Week of May 12-16
HW: For "Whirligig"
In the chapter "The afterlife" Brent makes several references to his previous life, and to how he imagines the afterlife, including a reference to Greek mythology and the River Styx. Here are a few passages:
"After night came another day. And after death another life. Mornings seemed mysterious gifts...This is the afterlife, he told himself. To be crowded in with a collection of strangers, plunging through a foreign landscape toward an unknown destiny." p. 33
"Here was a chance not simply to alter his past, a he'd done in school, but to actually live a different life...It was an interim identity, tied to his previous life. He would cast it off soon, but in favor of what? He was lodged in his own chrysalis..." p. 43
"How like the afterlife it all was: a populous city, reached only after a long journey toward the setting sun, here all along but never seen until now." p. 45
"Brent felt he was practicing constructing his new life." p. 48
Read the passages and think about what we've read in the novel so far. Respond to the passages, what they tell you about what Brent is thinking, and any connections you can make to these ideas. What questions do these passages raise for you?
Welcome to Hiawatha 8!
You should be finding the times in your day that work for you to commit to "The Usual." I expect you to be mature young adults who can fit your literacy practices into your schedule. Keep bringing your materials back and forth between home and school, so you're prepared. Read, write and think every day!
As we discussed in class, your regular HW expectations are to be reading and writing outside of class. (You will sometimes have other HW too.)
**Please refer to your WNB acheivement grade sheet for specifics about how consistent you need to be for each goal grade.
**The distrcit expectation is that you will read the EQUIVALENT of 25 books. By 8th grade you can think of this is as approximately 2500-3500 pages to be met by reading a wide variety of fiction, non-fiction, articles and poetry in class and outside of class. Novels and other book length works are easy to keep track of in your A'pad on the book list provided. See me for the form if you are interested in trying for the Hiawatha 8 "28 book challenge"!
Bring the following to class each day :
** WNB
** a reading book,
** pen, pencil, post-it notes
** your blue LA folder and your red research notebook
** A'pad
** a positive attitude
HELPFUL HINTS FOR HIAWATHA:
Find a time and a place where you can write at home without distractions. (i.e. NOT in front of the TV, computer, or while on the bus!!) Check the “Writing Prompts in case I’m stuck” at the end of this HW message if you need ideas, and feel free to try anything at home that we do in class.
Writing prompts for when I’m stuck…
Write about:
~ one of the prompts you taped in to your WNB
~ an artifact from your life
~ an event from your time-line
~ leaving or coming back
~ the most frightened you’ve ever been
~ swimming
~ green places
~ the closest you’ve ever felt to nature
~ physical endurance (or lack of it!)
~ big changes
~ little changes
~ lift a line from a poem, a song, an article or headline and write about it
~ a bit of overheard conversation
~ a quote that is powerful, surprising, funny or challenging
~ dreams
~ a “perfect” day
~ the seasons
~what makes you happy? Sad? Confused? Frustrated?
~ how do you picture your life in 5 years? 10 years? 30 years?!
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