Beginning Our Rebel Research

After reading another chapter in The Hunger Games, we are going to introduce the next big project in this class, our Rebel Research Project.

For this project, you will choose people who, in the past, have rebelled against their governments, their societies, and their cultures. You will find information about one influential person that interests you, researching things like the country they come from, their lives, their accomplishments, and their struggles.

Rather than finding these facts and fitting them into a long essay, however, we are going to rebel against the normal assessment and create a graphical representation of the research we have done. To do this, we are going to use Comic Life.

The above "Rebel Research Project" link brings up a list of the people you will be able to research, along with a short blurb about who they were and what they did. The details of this assignment will be further outlined with a handout in class today. See you all then!

-Mr. Thomas

The Hunger Games: How do you rank?

Today is an early-release day, so we are going to use the first part of class to play a little online game based on The Hunger Games. To play, you must answer a series of 8 multiple choice questions that show how you would react in arena-like scenarios. After you've answered, your likelihood of winning will be calculated. I'll warn you, though, the game is hard. If your chances are anything less than 100%, you LOSE!

Here is the link to the game: http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/games/play.htm

Once you get to the webpage, you will be playing the second game that appears--the one called "Tribute Trials"

Afterwards we'll do a little bit of reflection:

• What are the skills that you are required to have in order to make it out alive?
• Why would these skills be useful to you if you were a tribute? Name three in particular that you feel are your greatest strengths.
• Lastly, which skills does Katniss have? We know of a few by now, but we'll have to wait and see how she'll fare in different scenarios. Are there any skills that the online game refers to that Katniss doesn't have?

See you all in class for a little while, 

-Mr. Thomas

Enter: The Arena

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back from the long weekend. I doubt we'll see another snow cancellation anytime soon, so I hope you made the most of it!

Last class we read the first part of chapter 11 in The Hunger Games, in which the games kick off with a violent, bloody start.

We're going to read some more today, but I'm going to graciously take an idea from Ms. Audy (last year's student teacher) and do a little activity where we start asking questions about our reading.

We will loosely break into groups of 2 (depending on attendance) and each group or person will be assigned a category in which to ask questions about the reading:

This business of the "Death Recap"
Survival/fighting strategies of the tributes
The Love Triangle: Katniss, Peeta, Gale
The Cornucopia and the Bloodbath
Alliances and how they're made

After reading through a bit more or Katniss's adventures in the arena, we are going to take a break and get into groups for these categories. Each group or person will collaborate and come up with two questions pertaining to something in the area of their category. Once the questions have been written down, the sheet gets passed to the left and one of those questions will be answered by the next group. The papers will be passed to the left once more, and when all questions have been answered we will review them in class with a discussion.

A few good examples from Ms. Audy's class were:

Should Katniss have taken more at the Cornucopia?

What are some strengths and weaknesses of Katniss's strategy?

-Mr. Thomas

Poetry Friday: Incident On the Road To the Capital

Today we are going to get started on a Poetry Friday assignment. I am borrowing this assignment from Mrs. DeRaps from a previous post, so if you would like to see the original for comparison purposes, feel free to visit the link!

We are going to read and take a good look at Dara Wier's unique poem Incident On the Road To the Capital. What do you notice about this poem that is much different from the others we've read in this class? This happens to be a "prose poem," a type of prose characterized by having poetic imagery and concentrated lines. The lines sound more like sentences, and we get a much clearer sense of story in this poem than we usually do. Though, in this poem, a lot of the guesswork has been taken out of deciphering the action, there's still much more to examine in this peculiar scene Wier has crafted.

The Poetry Friday assignment will be to adapt this poem to fit the plight of a tribute in The Hunger Games. It can be any of our main characters, but it can also involve tributes from other districts. Study the poem line by line and tell the story of the tribute, explaining his or her story. If you decide to write about another district, use your map of Panem to include some details about that district in your poem.

I will re-visit this post after we've finished this assignment and update with the approach we decide to take. Until then, have fun with this!

