Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

I am LOVING this novel so far, what about you?

The author, Ellen Hopkins, has a website where she talks about her books and posts new poems that she’s written.

1. Talk about the way this book is written. Does it help or hinder your understanding of the story? Explain yourself with evidence from the novel.
2. Talk about the characters. Are they believable? Why or why not? Again, explain yourself with evidence from the novel.
3. Choose 3 separate quotes from the beginning of the novel. Copy them down, write a response, and be prepared to discuss them.
4. Why do you think this is called a novel?

You need to:

Choose your topic. Most of you already have a good idea of what you want to research and teach.

You can find more information about some of your topics here:

eThemes: Teen Issues

If you are presenting a cultural issue, please clear it with me.

Find 2 recent newspaper or magazine articles about your topic. You will be handing these out to the other students along with 5-8 discussion questions. Remember, you need to design questions that will stimulate discussion.

Create a multimedia presentation about your topic. A simple PowerPoint presentation will not suffice! Your presentation will need to incorporate visual and audio elements. Some ideas to help you get started:

Movie Maker

Voice Thread

Photo Story

Choose a film about your topic to show the class and then guide the class in a discussion after the viewing of the film. This film must be cleared by me before it is shown.

Fill out the Teacher Planning Guide

]]> http://grade11.tracyrosen.com/?feed=rss2&p=53 0 http://grade11.tracyrosen.com/?p=51 http://grade11.tracyrosen.com/?p=51#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:30:18 +0000 Tracy http://grade11.tracyrosen.com/?p=51 Guiding Question: What is poetry, anyway?

Poetry Essay Planning guide

Step 1 – collecting data (reading and making notes) DUE: Monday, December 01, 2008    25%

Step 2 – rough plan DUE: Thursday, December 4, 2008    15%

Step 3 – detailed plan DUE: Tuesday, December 9, 2008   20%

Introduction:

?      Grab reader’s attention

?      Introduce your topic and give a brief summary of what you will be writing about

?      Thesis: One sentence, last sentence in introduction

Body Paragraph #1:

?      Topic sentence for claim #1 in support of thesis

?      Support #1 (This is a quote or paraphrase)

?      Explain how support #1 relates to claim #1

?      Support #2 (This is a quote or paraphrase)

?      Explain how support #2 relates to claim#1

?      If you haven’t already, explain how claim #1 relates to thesis,  and transition to next claim #2

Body Paragraph #2

?      Topic sentence for claim #2 in support of thesis

?      Support #1 (This is a quote or paraphrase)

?      Explain how support #1 relates to claim #2

?      Support #2 (This is a quote or paraphrase)

?      Explain how support #2 relates to claim#2

?      If you haven’t already, explain how claim #2 relates to thesis,  and transition to next claim #3

Body Paragraph #3

?      Topic sentence for claim #3 in support of thesis

?      Support #1 (This is a quote or paraphrase)

?      Explain how support #1 relates to claim #3

?      Support #2 (This is a quote or paraphrase)

?      Explain how support #2 relates to claim#3

?      If you haven’t already, explain how claim #3 relates to thesis,  and transition to conclusion

Conclusion

?      Restate thesis & claims using NEW words

?      Final thoughts for reader (relation to real world or what readers should learn from this, etc.)

Step 4 – final essay DUE: Thursday, December 18, 2008  40%

Section A – Choose 2 of these questions to respond to, making sure you use evidence to support your ideas.

1. How does hearing the voices change your understanding or appreciation of the novel?
2. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve walked into the middle of a movie…” What does he mean by this? Have you ever felt this way?
3. In the audio version, we hear all of the directions we normally wouldn’t hear if we were watching a play or movie. Does this get in the way of your understanding or help it? Explain.
4. While the audio was playing, Marilou said, “There is no image. I want to see it.” What would it look like if there was an image (a movie or play)? Describe the colours, images, objects, people, etc… you would see if it was a movie. Explain your choices.

Section B Choose 2 of these questions to respond to, making sure you use evidence to support your ideas.

This story is one of discrimination. How so?

Miss O’Brien comments to Steve that being young and black may already make him seem guilty to the jury. What does this statement say about racism in the American legal system?

The novel does not answer the question of Steve’s guilt or innocence for the crime he allegedly committed. Do you personally think that Steve is guilty or innocent? Why?

image from Men for Change website.

