FOR TUESDAY, SEPT. 22 Read Ch. 1 and 2 JoJo and Leonie On a Google Doc, please answer the following questions and upload it to this Classroom Assignment page for credit. Chapter 1 – pages 1-30 What is Jojo’s relationship to his two grandfathers, pop and Big Joseph/ What do you think these two men think of each other? Why does Jojo seek refuge among the farm animals? What do they offer him that the humans in his life don’t? Why has Jojo starting calling his biological parents by their first names, Leonie and Michael? What’s his relationship with them like? Chapter 2 – pages 31-57 What special abilities does Mam have? Why does Leonie choose not to tell Mam when she sees Given’s ghost for the first time? Why does Leonie choose to go deliver her message to Big Joseph in person, instead of calling on the phone? ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR THE BOOK: - Family connection is not automatic – you can choose to care for someone, and also choose not to. - Trauma and hardship takes up the space and time needed to live a good, healthy life. - When their lives feel unresolved, the dead stay with us. Universal - Who in your family cares for you? How did they get to be in that role? - When has you or your family struggled? What impact did that struggle have on your daily life? - Who do you know who has passed away? Does their death and life stay with you? Why? Book-Specific - Who in the family cares for Jojo and Kayla? How did they get to be in that role? - What are some of the struggles their family has had to face? How did that struggle impact their lives and their relationships with one another? - Who has passed away in the book, and why do they stay with the characters? What are they looking for? Introduction/Morning Reflection: 1. Have students take five minutes to answer the following prompt on paper: What have you killed? What was the experience like? Figurative or literal. 2. Have students share their answers and ask followup questions: Did you watch something die? How did its death make you feel? Did this experience change you in some way? 3. Read pages 1-9 together. If you can, use the audio recording of Ward reading the first few pages on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2017/11/28/566933935/for-jesmyn-ward-writing-means-telling-the-truth-about-the-place-that-ilive-in 4. Discuss: Why is killing the goat so important to Jojo? What does it show about his relationship to his Pop? How about the other members of his family? Why does he want to show he is “old enough to look at death as a man should” (5)? 5. Watch the three-minute video made about Ward when she won the MacArthur grant in 2017: https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1002/ Discuss: What are some of her unique experiences growing up where she did? Do you think her world has any overlap with ours in Rochester? Where do you see the similarities and differences? MORE RESOURCES: ONLINE RESOURCES AUTHOR PROFILES Jesmyn Ward: “I wanted to write about the people of the south” A profile of the author after she won the National Book Award for the first time, with Salvage the Bones. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/01/jesmyn-ward-national-book-award Jesmyn Ward on Fresh Air A nineteen minute interview and accompanying printed transcript. https://www.npr.org/2017/11/28/566933935/for-jesmyn-ward-writing-means-telling-the-truth-about-the-place-that-ilive-in VIDEO Jesmyn Ward Answers Reader Questions Seven minutes of video where Ward answers questions sent in by readers about the background and inspiration for the novel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEpKy0g9saM https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/jesmyn-ward-answers-your-questions-about-singunburied-sing Jesmyn Ward on Seth Myers Four minutes of Ward talking about the legacy of slavery and racism in the South and how it influences her novel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLezj-UYr1c MISSISSIPPI Delisle, Mississippi An essay by the author describing the challenges facing the residents of her home town who live in poverty, especially when it comes to securing health care. https://harpers.org/archive/2017/10/delisle-mississippi/ Writing Mississippi: Jesmyn Ward Salvages Stories of the Silenced An NPR story with accompanying 8 minutes of audio. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/31/547271081/writing-mississippi-jesmyn-ward-salvages-stories-of-thesilenced Racism is “Built into the Very Bones” of Mississippi A long form essay describing the structural practices that encourage racism to persist in Ward’s home state. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/jesmyn-ward-mississippi/552500/ Parchman prison: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/inside-mississippis-notorious-parchman-prison
For Jesmyn Ward, Writing Means Telling The 'Truth About The Place That I Live In' : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/28/566933935/for-jesmyn-ward-writing-means-telling-the-truth-about-the-place-that-i-live-in
Sing, Unburied, Sing. A Novel - PDFDrive.com.pdf
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5 class comments
I have killed many a mosquito in my time, and not a single time have I felt any remorse, in fact, the act generally makes me feel good. When I see that blood spatter, I feel like it got what it deserves. But when I think about it, it’s just doing what it needs to do to survive, and the other thing is, what is my excuse for murdering it? Do I have the right to maintain the policy that “ANYTHING THAT PESTERS ME SHALL DIE?” I don’t know. I mean it’s just a bug. But then again, it doesn’t hurt that much to leave it alive. However, if I look at it from an evolutionary perspective, I'm supposed to smack the mosquito. It’s what my ancestors would have done and it’s what I should do for survival. So I guess, next time I see a mosquito, I’ll just kill it, without any remorse. It annoys me to a small degree, so it shall die.
I have killed a lot of bugs and mosquitoes and stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever killed anything else living but figuratively I have killed many of my relationships with people, whether it was a homicide or a murder. These deaths have meant things to me, they make me feel awful and they are also the whole reason that I have to go to therapy. I suppose I am a serial killer, unwitting as I might be to this fact.
Most people are probably going to say that they’ve killed bugs, and while yes, I have too, that’s the least of my worries. Over time I’ve realized that I’ve been slowly killing my motivation and confidence by surrounding myself with negativity. I sit and I brood instead of trying to break out of this temporary shell of darkness. Now that I’m aware of it I’m trying my best to change things but it’s hard to break bad habits.
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Keniah Harris I was driving looking forward. Then a cat came outta nowhere and I killed it. I tried to swerve, but it was too late. I felt so bad. I literally turned the car around to see if it was still alive. And of course it wasn’t. Worst moment ever. I felt sick to my stomach, but the cat came out of nowhere and I was looking forward. The cat so small I didn’t see it. This experience definitely changed me. Now I know to watch my surroundings and the ground so I won’t hit another animal.