Maus Part 2, Chpt 3

1. Is Artie enjoying his time with his father? Explain and use 2-3 panels of evidence to support your ideas.
2. What does Artie learn from his father about examples of "resistance" in the concentration camp? Explain and use 2-3 panels of evidence to support your ideas.
3. Describe Vladek's journey from Auschwitz to Dachau. What are the major themes expressed in this journey?
4. Which of Vladek's character traits helped him to survive his time in Dachau? Explain what he did and use panels to support your ideas.

Maus 2, Chpt 2

1. Check journals & share with peer. Large group discussion of 2.
2. FREE WRITE into Group discussion

• p. 204 --> what does the doctor mean when he calls Artie "the REAL survivor"?

Thesis writing & evidence colection practice

• With death comes the loss of story. How do authors and writers come to terms with creating and managing untold stories? Why does Art struggle with this? Is silence the right answer?
• How does suffering impact humans? Use text to support ideas
• How does Vladek survive? Use text to support ideas

Maus 2, Chpt 1

1. Check nightly journal. Please let me know if a student did not complete.
2. Activity 1: Work in pairs sharing journals. What did they notice? Why? Significance of panel? Any one group want to share with the class?
3. Activity 2: Working in groups of 2-3, fill out the following for Chpt 1: setting, characters, plot, conflict, theme, visual. Share out on the board and have one student per group put information on board. Review as a class.
4. Activity 3: Pick three panels to represent the beginning, middle and end of the chapter. Make sure you capture conflict.
5. Activity 4: Start reading chpt. 2

Maus: Chpt 6, the end

Chpt. 6

1. Why does Art worry about the way he’s portraying his father, Vladek in the book? Should Art worry about this? Explain.
2. Is Vladek happy about Art’s book? Explain.
3. Why would Vladek compare Art to Walt Disney?
4. How does Janina, the governess react when Vladek and Anja come to her for help? Why? 
5. Why does Vladek ride in the official streetcar with the Germans, rather than in the second car with the Poles?
6. Do you think Mrs. Motonowa is justified in throwing out Vladek and Anja? Explain.
7. Why does Vladek consider going to Hungary with Anja?
8. How does Vladek escape from the children who were playing on the street and screaming, “A Jew!!!” Why do the Jews speak in Yiddish in front of the Polish smugglers? Was this a good idea? Explain.

Some poems and some poetry creation!

Maus Chpt 5

The stages of genocide ....

Looking at chapter 4, please identify a panel (or 2) that illustrates each stage of genocide. What were your biggest surprises when reading about the different stages? What did you learn? What was new?

What are some of the tough ethical decisions made in Chapter 5?

Questions for discussion

1. How does Art respond to his father when Vladek calls to ask for help with fixing the drainpipe?
2. What is “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”? How is this comic different from Maus? How is it similar?
3. What happens to Richieu in the Ghetto in Zawiercie? Why?
4. Why does Vladek build a bunker? Does this bunker help the family survive? Explain.
5. Vladek lets his cousin know that he can pay him for his help. Why? Does it matter?
6. Vladek refers to Haskel as a “kombinator.” What is a “kombinator”? Why does Vladek call Haskel a “kombinator”? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
7. Why does Anja’s nephew Luke refuse to go to the hidden bunker? Does he make a smart decision? Why or why not?
8. Why does Art Spiegelman portray the paths as a swastika? How does this image express Vladek and Anja’s situation?
9. Why does Vladek keep the 14 karat gold cigarette case and lady’s powder case from Srodula, Poland?
10. Vladek questions why he ever remarried after Anja’s death. Why do you think he married Mala? Do you think Vladek and Mala have a good marriage? Explain.

Maus Chpt 4

From the headlines

Check in with journals. Share with partner. Work through each other's panel with FOCUSS. Discuss as class.

Let's review setting, characters, plot, conflict, theme, visual and history.

WRITING --> Panels on p. 85: The bottom portion of the page shows the hanging from two perspective. What is the impact of the two perspectives and what is the purpose?

Maus Chpt 3

From earlier chapters ...

What kind of relationship does Art Spiegelman and his father, Vladek have? Use specific pictures and text to support your answer.

When do Vladek and Anja realize that the war is coming? How do they know? Use specific pictures and text to support your answer.

Any questions about plot? Characters?

Handout fun & analytical practice. Let's FOCUSS.

Maus: chpts 1 & 2

1. Check journals & share with partner. Please share paragraphs with each other and compare chosen panels. What stands out in your partner's panel? Comment on the perspective, the background and the text (if any)

2. Let's create an outline of the Holocaust using the following terms. List dates, countries involved, significant events.

