Mudbound/Short stories

AGENDA:  Keep the blog open but minimized at all times during the class period so that you can check your progress on the lesson.

1. Morning Reflection: Grace

2. MUDBOUND discussion. TEST ON FRIDAY!

EQ: What is the significance of the title of Mudbound?  How does an author convey his or her perspective through titling a work?

Make sure you have posted a comment for questions 1, 2, and 3.  Several of you have not.
Today, post your thoughts about questions 8, 9, and 10.
We will discuss questions 4-7 in class today.  First discuss in small groups and then report out to the class.
Be sure to support your CLAIMS with EVIDENCE from the text.  Take notes!  Use your hard copies of the questions from Monday.

Question 4:

Brown, Frances A

Collazo, Taina

Driscoll-brantley, Gena

Ehmann, Nicole

Gresko, Ethan J

Question 5:

Gunner, Imani

Haynesworth, Thiery

Hymon, Branden A

Inthavong, Khamphasong

Landers, Grace

Question 6:

Mclamore, Imani C

Miranda, Damarys

Monroe, Alexis

Pembrook, Nathan

Proctor, Diamond A

Question 7:

Rattray, Jahni

Stanley, Shayozinique

Swift-Horth, Carly F

Torrance, Vanessa

Zeluff, Kayli
3. SHORT STORIES:  Work on your story.  Maintain appropriate quiet time in the classroom while writing.

4. EXIT TICKET:  Self-monitor your work during the class.  Everyone starts at 3.
Add a point for class participation in the discussion.
Add a point for working on your short story and maintaining the quiet writing classroom.

Your goal is a 5 for the day!

Discussion questions for Mudbound/SHORT STORIES

 AGENDA:
Morning Reflection: Grace.  Please wait until Wednesday when I am there.

 For Wednesday, you should have read all of Mudbound for class discussion (catch up if you're behind).
In the meantime, use PERIOD 1 to answer Questions 1, 2, and 3 on the blog.  Support your comments with evidence from the test.

PERIOD 2: Work on short stories.  First draft due Friday!

Discussion Questions 
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/643-mudbound-jordan

1. The setting of the Mississippi Delta is intrinsic to Mudbound. Discuss the ways in which the land functions as a character in the novel and how each of the other characters relates to it.

2. Mudbound is a chorus, told in six different voices. How do the changes in perspective affect your understanding of the story? Are all six voices equally sympathetic? Reliable? Pappy is the only main character who has no narrative voice. Why do you think the author chose not to let him speak?

3. Who gets to speak and who is silent or silenced is a central theme, the silencing of Ronsel being the most literal and brutal example. Discuss the ways in which this theme plays out for the other characters. For instance, how does Laura's silence about her unhappiness on the farm affect her and her marriage? What are the consequences of Jamie's inability to speak to his family about the horrors he experienced in the war? How does speaking or not speaking confer power or take it away?

4. The story is narrated by two farmers, two wives and mothers, and two soldiers. Compare and contrast the ways in which these parallel characters, black and white, view and experience the world.

5. What is the significance of the title? In what ways are each of the characters bound—by the land, by circumstance, by tradition, by the law, by their own limitations? How much of this binding is inescapable and how much is self-imposed? Which characters are most successful in freeing themselves from what binds them?

6. All the characters are products of their time and place, and instances of racism in the book run from Pappy’s outright bigotry to Laura’s more subtle prejudice. Would Laura have thought of herself as racist, and if not, why not? How do the racial views of Laura, Jamie, Henry, and Pappy affect your sympathy for them?

7. The novel deals with many thorny issues: racism, sexual politics, infidelity, war. The characters weigh in on these issues, but what about the author? Does she have a discernable perspective, and if so, how does she convey it?

8. We know very early in the book that something terrible is going to befall Ronsel. How does this sense of inevitability affect the story? Jamie makes Ronsel responsible for his own fate, saying "Maybe that's cowardly of me, making Ronsel's the trigger finger." Is it just cowardice, or is there some truth to what Jamie says? Where would you place the turning point for Ronsel? Who else is complicit in what happens to him, and why?

9. In reflecting on some of the more difficult moral choices made by the characters—Laura's decision to sleep with Jamie, Ronsel's decision to abandon Resl and return to America, Jamie's choice during the lynching scene, Florence's and Jamie's separate decisions to murder Pappy—what would you have done in those same situations? Is it even possible to know? Are there some moral positions that are absolute, or should we take into account things like time and place when making judgments?