-Mr. Thomas

Poetry Friday: Heather McHugh's "U-District Incident Report"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucerobertson/268063523/in/set-72157600024188903/

Today we are going to read a satisfyingly dystopian poem by Heather McHugh.

The poem really embodies much of what we've been discussing while we read, in particular the abuse of technology, and the latest issue we will raise: the absence of individual freedom. We are going to keep these connections in mind while we each work on our own versions of this poem, which we will narrate from the perspective of someone from The Hunger Games.

One more day until winter break, everyone! 

Let's finish strong!

-Mr. Thomas

Hunger Games Recap

via

So there have been some absences lately, and I wanted to make a blog post that could be a place for anyone to catch up on the work we've been doing in class for the past week or so, in case you've missed anything. 

• As of 2/16 we've read up to page 61(Chapter 5) in The Hunger Games
• There is a list of attributes of dystopian literature that we are steadily working through, finding quotes that give examples of the elements as we read. The first attribute is: a Totalitarian Government. We have found at least 1 quote on this attribute so far.  
• We have found 2 quotes in the text that show evidence of Mass Poverty
• We have completed a survey about the ways we use technology in our daily lives. Over the next three days, we discussed the use and abuse of technology in the story. We found examples of technology as they came up in the text, taking a total of 3 quotes.  
• We made a GIST, or a guided summary, of one of two articles on the revolution in Egypt. Please follow the instructions on the GIST blog post if you are going to get it finished. During this class, we discussed some different representations of "hunger" in the story. This is not necessarily an indicator of a dystopian novel, but it is a story element that we need to bring attention to. In total, we found 2 quotes on "hunger."
• The latest thing we've read in class was an article called "Injustice on Our Plates," which shed some light on the food industry's unethical use of illegal immigrant laborers. We highlighted connections in the article to some portrayals of food in The Hunger Games. I will give you the article the next time I see you, since I don't have a digital copy to link here. 
• Lastly, we filled out a chart to see how many quotes we've found so far. Judging by this summary, everyone should have at least 8 total quotes:
  
  Totalitarian: (at least) 1
  Poverty: 2
  Abuse of Technology: 3
  Hunger: 2
  
  If you are missing quotes you need to find them. You can keep the charts in your folders to help you keep track of the quotes you have. I would like us to have 3 quotes for every word by the time we're all finished. 

On Friday we're going to introduce a new dystopian attribute: The Absence of Individual Freedom. It's also Poetry Friday so we'll do some work with a poem that deals with this issue! 

see you there, 

-Mr. Thomas

Hunger Games Technology (cont.)

During our last class, we took a survey about our technology usage and had a pretty lively discussion afterwards. We found some quotes from the latest read which related to the abuse of technology by the capitol, and along the way we got to talk a lot about some other ways that technology is represented in the book. You all gave 100%, and I can't thank you enough! Mrs. Miles (who was visiting our class) was also very impressed with your ideas and your enthusiasm for the book. Great job!

So today we are going to continue talking about technology, only now we are bringing in some bigger real-world connections.

We've had a little bit of discussion about the revolution in Egypt, and you might have recently heard that the revolution was successful in ending the 30-year reign of the country's president, Hosni Mubarak. To get  a better picture of the unraveling of the revolution (specifically the way technology factored into the uprising) we're going to do some guided summaries! (otherwise known as GISTs, I guess!)

We will be doing GISTs on these two articles:

Beginnings: internet shut-down

Mid-revolt

This is the first GIST I'm going to see in action, so bear with me for just a bit during class.

Basically, the goal is to find 8 important words in these articles that are the most important. Through group work and discussion, we will pare it down to five total words, and with that list of five words we will write a short summary of the entire article, incorporating those words in the summary. My hope is that we can finish in time to discuss these current events and connect them to the reading we will do at the end of class.

Until then, here is a map of the districts of Panem, the setting for our book. You'll each get a copy in class so we can follow along as we read.

And of course, happy Valentine's Day!

