AHS * HUMANITIES 11
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Daily Blog

Friday, 1/31

1/31/2014

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PictureThe White Mountains of New England
Objective:  Evaluate three different definitions/perspectives on what leads to a successful life and formulate your own opinion as well.

Reminders:
  • Ind Study Honors:  Project proposal due today
  • Book Club Honors: Seminar during third period! Send me your seminar prep 
  • Seminar Make-up due Monday if you missed yesterday's class
  • Read "Franny" by J.D. Salinger by Monday


STARTER:  Success Podcast #3 Angela Duckworth +  discussion (no required journal entry here)
As you listen, decide to what extent Duckworth's definition of success could positively affect your own life

AGENDA
1. TURN IN THE STRANGER

2. Review your readings and highlight the following:
From "Catastrophe of Success"
  • Your favorite lines that either you disagreed with the most or resonated with you the most (perhaps the idea made you really think or question your own values, perhaps the idea is something you want to add to your own personal life philosophy- something you want to be sure you remember moving forward...)  

From "The Ambitious Guest"
  • A line that indicates the significance of the title of this story (Why is it called the Ambitious Guest? Who is the ambitious guest and what are his ambitions?)

3. Ungraded Seminar:
  • Read this handout and decide which seminar you want to join
  • Circle questions you want to pose from the list
  • JOURNAL # 6: When on the outer circle, take notes in your journal on insights from the seminar group.  You should be trying to capture as much of the discussion as possible.  

4. J.D. Salinger 
  • Trailer to "Salinger" documentary
  • Read this social and historical context to Salinger (author of this weekend's reading)
  • Time to read "Franny" 
  •  Time to review existentialism and re-take the quiz


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Thursday, 1/30

1/30/2014

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Starter:  Success #3
No Journal Today!  

Agenda
Seminar + Time to read shorts due Friday


SEMINAR MAKE-UP INSTRUCTIONS: DUE MONDAY via EMAIL
In addition to your standard seminar prep, please answer TWO more additional questions from Wednesday's DP using a quote from the book and your own analysis to support your response to the question.  These should be in solid TEA paragraph form.  Here's an example.....

Example from a student response to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
If someone were asked to describe Daisy, after only reading the first few chapters, one might use words such as elegant, innocent, proper, or timid; all words that describe the facade of a true East Egger. Fitzgerald possibly puts these words purposefully into the reader’s head in order to make the contrast to that of Daisy at the end of the novel. This scene, where Nick is over at Tom and Daisy’s house for the first time, is a perfect example of this image setting that Fitzgerald does so beautifully: "The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though on an anchored balloon. They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house" (12).  The way that Fitzgerald plays with imagery here invokes innocence and lightness as the personality of these two girls. The way that he describes Jordan and Daisy in conjunction with a stationary object, might also suggest that these sorts of women need a support buoy or man to keep them grounded in reality and keep them from drifting away. 


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Wednesday, 1/29

1/29/2014

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Today's Objective:  
  • Summarize two different perspectives on what success means/looks like and consider how they influence your own perception of success.
  • Prepare for tomorrow's seminar


Journal #5:  Response to Success Podcast #1 
  1. As you listen, write down a line that stands out to you as significant (either you strongly disagree with it or strongly agree with it) from both speakers (Tony Robbins)
  2. After listening, briefly summarize Tony's perspective on what success means  or how one best becomes successful and then formulate your own reaction to their talks.  
  3. Do you agree with his ideas?  Why or why not?


ANNOUNCEMENTS;
1. Thursday is the last day to make up the existentialism quiz!  See me to review concepts today during work time.
2. New York Times article from 1/27 on Korematsu-- it was never overruled!!!

Work Time Options
  • Individual Seminar Prep
  •  (Seminar Groups)
  • Time to read short stories for Friday

Seminar Questions (Part 3 of seminar prep)
1. What passage BEST represents Camus’s recommendation for how we handle the Absurd (the imminence of death and meaningless of universe)?
 
2. What is the significance of the conclusion of the novel? How does it reflect Meursault’s transformation as well as Camus’ philosophy of the Absurd and/or existentialism as a whole?  Look specifically at this quote from pages 122-123: 
“For the first time in a long time, I thought about Maman.  I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life, she had taken a ‘fiance,’ why she had played at beginning again.  Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite.  So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again.  Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her.  And I felt ready to live it all again too.  As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.  Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really- I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate”

3.  Albert Camus outlined three different responses to one’s recognition of the Absurd…one’s understanding that life was meaningless. 1.  Suicide.  If all life ends in death and there is no inherent meaning in the universe, all we do is for nothing, then why not end it?  Camus did NOT advocate this path because death is no more meaningful and it rids us of dignity.  2. Putting faith or hope in something beyond ourselves….perhaps a higher power, perhaps the idea that one day life will be better, or that death could be postponed.  3.  Accept that life is meaningless but live with dignity and create your own meaning out of your life. The 3rd was what Camus advocated for in his own writings.  Read pages 108-109 from the top of the page on 108 until the line “I would just be caught up in the machinery again” on page 109.  Which of the three of these responses to the Absurd does Meursault initially consider and what does he ultimately decide by the end of this passage? 


