E. Quinson

Room D-201

9H, period 5

 

Monday, November 3, 2008

SWBAT:  analyze improvements in race relations as a result of the trial.

DO NOW:  Write an entry:  Why does Reverend Sykes ask Scout to stand for her father? 

    "'Miss Jean Louise?'

    I looked around. They were all standing. All around us, and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet. Reverend Sykes's voice was as distant as Judge Taylor's:

    'Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'.'"

DEVELOPMENT: 

  1. Discuss H.W. and DO NOW entries.
  2. Discussion Questions:
    1. Review Atticus’ case FOR Tom Robinson
    2. Review Atticus’ explanation of what really happened.
    3. Why is Atticus so sure that a white jury won’t acquit Tom?  Why does he hold out hope for an appeal.
    4. Why isn’t the African-American community angry?
    5. What should be our reaction?
    6. Why is Jem so upset?  What does he mean he used to think these people were the finest in the world?  What by the way makes a fine family, according to Aunt Alexandra?  On the other hand, who stood by Atticus even if she did not always agree with him?
    7. WHY AREN’T THINGS EVER CLEAR AND STRAIGHT IN THIS NOVEL???
  3. Group Share
  4. Review H.W.

H.W.:  1.  Finish the novel.   2.  Find passages and other discussion-worthy topics.  3.  Blog it!  You have election day off, so I am asking a bit more work of you, so respond to two of the latest posts.  3.  Don’t forget about the vocabulary sheets!  Make flashcards of the vocabulary words if you have not already done so. Review them each night!

 

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

SWBAT:  discuss hypocrisy and growing up in To Kill a Mockingbird.

DO NOW:  Write an entry in your writer’s notebook:  Discuss the Missionary Tea.  Many critics have called this scene a satire?  What is she satirizing?  Use specific details from the text to support your answer.

DEVELOPMENT:

1.      Review H.W. and DO NOW.

2.      You may want to have a whole group discussion of the following questions.  However, if students seem a little unruly, feel free to have them answer these questions in their writer’s notebooks. 

3.      Discussion Questions: 

  • Missionary Tea:  what is she satirizing?
    • Christianity?
    • Charity?
    • Hypocrisy?
    • What specific evidence can we find for these?

·        How do Scout and Aunt Alexandra (as Finch women) display moral courage?

o        by maintaining a public facade of composure.

o        Mr. Underwood likens Tom’s death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds,” an obvious reference to the novel’s title. In this moment, Alexandra and Scout stand together as finches, as harmless as mockingbirds, forced to bear white Maycomb’s hypocrisy

  • What evidence do we have that Jem is growing up?  How is Scout also attempting to enter the adult world? 
  • How are Jem and Scout reacting differently to the Radley Place? Why?
  • How Jem and Sbout see Maycomb differently?
    • Scout still sees through the eyes of a child and sees people as basically good.
    • Jem sees as an adult/adolescent and sees the evil.
  • What plot events are building a sense of forboding?
  • All of the minutia relating to the very end:  details that support the suspense/hilarity of the situation.
  • How does Lee build suspense leading up to the attack? 
  • Who are the mockingbirds?
  • Are Tate and Atticus wise in not bring Boo out into the light?
  • But didn’t he murder, perhaps lynch, Bob Ewell?
  • What have we learned from this novel? 

4.      Review/summarize.

H.W.:  1.  Blog it!  Respond to the following on our blog:  Analyze this quotation:  Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough. Use specific text-based details throughout the whole to show how Harper Lee develops this idea of perspective.  Be sure that, if you are not the very first person to respond to this post, you respond to at least one other comment in this thread.   3.  Multiple choice test Friday, 11/14/08.  4.  Essay due Monday, 11/17/08.  5.  Character project due Tuesday, 11/18/08?

 

Thursday, November 6, 2008

SWBAT:  read and discuss the resolution of To Kill a Mockingbird.

DO NOW:  Write an entry:  Analyze this quotation:  “When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice. . . .”  “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”

DEVELOPMENT:

1.      Divide into groups to review for the test using the review sheet

2.                  Group share/Review H.W.

H.W.:  1.  Test tomorrow.  Look over review sheet.  Know the characters, plot, themes, etc.  Perhaps re-read the novel.  What????  Well, you can’t reread the whole thing, but you can review it by looking it over again  2.  In-class essay on Monday.  3.  Character project due Tuesday, 11/20/07.

 

Friday, November 7, 2008

SWBAT:  demonstrate mastery of vocabulary, plot, characters and theme in To Kill a Mockingbird.

DEVELOPMENT:

  1. Multiple choice test.
  2. When students have finished the multiple choice part, they may begin planning their essay.  They will write it in class on Monday, and it will be open book, but they will actually write it in the computer lab on Monday, November 19th.  The character project will be due Tuesday, November 20th.

H.W.:  1.  Plan essay.  We will write it in class on Monday.  2.  Character project due Wednesday 11/12/08.

 

 

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