-Mr. Thomas

ENG 11 Technology Survey

Today we are going to take this survey on our day-to-day technology usage. It should only take us about 10-15 minutes.  Once we're all finished, we'll take a look at the data and have a few discussions about what our technology usage says about us. Of course, we'll also tie it in to our readings in The Hunger Games, so keep in mind some of the technology we've been introduced to so far!

thanks,
-Mr. Thomas

The Hunger Games: Poetry Friday!

Happy Poetry Friday!


Today we will be finishing up the first chapter of The Hunger Games, and we will wash it down with a reading of a thought-provoking (albeit short) poem by Pitika Ntuli.


In My Country

In my country they jail you
For what they think you think.
My uncle once said to me:
They’ll implant a microchip
In our minds
To flash our thoughts and dreams
Onto a screen at John Vorster Square.
I was scared
By day I guard my tongue,
By night my dreams.

some discussion research:

Apartheid
http://www.africanaencyclopedia.com/apartheid/apartheid.html


John Vorster Square
http://heritage.thetimes.co.za/memorials/GP/DeathInDetention/


I will go over the details a bit more in class, but just make sure you bring your laptops...and your chargers! 

-Mr. Thomas

The Hunger Games: Intro to Dystopia

Today in class we got our first exposure to The Hunger Games. We started the class with a quick book walk. We then dove into a discussion about the society in the story, taking a few quick notes on the concept of dystopia, which is based on the word Utopia: 


Utopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is perfect. 
The word utopia is made up of the Greek words:  

eu (good) + topos (place)

For the word dystopia, instead of eu, we use the Greek word dys: 

dys (bad) + topos (place)

So, dystopia is: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad. 


Usually, in literature, dystopias are represented as societies with corrupt, controlling governments which make life miserable and difficult for the characters. Generally, the characteristics of a dystopian society boil down to seven common elements. Over the course of our reading, we will show how the society in The Hunger Games falls under these seven elements by gathering supporting quotes on post-its. We covered the first of the seven elements, a Totalitarian Government, in class today.


Totalitarian: a type of government, usually led by a dictator, which requires complete agreement with and obedience to the governing power. 


We have read up to page 13, and along the way we've examined the society in the story and chosen some quotes that hint at the presence of a Totalitarian Government. Many of you have already started making some predictions, which is great--that's what good readers do! We'll have to see if they come true during our next reading. 


See you in class!
-Mr. Thomas

Introduction to The Hunger Games

Hello, Juniors!

On Thursday we started a new unit, and we kicked it off by completing an anticipation guide for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We split the classroom down the middle (see pictures) and got into two groups: one for those who agreed and one for those who disagreed with the worksheet's statements. 

Your individual arguments led to some really intense debate! We covered a lot of tough issues involving the importance of human life, family responsibilities, and social obligations. Thank you all for being so focused and honest with your answers, and for contributing to the discussion.  

It was a pleasure to hear all of your beliefs and ideas, and I was impressed to see how well you stated your positions and listened to the arguments of other students. Well done!

Here is an example of the anticipation guide we used, completed by our very own Mrs. DeRaps: 

Now that we've become familiar with the moral and social issues that are going to come up in The Hunger Games, my hope is that we'll be prepared for even more discussions like these. On Monday, we'll get acquainted with our new book and dive in! See you then!

Junior English: Midterm

For your midterm, you're going to write two blog posts. For each post, I will be looking for the following criteria:

Evidence of Critical Thinking: Thoughtful observations, connections between readings and the larger world and/or your life, and growth in your thoughts/ observations from the beginning of the year.

Evidence of Critical Reading: Evidence of thorough readings, comprehension of reading materials, insightful reflections, and connections between readings materials.

Evidence of Creative Thinking: Inclusion of photographs, music, videos, or other media that enhances the presentation of the post; original ideas presented in readings are extended in a creative manner.

Evidence of the Ability to Write Clearly and Effectively: Grammar, spelling, capitalization errors do not interfere with audience understanding. The structure of your blog posts allows for understanding and is easy to follow.

