In The Book Thief, Max takes Hitler’s memoir Mein Kampf, white washes the pages and from that creates something beautiful. Through this lesson plan, students have the opportunity to do the same.
As my roommate said as we were doing this together, “I’m taking Hitler’s words, reducing it down to 10%, and now it’s so much better!”
Mine’s about zombies. Teehee.
Lesson plan after the jump.
I saw Catching Fire yesterday. Ohmygoodness, so good. I highly recommend it. Team Peeta all the way.
That got me in the mood to create a poster that highlights some (of many) Classical allusions that can be found in the books and movies.
I got the text here, at slate.com, and the article has even more examples of Classical allusions in character names. They even explain the etymology of other names, Classical or no.
Downloads after the jump.
BEGIN RANT —
Hey, you know how some students use text/Twitter-speak in their academic papers? Yeah… STOP.
— END OF RANT
Oh, we had some fun with this activity.
To discuss word choice (particularly words of Latinate vs Germanic origins), we used the wonderful Joseph Decreux meme. This meme takes rap lyrics or other well-known quotes, and “translates” them into archaic language. Often with hilarious results.
After having a good laugh looking at some hilarious (yet school appropriate) memes, the students got their chance. Again keeping with the Hemingway theme that drove the course, I gave them an excerpt from the Simple Wikipedia entry on Hemingway. They then “translated” sections, with hilarious results.
BEHOLD!
Before: At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper.
After: In thine place of eating, resting and bladder drainage, he inked for the scholastic scroll.
Before: At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper. He tried to write like a famous sports writer, Ring Lardner, and he made his writing skills better.
After: In the vicinity of household near Oak Park, Ernest inscribed for his schoolhouse biweekly. He attempted at composing approximative to noble frolic wordsmiths, such as Ray Lardner, and in result of that improved his wordsmith trade for the worthier.
Before: In 1917, Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri.
After: In the year 1917, the Kansas City Star newspaper, abiding in Kansas City, abiding in Missouri, supplied Ernest with employment.
Before: One reporter said: “Hemingway liked to be where the action was.”
After: A single reporter aforementioned, “Hemingway enjoyed to exist approximal to the location of heated activity.”
The best part about this activity is how much Hemingway himself probably would have hated it. Teehee…
In a writing class this summer, my 8-9 graders took a crack at writing about film. No easy task. Since they’ve been reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, we took a clip from the 1957 film to analyze and write a thesis on. Before watching, we gave them a glossary of film terms (stolen from Wikipedia, of course) and looked at some examples of story boards. Hitchcock has some good ones.
Step one: Watch the clip with a critical eye. To make sure the kids watched it looking for small details, we had them create a story board for the clip, one sketch for each shot. Our kids are lil’ perfectionists, so this step took a bit.
Step two: Discussion. We asked them what filmic elements stood out the most. Maybe it was Henry’s hand slamming down on the sugar cubes he had lined up. Maybe it was the dramatic music. Maybe it was the warm colors of the bar compared with the cool colors of the hospital. Lots of options there.
Step three: Thesis statement. This has really been the focus of this summer class: writing good thesis statements. And these kids pulled through. Although new to film analysis, they produced some good analytical thesis statements that could eventually be developed into decent essays. So proud.
Student examples after the jump.
An oldie but a goodie. Using a burger as a symbol for how to effectively integrate a direct quote in an essay, we discussed today how to:
I stole a thesis statement from SparkNotes, and paired it with a quote from Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (which they recently read), and we put the two together as a class.
It took some prodding but we got a nice end product:
Initially a means of alleviating the pain of war and private grief, their affair continues to serve the very practical purpose of masking life’s difficulties. As Henry and Catherine are in the Milan hospital, they discuss past relationships. Henry lies about it, but Catherine doesn’t mind. She says, “It’s all right. Keep right on lying to me. That’s what I want you to do. Were they pretty?” (91). She lets him lie to her in order to suppress memories of her late fiance and potentially harmful knowledge of her present lover.
Not perfect, but not bad for rising 8th and 9th graders, eh?
I’ve been looking more and more at comparative mythology lately – the similarities between the myths of various cultures. Many believe that most myths have at least an original basis in some form of truth, and for that reason many mythical archetypes transfer beyond one single mythology. This in turn expands to modern mythologies; we still look to gods, heroes and god-like heroes for inspiration.
In this assessment I created for a grad school project, students will explore the ancient-modern connection more thoroughly though an in-depth look at the Aeneas myth and mythical foundation figures in general. The Latin textbook Ecce Romani introduces the myth of Aeneas early on in the first text of the series, and many teachers love to bring in Vergil’s Aeneid for more advanced students to read in translation. For younger readers, a simplified version of the epic by Emily Frenkel and Simon Weller could be used.
In Part I of the project, they will compare two mythical founders to discover what traits are found in the archetype, and write up the similarities and differences in an essay form. I gave the following as choices for their comparisons:
These of course could be added to as seen fit. The variety of cultures seen here, each with a founding figure that shares traits with the others, speaks to the power of this particular archetype.
In Part II of the project, they will create their own founding myth, putting a creative spin on it and making the archetype their own. Because I am based in Chicago, I ask them to create a founding figure for this troubled city.
By looking at Aeneas, the typified Roman hero, as well as other such figures from around the world, they will discover what traits they find in those they look up to. Downloads after the jump.
It’s time for more fun with Shakespeare! Often our goal is to have our students write. This time, the goal is to have students write, but using the Bard’s words, not their own.
This article in The Guardian has a great outline for teaching Shakespeare… through Shakespeare’s insults. It’s chock full of resources, YouTube links, lesson plan ideas… you name it. AWESOME.
Quickie post today, folks.
Mrs. Rojas, a fourth grade teacher, has a blog where she puts a LOT of worksheets up for free download. I mean, a LOT of worksheets.
Most are for the primary grades, but she has a bunch that are useful through grade 8.
She is a saint for providing us these resources free of charge. The least you can do is provide her blog with some clicks.
Here’s the link again: Create-Teach-Share.
magistra monson 