Contemporary Literature

1. Contemporary Literature Week 10 October 24-28, 2011

2. Monday, October 24, 2011 Due Today: Walk-IN: Sit in your group turn to a new sheet of paper and title it “A Story About the Body,” by Robert Hass. Learning Objective: • Students will be able to synthesize information to form purposeful generalizations and sound conclusions from a variety of informational texts. Agenda: • “A Story About the Body” Synthesis Activity Homework: Read and prepare for Book Club # 6 on Tuesday

3. Love and Lust • Definition of Love: • a tender passionate affection, or a strong personal liking of a person, idea, occupation, etc for pleasure, but without compensation • to be infused with or enamored with a feeling of deep affection or passion for a person, idea, occupation, etc, but in consideration of or for the sake of said person, idea, occupation (www.dictionary.com) • Definition of Lust: • an overpowering desire to gratify the senses • an excessive desire, especially as seeking unrestrained gratification. • to feel an intense desire, especially sexual desire. • to feel a strong or intense desire for a person or object

4. A Story About the Body, by Robert Hass “A Story About the Body,” by Robert Hass The young composer, working that summer at an artist’s colony, had watched her for a week. She was Japanese, a painter, almost sixty, and he thought he was in love with her. He loved her work, and her work was like the way she moved her body, used her hands, looked at him directly when she made amused and considered answers to his questions. One night, walking back from a concert, they came to her door and she turned to him and said, “I think you would like to have me. I would like that too, but I must tell you I have had a double mastectomy,” and when he didn’t understand, “I’ve lost both my breasts.” The radiance that he carried around in his belly and chest cavity—like music—withered very quickly, and he made himself look at her when he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I could.” He walked back to his cabin through the pines, and in the morning he found a small blue bowl on the porch outside his door. It looked to be full of rose petals, but he found when he picked it up that the rose petals were on top; the rest of the bowl—was full of dead bees.

5. A Story About the Body Synthesis Activity Sentence from “A Story About the Body” and subject Message or conclusion you can come to based on synthesizing the two examples Paraphrase or quote from other articles/stories from class that connects to sentence • “ • “ • “ • Message: • Message: • Message: “ “ “

6. Due Today: Book Club #6 Jobs Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Walk-IN: Sit with your book club group and take out your book, book club jobs, and a new sheet of paper. Learning Objective: • You will increase enjoyment and understanding of a novel by discussion questions, passages, characters, vocabulary, artistic interpretations, and areas of synthesis. Agenda: • Book Club # 6 Homework: Begin searching the internet for reliable sources about your topic (.org, .edu, .gov, etc…)

7. Book Club before discussion Set up header: Book Club #6 Name: Novel: Date: Jobs: Pages Read: Summary Paragraph • Write a summary paragraph about what happened in your book so far. Include information about the setting, characters, conflict, and any other important ideas or events. When finished, discuss your summaries with your group.

8. Book Club Discussion Question Job Procedures Lead the group in a discussion about each question. Allow everyone in your group to participate before you say anything. Take notes on who said what during the discussion of each question. Once everyone has contributed, share your own ideas about the answer to the question. Repeat with each question Passage Job Procedures Direct your group to that passage in the book, and have them read along with you as you read the passage out loud. Allow everyone in your group to comment on your passage before you say anything about it, and take notes on who said what during discussion. After everyone has participated, share your written explanation with the group. Character Job Procedures Share your Introduction/Update about each character with your group. After sharing about all characters, lead your group in a discussion about relationships, conflicts, and predictions about each character. Allow all members of your group to participate before you offer your own ideas, and take notes on your chart about discussion. Art Job Procedures Present artwork to the group. Allow all members to make observations and ask questions before you say anything about the image, and take notes who said what during discussion. Share your ideas about your image after everyone has participated. Vocabulary Job Procedures Identifyword/phrase/term and direct group to where it appears in the text. Read the sentence/paragraph in which the word appears out loud with the group. Ask the group to share ideas about the word’s meaning and/or significance to the story, and take notes on who said what. After everyone has participated, share your definitions, explanations with the group. Repeat process with each word. Synthesis Job Procedures One example at a time, lead the group in a discussion of each example, how it relates to the question. Allow your group to suggest In-Class and Beyond-Class­ connections BEFORE you suggest any. Fill out your chart as you discuss with your group. For each question, discuss with your group what how all the examples work together to suggest a common answer to each question, the Emerging Message; this should be written in the form of a theme statement.

9. Book Club After discussion • Reflection Paragraph: • In a detailed paragraph, explain how your overall experience in book club increased your enjoyment or understanding of the novel. Was your group successful? Would you choose this group to work with again? • Write a review of the novel. Would you recommend it to your peers? Why or why not? Would you recommend it to your family or parents? Why or why not? Would you recommend we include this in the book club choices for next year? Why or why not?

