Thursday, March 21, 2013

Blog #9 - Reader's Notebook 2

This blog post should cover the events of Chapters 11-19 of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Minimum Words: 400
Minimum Text References and Citations: 4 (Including works outside of To Kill a Mockingbird)
Due Date: Sunday, March 31 at midnight. It must be done before large group discussion.
Note: You are very welcome to include references to other works, including books, stories, videos, music, and other things.

Helpful links: Sample Reader's Notebook from CIS Literature* | Critical Lens notecards |  Reading Schedule | Reader's Notebook Instructions Spark Notes




Take a look at the comments I left on your last blog before you start. Most of you got off to tremendous starts, and all of you have several ways you can make improvements and grow in this second entry.

Again, you can and should make these entries from your own reactions and thoughts. Try and keep your blog centered on the new information and events in Chapters 11-19. However, you can connect what you're reading to earlier chapters and discuss changes in tone, characters, and thinking from the first 10 chapters.

For this blog, try to move beyond just the reader response lens - just your reactions to the text. Instead, try to connect your reactions to something else, make observations and predictions, comparisons and contrasts, or use a different lens to shape your entry.

The most important thing to remember is that you should constantly refer to the text. Quote passages and paraphrase scenes.

Here are some thoughts that may help you:

  • Perspective and Empathy - considering someone else's struggle - are constant themes throughout the book. How have you seen this develop? How has it shaped the book? Cite specific scenes or events.

  • What is this book about? Who is this book about?

  • The idea of progress is pretty constant in this book. How is it framed?

  • Try on the Gender lens. If any book lends itself to this, it's this one. Many of you even thought Scout was a boy for several chapters.

  • Stretch yourself and try on the Marxist lens. There are plenty of opportunities to do this throughout this portion of the novel.

  • Here are some pictures of America during the time frame in which the novel is set. What connections can you make to the text?

  • Take a look at some of the actual artifacts from the Jim Crow era in America. How does this affect your reading or your perceptions of the novel.

  • The trial is the most gripping suspenseful and, arguably, the most important part of the book. It's also a major shift in tone. Provide some thoughts, reactions, analysis, etc. What does it mean?

  • You may find this information on Robert E. Lee interesting in light of recent revelations. Here's more from PBS.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Blog #8 - Reader's Notebook Entry 1

This blog post should cover the events of Chapters 1-10 in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Minimum Words: 400
Minimum Text References and Citations: 4 (Including works outside of To Kill a Mockingbird)
Due Date: Tuesday, March 19 at midnight. It must be done before large group discussion.
Note: You are very welcome to include references to other works, including books, stories, videos, music, and other things.

Helpful links: Sample Reader's Notebook from CIS Literature* | Critical Lens notecards |  Reading Schedule | Reader's Notebook Instructions | Spark Notes

This notebook entry is supposed to be 100% dictated by your own analysis and relationship to the text. If you can, try to do this without looking at the suggested questions below. However, for those of you who need a little push to begin this voyage, please feel free to consider the following questions or statements:

  • Try to apply a critical lens to your reading, the characters, or Harper Lee.

  • Who is the protagonist in the novel? Who is the antagonist? How does the opposition of these two characters help develop the drama and the unfolding of the tale?

  • How would this story be narrated, in the third person, from the point of view of Dill’s fabulous imagination?

  • How would Boo Radley describe Jem, Scout, and Dill?

  • What motivates the primary characters?

  • What kind of teacher is Miss Caroline, Scout’s first grade teacher?

  • Here are some pictures of America during the time frame in which the novel is set. What connections can you make to the text?

  • Take a look at some of the actual artifacts from the Jim Crow era in America. How does this affect your reading or your perceptions of the novel.


Please cite page numbers and specific passages from the novel to support your inferences and conclusions. We will be using these questions and your conclusions, questions, and insights to spark classroom discussion on Wednesday.

Example citation:

Scout says that " Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it" (Page 4). She seems to be trying to emphasize not just the age of the town, but also the slowness of the town, the values of the people, and the way that summer heat made everything drag on.


or

This isn’t the first time we see one of the Price women choosing materialism over God, despite Nathan’s harsh beatings and warnings. On page 363, Rachel reaches for her mirror instead of for her Bible, explaining “[ . . . ] it didn’t seem worth saving at that moment, so help me God. It had to be my mirror.” Whether this shows rebellion or just the simplistic mindset of a 15-year-old teenage girl, I’m not sure. Perhaps she was, in her own, small way, rebelling from Nathan. But maybe she just wanted to make sure that no matter where she went in Africa, she would always know the state of her appearance. That seems pretty likely.



* The sample reader's notebook above is done by a senior in high school with a lot of experience writing these notebooks. It is also over 600 words longer than the entry you are expected to create. No pressure.