Noticing, caring, belonging

1. Noticing, caring, belonging How writers and readers Co-create the story world

2. Stages of Relationship with Story (the heroes’ journeys) • Attraction (or blind date?) • Acquaintance and Transaction • Communication (do we understand each other? Will this moment break our deal? What are the consequences/benefits/drawbacks?) • Agreements (if I continue, what will be the consequences/benefits, drawbacks? Am I willing to suspend belief/disbelief) • Risk (Nothing is Certain (get it?), and I’m willing to go out on a limb) • Immersion: Appreciation, trust and dissolution (“I” dissolve, entering the story world, swimming around the corners) • Commitment and Correspondence (I continue, but emerge to share my experience with others)

3. The Book Thief • Zusak gives Death a Persona—describe that persona. Why is death not so attractive, typically speaking, just saying… • http://www.google.com/search?q=Images+of+death&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#

4. Death Be Not Proud • John Donne, turn of the 17th century poet who challenges fear of death. • Who would do such a thing? • Who would we be without the story: “Death is the ultimate scary dude, villain, creep” • Let’s work on this poem to better understand the liberating joy of coming to terms with difficult language.

5. Poemophobia:I don’t know what this poem says, and I don’t need to know, and if I try and fail, I’ll look stupid • With a little help from our friends… just try • How does this poem relate to Book Thief? • Experience sharing the challenge and looking closely at the poetry of book thief • Scaffold your creative response to book thief • Yadayadayada • Let’s play with the poem—use page one of graphic organizer

6. G.O. Page Three • All Class • Who does death think (how do we know it’s a) he is? • And so on

7. For this week (5/21-5/24) • Wednesday, 5/23: In groups, develop BT questions for all-class discussion. • Prologue and Part I: SB (point of view, voice, melissa, chloe, elizabeth) • Part 2: AT (characters—ashley, adam, marybeth) • Part 3: P (setting—jen and dylan) • Attend to language (author’s stylistic choices), your relationship with the story: characters, voice, point of view, and setting. • Post your first Book Thief Response by Wednesday at 5pm • Discuss responses in class on Thursday, 5/24 • discuss Parts 4 and 5. Read Elaine White article “Young Adult Literature as Key to Literacy,” and Censorship (TBP) for Tuesday.

8. POV • Death is an observer, shepherd of souls • Doesn’t physically interfere, except when he takes the book • Observer; omniscient • Can we trust this narrator? • Yes, because he dispels our misconceptions • Appealing through sense of humor and humanness. Disarming—real. Gentle and empathetic. He is almost burdened by what he sees and experiences—he needs a vacation. He is touched by human experience. • He isn’t gruesome. HE? isn’t responsible for humans’ ends of life. He is responsible for collecting their souls and transitioning them. • He takes a fancy to Liesel and presumably others throughout beginningless time. • “Nice has nothing to do with me” (p.3) echoes Rifkin’s empathy video.

9. Characters • Why are the Hubermann’s together? Opposites attract? Hans is sweet; Rosa is a drill sarge. • Rosa expresses love in a rough way. • Liesel, Rudy, parents • The children are somewhat oblivious. Youthful, innocent, exuberant children • “The Struggler” The mayor’s wife; Frau Diller;

10. Setting: geography and… • The mayor’s house and its furnishings • Closet within a warehouse in Stuttgart few hundred miles in the northwest of Germany • Apple orchards – expansion of thievery • Church, school, book burning site • Candy store and tailor’s shop • Why is setting so important? It’s deeper than we think—not just geography

11. POV/Ch/Setting • Setting is the world created by the narrator in which characters interact • Characters make choices based on their ability to reason • Setting establishes the “boundaries” or rules that determine (permit or censor) certain choices and behaviors. • This can be hard for some characters to “see” because they’re part of “it.” • Who can “see” in BT?

12. Setting (again)…we’re going deeper. It’s getting darker… • Understanding setting and context can enhance our understanding of own lives. • And how to navigate through. • That is “what’s the game?” • All human activity is allowed, encouraged, shaped, and constrained by the particular social situation in which it occurs. • Activity can be unpredictable, but can always be understood as goal-oriented and rule-governed. • Within bounded settings over time, rules become unquestioned ways – common sense. • How characters follow, adapt, or violate rules reveals character, relationships to and within their setting. Context is a better word than setting. It “reflext” the complexities of setting.

13. What people think and do • Is dramatically affected by Context, or setting. (how static or flexible is the context?) • Produce tools to help them perform functions in situations/settings. • “Tools” and their use are “exteriorized” forms of mental processes. • They develop in a variety of contexts—interactively • Micro, meso, and macrosystems (ecology or context of human development): nested and dynamic

14. How settings set up characters (us) • An address: Climate; Physical features (natural artifacts and climate);human-made features (architecture, floor plans): how a story is located in space • Historical Time: Era, and Duration (stories that occur in a short duration, usually emphasize the micro level; epics focus on macro level concerns) • Social and Psychological: Systems of relationships; the interactive space of a setting

15. Setting (again) • Always • Provides a situation that is going to deeply influence what CAN happen in a story and HOW characters feel about what happens. • Or: Conflict is always a function of setting • Conflict and consequences derive from settings and situations, containing and driving story action (plot)

16. Setting is really • About RULE setting • Setting sets rules constraints possibilities conflicts consequences • Particular groups makes rules that apply to particular settings in order to achieve certain goals. • Knowing and playing by the rules makes one a valued insider who can participate with that group in their setting. • Testing, questioning, and violating the rules will inevitably lead to _________________ . • You can navigate to find a new channel, but you can’t leave the river.

17. Dumb or Wise? Some word pairs to help with literary themes • Compassion or pity? • Courage or brazenness? • Knowledge or assumption? • Combat or violence? • Truth or convenience? • Content or complacent? • Loving or needy? • Free or lost?

19. For Next Week (5/29–5/31) • No class on Monday • Tuesday • Discuss Parts 6, 7, 8 and assigned articles. Post second BT reading response. • Wednesday • Discuss Parts 9, 10, epilogue. Quiz on Thief and Elaine White article “Young Adult Literature as Key to Literacy” • Thursday • Book Talks (ten minutes each). (Instructional tip: Listen to the book talks on NPR)

20. As a class; as an individual • Collaborate to fill in the first 3 cells as I read the poem. Poems need to be read many times, so bear with me. (10 min) • Working with your book talk group, finish the graphic organizer • Discuss as a class

21. What is Metaphysical? • http://www.bartleby.com/105/72.html • Metaphysical poetry, in the full sense of the term,” as Grierson writes, “is a poetry which has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence.”