Piggy’s Letters / And Then There Was Yours

11′s: You entered the character of Piggy today and wrote five letters to his auntie. Each letter was at least 12 sentences long and focussed on a particular incident in the story. The goal was to understand and empathize with the character of Piggy. Today’s in class assignment was worth 50 marks and was summative.

I also gave you a list of all of the assignments we have done since Macbeth. Monday is the cut off date for this term. You were reminded that all  assignments are on this blog at 11: Assignments at the top of the page.

9′s: You received a brand new folder for your group and people were astonished and disbelieving that Kevin could actually guess a number in my head. It’s true. I did think “77.” I will never lie to you. And I will definitely never lie to you about numbers! How could I? Why would I? Anyway, number guessing Kevin’s group got the pink folder. Sorry. I will try to find stores with more variety in the future!

Today you did this: You wrote a mini bio of your individual character on hot pink paper and then you set about brainstorming as a group. How will you introduce your characters in Chapter One? How will you describe the setting?  There was discussion about what types of characters and plots you’re doing. Please remember the following: You want believable characters. If they are just stereotypes, your reader won’t care about them. Also, you must have a sense of place in your story. If your characters are on a road trip, you have to describe the car, the road, the scenery, the weather. It has to be believable. This is exactly like a real book. You are doing real writing. Finally, some of you were reminded about character’s names. I know I’ve surprised you that I know what you’re doing. What can I tell you? I hang around teenagers all day. Don’t give your character a name that is risque. If your Grandma would be shocked, it’s not a good name. Ditto for numbers; certain numbers are not going to be okay. Use your energy for making your story interesting and readable. Don’t waste your time trying to shock people.

P.S. The faces you don’t recognize above are all of teenagers who have written books and had them published.

P.P.S. Here’s a quote from a Danish writer named Isak Dinesen: ”When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.” Some of you are “getting” this assignment and some of you aren’t. It actually is a “great and difficult task” and I am dividing it into little pieces for you every class. If you suddenly think, She’s given me something too big, then you’re in the right place. You get what you’re doing. It’s big but not too big. It would only be too big if I wasn’t helping you. Then it would be overwhelming. I want you to think beyond your group. I want to think of yourself. I want you to think, I am writing a chapter in a book. That is a big deal.

Dolphus’s Excuse and Atticus’s Speech

10′s: You had the Quiz on Chapter 19 and then you had Course Planning with Ms. Peterson. And then we read Chapter 20!

Chapter 20 is quite amazing. You’ll have to read it again to do the in class assignment I’m going to give you. It’ll be about Dolphus Raymond, a character I particularly admire. In real life I wouldn’t, but now that I know his secret and motivation, I think he is one smart guy. He has sacrificed his public reputation for personal integrity and for love. That’s pretty amazing. Not many people would have the courage to do that.

And speaking of courage, Atticus is winding up the case. The speech he gives the jury would be welcome in any law textbook as an example of an excellent concluding argument. It’s logical, rational, appeals to the highest standard of human behaviour … Will it work? So far, most of you think no.

Don’t forget you have to read Chapter 21 at home. You’ll get a quiz question on it at the beginning of the next class.

P.S. This should be my last cat picture for a while. I just felt symmetry was in order. My 9′s and 11′s had cats so you had to have one, too. Next class when we’re reading, I want you to imagine we all have giant cats sitting beside us turning the pages. Imagine how much faster we’d get through the book! Cats are notorious for their inability to turn pages accurately.

Update: Just came across this quote by Truman Capote: “Sometimes when I think how good my book can be, I can hardly breathe.” He does sound like Dill, doesn’t he?

 

American LofF / And Then There Was Yours

11′s: Double Block. Today you watched the end of the colour movie, wrote an in class assignment on which format you enjoyed most (the book, the black and white movie, the colour movie), received a handout on both movies, gave your Course Planning forms to Ms. Peterson, had a Lockdown Drill, listened to a very long story, annoyed me, received your marks, and received marked work back — not necessarily in that order and in varying levels of intensity.

You are now preparing for the Major Essay. Criteria sheet to follow.

9′s: You did the following: You entered the room, went into your groups, took out your 67 character traits, chose which traits were relevant to your story and entered them on your Character Map. This you did on your own. The rest of the class was working in your Book Group. You filled in the Character Relations Web, showing the connections between characters. After that, you determined the conflicts within the story and worked on the plot. Then you discussed and plotted out the elements of your story on paper. Finally, you worked out how your character “exited” the story.