10. Due Today: Wednesday/Thursday, Oct 26-27, 2011 Walk-IN:Pick up a white binder, sit in your groups, take out your book club book, and turn to your synthesis writing. Learning Objective: • Students will read to locate texts in order to support conclusions or messages based on their synthesis of a variety of texts. • Students will build background information about themes in The World According to Garp. Agenda: • Synthesis Essay Work Time • Book Club # 1 Rubric • The World According to GarpBook Club Introduction • Formation • Reading Expectations • Book Club Preparation • The World According to GarpTheme Introduction Homework: Read and prepare (two jobs) for Book Club #5

11. Synthesis Essay Work Time • Search, mine, plan out your paragraphs by developing your ideas and examples. One way to organize this would be: • When you have paragraphs that you would like me to check off, let me know. • Paragraph # 1: • General Topic: • Titles of sources from Non-Fiction Articles and Stories in Class: • Main Idea: • Textual Evidence: • 1. • 2. • 3.

12. Synthesis Essay Work Time • Search, mine, plan out your paragraphs by developing your ideas and examples. One way to organize this would be: • Paragraph # 2: • General Topic: • Titles of sources from Non-Fiction Articles/Stories in Class and Book Club Novel: • Main Idea: • Textual Evidence: • 1. • 2. • 3.

13. Synthesis Essay Work Time • Search, mine, plan out your paragraphs by developing your ideas and examples. One way to organize this would be: • Paragraph # 3: • General Topic: • Titles of sources from Independent Research and Stories from Class and/or Book Club Book. • Main Idea: • Textual Evidence: • 1. • 2. • 3.

14. Synthesis Essay Work Time • Search, mine, plan out your paragraphs by developing your ideas and examples. One way to organize this would be: • Paragraph # 4: • General Topic: • Titles of sources from Articles in Class or Independent Research and Stories from Class and/or Book Club Book and The World According to Garp. • Main Idea: • Textual Evidence: • 1. • 2. • 3.

15. Book Club Rubric • Reflect on your effort before and during book club • For each concept down the left hand side of the rubric, identify the indicators across the top that apply to your time and engagement in Book Club. • Write the number that applies to you in the left column • You may circle indicators in a variety of proficiencies across the top and average those in the left hand column • Finally add the numbers in the left hand column together and write the average on the bottom.

16. The World According to GarpBook Club • Book Club Formation • Book Club Makeup—You must form a group that will be beneficial, so at least half of your members must be proficient or above overall from the last book club. • If your previous group meets those standards then you may keep that group. • If your group does not you will have to find a different group. Maybe break up and join another group. • If your prior group meets the standards, but you would like a change and want to form new groups you may.

17. The World According to GarpBook Club • Book Club Reading and Job Expectations • Calendar and reading expectations. • Creative Freedom for Jobs: collage approach to Book Club Jobs. • Students will need to collage or piece together 4 aspects of the previous six jobs. This may include one passage, a smaller detailed drawing, two level 3 questions, 3 vocabulary words, a character chart on one person, or a smaller synthesis chart. Your choice, just chose 4 of the above and have fun and be creative. • An example will be passed around.

18. The World According to GarpBook Club • The World According the GarpTheme Subjects • Love/Lust • Family • Violence • Safety/Security • Gender Roles • Tolerance/Intolerance • Death/Loss • Fate versus Free Will • Gravity versus Play

19. The World According to GarpBook Club • Gravity versus Play • Read aloud the New Republic quote from the back of the book. What words do you associate with “gravity”? What words do you associate with “play”? • Why would authors, film-makers, song-writers, and artists juxtapose these two? Can you think of any examples? • Let’s look at how the author tries to inform the reader about what he is doing with comedy and tragedy, gravity and play, through his main character TS Garp, who is himself a novelist. • Example #1: Garp ahs just finished his second novel “Second Wind of the Cuckold” It was a book with characters who each had some sort of physical impairment, nervous tick or incessant flatulence. He gets hate mail from a reader who thinks he was making fun of people with disabilities. • Turn p231 and read aloud from the last paragraph thru p237 to “Thus was his humor lost…” • Discuss how Garp uses the story of the elephants to explain his point to the reader Mrs. Poole. • Explain how we can read this as the author trying to explain to us exactly what one possible purpose of the novel is. • Example #2: The Peter Bent joke, p6 “One day, the joke goes…” Why is this funny? Now imagine you were this guy—would it be funny? • Through the combination of Gravity and Play, our goal is to get beyond the Beavis and Butthead giggling and learn how to deal with the adult aspects of life in an adult way. • The book is part comedy, and is laugh out loud funny at times. So laugh when it is funny, but be on the look out for the serious undertones, beneath the comedy. • Our goal is to laugh as adults, not middle school kids.

20. Due Today: Friday, Oct 28, 2011 Walk-IN: Sit with your book club group and take out your book, your calendar, and a new sheet of paper. Learning Objective: • Students will practice meta-cognitive reading skills in order to increase engagement when encountering a new and difficult text. Agenda: • The World According to GarpReading Think Aloud Homework: Read and prepare for Book Club # 1 Independent Research

21. The World According to GarpThink Aloud • Meta-cognitive Reading Skills • Select from the list below, to be cognitive of while reading. Or use strategies that you already use while reading. • While reading, record what you are thinking. You will not be expected to complete this every time you read. Today we are doing this to share our thinking while reading with your group-memebers.