Poetry Friday and A Long Way Gone

We had a great class today. We started by listing the major exports of the US and Sierra Leone on our maps of Africa. This affects our understanding of A Long Way Gone because we see that is a farning culture with little industry. Therefore, the export of diamonds and coffee will not add to their infastructure or strength in the world economy.

After talking about this fact, we moved on to our Poetry Friday celebration. This Friday's poem comes from a poet named Mark Strand and is titled "Keeping Things Whole". We talked about this poem at great length, including the short length of the lines, the connections between the speaker in the poem and Ishmael, and our reasons for "moving". Great discussion!

After this, we decided that we would read for a while and potentially start our movie. We did not end up having enough time to start the film, though, as we had another great discussion about religion and life and death and reincarnation and heaven and hell. It was a pretty powerful discussion and we learned a lot about the beliefs and assumptions held by the members of our class. We read to the middle of chapter eleven. We'll pick up there next class. Good work.

Poetry Friday: Tupac Shakur and You

It's been a while since we've had class together on Friday, so we have not had the pleasure of Poetry Friday for a few weeks. Today's Poetry Friday plan includes a famous poem from Tupac Shakur called "The Rose That Grew From Concrete".

Shakur is an interesting figure in the history of rap music and popular culture. He grew up in East Harlem, surrounded by ghetto life and a family with legal troubles stemming from their connections to the Black Panthers. Shakur was highly educated in the arts and was an avid reader. If you listen to his music, there is no doubt that he was well-read and highly intelligent. Though he only lived to be twenty-five, Shakur is still widely recognized as an important figure in rap music.

His poem "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" is simple, direct, and full of figurative language and imagery. We're going to take it down from dictation today and then you'll write you own poem based on Shakur's where you'll compare yourself to a plant growing out of a surface in our rural environment. I'll post some of your poems here next week after you're all finished.

Also, please remember to hand in your interview questions for review. I'll hand them back to you before you go on Thanksgiving break.

The Games Wind Down and Up All At Once!

It's official. We have less than one hundred pages to go in The Hunger Games. And, holymoly, do we have a lot to figure out! Today, we read from page 154 to page 197, which may be some sort of record for us. We saw a lot of action. One more tribute has died, though not at Katniss's hands. In fact, Katniss was almost killed twice, but escaped when Tresh pulled Clover off Katniss and then proceeded to bash Clover's head in with a rock. Ouch!

Thresh could have easily killed Katniss, but chose not to after learning of the alliance that she had with Rue. Thresh allowed Katniss to escape with medicine to cure Peeta, though he told her that this was his last kind gesture toward her. We'll have to pick up with this story next week. We are so close to finding out what happens!

Oh, and I found this really cute and funny photo online. It's a "Peeta Cake", replicating how Peeta must have looked when Katniss found him all camouflaged in mud and leaves. Adorable!

The Rural Life 101 Project

In response to Ghetto Life 101, you're all going to pair up and collect interviews, images, and sounds to show the world what it's like to grow up in a rural environment. Just as LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman worked to show the positives and negatives of growing up in the ghetto, you'll show your audience the pluses and minuses of growing up in this area. Rather than just giving as audio presentation, Ms. Petroska (our fearless practicum teacher) plans to have you all use imovie to create a photostory.

Though you'll be provided with set of questions to guide your interviews, the central question you're setting out to answer is: What do you see when you look out your window? This comes directly from Ghetto Life 101, where LeAlan and Lloyd literally look outside and describe the liquor stores, drug deals, violence, and huge numbers of people milling around with nothing to do.

I will show you some sample photos that I'm going to include in my project after I return from Thanksgiving vacation. I'm hope that you're thinking of you photos and interviews as much as I am!

Day of Thanks Project

For every day from now until the end of November, I'll post a student-generated, whole class-generated, or teacher-generated post that includes a visual or some writing where thanks are offered to someone or something.

Today's post includes a letter from a student to her father. In this letter, it obvious how deeply this student cares for her father. This is a heartfelt "thanks" project that took my breath away!

Ishmael and the Trickster Spider

Our facts of the day about Sierra Leone and the United States concerned the most commonly practiced religions in each of these countries. In Seirra Leone, the most popular two religions are the Muslim and Christian faiths and these are mixed with lingering indigenous beliefs. In the United States, the top three religions are Protestant, Roman Catholic, and the Jewish faith.

