Notes on READERS’ RESPONSE JOURNAL
Note: Journal entries may be done at home or in class or half and half. They may form the basis for discussion, further development or exploration, group work, formal or informal oral work and/or further writing assignments. They may be mixed and matched, adapted for individual works, different ages, specific goals. Variety and modification are essential to avoid formula approaches and boredom. A quick journal response to the topic at hand or a homework assignment is a good way to begin a class, to focus students on the task at hand. Many of these suggestions work for works of art, film and music as well.
1. Pre- write: before reading, respond to title, extracted images or words or ideas . . . What is yourexperience of the word or image? What do you see, or what expectations are set up? Use art or musicbefore experiencing text. E.g. Look at Magritte before reading Kafka; listen to Lakota flute music before orwhile reading a poem by Peter Blue Cloud.
2. Write down first impressions: immediately after finishing & section or a text, take some time to -writedown anything that comes to you in relation to the text, your initial reactions or responses, Don’t try topuzzle them out; write freely. If the reading bores you, write that down. If you're intrigued by certainstatements, attracted to characters, interested in issues or ideas, if you find something confusing orirritating, write it down. Just keep writing. This assignment can be very brie£ a two-minute initialresponse to a poem or opening paragraph, or more sustained, a 20-minute "free" writing immediately afterfinishing a novel or play.
3. Ask questions, what perplexes you about a passage or point the author makes? Do you wonder why theauthor said a particular thing, in a particular way? You might begin with the words "I wonder . . ."
4. Jot down ideas, words, details, moments, anything that strikes you. This assignment may result in sjmple lists. Or students may write about these entries, or some of these entries, as homework or working from the lists in class. They may answer such questions as: why are they there? What might they mean? What do they add? Why did you pick them out? Why are they memorable? In response to images, students might begin to see, ... feel ... bear . . - smell . . . turn . . . ! imagine ...
5. Copy passages, long or short, that strike you for whatever reason. Underline key words or phrases,parts of speech, punctuation marks. What is striking and why? How do words and images work? Or, colormark with different colors specific elements (e.g. parts of speech, shapes, colors, harsh words, naturewords, references to earth, sky, time, space, people, animals), to identify dominant elements, patterns orstructural shifts, and speculate about the significance of your markings.
6. Make connections with your own experience, with other texts or concepts or events. Do you see anysimilarities between this material and other bocks that you have read? Does it bring to mind other issues orincidents or people?
7. Write down some words that are new to you or particularly effective, harsh, musical . . .
8. Draw pictures in response to what you read or make collages, adding words from the text. Or design book covers, again with words from the text, or draw stage settings ...
9. Try agreeing or arguing with the author; add details to support your position.
10.Identify the author's point of view, his or her attitude toward the subject, the purpose behind the pieceof writing. Compare it to your own or that of other writers.
MINIMAL:
Write a personal response; copy a passage and comment on it; state an opinion and support it; ask questions; choose an image and respond to it; make lists.
Medium:
-Copy a significant or striking passage. Tell why it is striking or important, what it tells you about character or theme or atmosphere or narrator. Identify key words or images or phrases and write about their effects. .Color mark for important elements or patterns and comment on their nature and implications.
— Write down five striking things. A thing may be an idea, an event, a word, a person, a phrase, an image, a conversation, a moment, a detail, a chapter title ...
- Write a personal response to a person or event or the opening chapter or immediately after finishing.. . —Write a page of lists of details or sentences or phrases or colors or things in nature or objects ...
Specific:
-Give examples of the child's voice in The Bluest Eye. List images of decay in Hamlet. List phrases that characterize the narrator of Prufrock." List significant objects in the first six chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude. List conflicts in "Young Goodman Brown."
20 November 2009
18 November 2009
Holiday Questions on LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE
STUDENTS:
Please read LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE over the Thanksgiving holidays and answer these ten questions. This IS for a GRADE!
Like Water for Chocolate: Questions for the Holidays
1. What is the historical setting for this novel?
2. Describe, briefly, the culture of Mexico in this novel.
3. What is the role of food in this novel?
4. What do you think are some of the themes? Elaborate on those that you can identify.
5. From whose point of view is the story told?
6. What is the setting?
7. Give the structure of the novel.
8. What is the dominant symbol in the novel?
9. Look up “magical realism” and give examples of it in this novel.
10. Give any examples of foreshadowing.
Please read LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE over the Thanksgiving holidays and answer these ten questions. This IS for a GRADE!
