The Snow Child

Good morning folks!!

I hope you all had a good week of testing and aren't too tuckered out. We're going to be taking things a bit easy today, but I do want to see how you all are doing with the reading...

AGENDA:

1. We will be taking a quiz today. Take about 20 or so minutes to complete it. Please answer as best as you can and don't leave anything blank!!

2. Once everyone is done and the quizzes have been collected, we will go over it as a class just for review.

3. Today we will be looking closely at Chapter 13, looking for some elements of magical realism that we have discusses before, as well as examining the use of dialogue in Part I of the novel.

4. With whatever remaining time that we have left in class, please continue looking for your folktale/fairytale. You absolutely need to have it picked out by next Friday (2/7). If you already have it picked out, please let myself or Ms. Gamzon know so that we can begin working on the writing project.

HOMEWORK:

Read chapters 14-20

The Snow Child/Magical Realism

Morning everyone!

I want to thank you all for working as hard as you did on Tuesday and I hope that we can do the same today.

AGENDA:

FIRST PERIOD:
     1. Review what happened in chapters 5-8.

     2. Review characteristics of magical realism.

     3. Individually or with a partner, go back over chapters 4-8 and look for elements of these characteristics. When you find them, be sure note page numbers and, if you can, specific lines from the text!

     4. Share out with the class. Each person will need to share one element or characteristic they found.

SECOND PERIOD:
     1. Finish your SOKOL entries!!

Magical Realism Characteristics

FANTASTICAL ELEMENTS:

Fantastical elements and events are included in an otherwise “normal” narrative. The narrative maintains a strong contemporary cultural relevance while reaching beyond the confines of realism and drawing upon the elements of fable, folktale, and myth.

AUTHORIAL RETICENCE:

The deliberate withholding of information and explanations about the disconcerting fictitious world. The narrator does not provide explanations about the accuracy or credibility of events described or views expressed by characters in the text. The narrator is indifferent, a characteristic enhanced by this absence of explanation of fantastic events; the story proceeds with "logical precision" as if nothing extraordinary took place. Magical events are presented as ordinary occurrences; therefore, the reader accepts the marvelous as normal and common.

SENSE OF MYSTERY:

The reader must let go of preexisting ties to conventional exposition, plot advancement, linear time structure, scientific reason, etc., to strive for a state of heightened awareness of life's connectedness or hidden meanings.

METAFICTION:

The narrative explores the impact fiction has on reality, reality on fiction and the reader’s role in between; as such, it is well suited for drawing attention to social or political criticism. Furthermore, it is the tool paramount in the execution of a related and major magic realist phenomenon: textualization. This term defines two conditions—first, where a fictitious reader enters the story within a story while reading it, making us self-conscious of our status as readers—and secondly, where the textual world enters into the reader's (our) world.

REAL WORLD SETTING

The existence of fantasy elements in the real world provides the basis for magical realism. Writers don't invent new worlds but reveal the magical in this world. In the binary world of magical realism, the supernatural realm blends with the natural, familiar world.

The Snow Child

Good morning, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, snow filled , three day weekend!

First, I want to thank you all for welcoming me into your class and allowing me the opportunity to teach you. I am really looking forward to getting to know each of you more in the next several weeks!

Second, you were all supposed to read Chapters 1 - 4 in The Snow Child over the weekend so our plan for today will center around that.

AGENDA:

1. Brief introduction/review of The Snow Child and homesteading.

2. Discussion guides.

     a. Get into pairs or groups of three and work together to answer the discussion questions. Find evidence from the novel to help support the answers you come up with and include page numbers!

     b.Once you have answered all the discussion questions, we will go over them as a class.

3. Close reading activity: Pages 6-9.

     a. We will be reading this passage aloud as a class.

     b. Then reread the passage silently to yourself and jot down any observations you have on the sheet you will be given. Look for figurative language (i.e. similes, metaphors, imagery, personification, symbolism, etc.)

     c. After you have finished, we will go over your observations as a class.