I thoroughly enjoyed our day together yesterday. We had a heavy morning, but sometimes they are necessary … don’t you think? I was glad that Karen was able to come in and talk to us. She was wonderful – very honest and caring. Major thanks to Marie for setting that up.

Here is a link to what she was talking about, for yourself or if there is someone in your life who you are concerned about.

AA and young people
AA website

Our potluck was AMAZING. Chelsea, your chicken and rice rocked! Kyleigh, those meatballs reminded me of my great-aunt mmmmmmmmm! Sarah, thanks for giving me your green pepper stuffed with couscous so I didn’t have to wait in line I could go on and on…everything was so good. Jaime, your coffee hit the spot – even with all that sugar Oh, and Michele, your salad – YUM. And of course I can’t forget Sam’s pizza cookie and Lexy and Bridget’s decadent chocolate fountains. I think I gained 5 pounds yesterday afternoon. For real.

Kourtney – thanks for sharing some of your precious schpetzel, we all know how much you like it

(for more pictures, check out Kaitlin’s facebook photos. Someone remind me to upload the pics from Marie’s camera next week!)

As promised, here are the videos we watched. There are also some videos here I was going to show but didn’t because of time restrictions.

Heidi Rathjen’s story.
I only found this one today. Heidi was a student at the Ecole Polytechnique on the the night that the Montreal Massacre took place. She tells her story in this short documentary that includes news footage from the event.

Description from the youtube site:

“The film reports the tragic events by relating the journey of the young woman from the tiny student union rooms to the cosy lounge of the House of Commons. Armed with courage and her sense of civil justice, she’ll quit a lucrative job at Bell Canada to create the Coalition for Gun Control and win her battle against the powerful pro-gun lobby. In 1995, Ottawa adopted the bill C-68 on gun control. “

Causing Pain: Real Stories of Dating Abuse and Violence

It Ain’t Love
This one is really strong, pretty heavy.

Why?
short ad about the white ribbon campaign

When I was 14 – Performance by Dawn Saylor

Here is the poem she is performing:
When I was 14 by Dawn Saylor

When I was fourteen,
I got down on my knees
Because he said I would
If I loved him.

And what did I know then?
When I first betrayed my body?
Sold it for a kiss and a smile
Taught to please at any cost
Left to fight for independence
In the backseats of cars
On stained leather interior
Dank with the smell of expectations.

I traded integrity for security
And called it love.

Leaving pieces of an empty shell falling behind
My mother patting my head and saying
What happened to that nice boy you were dating?
While I pushed memories farther down
Buried beneath piercing sunlight
Dreamed my knight would come to save
And prayed scraping already skinned knees
While I cried myself to sleep.

So I bit the apple in confusion.
Abandoned my innocence beneath the tree of knowledge
And became as bitter as the fruit I couldn’t refuse
Time and again
Giving in, giving up
Waiting always wanting something more then pickup lines
Promising more then promiscuity
Clothing myself in false hopes
Enclosing my weariness in frail arms for years.

Cars turning into bars with one lamp and pile of discarded clothing
And I heard myself say no
Over and over but he didn’t hear me
Wouldn’t listen when he called me a whore, pinned me down
And took the only innocence I had left.

And I was searching still for purity.

Lurking in hidden corners
Hips swinging lips pouting
Trading a shattered innocence for bared
And brazen offerings.

I learned how to control
And three years of vengeance passed while I was that women despised
While they begged for plastic perfection
Found in the temptation inches from their faces I could feel the longing
The lies when they said
‘You’re so beautiful’

And it wasn’t enough

And so he loved music more then me, loved work more then me, loved money more then me, loved her more then me, and I loved him more then me.

And I gave in to where I thought love hid
To the times I thought it was real
We give in to what men want
We paint ourselves with what we think are colors of the rainbow
When we’re really cloaked in hips and lips
The brutal realities that leave us grasping
Tatters of the illusions of love and longing
And the shattered shreds of innocence
Until we wear our own colors
And part the curtains we drape over our mirrors in mourning
And look ourselves in the eye and say
With you I feel like Isis and I am beautiful.

“It is in my mind that you should be proud of who you are, where you come from. I am proud of being Sudanese, but I can not go to Sudan.”