• Rise of Nazi party
• Nazification
• The Ghettos
• The Camps
• Resistance
• Rescue and Liberation
• Aftermath

3. The graphic novel. Review FOCUSS & other vocabulary handout

Discussion

Chapter One

1. This is a graphic memoir. A graphic memoir tells a person’s life through text and drawings. Why does Art Spiegelman use mice instead of people to portray the characters in the story? What do the mice represent?

2. On page 13, Spiegelman tells us that his father’s second wife Mala was a survivor too, like most of his parents’ friends. Why does Spiegelman call Mala a survivor? What does he mean?

3. What kind of relationship does Art Spiegelman and his father, Vladek have? Use specific pictures and text to support your answer.

4. Why is the chapter called “The Sheik”?

5. Why does Vladek choose Anja over Lucia? What do you think of his choice?

6. Why does Vladek ask Art not to write about Lucia in his book? Why doesn’t Art listen to his father? Do you think it is right for Art to break his promise?

Chapter Two 

1. Why does Ms. Stefanska go to jail? What role did Anja play in Ms. Stefanska’s going to jail?
2. On page 33, Vladek says that he left Anja and their new baby to go to Bielsko to run his new factory and find an apartment for them to live in. How does Anja respond? Have you or members of your family ever had to separate in order to start a new job or new life? How did it feel for the people who moved on? How did it feel for the people who were left behind?
3. When do Vladek and Anja realize that the war is coming? How do they know? Use specific pictures and text to support your answer.
4. What happens after Vladek and Anja return from Czechoslovakia? What are they afraid of?
5. Why does Vladek consider taking Anja and Richieu to the town of Sosnowiec? Do they eventually go to Sosnowiec? Where does Vladek go?
6. Why doesn’t Vladek tell the doctor in the hospital about his glass eye? What does this say about Vladek’s character?

Maus: we begin

The graphic novel & the Holocaust

1. Ethical Dilemmas

2. Let's create a meaningful outline of the Holocaust using the following terms. List dates, countries involved, significant events.

• Rise of Nazi party
• Nazification
• The Ghettos
• The Camps
• Resistance
• Rescue and Liberation
• Aftermath

3. Review of FOCUSS
4. Review of nightly journal expectations

Frankenstein: Vol 3, Chpts 1-3

1. Free write

Must a person experience desperation to know the true meaning of joy? Must a person know hunger to really understand the concept of being full? In other words, must we experience opposite emotions to truly understand life?

Discussion Questions

1. Where does Victor travel in Chpts 1-2? In what way does the journey further develop Victor's character? Clerval's?

2. Close reading p. 168-169. What is the tone created on these pages? What is the mood? Remember, when we talk about tone we use adjectives. Mood is a feeling created by the language as well.

3. At the close of Chpt 2 Victor says, "I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope, which I dared not trust myself to question, but which was intermixed with obscure forebodings of evil, that made my heart sick in my bosom" (169). Remember that Victor is telling a story. Using only this passage, what does Victor want the listener/reader to think of him?

4. At the start of Chpt 3 the creature says, "Shall each man ... find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn" (172). Is the creature's argument a reasonable one? If so, in what way does this develop Victor's character and the creature's?

Frankenstein: Vol 2, Chpts. 8&9

1. Check books & vocab & architecture

Discussion
Let's look at the creature and Victor through the lens of Erikson. Some basic info on the guy.

Big question to answer:
1. At what stage is Victor?
2. At what stage is the creature?
3. At what stage did Victor encounter struggles?
4. At what stage did the creature encounter struggles?

As time permits ...
Empathy versus sympathy. What's the difference?

Personal responsibility ...

Frankenstein: Vol 2, Chpts. 5-7

1. Check books & vocab

2. Vocab review

Let's do a close examination of the creature. We've heard his story and know the path he took to meeting up with Victor again. Now it's time to dissect him a bit.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write the Creature's "Where I'm From" poem. There's one catch, all of your evidence and all of the details you fill in must be connected to and sourced from the text. Have some fun with your poem, but really dig into who the creature is and where his identity comes from. Please work in pairs, and follow the structure of the original.

“Where I’m From"
by George Ella Lyon

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening
it tasted like beets.)

I am from the forsythia bush,
the Dutch elm
whose long gone limbs I
remember
as if they were my own.

I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from perk up and pipe down.

I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.

