Good morning! Thank you for being here for me!
Hour One:
Of Mice and Men
We just started reading this novel. Yesterday students were given a dialogue worksheet asking them to translate quotations into third person narration. Please have them turn this in (in the 1 slot in the wooden contraption next to the chalk board).
Have students read chapter two and answer the questions for the study guide. Many of them prefer to read aloud with the teacher for class, but I usually give them the option of working independently if they’re on task.
Hour Two:
Heart of Darkness
Students should be reading chapter one and look for spots to analyze using their specific type of criticism. It is dense and difficult—please read the summary below as a preview so they will have an easier time understand the text. They’ll want to talk but should be strongly encouraged not to. Some people have expressed a desire to go to the library for a quieter setting. This should be fine.
Josh Jacobs was absent yesterday. Please give him the copy of the novel with his name on it and tell him to turn his homework in (he can put it in the 2 slot in the wooden contraption next to the chalkboard).
The novel begins through Marlow’s being hired as a steamboat captain.
Summary Chapter One
At sundown, a pleasure ship called the Nellie lies anchored at the mouth of the Thames, waiting for the tide to go out. Five men relax on the deck of the ship: the Director of Companies, who is also the captain and host, the Lawyer, the Accountant, Marlow, and the unnamed Narrator. The five men, old friends held together by “the bond of the sea,” are restless yet meditative, as if waiting for something to happen. As darkness begins to fall, and the scene becomes “less brilliant but more profound,” the men recall the great men and ships that have set forth from the Thames on voyages of trade and exploration, frequently never to return. Suddenly Marlow remarks that this very spot was once “one of the dark places of the earth.” He notes that when the Romans first came to England, it was a great, savage wilderness to them. He imagines what it must have been like for a young Roman captain or soldier to come to a place so far from home and lacking in comforts.
This train of thought reminds Marlow of his sole experience as a “fresh-water sailor,” when as a young man he captained a steamship going up the Congo River. He recounts that he first got the idea when, after returning from a six-year voyage through Asia, he came across a map of Africa in a London shop window, which reinvigorated his childhood fantasies about the “blank spaces” on the map.
Marlow recounts how he obtained a job with the Belgian “Company” that trades on the Congo River (the Congo was then a Belgian territory) through the influence of an aunt who had friends in the Company’s administration. The Company was eager to send Marlow to Africa, because one of the Company’s steamer captains had recently been killed in a scuffle with the natives.
Hour Three:
SKUD
Yesterday students completed a worksheet about the function of dialogue within a text (there’s a copy of it here… it’s similar to what they did first hour).
Ask them to pinpoint two short sections of dialogue in the book that they think are especially pertinent or meaningful. Translate them into third person narration, and then write about what additional information the reader gains through reading the scene in a dialogue format.
When they are finished they should continue to read through page 84.
Jake is not allowed to say the book is “dumb” or “stupid.” I am perfectly fine with him being critical but he needs to be specific and smart in his criticism.
Hour Five:
True Grit (author research)
Please give students the article about Charles Portis and the sheet asking them to write his bio. They already have the first two articles. Bios and article questions are due on Monday at the beginning of class.
Hour Seven:
Frankenstein Chapter 18 Part II
Please have students read what I wrote on the dry erase board. I am asking Mikey to read the quote because I think he has a knack for drama. Tell them that if their Frankenstein wedding vows that they wrote yesterday say things like “yup,” “I love you man,” and/or “err… there’s like something I need to tell you” they should rewrite them. Frankenstein was one mushy, over-the-top romantic/emotional guy. That’s what I am looking for.
Watch the Boris Karloff monster movie (Disc One) using the projector on the Smart Board from minute 2:03 (the beginning after the credits) to minute 43 when then monster escapes.
Ask the students to note any major differences that they see as they watch. How is the monster different than he is portrayed in the book?
Hour Eight:
Snow Falling on Cedars Movie
We stopped at 1:22:44 yesterday. I think the movie will take them through to the end of the hour. I would like them to write a professional one page movie review over the weekend (guidelines are on the board).