Already, we've seen that Ishmael, his friends, and his family have a mix of beliefs. Some celebrations and traditions seem to relate more to tribal and indigenous traditions, whereas some of the beliefs that the boys express seem more tied to organized religion.

In our reading of chapter ten, we were able to see Ishmael and his friends welcomed into a village and invited to a feast. Their happiness is short lived, though, as they feel the need to continue their travels and even seem to feel guilty about having too much fun. At the end of the chapter, we learn that Ishmael's family may be alive and well just a few miles away. We'll learn whether or not he catches up with his family next class.

Another huge part of today's discussion was the infamous trickster the Bra Spider. At first, some of us were worried that this was a real type of spider that we should fear, but after we heard the story of the Bra Spider, we knew that this was not the case. We did want to know how this spider got his name, and I think I found the answer this evening. Ms. Petroska, I believe, was on the right track. "Bra" comes from the word "brother" and is similar to the African American contraction "Br'er", as in "Br'er Rabbit". The West African word for spider is "anansi" and a quick search for "br'er anansi" will net you a lot of results about a trickster spider who often gets himself into trouble.

Hunger Games: Deadly Days

When we started today's class, Katniss had not yet directly killed anyone. That all changed. What caused this shift in Katniss's character? Rue's horrible death. Immediately, Katniss is transformed with anger, not only toward the tributes in the Games but with the Capitol as well. Many of you predicted that this event was going to lead to some sort of rebellion. This prediction seems to have been corroborated by the donation of bread to Katniss from District 11. You all know that this symbolic gift must have cost the residents of District 11 an enormous amount of money. Katniss is not likely to forget this generosity.

In addition to this huge revelation on Katniss's part, there was a shocking announcement made that led to additional predictions from all of you. If a couple from the same district makes it to the final two, both can live. When Katniss hears this, what is her first instinct? To find Peeta, of course! We'll have to stay tuned to see how this all shakes out.

We also took our first "Thanks!" photo for the kind folks who donated the money to purchase copies of Catching Fire from the Donors Choose site. I'll post this picture tomorrow and let you know if they respond. We'll continue reading from The Hunger Games next class.

Fourteen Days of Thankful

I wish I'd thought of this earlier, but as the old adage goes "better late than never"!

We have fourteen days left in this month. Let's use those fourteen days to be aware of the blessings and gifts that we have in our lives and all that we have to be thankful for. We'll start today:

What are you thankful for on this Tuesday? Please create a visual to represent your thanks this on this beautiful morning.

If you're not feeling especially appreciative, here is a link to some photography where you might find a place to start. If you need more photos to choose from, here's another site that offers the Day in Photos.
If this isn't enough to move you toward thankfulness, read this article to find additional health benefits related to being thankful year-round.

Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse

Today we added to our Venn Diagram about the differences and similarities between our rural neighborhoods and the neighborhoods mentioned in Ghetto Life 101. You all made some pretty perceptive connections about what it must be like to grow up in an area where guns, violence, liquor stores, drug dealers, and drop-outs are the norm. Of course, this is not to say that our lives and neighborhoods are completely safe and perfect. On the contrary, some of you found that we have high rates of drug use here and also deal with issues of teen pregnancy and teens who drop out of school.

Next class, we'll continue to hear the tragic story of Eric Morse, a five year-old boy who was killed in the Ida B. Wells projects by some neighborhood boys, ages about ten and eleven. Keep thinking about this topic. We're going to have lots of discussions about ghettos and violence and crime over the next couple of months. Good work today.

Survey for Freshman and Sophomore Students

If you are a freshman or a sophomore student in one of my English classes, please complete the following survey by clicking this link.

Thank you for your help in creating our next project.

Quote of the Week

This week's quotation comes from one of my beloved childhood authors, C.S. Lewis. Series books are much more popular today than when I was growing up, so his series The Chronicles of Narnia was a rare treat. Lewis was one of the most creative thinkers that I'd ever read, and I always found myself absolutely lost in his stories. I believe him when he says:

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

Absolutely! As we enter into second quarter and head toward more creative writing and thoughtful projects, keep Lewis's words in mind! After all, he didn't finish The Chronicles of Narnia until he was well into his fifties. It's never too late!