I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dressbox
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams;
I am from those moments -
snapped before I budded
leaf-fall from the family tree

In-class

1. What makes a good discussion question good?

• Engages in the morals and ethics of the novel
• Specific but relatable to big picture
• Not too abstract
• Arguable/debatable/invites opposition

2. What are the components of a good discussion?

• Freedom to express opinion/contradict others
• No domination from one person
• Speak AND listen
• Articulate opinion before you voice it (think before you speak)
• Textual evidence to support ideas
• Stay on topic
• Everyone gets involved
• Be engaged
• Stay open-minded
• Build off each other rather than repeating
• Have fun

Questions for now ...

1. Who is the real monster in Shelley's Frankenstein: Victor or the creature?

2. How did the creature's rejection by Felix and Agatha enforce the ideas that were introduced by the books he read?

Questions for later ...

1. Why do you think the creature gave humans a second chance after his unfortunate experience with the villagers?

2. What does it say about society when the creature is rejected by Felix & Agatha for his outward appearance?

3. In what ways has the creature's encounter with the old man taught him about humanity?

4. Should the creature be known as human or animal and why?

5. In what way has the cottagers' attack on the creature altered his views of humans and himself?

6. How does the creature's connection with the DeLacey's inform his identity?

Frankenstein, Vol 2, Chpts. 1-4

Pre-writing practice

Is Victor's thirst for knowledge an honorable pursuit? Why or why not?
How is Victor a sympathetic character?
In what ways does Victor's guilt affect his health? What is Shelley's purpose in this recurring plot device?

1. Check books and vocab

2. Review vocab and architecture

Discussion questions

1. At the close of chapter 1, in what ways has Victor changed? How does Shelley use Victor's fascination with nature to remind us of his actions against nature?

2. Close reading: p. 100 ("The ascent is precipitous, ...) — how does the tone express Victor's remorse for his actions?

3. "You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man!" (103). Victor believes in an eye-for-an-eye. Is that justice or revenge?

4. How does the tone and language change from chapter 3 to chapter 4? What does this reveal about the creature's development?

NOTE: track the language of the creature. Pay close attention to when it is overtly negative and overtly positive. What's the correlation between his language and his sense of self? And the correlation between nature and Victor's sense of self.

Frankenstein: Vol. 1, Chpts 4-6 & 7-8

1. Check books, review vocab, complete architecture
2. Free write for five minutes: Looking at the passage on p. 54 ("Learn from me ... than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.) In what ways does Victor's warning relate to all mankind?

Discussion questions Chpts. 4-6

• Romanticism
• Victor and God: p. 54
• In what ways does Shelley display Victor's hubris? Look particularly at the contrast in Victor's desire to conquer nature yet ignore its beauty.
• Chpt. 5: Close reading of passage on pp. 58-59 beginning with "How can I describe". Review connotation (an idea or feeling that a word invokes in a person in addition to its literal/primary meaning) and denotation (the literal/primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests).

• Step 1: read passage out lout.
• Step 2: read silently and circle/underline all words with negative connotations/denotations.
• Big question: What kind of tone is Shelley trying to create around the the Creature's creation and creator?

• Chpt. 6: Contrast with prior chapter. Nature.
• What Gothic and Romantic elements have we seen thus far?

Discussion questions 7-8
What discussion questions do you have? Think theme, gothic/romantic elements, characterization, etc ...
Step 1: Generate five discussion questions alone.
Step 2: Working with a partner, whittle list to 3 questions.
Step 3: Share with class.

Frankenstein: Vol 1. Chpts 1-3

1. Check books
2. Check and review vocabulary
3. Architecture fun

VICTOR

• In what ways does Victor's statement that "the world was to me a secret which I desired to divine" (38) serve as characterization? What is characterization? Think about Walton!
• Is Victor's fascination with the elixir of life an admirable one? Look closely at the passage on page 42: "Under the guidance of my new preceptors, I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!" What is Hubris?
• What does Victor's search for a like-minded thinker tell us about human nature? Why might Shelley have portrayed this characteristic in both Victor and Robert? How are Victor & Robert alike in ideation (formation of ideas/concepts) and language?

HENRY

• In what ways do Henry & Victor differ? Why might Shelley be setting them up as foils? (**A character in a work whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive temperament of that character (usually the protagonist)) (Bedford St Martins Press).

ELIZABETH

• In what way does Shelley characterize Elizabeth when she writes "the saintly soul (who) shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home?" (39). What role does this characterization set for Elizabeth?

GOTHIC ELEMENTS: what's come up so far?

Frankenstein: The Letters

Let's get into Frankenstein!

• What do you think of when you hear the name Frankenstein?
• What images and words come to mind?
• What about when you hear the word Gothic?

