from: http://ccmixter.org/media/files/abhisv/12675 on November 30, 2007

I’ve begun a weekly podcast just to touch base with all my students. You don’t have to listen to these, but I thought it would be nice to share some of the thinking I have while working with you through the week, as well as give you the chance to respond. If you feel like commenting, comment here or write on your own blog and link back to this one.

Weekly Gab: What gets you?

This week’s audio quality is a bit low, but it keeps the file size small. I’ll make it a bit better next week.

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Attribution:

Music: Kcentric’s Roaches (Keep It Down) By: Abhi S.V.
Retrieved from: http://ccmixter.org/media/files/abhisv/12675 on November 30, 2007

Original image: ‘Fragile‘ By: Patrícia Soransso Retrieved from: ww.flickr.com/photos/40088472@N00/415094676 on November 30, 2007

You have made your arguments for why you and Odysseus are similar, and I think your essays amply address the question we posed for this unit: Is it possible for you to connect an ancient Greek epic to your lives in some sort of interesting way? The answer is yes, and you have done so by identifying the characteristics of the epic hero and relating them to your own lives, and you did so by examining the characteristics of the monsters and forming analogies between them and your own lives.

Now that you’ve received your essays back, I’d like you to look over them and write a short blog article about what you did well and what you can improve for next time. I’d also like you to address the things you said you needed to improve after the last essay (remember when we wrote a similar reflection?). I’ll write some specific guidelines for writing the reflection in a moment, but first I’d like to list a few things I thought were worth discussing as a group. They’re things we need to improve or things we would do well to learn:

1. With numbers under ten, spell them out – Don’t write 8, write eight.
2. Know the difference between have and of – Don’t write “I could of gone with you.” Write “I could have gone with you.”
3. Be careful about punctuation for quotes – know the rules we discussed in class.
4. Know what to do about long quotes – If the quotation reaches four lines, put it in its own paragraph, don’t use quotation marks, and indent the entire paragraph by a half inch on the left and right margins.
5. Many of your papers struggled at times with the “flow.” You may have had trouble with transitions, or maybe you got tangled trying to write a sentence that makes sense at times. You can improve at this by taking all your assignments seriously, even those on the blogs, because the more you write and think, the easier the process becomes. So to improve at this, try hard!

Okay, here are the instructions for writing this article. They’re copied directly from the reflection you wrote after the previous essays:

The first thing I want you to do is read over any comments I put on your essay and the scores you earned on the rubric. Figure out what went well and what went wrong. Then turn to your blog and write about it. Tell us where you did well and what you’ll need to improve for next time.

When you tell us what went well, quote from your essay. Consider putting your strongest paragraph right into your blog article (copy and paste!). If you do not have a full paragraph that was strong, give a line, like a topic sentence or an attention grabber, and explain to us why it is strong. Don’t cut this article too short. I realize the temptation is to jot two sentences and quit. I’d like to see 5-7 sentences of reflective writing and a quote from your essay.

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Image Attribution:

• Original image: ‘Odysseus Taunts Polyphemus‘ by: GR L
• Original image: ‘some cats love sinks‘ by: Kevin Steele