Thursday, January 5, 2012

ENGLISH - 1^st trimester – Day 19

Effort trumps talent.

Effort grows connections in your brain which make you smarter.  (Carol Dweck)

1. While I check homework: back page this week’s vocabulary handout (Exercise 2)
2. PLEASE begin the WARMUP: Write a paragraph about:

                                                              i.      something you want really badly in your life

                                                            ii.      what you are willing to do to get it

Read the first paragraph on page 236. “He strayed away by himself from the watchers whom he had placed in ambush on the crest of the hill, and wandered far down the steep slopes amid the wild tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree trunks and listening through the whistling and skirling of the wind and the restless beating of the branches for sight and sound of the marauders. If only on this wild night, in this dark, lone spot, he might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness - that was the wish that was uppermost in his thoughts. And as he stepped round the trunk of a huge beech he came face to face with the man he sought.”

·         Ultimately, does Ulrich get what he wants?

·         What does he have to do to get it?

In Demetri Martin’s new book, This Is A Book, he write from a genie’s point of view and he comically responds to all the people who find his lamp and wish for money. He argues that the conservation of wealth states that if a genie grants somebody’s wish for money, the genie must take the money away from families who are already quite poor or from the economies of developing countries or both.

Is there anything for which you would hurt needy people in order to get?

Discussed feuds and fights – including Huck Finn’s thoughts – and how feuds resemble rivalries – wrote definitions in our notes

“The Interlopers” is a story about:

1. feuding, hatred, revenge, tragedy, death
2. pity, change of heart, forgiveness, hope
1. Make a chart that lists the nine items listed above.
2. Find a quote from the story that shows each of the above traits.
3. Finally, identify which type of conflict each one represents (man vs. ____)

English homework:

Study for Monday’s vocabulary test: Lesson Two vocabulary words (amalgamate, demented…)

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PLAYWRITING - Day 18

WARMUP:

On the dry erase boards (and in a group of your choice)…without any dialogue, write down a list of 8 different, 2-part ACTIONS that would show the audience that WAR IS BAD.

Read The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter and discussed how it relates to our theme on war and playwriting.

Next we chose one of our 8 actions from above and wrote our the moments that happened before it and after it, creating the “chain reaction” - where an act performed by one character causes another character to perform yet another action…etc.

PLAYWRITING homework:

• Write down 3 more times in your past that you were persuaded to do something that you initially didn’t want to do and chose 1 of them.
• Next, write ½ the conversation from the persuadee’s point of view (as if he was on a phone and we could only hear his side of things). Do not write down what the persuader is saying to him. The persuadee is buyer and the persuader is the seller. We’re focusing on the buyer’s side of the conversation.
• Include 20 different responses for the persuadee.