Like Water for Chocolate: Questions for the Holidays
1. What is the historical setting for this novel?
2. Describe, briefly, the culture of Mexico in this novel.
3. What is the role of food in this novel?
4. What do you think are some of the themes? Elaborate on those that you can identify.
5. From whose point of view is the story told?
6. What is the setting?
7. Give the structure of the novel.
8. What is the dominant symbol in the novel?
9. Look up “magical realism” and give examples of it in this novel.
10. Give any examples of foreshadowing.
17 November 2009
WORKSHEET ON WIDE SARGASSO SEA
COMPLETE THIS WORKSHEET FOR FRIDAY
FOR A GRADE.
FOR A GRADE.
WIDE SARGASSO SEA
1. TONES:
2. PT. Of View:
3. SETTINGS:
4. PROTAGONIST/ANTAGONIST
5. THEMES:
6. MOTIFS:
7. SYMBOLS:
8. FORESHADOWINGS:
Questions on Part 2 of WIDE SARGASSO SEA
Questions on Part II of Wide Sargasso Sea
1. Explain what the following are symbols of:
a) Coulibri
b) Thornfield Hall
c) "white”/whiteness"
d) "red”/redness"
2. Explain how Antoinette is torn between racial identity, being black or white?
3. What do you see as Antoinette's main desire in this novel?
4. What two things does Antoinette's racial slur, directed at Tia, cause?
5. What's the figurative significance of Antoinette putting on Tia's dress?
6. Explain what Tia means when she says, "black nigger is better than white nigger."
7. What does Antoinette's calling Mr. Mason her "white pappy" indicate?
8. What makes Rochester question his wife's heritage and ultimately reject her?
9. What do you think Rochester's greatest fear is?
10.What is one of the great ironies concerning Rochester?
1 l.Why does Rochester call Antoinette "Bertha"?
12.Explain the narration in Part II. Is it split? If so, who narrates which
section(s)?
13. "Black feminist critics claim that it is the mystification of sexual relations between white men and black women that has given rise to the stereotype of the black whore." Find two important incidents of this kind in WSS. Who are the victims?
14.Daniel Cosway makes a clear link between sexual promiscuity and blackness. Is he believable? Is he reliable? Why or why not? Give dialogue to support what you say!
15.WSS has been said by critics to be a "story of male domination." Explain Rochester's actions through a completely European lens.
16.Research Question: What was the Victorian perception of female sexuality?
17.Research Question: How does the Victorian perception of female sexualityaffect Rochester's relationship with Antoinette?
18.Give examples through dialogue to exemplify Question # 17.
19.Research Question: Investigate the care of the mentally ill in the 19th century, and compare their treatment to the way in which Annette Cosway Mason and Antoinette Cosway are treated.
20.React to the following quote from literary criticism: "In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys does not place the blame for women's passivity, lack of identity, or disorientation on men. She instead creates characters who are responsible for their own fates. In showing the negative consequences of depending on others for identity, Rhys encourages the development of a strong sense of self. She punctuates that personal goal with doubt, however, by emphasizing that people are products of their environment."
1. Explain what the following are symbols of:
a) Coulibri
b) Thornfield Hall
c) "white”/whiteness"
d) "red”/redness"
2. Explain how Antoinette is torn between racial identity, being black or white?
3. What do you see as Antoinette's main desire in this novel?
4. What two things does Antoinette's racial slur, directed at Tia, cause?
5. What's the figurative significance of Antoinette putting on Tia's dress?
6. Explain what Tia means when she says, "black nigger is better than white nigger."
7. What does Antoinette's calling Mr. Mason her "white pappy" indicate?
8. What makes Rochester question his wife's heritage and ultimately reject her?
9. What do you think Rochester's greatest fear is?
10.What is one of the great ironies concerning Rochester?
1 l.Why does Rochester call Antoinette "Bertha"?
12.Explain the narration in Part II. Is it split? If so, who narrates which
section(s)?
13. "Black feminist critics claim that it is the mystification of sexual relations between white men and black women that has given rise to the stereotype of the black whore." Find two important incidents of this kind in WSS. Who are the victims?
14.Daniel Cosway makes a clear link between sexual promiscuity and blackness. Is he believable? Is he reliable? Why or why not? Give dialogue to support what you say!
15.WSS has been said by critics to be a "story of male domination." Explain Rochester's actions through a completely European lens.
