CYCLE 12 - DAY 3 - SEMESTER 1

Today, we talked about themes. To see the full list of what all three classes generated (and by all means, add to it! Make comments! Offer suggestions!), see the new page on the wikispace.

Good luck one and all!

HOMEWORK
Bring Obasan to class.

CYCLE 12 - DAY 2 - SEMESTER 1

Today, you received 4 handouts:
1. A double sided overview of the 12-sentence paragraph. Two of the sections discussed the following quotation sandwich.

• Fiver is very angry at Hazel. "'Don't be so foolish'" (Adams 247). He thinks Hazel is being an idiot.

This is a HORRIBLE quotation sandwich. Why?

1. The statement "Fiver is very angry at Hazel" is not an effective claim; it is not arguable or focused, and it does not answer how or why.
2. The quote is simply plopped in without any introduction. We do not know who is speaking, to whom, or in what context.
3. The commentary sentence does not explain the evidence's connection to any sort of thesis. It simply summarizes what the evidence is.
4. It's boring; the word choice is uninteresting, and the claim and commentary sentences are dull, simple declarative sentences. Ho hum.

Avoid writing horrible quotation sandwiches. The hardest part to master is the commentary sentence, which should connect specifics from the evidence to the specifics of the thesis (e.g. If you had a thesis that talked about the essential nature of Fiver's honesty and had used the same quote as appears above, you might have a commentary sentence like this: Fiver's use of the word "foolish" clearly indicates his willingness to speak truth to power with a candor that gives Hazel pause; Fiver's criticism sows the seeds of doubt in his chief's mind, and this doubt invariably leads to better decision making.) Practice writing commentary sentences, as they are the chief workhorses of your 12-sentence paragraph.

Practice writing several 12-sentence paragraphs between now and the exam, using that sheet to both guide and assess your work.

The other three sheets all relate to sentence diagramming, and the homework is to finish the double-sided practice sheet. See me if you need additional copies. Unfortunately, the most useful of them cannot be put on the wikispace because much of it is handwritten.

CYCLE 12 - DAY 1 - SEMESTER 1: Quotes

Today, you worked on collecting quotations from the short stories. In small groups, you addressed the central themes and characterization from two of the semester's stories (your choice). Once you talked about these essential elements, you then divvied up pages and started looking for quotes in answer to the question, "Which quotes reveal something essential about the character/theme?"

You can find the quotes on the wikispace. Because of a server crash on wikispace's end this morning, we have a not particularly attractive product, but it gets the job done, and has a downloadable component that you can add to for your own benefit.

I strongly suggest you make use of the wikispace to share ideas, notes, hold discussions, etc. The power of the collective -- when it works in concert with everyone pulling his/her weight -- is extraordinary. USE IT!

HOMEWORK
1. Write your 6th story review. If I didn't check yours today, plan on having your notes checked tomorrow.
2. Review units 2 & 3 in the vocabulary book
3. Plan on having a review of sentence diagramming tomorrow

CYCLE 12 - DAY 1 - SEMESTER 1: Exam Quotes

Once the wikispace server is restored, quotes will be available. As of 11:25, here's what they had to say:

Current Status
8 Dec 2008 11:45 PM PST (07:45 GMT)
We're facing a network failure at our hosting provider that's taken Wikispaces offline. We're working as quickly as possible with our hosting provider to work this out. We'll keep you apprised of the details. Update - a router failure at our hosting provider caused this outage, lasting from 7:40 AM PST - 7:56 AM PST. We're working with them to understand the root cause of this failure. Update 2 As of 8:28 AM PST, we're seeing a recurrence of the same problem. Will advise. - jbyers

CYCLE 11 - DAY 5 - SEMESTER 1 Exam Review; Day 1

For today, I asked you to prepare study notes for four of the stories, your choice. Though these notes do not yet need to be exhaustive, they should be substantive and indicate that you have given serious thought to the stories, using the double-sided exam review handout I gave you last week.

