Hunting and Conservation

Since we discussed the importance of hunting in society as part of our stage 3 connections to "How Siegfried Was Slain," I thought you might find the recent National Geographic article on hunting interesting.

Click here to read the article that discusses how important hunters are to the balance of our ecosystem and the conservation of our lands.

If you failed to make a positive contribution today during the Siegfried discussion, you may wish to comment here about hunting and society.

"Infant Prodigy" Discussion and Journal Entry

If you are absent for the discussion on Thomas Mann's "The Infant Prodigy" or were not able to comment during the live classroom discussion, you should leave a comment here that addresses the following two questions:

1. How would you describe Mann's style? You may wish to comment on how Mann portrays his attitude, how the details affect the story, and on the ending. You may also wish to discuss how Mann's style is illustrative of the Modern Age (around WWI and WWII).
2. What themes is Mann developing about the artist and society?

Everyone needs to write a journal entry of at least one notebook page on one of the following prompts:

1. How does music impact our humanity?
2. What are the connections between music and literature?
3. Do you agree or disagree with James McBride that we are living on a Hip Hop planet.
4. What evidence do you see that the appreciation of The Arts is eroding in today's society?

Bryonn Bain: Roehl's Favorite Hip Hop Artist

My favorite Hip Hop artist is Bryonn Bain, Brooklyn's Famed Spoken Word Poet. Bain currently teaches at Columbia University and at Riker's Island Prison. The Utne Reader claims that Bryonn Bain is one of 30 visionaries under 30 who are changing your future. Bain first came into the national spotlight when he was falsely imprisoned by the NYPD during his second year at Harvard Law School. Following his false imprisonment, Bain wrote the article "Walking While Black" for The Village Voice, and that article earned him a Mike Wallace interview on 60 Minutes.

I took a class from Bryonn last year about the importance of Hip Hop to youth culture. Here are some ideas from my notebook:

1. Many Hip Hop artists incorporate socially responsible themes into their music; however, the music industry capitalizes on stereotypes of gangs, guns, drugs, and misogyny.
2. 70% to 80% of Hip Hop consumers are white, suburbanites.
3. Rap is something you do. Hip Hop is something you live.
4. The components of Hip Hop are the DJ, the graffiti artist, the B-Boy or B-Girl breakdancer, and the emcee (also known as the spoken word poet or rap artist).
5. Bain's Hip Hop lesson ideas for schools have been greatly influenced by Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For an excerpt of Freire's book, click here.

Click here to watch a five-minute clip about Bryonn Bain.

View a music video of Byronn's song "Ancestor's Watching."

For more information about Bryonn, visit his website bryonnbain.com.

Hip Hop in the World

James McBride, author of The Color of Water, discussed the importance of Hip Hop in the world today in the April 2007 issue of National Geographic. McBride's article traces Hip Hop back to its African roots and proposes that music is a great equalizer among people.

We will discuss McBride's article as part of our discussion on music's impact on our humanity.

How Siegfried was Slain

During our brief unit about the connections between music and literature and how music is an essential component of being human, we will read a selection from the German epic The Nibelungenlied. The selection in World Masterpieces in entitled "How Siegfried was Slain." You may read the selection online. The translation varies slightly from the World Masterpieces version; however, the length is relatively the same.

German Composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) transformed The Nibelungenlied into the four-part Ring cycle, which World Masterpieces claims is Wagner's "finest work."

After reading and analyzing "How Siegfried was Slain," we will view a clip of the opera to compare and contrast the literature with the musical interpretation of it.

To watch and hear Siegfried's death from a production of Richard Wagner's opera, click here.

You can also check out the operatic selection of Siegfried's funeral by clicking here.

If you were absent during the Siegfried discussion or did not comment in class, please let the class know what you are thinking by commenting here on the following two questions:

1. What flaw ultimately leads to Siegfried's death? Why do you think so? What evidence do you have for this tragic flaw in the text?
2. Describe the ideal hunter and discuss how Siegfried illustrates that ideal. What place do you feel hunting plays in society, and why do you think it has that place?

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.