Image 1 (Benjamin West, "Saul and the Witch of Endor").
Image 2 (Henry Fuseli, "The Nightmare").
Image 3 (John Hamilton Mortimer, "Carrion Crows hovering over a Skeleton on a Seashore).

Elements of Gothic Genre

1. Mary Shelley Redux
2. Architecture of Frankenstein
3. Check books
4. Check and review vocab
5. Let's fill in the architecture

A little writing: What is wonder? "This appearance excited our unqualified wonder" (25). Think about the denotation (actual definition) and the connotation (the idea or feeling the word evokes).

Romanticism. What it is. What principles find their way into Frankenstein.

Discussion questions: use text evidence to support your claims

1. What is Walton's attitude toward his quest? What does his attitude reveal about his character?

2. Why do you think Walton feels lonely even though he is on board a ship with a full crew? Why do you think Walton is attracted to the stranger?

3. What details suggest that both Walton and the stranger are willing to make big sacrifices in the search for knowledge? Look at similarities and differences. Does knowledge promise immortality?

4. Why do you think Shelley chose to lead into the stranger's story by starting with a frame story about Robert?

Rhime of the Ancient Mariner: written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a leading poet of the Romantic era. In the poem, an old sailor, or mariner, tells the story of a horrific sea voyage that changed his life. Sailing in stormy seas near the South Pole, the mariner’s ship is surrounded by ice. When the crewmen spot an albatross, a huge seagull-like bird, flying through the fog, the ice splits open, freeing the ship. Then, unexpectedly, the mariner shoots the albatross. After this act of cruelty, the ship is cursed. Driven north, it becomes stranded in a hot, windless sea. All of the crew except the mariner die. Ever since, the remorseful mariner has traveled the world to tell his story and to teach others to revere God’s creatures.

Out, Out; Mutability; Traveling Through the Dark

Break up into three groups

• Mia, Alexia, Cate, Ryan, Duncan (Mutability)
• Lizzie, Nathan, Delaney, Felix (Out, Out)
• Adam, Caroline, Nick, Zoe (Traveling Through the Dark)
• --------------------------------
• Maggie, Sam, Danielle, Coco, Nadav, Lane
• Julia, Grace, Andy, Macie, Lauren, Justin
• Sierra, Elly, Jack, Joe, Mackenzie, Emma

30 mins

• Using either SAS or TPCASTT or superstar skills, dissect the poem.
• Identify major theme(s), literary devices used, and tone.
• Prepare to teach the poem to the class --> what goes into good lesson?

15 mins x 3

• Each group must use its 15 minutes to teach and discuss the poem with the class
• Lesson begins with reading of poem from group member
• Each group member must speak
• Someone (or a few someones) from group must write on board

Some poetry writing ... and workshop

1. Group association --> Work through free association --> free write --> Poem

HW: write poem from source material

2. Workshop day

• 3 things of which you're proud
• 3 questions for your reader to help improve your poem.

Move into workshop groups. Fill in handout --> one per editor. Revise.

Kubla Khan & We Real Cool

1. Check written poems
2. While checking poems -- read We Real Cool and TP-CASTT.
3. Class discussion about We Real Cool. Look at SAS.
4. Read Kubla Khan aloud and together. Work through TP-CASTT.
5. Poem for homework:

• Guidelines: 20 lines max, minimum 2 stanzas, include enjambment (underline), & an allusion (bold).
• topic choices: dreams, imagination, friends, history
• Please bring a copy of your poem to next class. Poem must be typed.

Fish & Barbie Doll

1. Your poems --> share with peer. Share with class your favorite line(s). Review terms list and find two examples in your found poem.
2. TP-CASTT & Triangle of awesome & Terms List
3. Fish & Barbie Doll
4. Review homework for next class

2015 starts with POETRY!!!

1. Welcome back
2. Some brief details on the exam
3. What's coming up: Poetry into Frankenstein into Maus I into Maus II. What a semester!

Let's begin ...

Goals of this unit:

1. This is an introduction to poetry. 
2. Developing an appreciation for poetry
3. Writing poems of your own (some creative play)
4. Encountering different forms & voices
5. Developing competency in identifying (and using) some poetic devices.

1. What is poetry? What do you think of when someone says you have to write poetry? Read poetry? Brainstorm on a piece of paper.
2. Share on board.
3. Some poetry explorations (see handout & PoetryTweets and #poetweet and Melissa Broder
4. Let's write

Option 1: Write some micro-poetry. You have 140 characters (including spaces)
Option 2: Create a found poem. Minimum of 7 lines.

Homework: using only approved websites, find a poem you love. Print it out. Write a paragraph on why you love it.

Here are two of my favorites:
Mary Oliver
WH Auden