Book Club Blog

Create a blog to capture your discussions in class and to start new discussions with your book club. Decide which group member will be the blog administrator. Perhaps someone who was a religion blog administrator wishes to simply use that blog, revising the graphics and adding new posts. Or perhaps someone else wants to take a hand at blogger.

Instructions on creating a blog from scratch can be found on Mr. Hatten's website.

The blog will be your group's visual aid for a presentation on your book on Finals Day. The presentation (and hence the blog) needs to include the following elements:

1. Brief plot summary
2. Setting--details, connection to themes, and artist or poetic representation (Haiku)
3. Character development--describe the main characters (bubble map) and bring them to life with an artistic or poetic representation (sonnet). Character posts could also include analogies (remember your bridge maps) between the characters and pop culture and/or current events. Questions to consider: If you were casting a movie version of the book, whom would you cast? What political or public figures relate to your novel's characters? To discuss character development a great strategy is to compare and contrast the character at the beginning of the book with the same character at the end of the book. A double bubble map works well here. How an author develops a character through foils to other characters could also be discussed during the character portion of the presentation. Again, a double bubble for comparison and contrast will provide an active tool to facilitate a deeper discussion on character foils in the novel.
4. Biographical information about the author and historical context information that is relevant to your book.
5. Poetry’s connection to your novel. Does your author directly address the need for poetry in a person's life at a thematic level? If not, what can you infer about poetry's importance from the setting, plot, characters and other themes in the novel?
6. Connections between your novel and the other ones being read during this world literature choice unit. Refer to the double bubble maps in your notebooks.
7. Discuss music’s connection to your novel. Revisit the same types of questions that you did during poetry discussion day.
8. Discuss art & your novel. Refer to the same questions that you asked during poetry and music discussion days.
9. Discuss the role of science, religion, and philosophy in the lives of the characters in your novel. This discussion should lead to thematic connections that the author is making about some or all of these topics.
10. Other Themes--What life lessons is the author teaching in your novel that were not discussed on music, poetry, art, science, religion and philosophy discussion days? Remember that theme analysis needs to go beyond a topic. Theme has action! Theme = topic + action verb + prepositional phrase and/or direct object. A great way to discover themes in a novel is to analyse the conflicts in the book. What are the causes and effects of the conflict? A Multi-flow map is a great tool for these conflict discussions that often lead to the deepest theme discussions.

Anytime that you use sources other than your brain, you need to cite your sources and paraphrase information so that it is in your own words on your blog. This includes Sparknotes! Remember that a hotlink to the exact web page that you used for a particular blog post is an easy and credible way to cite sources.

You do not need to create all of your blog posts at the last minute. You can build posts throughout the unit by having members compose reflections that capture your book club discussions. You can even scan some of the Thinking Maps that you create in your notebook and any artwork that you create. Add those jpeg files as images to a blog post.

Myth of Sisyphus

The practice essay in class today answered the question: How does Albert Camus' "Myth of Sisyphus" illustrate existential philosophy?

I will check students defining format chart and practice essay on Friday. You just need to start the essay and write at least one full paragraph.

To read the myth again, click here.

Continue The Apology Discussion

Students who were absent today and others interested in adding more information to the discussion should give their reactions to The Apology by commenting on this blog post.

Apology questions to consider:

1. What quotations in the text illuminate the concepts we've been trying to define? Remember our concepts are truth, happiness, goodness, wisdom, excellence and virtue.
2. If you were on the jury at Socrates' trial, what part of his defense would you use to convict or acquit him and why? In other words, where is his argument strongest or weakest?
3. According to The Apology, what is philosophy and/or what is a philosopher's mission?
4. How does Socrates support his claim that "an unexamined life is not worth living"?

And on a tangent--other philosophical questions to ponder: Is there a perfect chair or a perfect table? What is the essence of a table or a chair? To read what Plato thought, click here.

Socrates Stars

image from www.45visigoth.com

Hour 2 requested that I occasionally post class stars on the blog. So here they are.

Every student who delved deep into The Apology by Plato to make sense of one of the more difficult texts that we will read this year is a star. Even if you didn't get a chance to share your insights today, you have the personal satisfaction of knowing that you can handle a difficult text.

Dustin A., Tommy C., Jeff M., Eddy S., Derrick C., Lauren P., Kate W., Kurt H., Michael B., Jennifer K., Matt D., Dominick R., Peter K., Grace K., Emily D., Brandon B. and Brian G. were always ready to fill the silence with a deep thought and textual reference.

And today's most improved players are those students who, by their own admission, are reluctant to share in whole class discussions, but today, they stepped out of their comfort zone to keep the Socratic conversation going. Thanks Erin D., Samrina S., Hailey C. and Caitlin M. for your responses today. Caitlin M. even contributed three times today, setting a personal best record with the help of her annotated printout of the full Apology.

Other unique contributions should also be noted.

Best Multi-taskers, Carah C. for leaving at her table a huge World Lit & Love poster (I assume that means that she loves World Lit) and Juliet W. for suggesting hour 2 make Thanksgiving Day cards during the last few minutes of class discussion

Best Real World Connection, Courtney H. for sharing the information she gained from watching the Socrates documentary last night on PBS

en fuego, Alex H. for settling down and firing out textual references--all the way to the bell

Best group member, Brandon B. for helping his base group make sense of the piece yesterday in preparation for today's discussion

Thanks to all of you for your hard word and have a great Thanksgiving break.

The Apology by Plato

Students will finish reading Plato's Apology in class on Monday. They will also complete their flow map on the sequence of Socrate's defense. The purpose of creating a flow map is to practice good reading strategies on this more difficult philosophical text.

Good readers ask themselves questions while reading: What happened? What can I infer from what the author wrote? What do I predict will happen next? Good readers may not even realize that their brain is doing this naturally.

The flow map strategy allows you to stop and ask yourself--Who, What, Where, When, How and Why--and then jot down a few main ideas and supporting details.

Your goal is to increase your reading comprehension as you proceed through a text so that you don't need to stop and take notes as often. When I first begin a novel, I take a lot of notes--character tree map, plot flow and multi-flow conflict analysis. However, as I start comprehending more because I have "gotten into the novel," I only stop and reflect in my notes at the end of each chapter.

If you will not be in class on Monday, you should finish reading The Apology and creating your flow map so that you are ready for class discussion on Tuesday. We will discuss a variety of topics Tuesday, but one of the questions will be: What did you learn about philosophy, Socrates, Plato, happiness, truth and wisdom in The Apology? If you are a reluctant speaker in class, you may want to jot down a few ideas for this question on your tree map. Use the color that indicates World Masterpieces citation.

To read The Apology online, click here.

Choice Book Unit

On Friday, Nov. 16 students will choose the next book that they would like to read. To make an informed decision, students will read two to three pages of each book. On a tree map, students will list details for each book--events that happened, character information, comments on author's writing style and words that they do not understand. The details of the tree map can also include emotions that the student feels while reading these pages and initial reactions to ideas included.

The frame of the tree map will state which book the student is ultimately choosing to read for the next unit and the reasons why. If a student has a second or third choice, that should also be indicated in the frame of the tree map.

The five options for the choice unit are:

The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley