Announcements
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
What are we doing in Animal Farm?
We read chapter 2 & chapter 3. We watch the movie version to cement what's happening in your mind.
Next time, we will read chapter 4 and discuss revolutions!!
Next time, we will read chapter 4 and discuss revolutions!!
Metacognition on The Chosen
Meta: after/higher
Cognition: thinking/thoughts
Now that you've finished The Chosen, what do you think about:
Cognition: thinking/thoughts
Now that you've finished The Chosen, what do you think about:
- Silence
- Relationships between Danny & Reuven
- Relationships between each boy & his dad
- Choosing/being chosen.
Did you like this book? Why or why not?
What would you have done to improve the movie?
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Do you need the text of Animal Farm?
You can read it online, download it, or send it to your e-reader here.
If you need the NOTES we have taken in class, they are here.
If you need to TRANSLATE it into another language, use this edition: http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/index.html
If you need the NOTES we have taken in class, they are here.
If you need to TRANSLATE it into another language, use this edition: http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/index.html
Monday, November 19, 2012
Are you missing some notes from Animal Farm?
Check out THIS LINK to see MY original notes! :)
(I took pictures of the notes. They might not be amazingly clear, but they are available while you're home in your jammies!)
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Portfolio Check? What's the BIG deal?
Why do I collect a portfolio?
- All of your English "stuff" is in one place.
- All of your papers are organzied
- Both you (the student) and I (the teacher) know what you have covered.
- Reference material: Vocabulary and notes are instantly available.
What do I need in my
- Grammar Notes (10 points)
Animal Farm Items
5. Speaking Techniques (analyzing speeches)
(25 points)
(25 points)
6. Compare Old Major’s speech to famous speeches (45 points)
If you are MISSING any part of your portfolio, PLEASE come to flex on Tuesday 11/20 to get what you need!!
Midterm Writing Assignment
1. Write the title of your book.
2. Write how many pages you have read ____ out of how many pages there are in the book ____.
(______/_______)
3. What have you learned about the person in your non-fiction book?
4. What is the best thing we have learned this quarter? (Be specific. Tell me WHAT you learned, and WHY it was valuable, and HOW/WHAT was good about the way we learned it.)
Hand this in by the end of the hour.
ON THE BOTTOM AS QUESTION 5:
List what you DO have in your portfolio.
You may include 1 sentence about what is missing if you want.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Need Old Major's Speech?
All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door. When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat and began:
Paragraph 1
"Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last
night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say
first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months
longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom
as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for
thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I
understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now
living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.
Paragraph 2
"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it:
our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given
just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us
who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength;
and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are
slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning
of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is
free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.
Paragraph 3
"But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land
of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell
upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is
fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance
to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This
single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of
sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now
almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable
condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen
from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our
problems. It is summed up in a single word--Man. Man is the only real
enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and
overwork is abolished for ever.
Paragraph 4
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not
give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he
cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the
animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that
will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our
labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of
us that owns more than his bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how
many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year?
And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up
sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies.
And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many
of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to market
to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those
four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your
old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them
again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the
fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?
Paragraph 5
"And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their
natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones.
I am twelve years old and have had over four hundred children. Such is the
natural life of a pig. But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end.
You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will
scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all
must come--cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the dogs
have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of
yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut
your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when
they grow old and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and
drowns them in the nearest pond.
Paragraph 6
"Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life
of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and
the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could
become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body
and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you,
comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might
be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this
straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your
eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And
above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so
that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
Paragraph 7
"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument
must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the
animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the
prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no
creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity,
perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are
comrades."
"I have little more to say. I merely repeat, remember always your duty of
enmity towards Man and all his ways. Whatever goes upon two legs is an
enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And
remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble
him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices.
No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or touch money, or engage in trade. All the habits of Man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over is own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No
animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal.
"And now, comrades, I will tell you about my dream of last night. I cannot
describe that dream to you. It was a dream of the earth as it will be when
Man has vanished. But it reminded me of something that I had long
forgotten. Many years ago, when I was a little pig, my mother and the
other sows used to sing an old song of which they knew only the tune and
the first three words. I had known that tune in my infancy, but it had
long since passed out of my mind. Last night, however, it came back to me
in my dream. And what is more, the words of the song also came back-words,
I am certain, which were sung by the animals of long ago and have been
lost to memory for generations. I will sing you that song now, comrades.
I am old and my voice is hoarse, but when I have taught you the tune, you
can sing it better for yourselves. It is called 'Beasts of England'."
Old Major cleared his throat and began to sing. As he had said, his voice
was hoarse, but he sang well enough, and it was a stirring tune, something
between 'Clementine' and 'La Cucaracha'. The words ran:
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken to my joyful tidings
Of the golden future time.
Soon or late the day is coming,
Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown,
And the fruitful fields of England
Shall be trod by beasts alone.
Rings shall vanish from our noses,
And the harness from our back,
Bit and spur shall rust forever,
Cruel whips no more shall crack.
Riches more than mind can picture,
Wheat and barley, oats and hay,
Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels
Shall be ours upon that day.
Bright will shine the fields of England,
Purer shall its waters be,
Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes
On the day that sets us free.
For that day we all must labour,
Though we die before it break;
Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
All must toil for freedom's sake.
Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland,
Beasts of every land and clime,
Hearken well and spread my tidings
Of the golden future time.
Monday, November 12, 2012
I've finished my book, Now what?
See this link
More information coming (as a printed piece of paper!)
More information coming (as a printed piece of paper!)
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Honors English Quote Quiz
Choose ONE quote. Write about it WELL.
- page 209: "... The extent to which they revered Danny was obvious to everyone. They clung to him as if he were the reincarnation of the Besht, as though he were their student Tzaddik, so to speak. But none of this made him happy."
- page 214 "He had always prepared for his classes, but there was a kind of heaviness to the way he went about it now... as if he were trying to make certain that nothing of significance would go unsaid, as if he felt the future hung on every idea he taught."
- page 215 "How many fathers do I have?"
- page 217 "I learned a long time ago that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing, but the man who lives that span, he is something. ... A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life."
- page 219 "If you become a rabbi."
"When I become a rabbi, you mean."
"America needs rabbis." - page 228 "He was trapped by his beard and earlocks, he said, and there was nothing he could do. But one day..."
- page 231 "Danny was not to see me, talk to me, listen to me, be found within four feet of me. My father and I had been excommunicated from the Saunders family. ... never would he let his son be the friend of the son of a man who was advocating the establishment of a secular Jewish state run by Jewish goyim."
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Animal Farm notes
Animal Farm is a satire. See this link.
We have talked about the differences between Communism, Fascism, Socialism, and Capitalism.
Today we covered Totalitarianism.
Character notes:
Notes on Old Major's speech...
We have talked about the differences between Communism, Fascism, Socialism, and Capitalism.
Today we covered Totalitarianism.
Character notes:
Notes on Old Major's speech...
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