tGOW: Chpt. 22

Why we read: literary allusions

Free write: The Joad family shows ignorance to many modern conveniences (toilets, showers, etc) and ideas (unions). Reflect on a time when you were ignorant to either a modern convenience or product or idea. What did this ignorance teach you about yourself? Those around you? Who enlightened you? How could ignorance lead to struggles later on in life?

My example: After a water polo game a few years ago, our bus was late picking us up. I don't carry a cell phone with me, so I needed to borrow one of the student's phones to call the driver. A student handed me a phone (a brand new iPhone) on which I could call. There we no numbers, no buttons, no nothing. I pressed the screen a few times but still didn't recognize anything that looked like a touchpad, so I tossed the phone back to the student and asked for a phone with buttons and numbers. This moment still makes me laugh. I still don't carry a cell phone, but I do know how to work an iPhone and other touchscreen items. Who enlightened me? The students who endlessly mocked me for not knowing how to use the phone. As for struggles down the road, I think of my dad. He doesn't own a cell phone, and when he uses mine (a normal, blackberry style phone) he struggles. Of course, he has a iPad. Alas, I do think about the impact of technology or the lack of it in the lives of younger people. Will ignorance hurt people? Will an ver reliance on technology hurt people? There's got to be a happy medium.

Let's check out Weed Patch: some history, recent pics, older pics, life, school, 

Discussion

1. What do the events in Chpt 22 say about religion, charity and hard work?

2. Who and what are the "reds"?

3. What role does order, dignity, and pleasure play in the lives of the migrants? Why are the locals trying to strip these things from the migrants' lives?

tGOW: Chpts 20 & 21

Free write:

Jim Casy sacrifices himself for the betterment of the Joad family. Think about a time when you had to sacrifice your own personal well-being for the well-being of someone else. How did you feel about making this sacrifice? How did the sacrifice change you? How did other people respond to your choice?

Discussion Questions:

1. Modern day Joad dilemma

2. What does Casy's attack on the deputy reveal about his character?

3. Why is Uncle John so upset? What does his response to his emotions tell us about his character?

4. What does Ma mean when she says, "Why, Tom — us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people — we go on" (280).

5. There's a lot of change talked about in Chapter 21. Taking an educated yet totally unsupported guess, in what way do you think the migrants and the Joads will be changed? (be as specific as possible)

Road Trip Information

1. Please have one partner fill out this form.

2. Library Guide

3. Project guidelines

4. Project rubric

5. Random Hardships

tGOW: 1/2 18 & 19

1. Quick Reading Quiz (5 mins)

2. Project Prep (40 mins)

Your first post: You each have one suitcase (think carry-on legal as the car is packed with so much other stuff). This is all you get to move from your home. Everything else will be left behind. What possessions will you put in it and why? Remember, this suitcase includes clothes and belongings.

I would suggest writing your reflection in a google doc first and then pasting it into a blog post. Take a photo of your belongings, you bag, the room you're leaving behind. Get creative and think about how this post will set the tone for the rest of the project.

You will complete this post for homework, so make sure this information is uploaded to your blog and ready to go before our next class begins. And, next class we'll be in the library seminar room.

3. Text Discussion (30 mins)

1. Plot review: what has happened?
2. How has the loss of Noah and Grandma affected the family? Have we seen any of the characters weaken from the loss? Strengthened?
3. In what way do the first glimpses of the Californian landscape fulfill the Joads' dream of the promised land?
4. Tone and language of first three pages of Chpt. 19. What is Steinbeck trying to illuminate about the struggle? About Okies? In what way does Steinbeck hint at the rising anger of the oppressed?

tGOW: 17- 1/2 18

Road Trip Work: Blog creation

Creating a blog

1. Pair up; each partner needs a laptop.
2. ONE PARTNER ONLY -- Go to www.blogger.com
3. Create a limited blogger profile (option on right)
4. Decide on your display name
5. Create a new blog (option on upper left)
6. Pick a blog title and blog address. If the blog address is available, great! If not, come up with a new name.
7. Select your template design (you can always change later)

Sharing permissions

Once the blog is created, the partner who created the blog needs to go to SETTINGS --> BASIC --> PERMISSIONS --> BLOG AUTHORS

1. Add your partner's email address.
2. Partner, accept invitation
3. Original creator of blog, change invited partner from AUTHOR to ADMIN
4. Start BLOGGING!


Blogger Basics

Class Discussion
1. Plot recap
2. Compare/contrast the start of chpt 17 to chpt 12.
3. Language of the paragraph -- "They crawled up the slopes ...." (201).
4. What effect does the second Cali story have on the family? Is their resistance to the story evidence of their strength or their ignorance? Is one better than the other?
5. Noah! What is up with that?
6. Ma's insight bottom of 209. What does she share? What does this reveal about her character?

tGOW: Chpt 16

Group work
Working in groups of 4+, come up with three distinct discussion questions. Three members of your group will need to sign into our socrative class (64674), and post the questions separately into the free response box. Once the questions are posted, the class will vote on which questions we'd like to address. Then we'll start talking.

Some guidelines for your questions
1. One of the questions must be focused on a close reading of a specific passage.
2. One of the questions must be related to a specific character.
3. Make the questions specific, clear, relevant to the reading, and open-ended (Yes/No questions don't do much to get people talking)

tGOW 14 & 15

A little music to get us going .... and some lyrics

Character Groups: check in. What have we learned about your character?

Discussion questions:

1. Chpt 14 repeats the following line:

"The Western land, nervous under the beginning change." (150)

"The Western States nervous under the beginning change." (151)

"The Western States are nervous under the beginning change." (152)

What are the literal differences between these lines? What impact do those differences have on the meanings of these lines? And why repeat this idea?

2. Chpt 15: What causes Mae's prejudice to fade?