I then passed out a sample 12-sentence paragraph that we reviewed together. All groups noticed that the thesis statement was simply too long to be useful. Two groups rewrote the thesis to make a better one.

Here are a few samples, some better than others:
Look for how to streamline the words for clarity. This is great practice for the exam.

• Even though Fiver is physically unscathed, he has indeed sacrificed more, helplessly slipping into a death-like trance, having his own personal journey to the Black Rabbit of Inle, and losing the ability to connect with the warren.
• Although Fiver is unscathed in the battle, Bigwig rightly says Fiver suffers more than he because of Fiver’s death-like trance during the raid, the cold he experiences similar to El-ahrairah, and his inability to interact normally with the other members of the warren.
• Fiver mentally sacrifices more than Bigwig physically does because he follows in El-ahrairah’s footsteps by falling into a trance, meeting the Black Rabbit of Inle, and losing his ability to relate to others.
• Bigwig rightly says that Fiver sacrificed more mentally by sinking into his helpless trance which ends up having the same consequence as El-ahrairah’s visit to the Black Rabbit of Inle; he no longer relates to others and can’t function in the warren.

Then I broke you up into small groups. In your small groups, I asked you to do the following:

1. Identify a story (not Watership Down) that you all worked on.
2. Identify an interpretive question to be asked about that story.
3. Collectively create a thesis to answer that question.
4. Subject that thesis to the "five questions" test and refine it accordingly.
5. If time allowed, talk through the remainder of the 12-sentence paragraph.

REMEMBER: All thesis statements must: (memorize this for the exam)
· Be arguable
· Be based in the text
· Be focused
· Be provable with evidence from the text
· Must answer how or why

Your thesis statements. Subject these to the 5 standards every thesis must meet. Again, some are better than others here. Which ones need serious work? Which ones do the job but lack style? Which ones work well?

Why is the town in Rivera’s short story, “Zoo Island” called Zoo Island?
The town is called Zoo Island because the Hispanics living in it feel like (1)animals being observed in a zoo, (2) are isolated from nearby towns, and (3) they are living under the control of a farmer (much like a zookeeper).

Why does Sponono consistently behave badly?
Sponono’s continuous bad behavior is a consequence of his faulty definition of forgiveness, his unwillingness to change, and the principal’s tolerance of Sponono’s horrific behavior.

Is Miriam's age significant to the story?
Miriam’s young age influences Mrs. Miller to be manipulated, lenient, exploited, permissive, generous, unreasonably kind, entranced. (Pick 3)

Why does Sponono want to work in the garden?
Sponono wants to wants to work in the garden because it makes him feel important.
Gives him responsibility
Keeps him out of trouble
Allows him to be close to the principal, his father figure

What is the meaning of the name “Zoo Island?”
The name Zoo Island given to the community by Don Simon, symbolizes that the farm is separated from the rest of the world, is under the watchful eye of the “white people,” and keeps workers captive until a new job opens up elsewhere.

Is Miriam a figment of Mrs. Miller's imagination? Miriam, while different than Mrs. H.T. Miller, is indeed a figment of Mrs. Miller's imagination, a younger version of Mrs. Miller, because they have the same name, they both want the same things, and, cannot be found by anyone but Mrs. Miller. [This is saying that only Mrs. Miller can find Mrs. Miller, and there's something to that, if you take it on a deeper level, but that's not really what you meant here.]

HOMEWORK
Add another story to your study notes.
Review Unit 1 Vocabulary.
Bring your Junior Great Books and "The Village Watchman" short story to class tomorrow.

Tomorrow's activity: we will create a list of "essential quotes" for as many of the short stories as we can.