Evidence of Awareness of Diverse Audience: Opinions, justifications, rationalizations, and summaries are written in a way that allows a diverse audience to understand your intent. Writings are not offensive, but engage audience members in your ideas and opinions in a creative manner.

Blog Entry 1:

As part of our unit for A Long Way Gone, we've learned a whole lot about a a variety of African countries, some in more depth than others. Here are the ones we've studied:

Chad
Democratic Republic of Congo
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan

Choose one of these countries to write about for this blog post. In your post, explain:

• What is happened in that country in the past
• What you learned about this country that affected you/ made it stand out to you
• What is happening in that country right now (give a news update)

Make sure to add in a picture that relates to the country you have selected and to save all of your links to avoid any plagiarism!

(LABEL=A Long Way Gone)

Blog Entry 2:

In our last unit over the memoir A Long Way Gone, we have talked extensively about the use of child soldiers in many countries around the world. In our next book, The Hunger Games, children are going to be used as soldiers in a different way. Explain how you feel about the use of child soldiers after learning about it this quarter. Make sure to include a photo (with link) that shows how you feel about the practice of using child soldiers.

(LABEL=A Long Way Gone)

Blog Entry 3:

In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael describes several instances where his life is saved because of rap music. We studied the origins of hip-hop in the United States as a political and social movement where frustrated inner city African Americans used music to convey their anger and frustration with society.

For this final post, choose a song for Ishmael. It could be one that represents him as a child soldier in Sierra Leone, or one for him today now that he has undergone therapy. Embed your song in a blog post and explain why you chose this particular song for him. Point out lyrics that are meaningful. Make sure to quote the lyrics as they are written by the artist.

(LABEL= A Long Way Gone)

Child Soldiers: The Other Countries

http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/11/did_you_get_obamas_memo_white_house_selectively_okays_child_soldiers.html

As we read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, I can see where some of you may think that Sierra Leone is the only country to use child soldiers. This, as some of you know, is completely untrue. Despite international efforts to end this practice, there are several countries that use of child soldiers in fighting their wars.

Today, you are all going to be assigned of the following countries to research.

Somalia
Burma (Myanmar)
Yemen
Chad
Sudan
Democratic Republic of Congo

After you are done with your research, you will create a blog post that answers the following questions:

Where is this country?
How many child soldiers are used in this country?
What type of war is being fought?
Why is this country fighting?

And, I'd like you to include a short video or a picture of child soldiers from this country. Make sure to use the label A Long Way Gone for this post.

"The Message" by Grandmaster Flash: Connections to Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone

Today's Poetry Friday lesson takes us two places in time. One is the inner city of the early 1980's with Grandmaster Flash's famous song "The Message". The other is the civil war of the 1990's in Sierra Leone. Obviously, there are some serious differences between these two environments but there are also some elements that tie them together. War, chaos, unpredictable environments, loss of life and family, and governments who do not take care of their citizens.

Here is the video for this song:

After listening to this song and reading the lyrics, you all are going to locate quotations in the lyrics that relate to Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone. Then you'll create a blog post where you explain the relationship between the song and the book. Please include a picture that relates to the subject of this post.

Here is a student sample post for this assignment:

Student Sample

http://www.lastdaysofmanonearth.com/media/rap/break.jpg

Last week, we read about the origins of hip-hop and the connection between the inner city music of the 1970's and the rise of hip hop in Africa today. To get a feel for the music scene of the 1970's and 80's, you are each going to research a hip hop artist mentioned in the article we read.

Here is the list of artists:

Kurtis Blow

Melle Mel

Grand Wizard Theodore

Kool DJ AJ

Cold Crush Brothers

Spooney Gee

Rock Steady Crew

Afrika Bambaataa

Lovebug Starski

In today's class, you're going to google your hip hop artist. After you do this, you should find at least one video for your artist. Play the video(s) and choose one to upload on your blog. In your post, write about the music and the style that's represented in it. What's different about the music in the 1970's/ 1980's versus today's hip hop? What about the styles?

