Final TKAM Blog

Prejudice, ignorance, and hatred were widespread during the Jim Crow Era, but these problems continue to haunt our society today.  What can we do about it?  How should we respond?  Reflect on the different forms of prejudice and ignorance you see in your own school environment, and then persuade your classmates and peers about the effects of prejudice and ignorance and the best way to respond to it, using evidence from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and your own life experiences.

Your job is to craft a persuasive response to one of the essential questions using evidence from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and your own life experiences.  The essential questions you will consider are:

• How are innocent people affected by hatred, prejudice, and ignorance?
• What is the best response to the existence of evil in the world?
• How can innocence be destroyed by evil?
• How can prejudice influence the way people interact with each other?

You need to convince your classmates as well as other peers in your school building.  You will craft your persuasive response on a new page on your student Blog.

Your persuasive response needs to contain an attention-getter, the essential question you are responding to, 3 pieces of evidence from the novel, and at least one example from your own life.  (see rubric)

Performance Task Assessment Rubric

Score	Category	Description
_________/10	Response to Essential Question	Writing gets the reader’s attention, clearly states the author’s response to the essential question (theme), supports response with plenty of evidence from the novel in addition to evidence from the writer’s own experience.  Writer’s purpose is clear.
_________/10	Development of Ideas	Ideas are clear and focused, writer explained his/her ideas thoroughly with details.  Writer crafted a meaningful response to the theme in the text and connected it to their own experience.
_________/5	Organization/Presentation	Writing is logically organized and the writer’s main idea(s) are easily identified.  Writing is easy to read, engaging, and helps the reader to understand and connect with the message.
_________/5	Conventions	Writer communicates his/her message clearly with very few spelling/grammatical errors.
Total: ____________/30

Performance Task Self-Assessment

(Respond to the following questions as a separate blog post titled TKAM Self Assessment.

You can copy and past the questions in your blog if it makes it easier for you to answer them.)

1. Looking at the rubric and reflecting on your own experiences with the performance task, what grade would you give yourself?  Support your response with specific reasons.

2. Do you feel that you’ve carefully and thoughtfully considered your own experiences and the world around you in responding to your essential question?  Explain.

3. What do you feel that you have learned from the novel itself?  Is what you have learned meaningful to you?  Explain.

4. Looking back at your bookmarks and things to consider while reading, to what extent do you feel that you understand these big ideas and concepts?  Explain.

5. What learning experiences either inside or outside of class most helped you achieve the desired understandings?  Why?

6. What did you do/experience during this unit that you are particularly proud of?  Why?

Monster or Man?

In the narrative of "To Kill A Mockingbird", one character suffers a great deal - in silence.  

Chapters 4-6 do a great deal to establish Boo Radley as a human-being. At the moment, Boo is just a diversion for the children. A closer look at Boo reveals that he is actually very integral to the plot, but it is unclear to the reader what his contribution will be.

When presents start to appear in the tree, Scout does not realize who has been putting them there. However, it isn't hard for the reader to guess that it is Boo.

In fact, the emergence of Boo also ushers in a very powerful female character - Miss Maudie. She goes a long way to make sure they children understand their superstitious view of Boo have dehumanized him. She also makes sure the children understand that Boo was a nice boy who suffered at the hands of a tyrannically religious family. Shaping his character this way, Lee suggests that Boo is one of many victims populating a book whose title, To Kill a Mockingbird, suggests the destruction of someone childlike and innocent.

This is a benchmark moment in the book for Jem, Scout, and Dill. Where they had previously viewed Boo Radley as a symbol of childhood superstition and an object of ridicule, they are beginning to view him as a human being. Because of this, we can see their gradual development as more sympathetic and mature.

This is a critical plot-point that foreshadows what is to come when book moves to Tom Robinson's trial.

My question for your blog is the following:

Have you ever misjudged someone? What did it take for you to see that you were wrong? Were you able to make it right? What did your hasty judgment teach you about yourself?

One Simple Trick...

    Empathy is key. Contemplate the following ideas and then answer the questions below for this weeks blog post.

Name instances where our society is lacking empathy. What can we do to change the attitude of people who lack compassion/ empathy?

"If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kind of folks.  You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
                                          -Atticus (pg 39)

What is your opinion as you consider this advice?
Why do you think it necessary for Harper Lee's narrator to be an adult looking back at her childhood?
What is it about the nature of children that make this advice so poignant?

Ban Books?

At one point we talked about this book having been banned.  I found this article the other day and thought it was interesting. What do you think after reading the book? Do you agree with any of these statements?
Do you believe we should ban books? Explain and write you opinions on book banning.  (This should be at least a paragraph)

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

In 1989, Steinbeck’s novel was challenged as a summer youth program reading assignment in Chattanooga, TN because “Steinbeck is known to have had an anti business attitude.” Also, “he was very questionable as to his patriotism.” Well, his books must be trash, then.

In 1992, a coalition of community members and clergy in Mobile, AL challenged the book on charges of “profanity” and “morbid and depressing themes.”

In 2003, the book was challenged in the Normal, IL Community High Schools on account of the fact that it “does not represent traditional values.” (Kind of on the nose for a town called “Normal,” eh?)

In 2007, a parent called the novel a “worthless, profanity-riddled book” which is “derogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled.” The Olathe, KS high school kept assigning it anyway. We think posterity would disagree on that “worthless” bit.

This excerpt was taken from "The Most Ridiculous Claims Used to Challenge Classic Novels"
By Emily Temple published on April 15,2013. Flavorwire.com

Word Pictures (Blog #4)

When Dreams Die at the Hands of Mercy

Create three "snapshots" one from chapter three, four and five. Each snapshot should depict a frozen moment from the chapter.  Include precise and vivid details. Make sure that the words you are using really create the picture that is in your mind from that part of the chapter. Take inspiration from the text, but use your own words.  If you like you make include a picture to go along with the "word picture" your have created.  If you choose to add a picture write a short caption beneath it..

What's in your Bindle?

Imagine that you have no particular home and travel from site to site with a bundle of bedding with your personal belongings stuffed inside of it.  Everything you own fits on "an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for the personal belongings of the occupant (16).  What is in your bindle? Describe the places you travel and the things you carry with you and why you carry them with you.

Lucky You!

You have received a believable-looking, business-sized white envelope in the mail.  The return address is from a company called Peerless. Printed on the envelope, in bright red letters, are the words "You May Have Already Won." Tell the story of what it is you may have won- or what it is you didn't win.  Tell what you do with this envelope.

Start with: Life takes some funny twists and turns...