You are slotted into the Library on March 7 to learn how to do all of this on zoho. If I can get you to a computer faster, I will! With zoho or google docs you can work from home in your group. You don’t have to be in the same room.

Trial and Reading List

10′s: Today we saw two people on trial, Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson. Technically, only Tom was on trial but we did see the character of Mayella and, through her testimony, learned more about Bob Ewell. Miss Mayella shows herself to be defensive, easily offended, and unsure of herself in public. Because of her isolation and the abuse she sustains at the hands of her father, Bob Ewell, she has no way of knowing how to interact with people outside of her family. She has an instinct toward having a better life but no means of creating it; the best she can do is grow a row of red geraniums and save for a whole year to provide an ice cream cone for each of her siblings. As for her siblings, there is no hope for them, whatsoever. It is a first come, first served kind of family — and no one is ever served. The children are left to their own devices and are pretty much not raised by anyone. They come across as little animals just settling themselves on windowsills or foraging through the town dump. It is a very sad household and when we hear Mayella’s obvious lies we have to feel sorry for her. The tiny bit of attention she has received from Tom Robinson — wh0 is just being cautiously polite — is the most attention she has received her whole life.

That was Chapter 18. Chapter 19 is Tom’s chapter. Always note what Harper Lee does. It isn’t the first time she sets people side by side in adjacent chapters. She does this on purpose. It is the character and life of Mayella set beside the character and life of Tom Robinson. The first thing we note in Tom’s chapter is that he has gone to prison. This would make us question his integrity if it wasn’t so clear that he was victimized. A man pulls a knife on him and because he tries to save himself, he is accused of disorderly conduct. So Tom has a “record.”

Atticus then shows us the story from Tom’s perspective. Mayella’s facts are simply not true. Nothing happened when she said it did. She has telescoped events and rewritten history so that her father will not beat her. Clearly, he has, though — particularly on the day when Tom was asked into the house to fix a door. No door needed fixing but instead she asks him to retrieve a box from atop one of her famous chiffarobes.

Dates and Chapter Quizzes: The chapter you read in class is italicized; the one you read at home is highlighted. There will be a quiz on the chapter you read at home at the beginning of the next class.

• Monday February 20: Chapter 18/ Chapter 19
• Wednesday February 22: Chapter 20/ Chapter 21;    Quiz on Chapter 19
• Friday  February 24: Chapter 22/ Chapter 23;    Quiz on Chapter 21
• Tuesday February 28: Chapter 24/ Chapter 25;    Quiz on Chapter 23
• Thursday March 1: Chapter 26/ Chapter 27;    Quiz on Chapter 25
• Tuesday March 6: Chapter 28/ Chapter 29;    Quiz on Chapter 27
• Thursday March 8: Chapter 30/ Chapter 31;    Quiz on Chapter 29

And Then There Were Nines / American Lord of the Flies

9′s: This is what you did today: your organized and planned and collaborated and brainstormed and created. Those are the teacher words. When I watched you, I just saw you playing with words and having fun. It made me happy to watch.

For the people who were absent, this is what people did (and you still need to do): They went to this blog, then to 9:Story, then to the And Then There Was Yours blog, and then to the Characters page. There they found a list of  77 questions about their specific character and answered them.

This is Part One of creating the corporate story. Next class you’ll be focussing on plot. If you go to the ATTWY blog you’ll find pages on plot, characters, conflict, and criteria. I’ll be adding to it and giving you the rubric for the peer assessment there.

Here’s the criteria you are working with, so far:

• your story has five to six characters, each with unique, clearly discernible personalities
• there is a cat or person named Margaret Catwood or Margaret Atwood
• each of the characters is eliminated from the story
• smaller conflicts emerge from the interactions between the characters; the large conflict is to avoid being eliminated
• suspense is created in how people are eliminated and in the paranoia they feel as others “exit”

Your stories will be published in an anthology replete with drawings and photographs. You will all get a copy of the anthology.

11′s: You watched the colour Lord of the Flies and I attempted to get the computer working long enough to take attendance. Once again, Mr. Linke came to the rescue and beat the computer into submission, thereby allowing me to let the Office know you were officially in the room. Several of those statements are true, except for the one about Mr. Linke attacking a computer. He does something else and I have no idea what it is.

What can be said about the American Lord of the Flies? There’s a lot of swearing. There’s colour. I think some of you like it better and I am really interested in finding out why. I am less interested in my opinion than in yours. I already know my reasons. (It’s not English; it’s not true to the book.) You may see something in it I don’t. So after Tuesday, I’ll know!

