Ah, another week has passed the halfway point. Time flies when you are having fun! Seriously: remember when I said on Oct. 1 that things would speed up? Well?
Only a few of you took advantage of the extra credit offer from last night's blog. Watch this space for further opportunities. You never know when they might show up unannounced. :-)
CW: Today we wrote and conferenced. Tomorrow we'll be in the lab. Be sure to double check the Prompt List elsewhere on this page!
E2CP: Today we discussed more of the book, focusing on Arnold's poverty and why it made him especially susceptible to bullying due to the lowering of self-esteem. We also discussed how it led to his going to Reardan. No new reading tonight. Focus on your RW project, due next Monday!!!
E3H: Today we were in Writing Workshop. We worked specifically on creating stories, focusing on the notion that the best stories come from our lives but contain specific changes from what actually happened: the facts are not the important thing; the truth is. We are heading back to Portrait tomorrow: read through to page 25, annotating as follows:
Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, as challenging as its structures make it, shows a young man coming to terms with issues connected to growing up, issues that still concern young people today.
So...let's get specific...
You need to annotate the book, so a note about annotations:
You need to annotate the book, so a note about annotations:
Annotate the book as you read by highlighting and writing notes in the margins or even adding post-its if need be. Annotations can be many things:
- Be Personal: How do you feel about a character or event? Has such and such a character or person ever reminded you of something that’s happened to you. How well do your relate to the novel. Does it ring true? Do you love or hate or empathize with a character.
- React: Be blunt. This is boring; this character is petty and I can’t stand him; nobody I know would do this under these circumstances. Be prepared to justify such comments in class discussion.
- Note wordplay: What “games” does the author play with language? When does the pure word choice, whole phrases and sentences, or figurative language call attention to itself? What ideas do you have about why this might be?
- Cross reference: If a certain word or concept or image comes up on a certain page and you see it come up again, note that recurrence by putting the page number in the margin. For instance, if the main character makes reference to a favorite character from a book and many pages later that same book comes up, go back and find the pages and make a marginal note where they occur. Why? Because tracing patterns will lead to an understanding of how the novel is structured and work like blazing a trail through a forest of words. Cross references help you find and remember patterns that lead to ideas about the novel. This will help for class and online discussion and writing papers.
- Circle unfamiliar words: This can save you interrupting your reading to look up words on-line or in the dictionary. You can ask about them later and note definitions in the margins so you can re-read those sections.
- Pose questions about things you don’t understand: If you do this, you will make a positive contribution to discussion when you ask them in class or online. Your questions will often be similar to other class members; besides, many who didn’t have a question about a certain passage will still have a lot to learn too.
- Make Outside Connections: If something from outside of the book strikes you as connecting to the book, discuss it. Or even (if it can be done) paste something about it into the book from the web. Your brain fires synaptic connections a million miles a minute: let them be a part of your annotations too!
WORD OF THE DAY*: INTERPOLATE
* Click word for information.
WORD OF THE YEAR**: TERGIVERSATE
** Seriously! Click on the word to find out!
Seven Life Lessons From Star Trek (by David Borgenicht)
- The best way to travel is to boldly go where no one has gone before. This is true for vacations, for self-exploration, for life itself. If you want your days filled with adventure, laughter, love, learning and the occasional mind-meld, follow this route.
- The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few--or the one. Sometimes you must make great sacrifices for the greater good. And, like the Genesis device, it will all come back around.
- Expressing your emotions is a healthy thing. Sure, McCoy seemed angry all the time when exclaiming, "Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor not a mechanic/bricklayer/soothsayer," but he knew that by expressing his anger and frustration it wouldn't get the best of him and he could then perform at his peak capacity.
- When estimating how long a job will take, overestimate--and when you do better your captain will always be impressed. Replace the word "captain" with "teacher" or "mom/dad" and you'll see what I mean. Sure, Mr. Scott might have been telling the truth--maybe it would take six hours to get the warp engines back online in the heat of the battle. Or maybe he was padding things so he looked good. Either way, when the engines did come back on line, everyone was happy.
- Wearing red makes you a target. This is true of cars, dresses and, most especially, shirts. Red gets you noticed--which is good if you want to be noticed, bad if you don't want to end up vaporized.
- When you don't know what to say, pause. It will give you the time to figure it out. Or at the very least, you'll sound like you're being thoughtful. "But....Spock.....why?"
- The most powerful force in the universe is friendship. It's more powerful than phasers, photon torpedos, even more powerful than the force itself. With friends, you can accomplish any task, escape any perilous situation, defeat any enemy--and you get to laugh together when it's all over.
Tomorrow's Conferences:Willie, Jenna, Tommy, Ryan, Henry, Katherine W
