The Hours Study Guide

The Hours Lesson Plan Study guide

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByDydJ2HScSnbnRiMGQ4ZUc2b2c/view?usp=sharing

Fugitive Pieces Study Guide

Fugitive Pieces :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByDydJ2HScSnWldET181ZVduSlU/view?usp=sharing

Fugitive Pieces Discussion questions

Fugitive Pieces is an incandescent novel, heartbreaking and finally joyful. Its vivid images, its poetry and its wisdom will prove unforgettable.

1. Why is the first section of the novel entitled "The Drowned City?" Why is the title repeated for a later section?

2. Jakob says that Athos's fascination with Antarctica "was to become our azimuth. It was to direct the course of our lives" [33]. Why do you think Antarctica obsessed Athos? How does the story of the Scott expedition relate to that of Athos and Jakob? Do you agree with Jakob that Athos's fascination directed their lives?

3. "When the prisoners were forced to dig up the mass graves, the dead entered them through their pores and were carried through their bloodstreams to their brains and hearts. And through their blood into another generation" [52], Jakob writes, and later, "It's no metaphor to feel the influence of the dead in the world" [53]. How does the theme of the dead's influence on the living work itself out in the course of the novel?

4. The communist partisans in Greece, who had valiantly resisted the occupying Nazis, themselves committed terrible atrocities after the war, as Kostas and Daphne relate. Do you agree with their theory that violence is like an illness that can be caught, and that the Greeks caught it from the Germans [72]? What other explanations can be offered?

5. "I already knew the power of language to destroy, to omit, to obliterate," says Jakob. "But poetry, the power of language to restore: this was what both Athos and Kostas were trying to teach me" [79]. What instances does the novel give of the destructive power of language? In what ways does writing--both the writing of poetry and of translations--help to heal and restore Jakob? Does silence--the cessation of language--have its own function, and if so, what might it be?

6. "We were a vine and a fence. But who was the vine? We would both have answered differently" [108]. Here Jakob is speaking of his relationship with Athos; of what other relationships in the novel might this metaphor be used? Does Michaels imply that dependence is an integral part of love?

7. What is it about Alex's character that attracts Jakob and makes him fall in love with her? Why does he eventually find life with her impossible? Do you find Alex a sympathetic character, or an unpleasant one?

8. "History is amoral: events occurred. But memory is moral" [138]. "Every moment is two moments" [161]. How does Jakob define and differentiate history and memory? Can you see Fugitive Pieces as a comparison of history and memory?

9. Music is an important element of Fugitive Pieces, and it is central to the lives of at least three of the characters, Bella, Alex, and Naomi. What does music mean to each of these characters? Why has Michaels given music such a prominent metaphoric role in the novel?

10. What does Fugitive Pieces say about the condition of being an immigrant? Jakob never feels truly at home anywhere, even in Greece. Ben's parents feel that their toehold in their new home is infinitely precarious, an emotion that communicates itself to Ben. Does Michaels imply that real integration is impossible?

11. Can you explain the very different reactions Ben's parents have had to their experience in the Holocaust? What in their characters has determined the differing ways they respond to grief and loss?

12. The relationship between Ben and Naomi is a troubled one. Why is he angry at her for her closeness to his parents and her attention to their graves? Why does he reject her by leaving for Greece without her? How can you explain his intense desire for Petra--is his need purely physical? How do Petra and Naomi differ? What is the significance of their names?

13. Science has as important a role in the novel as poetry and music. Why is geology so important to Athos, meteorology to Ben? Does science represent a standard of disinterested truth, or does it merely symbolize the world's terrifying contingency?

14. Why might Jakob have named his collection of poems Groundwork, and in what way does that title relate to his life? Jakob calls his young self a "bog-boy" [5]. Why does Ben take such an interest in the preserved bog people he reads about [221]?

15. The last line of the novel is Ben's: "I see that I must give what I most need." What does he mean by this? What does he most need, what will he give, and to whom?

16. What is the significance of the novel's title? What do "pieces," or "fragments," mean within Michaels's scheme? Where in the novel can you find references to fragments?

END OF THE YEAR PORTFOLIO

For your end of the year portfolio you will need to select 5 of your best works from the year.  Three of these works should be poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

In addition, please write a 3-5 page reflection essay on your work this year:  This essay is extremely important.  Be sure to discuss each of the works you included in the portfolio .  Be selective but thorough.  Focus on your personal growth as a writer.

Self Reflection Non Fiction - Creative Essay: 

Reflective piece: 3-5 pages, double-spaced. Write about how you’ve grown as a writer this year, what has been easy/hard for you, what areas you feel you need more work in; reflect on your progress as a writer, a reader, and as a student. Write about each selected piece you have chosen to include in your portfolio (per genre): why did you include these pieces in your portfolio? How does the piece show your growth and development as a writer in this particular genre? What did you learn about yourself concerning writing from this assignment or project? Discuss the writing process you used to create the work, where you got your ideas, what you learned about the form or genre of the work as you wrote and revised it, what you learned about yourself as a writer, etc. Discuss special projects and reading that had an impact on you. Which books you read were of high interest and what did you learn about writing from reading them? What did you learn about writing and about yourself through these assignments and courses this year?

Continue to work on your independent projects.

Listening to the Future

AGENDA:

Congrats Nasmere and Juno!

Go to:
https://www.rocspoke.org/listening-to-the-future-participants-announced/https://www.rocspoke.org/listening-to-the-future-participants-announced/

Coffeehouse Readings

AGENDA:

Coffeehouse Readings TONIGHT!  Get your points by attending and reading!

Work on independent projects...WORKSHOP with each other for points!

Fugitive Pieces Reviews

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-679-45439-7

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/23/fugitive-pieces-anne-michaels

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/20/reviews/970420.20dipiert.html

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anne-michaels/fugitive-pieces/

Independent Project POINTS, POINTS, POINTS

AGENDA:

Focus on getting points today!

Videos--Fugitive Pieces/The Hours

AGENDA:

View videos for 1st period.

Work on Independent projects.

Young Arts competition

Consider applying and working on your entries over the summer!

http://www.youngarts.org/apply?utm_source=2018+Applications+Opening+for+Educators&utm_campaign=3982a41d0e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a533eb619a-3982a41d0e-91512525

Reading Groups

AGENDA:

Please meet with your reading group to discuss your books!

Continue to work on independent projects.  WRITE!   
Watch a TED Talk and write a response to it.
Write a poem or two.  
Work on a revision of a short story.  
Plan on what you will read at Coffeehouse on May 23.  
Write a monologue.  
Write a dialogue.  
Grab a BOA poetry book from the bookshelves next door. Read the poems and write about the poet and write a book review.

JUST GET WRITING AND READING!

Independent Projects and Reading Groups

AGENDA:

Meet with your reading groups and discuss reading questions.

Continue to work on independent projects.  Aim for 100 points by the end of this week!