4. With the remaining class time, keep working on finding a folktale/fairytale for your final story. If you have already found one, start thinking about how you would include a scene like the one from close reading activity into your own story.

HOMEWORK:

Read Chapters 5-8 in The Snow Child

Snow Child/ SOKOL/ Gannon

Agenda:

1. Go down to the library to pick up The Snow Child.  You can begin reading the book today.  Start thinking about your short story or play adaptation of a folktale.

2. Continue to work on your Sokol and Gannon entries

Here is the link for SOKOL:
http://www3.libraryweb.org/sokolcontest.aspx

3.  MISSING WORK:  All blog entries up to date, 2nd person short story and Prayer for the Dying essay.

Folktales

Hello Everyone!

Here are links to lists of folktales from a few different countries and cultures:

African Folktales

Asian Folktales

European Folktales

North American Folktales

South American Folktales

Here is a list of several prominent fairytale writers and brief information on them as well as their fairytales:

Hans Christian Anderson

The Brothers Grimm

Andrew Lang

Charles Perrault

Here is another website that has some cultural folktales, fairytales, myths, and legends for you to browse:

Aaron's World of Stories

Some of these folktales and fairytales you might recognize (for example, most cultures have a version of the story of Cinderella) and some of them you will be completely new to you. These are great links to get you started thinking about your new writing assignment!

SOKOL/ The Snow Child

AGENDA:


1. Work on SOKOL entries and GANNON POETRY CONTEST

https://www.gannon.edu/NewsDetail.aspx?id=8589940409

2. The Snow Maiden
http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/snow_maiden.html

http://vd-crystaldream.blogspot.com/2013/05/legend-of-snow-maiden-russian-fairy.html

Magical Realism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism

Prayer for the Dying Essay Response/TEST for Friday

Some of you may want to get started on this today for Friday.  The rest of you need to finish your stories, edit and proofread them, and answer the discussion questions in previous posts!   GET WORKING!

 ESSAY TEST (literary analysis):

 Write a critical essay response to one of the following discussion topics about A Prayer for the Dying using text-based references and MLA citation:



http://thelibrarium.wordpress.com/2006/11/24/discussion-starters-for-a-prayer-for-the-dying/




Here are some reviews and interviews you might want to check out:

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/11/daily/041299onan-book-review.html

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/02/reviews/990502.02mcgratt.html

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/books/99/05/06/STEWART_O_NAN.html

http://blogcritics.org/book-review-a-prayer-for-the/

http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/a-prayer-for-the-dying-a-novel

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8050-6147-5

Second person short stories/A Prayer for the Dying

AGENDA:

1. Second person short stories: Due Friday, Jan. 10.  Continue to work on your short stories by revising and editing if you have a first draft.  If not, work on completing your story.

2. A Prayer for the Dying:  THINK, PAIR, SHARE
Discuss with a partner the following questions and post a response on the blog:

6. How would you describe the relationship between Jacob and Doc? How do their different ideas about the world lead to different strategies for handling the outbreak in Friendship?
7. How does Jacob’s relationship with Marta affect his behavior in the outbreak? How do his priorities as a father and husband conflict with his responsibility to the town?
8. How do you interpret the book’s ending? What is Jacob choosing when he returns to Friendship? What do you imagine happening to him next?
9. Is Jacob sane at the end of the book? How does the author demonstrate the changes in his mind as conditions worsen?
10. “You’ve stopped believing in evil,” the narrator says of Jacob early in the story (p. 6). “Is that a sin?” Is there evil in this story? Does Jacob come to see it by the end?
11. How do the book’s two epigraphs relate to each other? Why do you think the author chose them?
12. Jacob is committed throughout the book to saving Friendship, and willing to sacrifice himself if necessary. Is he naïve? Does his commitment to principle do more harm than good in the end?
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