16.Research Question: What was the Victorian perception of female sexuality?
17.Research Question: How does the Victorian perception of female sexualityaffect Rochester's relationship with Antoinette?
18.Give examples through dialogue to exemplify Question # 17.
19.Research Question: Investigate the care of the mentally ill in the 19th century, and compare their treatment to the way in which Annette Cosway Mason and Antoinette Cosway are treated.
20.React to the following quote from literary criticism: "In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys does not place the blame for women's passivity, lack of identity, or disorientation on men. She instead creates characters who are responsible for their own fates. In showing the negative consequences of depending on others for identity, Rhys encourages the development of a strong sense of self. She punctuates that personal goal with doubt, however, by emphasizing that people are products of their environment."
RRJ's for Part 3 of WIDE SARGASSO SEA
Students,
Please post your RRJ's for Part 3 of WIDE SARGASSO SEA here...Thanks!
Please post your RRJ's for Part 3 of WIDE SARGASSO SEA here...Thanks!
RRJ's for Part 2 of WIDE SARGASSO SEA
Students,
Please post your RRJ's for Part 2 of Wide Sargasso Sea here...Thanks.
Please post your RRJ's for Part 2 of Wide Sargasso Sea here...Thanks.
13 November 2009
RRJ part 1 of Wide Sargasso Sea
Students:
Please post your RRJ's for WIDE SARGASSO SEA here...thanks.
Please post your RRJ's for WIDE SARGASSO SEA here...thanks.
11 November 2009
Questions on Part 1 of WIDE SARGASSO SEA
Notes for Questions on Wide Sargasso Sea : Part I
1. What are the birds symbolic of ?
2. What is Christophine’s role in Part I ?
3. In what ways does Antoinette’s description of Tia throwing the stone match her feelings of internal pain at this time ?
4. In what way do Tia’s tears reflect Antoinette’s bleeding face ? How does the reference of a « looking glass » make sense concerning the issue of race in the novel ?
5. There is an obvious disconnect between Tia and Antoinette, and in what ways does Rhys’ style demonstrate such a separation ?
6. What is the significance that Antoinette’s last detail of Coulibri is this confrontation with her former friend ?
7. How does Antoinette’s experience at the convent compare with Jane Eyre’s experience at Lowood School ?How would you characterize Christophine’s relationship with Antoinette so far ?
8. In her description of all of the things being left behind at Coulibri, the last item mentioned is the picture of the Miller’s Daughter. How does this contrast with the other items that make up the list ? What is the significance, if any, of Antoinette having such affection for this particular picture ?
9. As Antoinette is watching Coulibri burn, the sky is compared to the sunset and she comments on how the flowers, the ferns, the ginger lilies, etc. will be burnt to nothingness along with the house. How does the nature imagery add to the passage ?
10.Antoinette’s childhood is heavily overcast by threat. What are the threats from outside her household ? What are the threats from within ? To whom and to what does she turn for protection ?
11.What is the racial situation as Antoinette is growing up ? What does it mean that she gets called « white cockroach » and « white nigger ? » How well do Antoinette and her mother understand the mindset of recently liberated slaves ?
1. What are the birds symbolic of ?
2. What is Christophine’s role in Part I ?
3. In what ways does Antoinette’s description of Tia throwing the stone match her feelings of internal pain at this time ?
4. In what way do Tia’s tears reflect Antoinette’s bleeding face ? How does the reference of a « looking glass » make sense concerning the issue of race in the novel ?
5. There is an obvious disconnect between Tia and Antoinette, and in what ways does Rhys’ style demonstrate such a separation ?
6. What is the significance that Antoinette’s last detail of Coulibri is this confrontation with her former friend ?
7. How does Antoinette’s experience at the convent compare with Jane Eyre’s experience at Lowood School ?How would you characterize Christophine’s relationship with Antoinette so far ?
8. In her description of all of the things being left behind at Coulibri, the last item mentioned is the picture of the Miller’s Daughter. How does this contrast with the other items that make up the list ? What is the significance, if any, of Antoinette having such affection for this particular picture ?
9. As Antoinette is watching Coulibri burn, the sky is compared to the sunset and she comments on how the flowers, the ferns, the ginger lilies, etc. will be burnt to nothingness along with the house. How does the nature imagery add to the passage ?
10.Antoinette’s childhood is heavily overcast by threat. What are the threats from outside her household ? What are the threats from within ? To whom and to what does she turn for protection ?