Bad Bob Ewell.

Today we met a man who thinks he’s smarter than Atticus. He also thinks he’s smarter than Heck Tate, Mr. Gilmer, and Judge Taylor. He’s not. He’s Bob Ewell and, to quote one of you, “He’s oblivious.” Yes, indeed, he is. First of all, when he’s asked if his name is Mr. Robert Ewell, he replies “That’s m’name, cap’n.” Then when he’s asked if he’s the father of Mayella Ewell, he says “Well, if I ain’t I can’t do nothing about it now, her ma’s dead.” This is a man not quite clear in Standard Courtroom Behaviour. Oblivious.

Everything he says is an indication of his ignorance and indifference — and cockiness. Scout says he’s like a bantam rooster strutting into the courtoom and that’s a fair assessment. To him, Tom Robinson’s conviction is a done deal. It’s just a matter of telling people he’s black and that should be it. (If you want to see a really good First Impression of Bob Ewell response, go to Aisley’s blog.)

There’s an old expression about giving a man enough rope to hang himself. Ironically, it’s Bob Ewell who does the self hanging. He isn’t smart enough to figure out the intent of Atticus’ questioning and his only response to anything he disagrees with is outrage. In short, he comes across like a bufoon. Here are some examples of Ewell faux pas:

• When Atticus questions why Ewell didn’t get a doctor to see to Mayella’s injuries, it’s clear he hadn’t even thought of her injuries. He just wanted to make sure a black man was arrested.
• He then says he wouldn’t get a doctor because he’d have to spend $5 and no one in his family has ever seen a doctor.
• He plays to the audience, trying to get laughs, clearly not even remotely concerned about his daughter.
• He talks about a “nest of niggers” he wants removed, using the language of an exterminator. This shows his hatred and utter disdain for black people.
• He talks about his black neighbours “lowering his property values.” He lives in a shack beside the garbage dump. That shack doesn’t even have window panes; it has holes in the walls for windows and he puts cloth up to keep the rats out. Everyone in the town has gone past his “house” to get to the dump, so clearly, they’re aware there are no property values to speak of.
• He walks right into Atticus’ trap when Atticus is determining who punched Mayella in the right eye. Eight year old Scout could figure out where Atticus was going with the argument, but not Bob Ewell.

So what is the big message in this chapter? It’s two fold. Bob Ewell is clueless and Atticus is methodical and brilliant. If he loses this case, it will be because of racism. Plain and simple.

Update: TKaM was playing at Colossus tonight and I saw a bunch of you there! Wow. It was so good. I have only ever seen the movie on a TV screen. There is so much more you get when you see it big. That said, if you didn’t see it at the movies, you’re still going to see it in my class. It is an old movie but it really holds its own. The trial scene is incredible. You will really like the movie. Update on the Update: The other thing that really comes across in the movie is the symbolism. Tom Robinson = Tim Johnston and Boo Radley = a mockingbird. Also, Update on Update on Opdate. We will do the texting class during the Trial Scene when we watch the movie.

And Then There Were Five / Bloggable You

9′s: Anybody with two eyes and a crumpled up notebook could see this coming. We just finished And Then There Were None and now you’re going to write your own version. Yes, we’re all going to kill Agatha Christie. No! That is completely wrong. She’s been dead since 1976 and there’s no point. We’re going to parody her!

You are going to work in groups of five or six and create your own murder mystery — which may or may not contain a murder. Maybe you would have five American Idol contestants send Simon Cowell off to Indian Island where he’ll be forced to listen to Barry Manilow until he  goes insidiously insane. (Youtube  Barry Manilow. You’ll get it.) Or maybe you’ll have six Grade Tens go off  on the Harrison Hike and meet … I don’t know. You write it!! Whatever you write, the criteria is the same. You must have five or six characters and the story will be written in collaboration by five or six students.

There’s a way to do this that is fun and techy and, unfortunately, I forget how to do it because I wasn’t paying attention. It’s called zoho and you can work together anytime you want. So you will be working on this story for the next three weeks and at the end of the three weeks, you will present it to the class. You’ll never guess how. On a brand new blog!!

If you go to the top of this page, you will find a new page called 9: Story. Click on it and you’ll find a blog with all the info you’ll need for writing your group story. I’ll be adding to it as we go along, so keep looking. You’ll also find the criteria there.

11′s: You are making blogs!  Slowly but surely, I am saving every tree in North America by eliminating the need for paper. (Yes, I do know about the mineral resources exploited to make computers. That is a little reality I am carefully ignoring.) You will like blogs. I am basing this on the fact that I like blogs. Also, there are others of your ilk (though younger) who like blogs. Ipso facto, you will like blogging.

