Poetryoutloud

Visit http://www.poetryoutloud.org/.
Pick a poem to memorize over vacation.

We will begin working on a poetry unit when we return in january.
In your comments, list the name of your poem and why you chose it.

Have a happy holiday vacation!

Night Assessment: A Still Life of Shoes and Backpacks

As we were brainstorming today, there seemed to be some interest in a project that had a visual component:
shoes, pictures of shoes, backpacks, symbols and possessions...

List any ideas for combining creative writing and images around those ideas in a way that shows how you understand Night or want to prepare someone for what they are about to read.

It would be great if the assessment had a way to combine everyone's offering into a larger display, like pieces of a mosaic....

Thanks for bringing your creativity to the assessment process!
Dr.G.

Elie Wiesel interviewed by Oprah at Auschwitz Death Camp

As we watch, use the space below to record your thoughts and questions.
Warning: There will be graphic images and historical film footage.
You may wish to simply listen to the conversation.

Night: The Assessment Quest

After reading something for school, there is usually an assessment.
What does a student know now?
What is a student able to do now?

 

Finding an assessment that measures progress is easy if the task is easy--
Do you know the alphabet? Repeat it.
Can you add three numbers together? You add various three number groups until you can do it without error.
If the task is even to remember the plot of a complex novel, you can draw a diagram and we can check that you did not confuse the order or that you did not leave anything out.

 

Finding an assessment that measures higher order thinking skills, complex thinking can be harder.
Knowing the story of Night is not enough--what will you do with it?
Begin here:
What do you know now that you have read Night?
What are you able to do now that you have read Night?

 

How can you apply your reading experience to something new?
How does your reading connect to other reading and life experience?
How does reading Night inspire you to want to know more or do more?
What does Night inspire you to create as a measure of your understanding?

 

1. Brainstorm below the kinds of assessments that you think would be worthy displays of your reading experience.
2. Please check pages 600-601 as ideas, especially if you are drawing a blank for an assessment idea.
3. Many of the assessment ideas on these pages can be modified or combined.
4. Since this can be such a personal subject, I imagine an individual project, but depending on the proposal, I will entertain options.
5. Know also, that I expect a proposal and a draft before vacation (Thursday), but that we will work on it after vacation, too. (p.s. I am aware of science fair--I was young once, too!)

Night: The Textbook Excerpt

Tonight for homework, please read the selection from Night that is in your textbook on pages 593-599.

 

1. What is your response to this excerpt?
2. What questions do you have about what happened before this moment?
3. What questions do you have about what happened after this moment?
4.What connection can you make to other texts you have read or movies that you have seen?

 

Tomorrow's class will be SSR. You may choose to read Night or another book.

• Please read up to page 46 in the full-length book for Monday.
• Please take notes on pivotal moments in the narrative.
• Record any questions about words or history that you might have.

If you find any helpful resources as you read, please note them in your post.

War, Leadership and Cruelty: Short Story Responses

Sorry for posting this a little late today...

Each of the stories has something to do with war, leadership and/or cruelty and the lessons we can learn from the behavior of others in difficult circumstances.

In your comments below:
(List the story title you read, of course!)
1. What is your response to the story you read?
2. What element of the story triggered your response?
3. What is one of the themes you have identified as your authors message to his readers?
4. How could characters in this story benefit from the advice offered by Forster
in his essay, " Tolerance"?
5. What connection can you make between this story and another work of literature, film or play?

NIGHT: Response to the Preface

Elie Wiesel, in his preface to the memoir, Night, writes, " If in my lifetime I was to write only one book, this would be the one."

He realizes that as a teenager, "one's knowledge of death and evil should be limited to what one discovers in literature," and he offers to educate you through his experience.

• What did you learn from him in this preface that will prepare you for what you are about to read?
• What did you learn about his writing process?
• What questions do you hope to have answered?

3-2-1: Tolerance

As a group, respond to today's 3-2-1 exercise here:

3: Mistakes that humans have made over history that we should not repeat.
2: The two best qualities that will preserve civilization and promote peace.
1: Forster's best evidence for tolerance/why (pp.679-681).

(make sure to list all members of the group who participate)
Enjoy your half day!

The Lessons of History: Back to the Books

In this next unit, we will be looking at the lessons we can learn from history as recorded by authors of short stories, poems, a novel and a memoir in Unit Four of our textbook. If you have time today, access the textbook through the electronic link and preview the texts we will be reading, particularly the work of E.M. Forster, who provides the touchstone text for this unit, "Tolerance"and Elie Weisel who contributes both a selection from his full length memoir, Night. and his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.

The questions I would like to pose before reading are these:

1. Of all the lessons we should learn from history, what is the most important?
2. What quality is it important for us to develop if we want to preserve civilization and promote peace?
3. How do you think reading literature can be part of teaching us to develop this quality?

MSND: Formal Paper Character Selection

So, what character are you selecting for your paper? Why?
What is your working thesis?

A working thesis is general and represents the initial hypothesis you intend to prove before you conduct your rereading of the play and your re-examination of the essays and story in the Literature Connection book.

Of course, as you move to your second draft, you will refine your thesis statement to preview the body you have developed with the evidence you collect from your reading and experience.

You will find that you will inspire each other by noting your character selections and your tentative theses...share the wealth!