We have reached the end of Part I of the novel. Choose one of the themes we listed on Friday and tell me about what this theme means to you and relates to REAL life. Are you seeing examples in the news? At school? In magazines or newspapers? Please do not use names in your entry, and if you wish this to remain private, please let me know with a note here and I will not post it.

Ok, it is time to get back to blogging about literature!!!! We just started To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Based on the first three chapters, what do you predict is going to be the main conflict in the novel? Be specific and explain WHY you think that, based on what we have read so far.

We are starting the next unit of the year, Historical Fiction. This is the entry to writing your own historical travel narrative. All of the novels have some sort of travel in them. What are you expecting from the book you have chosen?

AS A GROUP answer the following questions -
1) What book is your group reading?
2) What social issues did you see in your book?
3) What issue did your group choose to research and present in your project?
4) How does it tie in with your book?

Tolerance - What is it, when do you see it and what can you do about it?

Commments for the end of the novel.

This week you are going to listen to a song from the Great Depression. After you have listened to the song (and followed the lyrics), I want you to reflect on how this song relates to the novel and the previous information we have been seeing. Try to get past the surface, obvious things and dig a little deeper, into meaning and theme!



(In constant sorrow through his days)

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my day.
I bid farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised.
(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasures here on earth I found
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now.

[chorus] He has no friends to help him now

It's fare thee well my old lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon this train.

[chorus] Perhaps he'll die upon this train.

You can bury me in some deep valley
For many years where I may lay
Then you may learn to love another
While I am sleeping in my grave.

[chorus] While he is sleeping in his grave.

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you'll never see no more.
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore.

[chorus] He'll meet you on God's golden shore.

The setting of our current novel "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is California's Salinas Valley during the Great Depression. This video is a great way to get some more information about the Depression, with pictures and video along with a voice-over of historical interests. Watch the video and then leave your comments about:
1) What connections are you making between this video and the novel so far?
2) What questions or thoughts are you having about this information?
3) What are you recalling about this time period that you may have known before?
4) What have you learned from this video?
5) What is this video helping you "see" and understand when we read?

All podcasts are assigned as homework and are graded on being completed or not.

Homework policy – Each assignment not completed reduces your homework grade. I get the homework grade by dividing the number of assignments by the number of completed assignments for each unit. Therefore when all homework is completed, the homework grade for the unit is 100. If 4 assignments are given and only two are completed, the grade is a 50. And so on.

When homework is not completed you must stay either that afternoon or the following afternoon from 2:45 - 3:15 and complete the assignment. If you do not come when you say you will, you lose the credit and get a detention for skipping.

Listen to the podcast from Mrs. Moren and leave appropriate comments or questions below by clicking on comments, then add a comment.

Click on the file below to view your welcome letter!