Update: Yahoo. Out of 30 people, 15 were able to make blogs in the Library. If you didn’t get to make your blog today, don’t forget to do it at home. It’s required!

Cornbread and Fried Chicken

So today Maycomb got ready for the trial. They did this by having a picnic in the town square. You know how some chapters are about one character? The last chapter was about Aunt Alexandra and there have been chapters just about Scout or just about Dill. Well, this chapter is about the character of the town.

Here’s what we know. The Court House is old and was older. Parts of it date back to 1856. It has been added to and subtracted from and in terms of architecture it has no descernable main time period. It is just an old building with gravitas. It has presence. Actually, it’s the only building in the whole town with presence. The rest are just run down buildings with no flair, at all. If you look at the link below, you’ll find Harper Lee patterned the Court House exactly on the Court House in Monroeville, inside and out.

Here’s an aside. Some of you will be going to SFU when you graduate. If you go to the center of the Burnaby campus, you will find an area that was made for people to hear speeches and protest. Maycomb’s town square is built just like the Academic Quadrangle at SFU. It’s a place where the whole town can meet and talk or have picnics or argue or circle around in a lynch mob. (This last is where the parallel to SFU ends. No lynch mobs, just the odd academic squabble.)

Back to the story. Ouside the Court House, people are congregated — congregated and segregated. The white people are munching on fried chicken and Co-Cola  in one area and the black people are munching on cornbread and iced tea in another. The white people have brought their children and are abuzz with excitement; this is entertainment!  The black people haven’t brought their children and are cautiously optimistic; maybe Atticus Finch will be able to plead Tom Robinson’s case so well there will be justice.

Harper Lee is just a really good writer. One of the things a writer must do is create structure. They decide the pacing of a story. In this chapter, she shows us a town divided along colour lines and then she shows us a man who has found a way around the colour lines: Dolphus Raymond. Dolphus has commited the cardinal sin. He has loved a black woman. Even more than that, he loved a black woman and a white woman at the same time — causing the white woman to kill herself when she finds out her fiance has a black mistress. This would be scandalous anywhere, but in Maycomb it would be cause for the biggest lynch mob in the history of Alabama. So Dolphus figures out a way around it. He pretends to be perpetually drunk, going around town swigging whiskey out of a brown paper bag. This is non-stop swigging. Of course, his behaviour then makes sense to the white folks. He’s the town drunk. What else can you expect from the town drunk. So “That’s just Dolphus” gets to live with the black woman and they have a whole batch of kids.

This is the basis of a really interesting conversation Jem and Dill have about the children of mixed race. If you could attempt to find one passage in the book that would elucidate Harper Lee’s theme, this would be it. It’s not the famous Court Room speeches of Atticus. It’s the quiet working out of a puzzle by two little boys. And Harper Lee’s equally quiet thesis: People are just people. Forget skin colour. People are people.

Above, you’ll see the inside of the Court House, from exactly the angle where Jem, Scout, and Dill sat with Reverend Sykes.

TKaMaddiction

Here’s how to tell when you like the book too much. Your iPhone is in a TKaM cover that matches your TKaM T-shirt and you put your TKaM phone in your TKaM purse — but not ’til you text everyone about the TKaM birdhouse you just made out of the book … and you’re wearing a necklace made out of … mockingbird feathers. If you’ve actually injured a mockingbird to get the feathers, you missed the whole point of the book.

I have completely lost interest.

I have just wasted at least 480 hours of my life redoing this website. Love it or hate it, I no longer care — my fingers are now permanently wedge shaped from all the clicking they’ve been doing.

I think I’ve been reading To Kill a Mockingbird so much I subconsciously emulated their clothing. The background to this could be Calpurnia’s apron. Or maybe Scout’s Sunday-go-to-meeting dress. Whatever it is, it’s got a 1930′s vibe. My aim was to get the only decent font WordPress offers.

I hope I haven’t alienated every boy I teach with the sylized flowers. You could pretend they’re sprockets. I mean, how long are you on my blog, anyway? Just reframe the whole thing: It’s a page of bicycle wheels on a background of leaves. A boy named Harvey was going hell bent for leather on his bike and he went so fast he crashed right into a tree. And he was so fast it somehow changed the very cell structure of the leaves and they all turned blue. There. Just remember the Fast Harvey story every time you come on this blog and you’ll be fine.

Forgot to tell you. Harvey’s also from 1932.