10. How is the last chapter of Mudbound different from all the others? Why do you think the author chose to have Ronsel address you, the reader, directly? Do you believe he overcomes the formidable obstacles facing him and finds "something like happiness"? If so, why doesn't the author just say so explicitly? Would a less ambiguous ending have been more or less satisfying?

Work on Mudbound stories

AGENDA:

Morning Reflection--Thiery      Post your response.  What does it make you think about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92DfnPY


GREAT MORNING REFLECTION, THIERY!


Review Mudbound assignment and rubric.

Work on "Mudbound" stories.  Develop your setting and character voices.

Next Morning reflection:  Grace

Mudbound Writing Assignment/Bennington Writing contest

EQ: How does reading Mudbound relate to your major writing assignment? 


Mudbound and the other literary works we will read are models for your writing.  They are EXEMPLAR TEXTS.  Your writing assignments correspond each marking period to aspects of contemporary style and themes.
STYLE:   Multiple perspectives and historical fiction
THEMES: Racism post WWII in the American South, families,
African-American soldiers in WWI, life in the Mississippi Delta farming

DUE DATE:  Friday, Sept. 27, first draft

What we're actually looking for in your short story now that you have brainstormed an idea and have begun working on it:

1. Length: minimum 5 pages, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, double-spaced

2. Historical Setting: Set your story in the time and place you are interested in and have done research about.  The details of this time period should be apparent in your story.  Use a padlet or the graphic organizers to take notes.

3. Characters:  Just like Mudbound, your story should have multiple perspectives and be told by at least 3 characters whose voices are interwoven throughout the story.
Switch between characters by skipping a space and putting the character's name in capital letters centered above his or her section.   Write in the first person point of view from each character's unique perspective.

4. Conflict:  Your story should have a significant conflict or incident that involves your characters.  Create a key moment for the characters to interact if possible.  Be sure to resolve the conflict.

5. DETAILS: As always, SHOW, DON'T TELL

If you have questions, go over the rubric again. 

Great ideas so far:
Old West, Confederacy and Civil War, 9/11, Emmett Till, 16th St. Church bombing, Prohibition, Budapest post WWII, Pullman Porters, etc.  Keep going!

CONTEST: 
Bennington Young Writers

http://www.bennington.edu/youngwriterscompetition.aspx

More about Mudbound

AGENDA:

Starting the day right:

Morning Reflection/Writing Practice  (ala National Writing Practice)  Thiery next on Thursday

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=piano+guys+youtube&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=E1ABB5261BF2A22C6716E1ABB5261BF2A22C6716 

Write a reflection on what you have seen and post as a comment.

Read Hillary Jordan's blog post: "Lessons from Advertising"


http://www.bookbrowse.com/blogs/editor/index.cfm/2009/4/5/Guest-blog-by-Hillary-Jordan-author-of-iMudboundi

Look up the word:  Miscegenation

Continue to work on your historical short story.  Research the time and place (setting).  What was happening in the world at this time?

Develop your 3 characters:

Explore your characters' motivations.  Interrogate them.

http://thewritepractice.com/how-to-explore-your-characters-motivations/

Interesting website for character and setting development:

http://www.the-writers-craft.com/creative-writing-worksheets.html 

HOMEWORK:  Finish reading PART TWO in Mudbound

Mudbound/Historical Fiction

AGENDA:

HMWK:  Read to pg.  182   in Part 2 for TUESDAY

Handout: Reading check, multiple choice questions on Part 1--you may use your books!  This is just to check your reading and recall

Activity:
THINK, PAIR SHARE
The symbol of family relationships is a strong one in "Mudbound".  Using  examples from the text, pick a card with a number, discuss with a partner and post a comment about the nature of  one of the relationships below:
1. Jamie and Laura
2. Laura and Henry
3. Henry and Jamie
4. Florence and Ronsel
5. Ronsel and Hap
6. Florence and Hap

Writing
Work on your own short stories, create a padlet of historical images, develop 3 characters
Have a great weekend!

Historical Fiction/Setting--Time and Place

 AGENDA:

Mudbound's Setting

Time and Place

EQ: How does the setting of a novel, time and place, function in the telling of the story?

 Work on padlet for Mudbound

Work on your own story--what images are connected with the time and place you are setting your story.  Create a padlet for your story?

Mississippi 1948, the role of African Americans in WWII

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/02/0215_tuskegee.html

http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/ww2-pictures/

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

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1948.html
http://www.brainyhistory.com/years/1948.html 


http://padlet.com/wall/ihgzk6ztes 

HMWK:  Read to pg.