4. Why do you think Camus chose a murder trial and a hanging as the climax of the novel? Think about the relationship between the courtroom, a trial and the concept of the Absurd.  You might start by looking at pages 89-90 where the prosecutor examines two witnesses about Meursault's relationship with his mother.  

5. What is the significance of the story about the Czech and how does it relate to the concept of the Absurd? (pages 79-80)

6. How does the relationship between the Chaplain and M represent the concept of the Absurd? Also, how does the trial represent the Absurd?


7.  What is the significance of the line, "everything is true and nothing is true" (91)?  Read page 91 then compare to pages 98-101 (Closing Arguments of the lawyers).  

8.  Why does Meursault want people to greet him with cries of hate at his execution?


Additional Seminar Questions (Created by you during group seminar prep):
9.  To what extent are you Meursault?
10.  Why did Meursault hesitate to shoot the gun?
11.  If Meursault didn't care about killing the Arab then why did he take the gun from Raymond?
12.  Who is "the Stranger" and from what is he estranged?
13. Why is the lawyer asking about Maman's death during the trial?
14.  How has reading this book changed your outlook of the meaning of life?
15.  What relevance importance does the robotic female reporter have?
16. Do you believe one's life is as good as another?
17. What meaning  does the chaplain have in the book?
18. What realization about life did Meursault gain at the end and would he have come to this same realization if he had died of old age instead of the death sentence?
19. If marriage means so much to Marie, why is she so willing to join her life with a  man who does not care about her? (page 41)
20.  Why did Meursault feel like he had to explain that his mother's death wasn't his fault? (page 1 and 20).




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Tuesday, January 28th

1/28/2014

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Today's Objective:
Deconstruct Camus's philosophy of The Absurd and other elements of existentialism as they appear in The Stranger.

Starter:   Desert Sun Friday Show Video

Journal #4:  Response to key passage in The Stranger

Near the end of the novel, the Chaplain asks Meursault,  “Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die and nothing remains?”(117).  How would you respond to this question?


Agenda:
1.  Ashley finishes Existentialism Powerpoint presentation (Alienation and Authenticity)
2. Class discussion on The Stranger
3. Group Seminar Prep Work Time
4. Time to read short stories that are due on Friday
5. Remind Ashley to pass back mock trial research/prep grades!

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Monday, January 27th

1/27/2014

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Today's Objective
  • Review existentialism and be able to formulate your own definitions for key terms within the philosophy
  • Learn two new components of the philosophy including Alienation and Authenticity
  • Describe core elements of Mersault's personality in The Stranger



Journal #3:  Link to Required Journal Prompts
For the next 10 minutes, write a response to The Stranger.  

Stuck? Consider...
  • Expanding on any one of your annotations
  • Writing a list of big questions that arose for you while reading
  • Making a list of themes that popped up in the book 
  • Exploring one theme and what statement Camus is trying to make about that theme
  • Making personal connections to the ideas/themes 
  • Describing a character you find interesting
  • Explaining how existentialism appears in the novel
  • Analyzing the transformation of Mersault throughout the book and his response to his fate at the end of the novel
  • Writing a review of the novel as if you were writing for The New York Times.  Write a brief summary of the book and then offer your own critique of the book that includes what you liked and/or did not like about the book.  Conclude it with a recommendation (would you recommend it? If so, for what audiences?)

Agenda
1. Discuss journal responses and general response to the book
2. Announcements
3. 20 minutes: Time to review Existentialism and the following key terms:
  • Angst
  • Existential Crisis
  • The Absurd
  • Sisyphus as the Absurd Hero
  • Existence Precedes Essence
  • How one of these key terms appears in The Stranger

4. Existentialism quiz 

5. Ashley finishes Existentialism Powerpoint presentation (Alienation and Authenticity)

6. Read this short explanation of important historical context on The Stranger and Camus

7. Read aloud pages 3-5 of The Stranger and discuss the characterization of Mersault
  • What characteristic traits best describe Mersault?
  • In what ways does he evolve throughout the novel?  Specifically, which, if any, of these characteristic traits change?
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Wednesday, January 22nd- Friday, January 24th

1/22/2014

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Picture
Wednesday's Starter:
Discuss with a partner the plot of The Stranger  up to where you have read without spoiling anything.  If you haven't started reading, join a group of 2 and then get to reading today!

Agenda:
Humanities-focused work time
  • Mock Trial DP Update and Reflection (due Monday, January 27th)  EMAIL ME YOUR DP LINK WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR DP UPDATE AND REFLECTION as you guys changed your links with Roxy.
  • Read and annotate The Stranger (finish the book and annotations by Monday, January 27th)
  • Annotation guidelines for The Stranger


Honors:  Fahrenheit 451 project proposal due today via email-- only if you're choosing to do a project on this book
Picture

Agenda:
1. Libby's LINK time 8:15-9:15, 12:05-1:05
2. Work Time
  • Continue reading and annotating The Stranger
  • Finish your DP update and reflection
Picture













Friday's Starter
Write down  2 discussion questions on The Stranger thus far on THIS DOCUMENT. 

