Great Books: Fall Final

Here we are! Already the end of the Fall Semester and time to start thinking about Finals. I'm not a big fan of tests, so as usual, this semester you will be working on a project to show off your skills.

We've spent the past few weeks reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and we've focused on the following BIG Question: If we learn many important childhood lessons from books we read, and if Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is meant for kids and not adults, what is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland supposed to teach Victorian children?


We've had discussion, we've analyzed Dr. Seuss, and now it's time to show off what you know. Your final will be in two parts. In Part 1 you will be creating a children's book, complete with moral. In Part 2 you will be analyzing your book in an essay, much like we analyzed Dr. Seuss -- looking at characters, plot, imagery, overall message, and how that message is conveyed to the reader.

Remember the activity we did the other day, when I asked you what a picture book needed to be a good picture book? You came up with 7 categories and helped rank those categories in order of importance. Some of you have already guessed, but others may not have noticed that you were actually creating a rubric.


Check out the PDF below, or download it from here (Adobe Reader needed). Your essay will be due in class on Finals day, be prepared to present your project and discuss with the class.

Have fun!

Image Source:  Link

ACE & Guided Study: Independent Project Rubric

If you've been working on an independent project in the ACE or Guided Study class, you better make sure your familiar with this rubric. Be ready with your Action Plan, 'cause this is how you'll be graded.

Download PDF of the Independent Project Rubric here (Adobe Reader required), or see below.

All Classes: What's in a Name?

Ah, the age of the Internet. What bliss it is to have so much information at our fingertips! What joy to be able to do so much electronically! How green we are as we turn in assignments online, saving trees and wasted paper!

Hazzah!

When turning in work, even electronically, you still have to put your name and the title of the assignment at the top of the assignment. This is an important reminder and a lesson I am surprised many of you have forgotten. Without a name on your paper you will not receive credit.


Your paper heading should look something like this:

Name Date Class Period Title Of Assignment Example: Career Research Project

When using the DropitTO.me service or when emailing me an assignment, your file name should look something like this:

"Student Name - Assignment Name.doc"

I know you don't want to loose partial or whole credit on an assignment any more than I want to hunt for a name to match a paper. We can all wonder in the glory of electronic convenience and still manage to turn things in properly. Please don't forget to put your name on your assignment, both in the document/powerpoint/ect AND in the file name!

All Classes: Google Research Tips Infographic

Created by: HackCollege

Great Books: Alice Vocab and Character Assignment

In case you missed it, here is the vocab and character assignments from the Alice Unit.

Vocabulary: Keep Definitions in your notebook, a quiz will be given at the end of the novel.

1. Genre - A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
2. Anthropomorphism - The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.
3. Allegory - A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
4. Parody - An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
5. Rhythm - A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.
6. Rhyme - Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, esp. when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.
7. Pun - A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.
8. Ubiquitous - Present, appearing, or found everywhere
9. Disingenuous - Not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.
10. Pervasive - Spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people.

Characters: Character descriptions and analysis are due at the end of the unit and should have one paragraph for each character.

1. Alice
2. The White Rabbit
3. The Queen of Hearts
4. The Cheshire Cat
5. The Duchess 
6. The Mad Hatter

For your character analysis, consider the following questions:

Is the character well rounded? What motivates the characters actions? What are the items associated with the character, are they symbols of something greater? How does the character effect other characters in the book? Ect.

Great Books: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Time to start a new text, so if you are absent today you will need to see me about getting your copy of the novel from the book room. Our new novel is another one of your selections: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it's sequel, Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

The goal is to finish both texts by the end of the semester, so we're really going to have to move to make that happen.

Taking your comments from the last unit into consideration, we're going to be approaching this one a litter differently. Rather than doing a set of questions after each chapter, students will be responsible for coming up with 3 open-ended discussion questions for each day of reading. The plan is to read throughout the week and finish with discussion on Friday's (at this point your should have 6 discussion questions ready to share.) Yes you WILL be turning in your questions for a grade, and as always, your discussion participation will be graded as well.

Fortunately the Alice books are in the common domain, so there are free copies all over the internet. Check it out.

The Big Question we will be tackling in this unit is the following: If we learn many important childhood lessons from books we read, and if Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is meant for kids and not adults, what is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland supposed to teach Victorian children?

The Prezi we will be going over class today in embedded below. You will need to take notes, and you will need to include those notes in your notebook for the end of the 6wks.

Down the Rabbit Hole with Lewis Carroll on Prezi

Great Books: Minority Report

Greetings students! You were given the choice of one film this semester and you chose to watch it after out dystopian novel, Anthem by Ayn Rand. Here we go!

This week we will be watching Minotiry Report, directed by Steven Speilberg and starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton. The summary according to the Internet Movie Database:

In the future, criminals are caught before the crimes they commit, but one of the officers in the special unit is accused of one such crime and sets out to prove his innocence.

Sounds exciting. After watching the film you will be writing a short 5 paragraph essay on one of the following prompts:

1. How is this a dystopian film? What are the characteristics the film shares with the characteristics on our sheet?
2. What kind of dystopian control is used in the film? What are some examples of that control? Is it an effective way to controlling the people?
3. Who is the dystopian protagonist in the film? What are the dystopian characteristics they share with the characteristics on our list?
4. Compare the film with another dystopian story you know, either Anthem by Ayn Rand, or another of your choice. 

As you can probably tell, you will need the handout for "Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics" that we went over in class the other day. If you've lost your copy download the PDF here (Adobe Reader needed) or view the handout below.