Author: ewackett

Chapters (for Friday) Chris ch 29, 30, Bella 31, 32, Tessa 33, 34, Sophia 35, 36, James 37, 38, Daniel 39, 40 Jasper 41, 42, Desi 43, 44

(If you want to get ahead in your chapters…the next lot will be:  Desi 45-46; Tessa 47-48;  Jasper 49-50;  Chris 51-52;  Sophia 53-54;  James 55-56;   Bella 57-58;  Daniel 59-60.)

Faith is of the utmost importance to Pi. In fact, he has a pluralistic faith. He is a Hindu, a Christian and a Moslem (and in later life a Jew). So a working knowledge of the key facets of each religion is a must when studying Life of Pi.

Chapters for close study:

Chris ch 12 & 16, Bella 17, 18, Tessa 19, 20, Sophia 21, 22, James 23, 24, Daniel 25, 26, Jasper 27, 28.

Some preliminary thinking about the big ideas in Life of Pi:

Reminder: our next lesson (Friday) is when you will give your orals.

LOP Preliminary task

What are your views about the relationship between humans and animals? Choose two questions from the list below and construct well written paragraphs in response to those questions.

1.    What should the relationship between humans and animals be?

2.    Why do people tend to give animals (especially pets) human qualities?

3.    Do animals need humans? Are most better off without us?

4.    Do humans need animals? Why?

Homework: Close analysis of chapters:

Daniel– Chapter 1 and 2; Jasper– chapter 3 and 4; Bella– chapter 5 and 6; Sophia– chapter 7 and 8; Tessa– chapter 9, 10 and 11; James– chapter 13, 14 and 15

In your chapters, select quotes about:

• science/religion
• truth
• belief
• faith
• story telling
• survival
• hunger
• love
• imagination
• character information

We continued creating our screencasts.

Homework: Screencasts are due this week. Please hand them in digitally before Friday (email, upload to youtube, dropbox…lots of options).

We watched a student example of a screencast and then started work on our on.

During the lesson, we all posted a ‘request for help’ on the ‘help wall’. Other students accepted the ‘help request’ and then conferenced with that student.

Good luck at athletics!

Homework tonight: continue work on the screencast. Due Friday.

Homework this weekend: start work on your future screencast. You will only have one class next week to work on this. Enjoy the formal!

How do we think the future will turn out? How have our stories about the future changed over time? What do the stories we tell about the future reveal about the worlds we live in: our society, or hopes and our fears?

Context studies require you to form a broad understanding of a topic, and you will need to be able to approach it from a variety of different perspectives. Read and view widely to inform your understanding. You must become an EXPERT on this subject area.

Let’s whet our appetite:

http://www.cineplex.com/News/Close-to-Chaos-All-your-favourite-dystopian-movies-in-one-supercut

These movies all predict a future that is dystopian.

 

A dystopia is a world in which nothing is perfect. The problems that plague our world are often even more extreme in dystopias. Dystopia is a play on the made-up word ‘utopia’ using the root dys, which means ‘bad’ or ‘difficult.’

A utopia, on the other hand, is a perfect world. In utopias, there are not problems like war, disease, poverty, oppression, discrimination, inequality, and so forth.

Utopia

• peaceful government
• equality for citizens
• access to education, healthcare, employment, and so forth
• a safe environment

Dystopia

• usually a controlling, oppressive government or no government
• either extreme poverty for everyone or a huge income gap between the richest characters and the poorest characters
• propaganda controlling people’s minds
• freethinking and independent thought is banned

• Dystopian THEMES in Fahrenheit 451: Censorship’ • Conformity vs Individuality • Influence of Mass Media • Happiness • The power of thought and ideas
• 
• overpopulation, war, running out of resources, global warming, pollution, pandemic/disease, hyper-conservative governments (over-controlling/totalitarianism), technology becoming too advanced- overtaking humans, nuclear weapons, sense of humanity (emotions/feelings), isolation, loss of connection, greed/corporatisation, censorship (brain washing), media, lack of control over your destiny.
• 

Completed today in class.

This is our last lesson before the assessment task on Inheritance. So, we will pick a partner and select a topic for some speed planning.

You have 10 minutes with your partner to: brainstorm, think of 3-4 main paragraph ideas for this topic, write 3-4 topic sentences and select 6-8 quotes.

Then, SWAP PARTNERS and choose a different topic and then go through the above 10 minute process.

SWAP ONE LAST TIME and repeat.

The rest of the lesson will be spent on individual quote selection. Consider which quotes will be most useful for each of the main characters and then find several quotes for each of the key concerns in the play (such as family relationships, inheritance, duty/freedom, prejudices…)

HOMEWORK TONIGHT: prepare for tomorrow’s assessment task. Memorise your quotes.

 

Reminder: your assessment task Inheritance text response will be held on Tuesday 17 March period 4. No notes or texts or devices can be used, you will handwrite your response in class.

Homework this weekend is assessment task preparation using the activities and essay topics below.

Tasks and activities for today

(1) Organise and select the quotes you will memorise for this essay. Make sure you have a range of quotes for the key characters and concerns (inheritance; belonging/relationship with the land; family conflict; discrimination/intolerance; hardship/suffering; city/country; financial hardship).

(2) Brainstorming/planning for a variety of essay topics. Use the following topics to practice your “topic-unpacking skills” and “topic-sentence writing skills”:

 

Some of our class ideas for topic sentences (for topic 1)

The cold actions of Maureen Delaney and her selfish endeavour to put herself in a better place not only affects herself but also negatively affects her familly.

The tortured soul, Lyle Delaney, makes several questionable decisions impacting so disastrously on his circumstances that he ultimately ends his own life.

Farley’s lack of foresight and impeded judgement causes him to make rash decisions that drastically affects his life and more significantly his legacy.

Homework tonight: go back to your essay and rewrite your opening introduction and conclusion.

Body paragraph writing seems to be progressing well. However many of you still seem to have trouble writing effective introductions and conclusions. Have a look at these examples:

Remember: quotes are not the only evidence.  You can also use details about symbollism, narrative structure, stagecraft etc as part of your evidence to support your claims.  Click here to view the powerpoint about the stagecraft and narrative structure of Inheritance