CYCLE 11- DAY 4 - SEMESTER 1

Today, I passed out exam review materials.  I strongly suggest that you re-read DAY 2 of this blog since the information and tips it contains are extremely useful in guiding your approach to exams.  I also pointed out that rather than listing just the information you are expected to know, I listed the skills you must demonstrate.  THAT should do much more to suggest your approach to studying than anything else.  I am available for extra help before and after school, and will be holding review sessions in the coming days.  Be proactive.  If it seems difficult or labor intensive or simply unappealing now, waiting until next weekend, or worse, the 17th or 18th to get started in your studying is NOT going to make that any easier.

After we spoke about the exam, we discussed the Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" structure.  I asked you, in small and large groups, to first compare answers, and then to address the following questions:

1. How many hero's journeys does Hazel go on?
2. Does anyone else in the novel go on a hero's journey?
3. What are the gifts (tangible & symbolic) with which Hazel returns?
4. What lessons do the archetypes teach Hazel?

When I get my act together, I will get those notes posted on the wikispace.  They'll be up by Friday.  I promise.

HOMEWORK

You are to use the exam review materials to cover FOUR of the stories we have read (I don't care which ones).  On Monday, you should have written or typed materials covering four of the stories.  Even if they are not yet complete, they should be substantive.  You know what this means.  Showing up with a character list of the main characters will not qualify.  Do a gut check--at this point, you know me pretty well, and you can guess what "substantive" means.  If you need more detail, come in and ask.

CYCLE 11 - DAY 3 - SEMESTER 1

Today, we concluded our discussion of the novel.  It seems greater than half of you thought the ending was too tidy and kind, though others put forth the argument that for this type of story, such an ending is fitting: villains shouldn't live and heroes shouldn't die without a greater purpose, and many felt that Hazel deserves to see the warren through to self-sustaining completion (then again, Moses himself wasn't allowed into the land of milk and honey, so there would have been precedent for killing him off).

One group raised an interesting question: "Have we as a class gotten any better as leaders and followers throughout the process?"  While time constraints prevented an in-depth exploration of this question, it merits reflection.

I'm sad to see this book end.  Watching you engage, analyze, dissect, interpret, hypothesize, debate, concur, and relate to one another in discussing this particular text has been incredibly rewarding from my perspective.  I don't think I have ever taught a book that has garnered more consistent and worthy engagement.  When you are serious of purpose, you're a most impressive group of folks.  When you're not, you're still pretty great, and certainly entertaining, but your smarts acting in concert is really the best show in town.  Thank you.

HOMEWORK:

Complete the worksheet passed out in class about the stages of the hero's journey and common archetypes.  Nothing fancy--just basic plot points and page numbers will do.

CYCLE 11 - DAY 2 - SEMESTER 1: Watership Down 421-454

With some baiting and escalation from me, all three groups engaged in some competition against each other for the most productive discussion. Review all three sets of notes on the wikispace--you'll have to admit, the comeptition is really very close. And the group who has the "WE WON" sign on the notes? Self-proclaimed. Do you agree?

HOMEWORK:
Complete the novel. The discussion questions for tomorrow are:

1. Why does Adams tell chapter 48 from Lucy Cane’s perspective? Do you think this was a wise decision? Regardless of whether or not you agree with it, is it well-executed?
2. Why does Bigwig say that Fiver’s sacrifice in battle was greater than his own, even though Fiver was entirely physically unhurt throughout?
3. Is Groundsel ever truly accepted in the Watership Down warren? Why does Hazel make efforts on his behalf?
4. Vilthuril’s story on 470 heavily borrows from Hazel’s actual experience. Why mythologize it in this way?
5. How do they mythologize General Woundwort? Is the portrait unflattering?
6. Why is it El-ahrairah who comes at the end and not the Black Rabbit of Inlé?
7. Why does Adams include the following Lewis Carroll quote at the beginning of the Epilogue? “He was part of my dream, of course—but then I was part of his dream, too."

CYCLE 11 - DAY 1 - SEMESTER 1

Who knows?  I was out ill.  Bring me up to speed, will you?