If your artist does not have a video with footage, you can still upload it in your post and write about the song itself.

Also, please include a list of

4-6 facts about your artist. (4-6)

It'll be interesting to see what you all come up with!

SSR Survey Quarter One

Please take this short survey so that I can collect data about this quarter's SSR.

Double Consciousness: In School/ Out of School

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Arnold Spirit creates a drawing where he splits the figure of a student in two. One side is labeled "White" and the other "Indian." We've been talking quite a bit about the term double-consciousness, or the state of traveling between two realities in one's life. Certainly, Arnold experiences the expectations and assumptions of both Native and White American cultures when he goes back and forth to school every day.

Though we may or may not have conflicting ethnic cultures that we go back and forth between on a daily basis, we do travel to school and then home. The expectations and realities of these two realms are often very different, even for myself as a teacher.

To illustrate this reality, we're going to create a visual using photobooth. I've created an unlabeled version of my face as an example of what I'd like you to create. One side of your face should have a school setting in the background, and one should be taken somewhere off campus. Here's my photo creation:

Looks weird, right? I know. But, you can easily see that I am different in the two environments that I spend most of my time in. At school, I am happy but formal looking. At home, I am more happy and look more relaxed.

We'll work on these next class. Please send me your two pics by then. We'll work to add labels to our pics in class.

Banned Books Week: The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Banned Books Week officially begins next week. It is sponsored by the American Library Association. We're getting a head start because one of the books we're reading right now

Sherman Alexie is no stranger to controversy. There are parents all over the country who are calling for the removal of his young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In today's class, we're going to read some of the news articles about the upset that this book is causing. On your blogs, you're going to react to one (or more) of these articles. You will respond to the following questions:

Do you think that this book is appropriate material for public school students? You can either agree or disagree with this issue. Please address at least one of the major concerns (inappropriate language, racist language, the drawings, etc.) that parents/ community members have voiced in your argument.

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Article 4

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: Double Consciousness

As part of today's reading, we talked about the term double consciousness in today's class. This is an important term to think about in reference to The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian. Why? Well, let's look at the definition that you all came up with for this term:

Double = Two or both or more than one

Consciousness = Knowledge, inside thoughts, reality, or awakeness (not a word, but I like it)

After defining this term, we talked about the ways in which we might be doubly conscious. You came up with: 

Having two households (because of divorce)

Having to be or act one way at home and another way at work or school

Acting one way in front of adults versus with younger children or peers

Having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other

These are all good examples. We talked about Arnold Spirit's attendance at a non-rez school and how that will feel and be different than the school on the reservation. We split the term American Indian and talked about his demeanor as an Indian versus as an American. We will continue to see Arnold's struggle to negotiate the rules and expectations of these very different cultures as the book progresses.

Good work today!

This American Life: The Right To Remain Silent

Because today's laptop rollout for juniors meant that you'd all be coming and going all period long, I decided to scrap the lesson that I had planned and take a different approach to our learning.

Just yesterday, I listened to a podcast of This American Life (one of my all-time favorite radio shows) while working on our new bulletin board. The episode I heard was about people who choose not to exercise their right to remain silent and suffer some sort of drastic consequence for their choice.

As I listened, I thought of you all and this course. Our theme for the year is rebellion. We've already met our first character, Arnold Spirit, who is rebelling against tribe by attending school off of his reservation. We'll meet other characters and learn about actual people who have rebelled as the year goes on. But, there is something very interesting about listening to these stories of two very different men who exercised their right to speak out.

One man was questioned by heavily armed police officers after posting a threatening status update on facebook. He got in much more trouble than seems reasonable or necessary for his post. Another man, a former police officer, decided to speak up for himself and the community that he policed by recording his commanding officer. This officer was asking policemen and women to arrest and frisk innocent people at random.

It is always interesting to think about our freedom of speech. Sometimes, I think that we forget how powerful speech can be. Therefore, we may forget that it is a right like any other and needs to be protected and fought for. These men have been fighting for their right to speak and be heard. What rights are you willing to fight for?