Ongoing Reading and Reflection for Slaughterhouse-5

There are ten chapters in this book.  You have already read the first chapter.  Set aside one entry in your blog for each of the nine remaining reading assignments.

You may select from two tiers.  Select the assignment that best suits your reading and thinking needs

 TIER 1
•Give each chapter a meaningful title
•List 3-5 important plot developments and/or character revelations in each chapter
•Select and write out (word-for-word) the single most significant passage from the reading.  Cite the page number.
•Follow each passage with a thoughtful and thorough commentary about why the passage is important.  This discussion should include attention to theme, character development, conflict development, symbol, etc. 

 TIER 2
•Give each chapter a meaningful title
•Select and write out (word-for-word) 2 to 3 significant passages from the reading overall.  Cite the page numbers. 
•Follow each passage with a thoughtful and thorough commentary/analysis of theme, character development, tension/conflict development, etc.
•Basically, you are writing CERs where you TWIST the passage.

 

Minnesota Colonialism Blog Assignments

Blog Post #1 (worth 3 points)
Title your post "Introductory Reflection"
Please do a 300 word free write on the following topics:
What you know, think, or kind of think about Native American culture
What you know, think, or kind of think about Native American culture in Minnesota
What you know, think or kind of think about the Dakota Nation
What you know, think or kind of think about the Dakota-US War of 1862

Blog Post #2 (worth 5 points)
Title your post "Dakota Spirituality, Myths, and my Spirituality"
Step 1: Research Dakota Spirituality and list 5 main ideas or values in Dakota Spirituality
Step 2: Find a Dakota Myth and put a link to it in your blog
Step 3: Briefly summarize this Dakota Myth
Step 4: Write a CER paragraph that identifies one of the main ideas/values from Step 1 in your myth
Step 5: Write a thoughtful reflection that compares and contrasts your spiritual beliefs with what you identified in the previous steps about Dakota Spirituality. 

Blog Post #3 (worth 5 points)
Title your post "The Oral Tradition"
Step 1: research the Oral Tradition and put a link to a background article(s) in your blog
Step 2: explain in your own words what the oral tradition is
Step 3: describe an oral tradition from your own culture/background/family
Step 4: reflect, using personal experience, what makes an oral storytelling tradition unique, special or valuable
Step 5: discuss how the oral tradition fits with your understanding of Dakota Spirituality from Blog Post #2

HW Blog - "How To Write About..."

For this assignment write a short, sarcastic essay to parody the Single Story of some group you belong to.  Title your piece, "How to Write About..."

Write 3 short paragraphs that emphasize some of the stereotypes of the people being described.

 Due by 8:10 AM Friday, November 9, published to blog
Worth 4 classwork points

For example:

How To Write About An English Teacher

Use key words like "bookish," "nerdy," "stuffy," "pretentious," and "awkward."  English teachers are all insecure and self-conscious.  Their personalities reflect an over-intellectual attitude that borders on arrogance.  They like to use big words, mostly just to impress their friends - the few that they have.  The love proper grammar and jump at the chance to correct your mistakes.

Be sure to highlight the old-fashioned way they look.  Tweed is a must and probably cardigan sweaters and wool - slacks for men, skirts for women.   Black turtlenecks are a must, for when they go to the coffee shop to read poetry.  The men have conservative, short-cropped hairstyles, with the occasional longhair, counterculture, ponytail type mixed in.  Women have straight, unremarkable hairstyles, often pulled into a ponytail or bun.  If they wear make-up, it's minimal, and you'll find a smear of lipstick on a front tooth.

The most exciting thing in an English teacher's life is to talk about Shakespeare or any other boring old, dead, white guy - Hemingway or Steinbeck.  If you really want to get on their good side, talk about a British author and use words like "mood," "tone," symbolic," "allegory."  Extra points if you prefer the book version better than the movie version.  Whole evenings can be spent complaining about the attention span or unsophisticated interests of the students.   Video games and YouTube are equal to the devil.

Night Final Blog Response

Write a 3-paragraph blog response in the format of “I said...     He said...    Now, I say...”

Paragraph 1, write a reflection that explains your feelings about the TodaysMeet incident from last Friday, September 28.  Quote your own journal entry (attached to these instructions) that support your description of your thoughts and feelings from last week.

Paragraph 2, write a reflection that explains the most relevant point(s) that Elie Wiesel makes in his book Night and Nobel Prize Speech.  Provide quotes that support your description of Wiesel’s theme and thesis.

Paragraph 3, write a reflection that synthesizes the ideas from  your journal-writing Monday and Wiesel’s ideas from Night and his Nobel Speech.  This synthesis should demonstrate how your own thoughts and feelings interact with your understanding of Wiesel’s writing to result in a new perspective.  

Your Monday journal might completely agree with Wiesel’s thoughts, or you might completely reject any connection between the TodaysMeet issue and Night.  Either of those responses - and any that fall within the continuum they form - is by definition a reaction to your reading of Night.  If you are more logically or mathematically oriented, think of the instructions this way:

            My ideas from Friday + Wiesel’s ideas = My ideas now

Paragraph 3 should describe this equation.

“The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human” - Adolf Hitler ( epigraph in Maus)

This sickens me and makes me think of the lie of race in our world. The Jewish people simply had a different culture and ethnicity from the Germans. Hitler’s language dehumanized the Jews  to a point that mistreatment, torture and extermination were not questioned by the masses.  I know we are not living in the midst of the Holocaust, but racism, homophobia, and hateful speech like this  are alive and thriving at EHS; I heard some of those voices online last Friday. I am still horrified by the ugliness and bullying that went virtually unchecked.  I vow to make sure that when I witness hateful speech, I will speak out. 

Reflection and Response on Reading Assignments and Your Learning Style

Please comment on how we have had more independent reading time with smaller discussion groups.  This feedback will be very useful in planning our final unit on The Road as well as my preparation for next year's classes.

Please don't feel obligated to fill up this blog post with a lot of words.  I'm really just looking for your honest response on how the schedule of reading time, quizzes, discussions and papers have worked for you as an individual.  The more honest you can be, the more helpful it will be for me - and, potentially, for you since I can still apply some of your suggestions to this final unit.

NO LENGTH REQUIREMENT
DUE: End of day (11:59PM) Sunday, May 20

Suggested topics to discuss:
***Please restrict your discussion to how we study books***

• small group versus large group discussions
• independent reading time versus daily assignments
• online quizzes versus paper quizzes
• note-taking during reading
• forum posts and blog writing
• instruction of literary devices
• activities you have done in other classes that have helped with analyzing literature

Slaughterhouse-5 Movie Response

 *I suggest you do this assignment first while the movie and presentations are fresh in your minds*

General instructions: write a reflection on the adaptation of the book to a movie, any version(s) of the movie we have dealt with (the actual movie and student concepts).

300 word minimum

Due: Published to your blog by end of day (11:59pm) Sunday, May 20

Suggested topics*:

• Additional insight/understanding you gained from the projects/movie
• Changes made in the actual movie that you thought worked well
• Changes made in the actual movie that you didn't like
• Ideas you had for your movie that were better than the actual movie
• Ideas other groups had that were better than the actual movie
• The musical choices used by other groups or in the actual movie
• Casting of the actual movie or student projects

*feel free to branch out and write about anything else related to the book/movie