Agenda:
1. Libby's LINK time 8:15-9:15, 12:05-1:05
2. Starter
3. Share your questions with a partner or in groups of 3.  Select the two most interesting questions and discuss them.
4. Continue reading and annotating The Stranger

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Friday, January 17th

1/17/2014

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Objectives:
1. Explore the difference between happiness and meaning and take a stand on which you think is more important based on this article's definition of happiness v. meaning


2.  Understand basic idea of Existentialism,  Albert Camus' concept of "The Absurd" and how these ideas showed up in the film, Stranger than Fiction.


Starter/Journal Prompt #3: Read and summarize the findings in the article, entitled "Stanford research: The meaningful life is a road worth traveling"

  • Briefly summarize 3 different ways the researcher distinguishes between happiness and meaning
  • Overall, how would the researcher, Jennifer Aaker, define happiness? How would she define meaning?
  • According to her definition of these two concepts, which do you think is more important? Why?

Agenda
1. 4 corners: 
  • Do you think pursuing meaning is more important than pursuing happiness?
  • Do you agree with Aaker's definitions of happiness and meaning? In other words, are they as separate as Aaker makes them out to be?

2. Listen to an excerpt from this Radiolab podcast on "Bliss" (first 5 minutes, 40 seconds) and watch the youtube video of Aleksander Gamme's blissful cache discover



3. Partner chat: Have you ever been this happy?  What do you think is the relationship between this guy’s happiness and his pursuit of a meaningful life?


4. Existentialism Powerpoint presentation and connections to Stranger than Fiction
  • "Myth of Sisyphus" Study Guide and Discussion Questions

5. Ashley's introduction to our next book: The Stranger, by Albert Camus
  • Check out a book
  • Plot overview
  • Annotation Handout (required to participate in our seminar)
  • Begin reading and annotating
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Thursday, January 16th

1/16/2014

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Objectives:
1. Understand the big picture of our next project and be open to the journey 

Starter: What is the purpose of your existence? Write about this in your new journal or be sure to attach the paper into your journal once you get one by next Wednesday.

Agenda
1.  Instructions for keeping up with your journal requirements (bookmark this link)

2.  Introduction to our next project: Happiness and Meaning
  • Read and discuss project description
  • Introductory power point: Short film, Journal Prompt, Ashley's forays with post-college angst
3. Finish Stranger Than Fiction



 
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Wednesday, January 15th

1/15/2014

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Objectives:
  • Debrief/reflect on the mock trial process and product

Starter:
Complete the  survey to help propel our class debrief on the mock trial 

Agenda:
1.  Watch Durango Herald video and read their article about YOU GUYS! and then debrief the trial 

2. Organize/print your mock trial prep work and turn it in.  Staple all your work together with your name on top-- include any  notes you took for or during the trial.  
  • Lawyer Checklist for Turning Stuff in
  • Witness Checklist for Turning Stuff in
  • Judge Checklist for Turning Stuff in

3. Judges deliberate and begin writing your ruling while other students begin drafting Mock Trial
 DP Update and Reflection 


4. Begin watching "Stranger than Fiction"

Homework:
Get a journal (could be your original starter notebook) for class by Wednesday, January 22nd at the latest.  We'll start using them tomorrow though.  This will be a place where you engage in sincere self-reflection and develop profound thoughts, entertain challenging questions, and process the ideas we discuss in class for our next TWO projects.  We'll use these for our Energy and Place project in the spring as well. 

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Monday, January 13th

1/13/2014

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Announcements:
  •  Class A: Parking at the courthouse (park on 3rd or in neighborhoods to not have to pay meter.  20% off if you're late!)
  • Class B: Parent Driving List
  • Honors Meeting on Wednesday during lunch (to discuss project proposal, part of Fahrenheit 451 and access student examples of choice projects from last year)
  • Food for Wednesday's post-exhibition celebration?
  • Judges: Don't forget to cite your sources for your pre-trial summary.
  • No electronic devices in courthouse

Agenda
1. Review Homework for the week + Checklist for Turning Stuff In


2. Rehearse as a whole class the order of our trial
Class A Script and Schedule
Class B Script and Schedule

3. Questions?

4. Work time

  • Print all of your needed documents for tomorrow (and that you want to turn into me on Wednesday)
  • Make note cards 
  • Rehearse direct examination Q and A 
  • Lawyers: Determine the order of your exhibits for both direct and cross examination and make exhibit cover sheets, staple to corresponding evidence, store in your team folder.
  • Put everything you want Ashley to bring to the courtroom in your team folder!

Homework
  • Rehearse!!!!
  • Print everything you'll need that you didn't in class today.
  • Get your costume in order
  • Lawyers-  last minute prep by studying opposing team's direct exam. evidence



Homework Resources
  • CLASS A Evidence Document
  • CLASS B Evidence Document
  • Lawyer Checklist for Turning Stuff in
  • Witness Checklist for Turning Stuff in
  • Judge Checklist for Turning Stuff in
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    Ashley Carruth

    Humanities 11 Teacher at Animas High School

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