1987 – government to kill all male children in the south, regardless of age

“my uncle was 11 then, he was the oldest. He took care of the 3 of us.”
.
How long was the walk to Ethiopia? I wonder.

After 5 yrs 27000 boys, reduced to 12000

all boys – NO girls or women. How did this impact the boys?

leaving the group they escaped with, they survived with for 15 yrs, to start a new life.

Friends waving from behind the barbed wire as they leave.

“I would like to suffer this hardship with my friends, but if I get a chance I have to take it, I can not deny.”

Do you remember the expressions on their faces as they entered the US?

“I have to do what is expected of me. That is my duty, they have hope in me”

“I thought god got tired of us and he wanted to finish us”

Notes from Day 2

cultural differences

“we are sleeping well, eating well, but even now we do not feel comfortable. “

3 months of federal assistance before they must work and start repaying the government for their travel fare.

A person without a culture is like a human being without land. We must keep our tradition.

They try to search for meaning in American symbols (santa and tree)

Comparing Dinka Christmas and American Christmas

The way that John prepares for work – his work ethic

Having purpose – “anything that generates money, income is good, so I can help my people back home”

people don’t trust them – boys not allowed to travel in groups in Pittsburgh

loneliness

“little by little we,re learning the culture over here”

John in school -”an important, crucial day for me today”

Most of his family is alive, living in Uganda! But then he finds out they are suffering and some have died

decided not to go to school so he can work more (3 jobs) to help his family in Uganda, his friends (2nd family) in Kenya

growing unhappiness, feeling helpless

1 of the lost boys admitted to a psychiatric hospital for observation

“god does not create me as a very tall person for nothing. I have a role to play, a duty to do”

teaching others about what happens in Sudan

meeting together to plan for a better future

worried about the young guys who are giving up. What if they forget their culture. What will happen?

National lost boys conference in Phoenix, Arizona

looking for support from the US to help in Sudan so that there are no more lost boys, no more lost girls.

“It is a shame to have people that don’t take care of their own people”

scared to see his family after 17 yrs of separation

runs to meet his family st the airport, mother loses control

another boy travels back to Africa, remembers it like a fairy tale. I wonder, will it be the same?

Sudanese Child Soldier Trades Guns for Beats

Sudan on Wikipedia

Darfur is Dying – interactive game to help learn more about the struggles in Darfur, Sudan.

• Roughly one paragraph
• Include a translation on a separate sheet of paper
• We will be exchanging and translating them on Thursday morning to see how effective they are for communicating ideas

Go to the website where I found the video to read the discussion below it. If you like, you can even add to it! (click on the video title below to do that)

The comments are quite interesting…what do you think?

Rives: A 3-minute story of mixed emoticons

• Read everyone’s comments.
• You will see [Reply] directly underneath each comment. Click on that to reply to at least 3 comments. In a reply, you typically make a comment about what the person said and ask a question. It could be a question for clarification or something about the topic.

Second…
Create a Twitter account. Once you do, write a message to me that begins with @tracyrosen

• You will then be able to click on the @tracyrosen to get to my page
• Click on ‘follow’ under my picture
• Do the same for everyone in our class

PlotBot – Write screenplays online, alone or with friends.

We’re going to start exploring the different aspects of our own cultures in order to present them to each other.

Today, I’d like you to begin thinking about culture by answering these questions as a comment to this post.

1. What is culture? How does it belong to you?
2. Which local or national traditions have you heard of?
3. What is special, beautiful or important about them?
4. If people your age came to visit, what local or national traditions would you tell them about?
5. Find an image that you think describes ‘culture’ and paste the link to it in your response.

Follow these instructions for how to comment.

Answer these questions.
You can write them or type them as comments to this post (I prefer if you type them as comments).

You can email me any questions. (look at contact at the bottom of this page…replace the AT and DOT with @ and . )

1. Find the websites for the main political parties.
Look over the websites.

2. Do you agree or disagree with what Clarence Fisher has to say about each of the parties’ sites?
State whether you agree or disagree, then explain why, for each of the parties.

3.Based on what you read on each of the parties’ webpages…who do you think has the best chance of winning on October the 14th?
Explain why and give examples to support your thoughts.

This is due on Tuesday, October 14th.