11.What is the racial situation as Antoinette is growing up ? What does it mean that she gets called « white cockroach » and « white nigger ? » How well do Antoinette and her mother understand the mindset of recently liberated slaves ?
06 November 2009
New Vocabulary Words: Unit 4
Students:
Please find listed below your Unit 4 Vocabulary Words. You are to do the following things with each--a) give the part of speech; b) define according to the part of speech ; c) give an example of how you could use each one. Due Monday! (No Frayer Models this week!) :)
New Vocabulary: Unit 4
1. affable
2. aggrandize
3. amorphous
4. aura
5. contraband
6. erudite
7. gossamer
8. infer
9. inscrutable
10. insular
11. irrevocable
12. propensity
13. querulous
14. remonstrate
15. repudiate
16. resilient
17. reverberate
18. scurrilous
19. sedulous
20. sleazy
Please find listed below your Unit 4 Vocabulary Words. You are to do the following things with each--a) give the part of speech; b) define according to the part of speech ; c) give an example of how you could use each one. Due Monday! (No Frayer Models this week!) :)
New Vocabulary: Unit 4
1. affable
2. aggrandize
3. amorphous
4. aura
5. contraband
6. erudite
7. gossamer
8. infer
9. inscrutable
10. insular
11. irrevocable
12. propensity
13. querulous
14. remonstrate
15. repudiate
16. resilient
17. reverberate
18. scurrilous
19. sedulous
20. sleazy
03 November 2009
STUDENTS: Please answer the following HOTS Qs. on Acts 3-5 of CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Questions on Act III : Cyrano de Bergerac
1. Describe Cyrano’s mixed feelings when he speaks to Roxane unseen. Why might he be both happy and sad ?
2. Explain how Cyrano’s speech to Roxane and his deception of De Guiche each represent a triumph of the imagination over reality.
3. An idealist is someone who follows his or her beliefs beyond the point of practicality and who acts as if the world were better than it really is. From what you’ve seen of Cyrano so far, show how he is an idealist.
4. Do you think a love like Cyrano’s is actually greater than a love like Christian’s ? Why or why not ?
Act IV
5. What new dimension does Roxane reveal in her conversation
with Christian ? What does she fail to see ?
6. What new side to Christian’s character do we see in this act ?
7. Why does Cyrano not tell Roxane the truth about the letters ? Why does he not tell Christian the truth about Roxane ?
8. Do you agree with Christian when he says that it is really Cyrano whom Roxane loves ? Explain.
Act V
9. How do you think Roxane would have responded if Cyrano had been able to tell her the truth about the letters and his feelings for her ?
10.Why do you think Cyrano finally reveals his love to Roxane ?
11.What does Roxane mean when she says that she has lost the
man she loved twice ? Do you agree ?
12.Show that Cyrano meets his death in a style that is consistent
with his life. What do his very last words mean ?
13.Cyrano says of himself that he « was everything and was
nothing. » Why would he make such a comment about his
life ? Do you agree with him ?
1. Describe Cyrano’s mixed feelings when he speaks to Roxane unseen. Why might he be both happy and sad ?
2. Explain how Cyrano’s speech to Roxane and his deception of De Guiche each represent a triumph of the imagination over reality.
3. An idealist is someone who follows his or her beliefs beyond the point of practicality and who acts as if the world were better than it really is. From what you’ve seen of Cyrano so far, show how he is an idealist.
4. Do you think a love like Cyrano’s is actually greater than a love like Christian’s ? Why or why not ?
Act IV
5. What new dimension does Roxane reveal in her conversation
with Christian ? What does she fail to see ?
6. What new side to Christian’s character do we see in this act ?
7. Why does Cyrano not tell Roxane the truth about the letters ? Why does he not tell Christian the truth about Roxane ?
8. Do you agree with Christian when he says that it is really Cyrano whom Roxane loves ? Explain.
Act V
9. How do you think Roxane would have responded if Cyrano had been able to tell her the truth about the letters and his feelings for her ?
10.Why do you think Cyrano finally reveals his love to Roxane ?
11.What does Roxane mean when she says that she has lost the
man she loved twice ? Do you agree ?
12.Show that Cyrano meets his death in a style that is consistent
with his life. What do his very last words mean ?
13.Cyrano says of himself that he « was everything and was
nothing. » Why would he make such a comment about his
life ? Do you agree with him ?
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