Goodbye!

Today was our last day of class. I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for making this semester a great one. There were plenty of bumps and bruises along the way, but overall, this was a fantastic start to the year and I look forward to watching each and every one of you grow into the adults you'll become. Please come back and visit me and Mr. Hannah and come see us whenever you have an issue. Our door is always open.

Good luck next semester! It has truly been a pleasure to be your teacher. I will miss you all!

Final Jeopardy

Today's class we played a game of Jeopardy to prepare you for the final tomorrow. It is now up to you to take the notes you took in class, as well as everything we talked about throughout the semester, and study and study hard. As I mentioned in class, here's the breakdown of the final:

--20 multiple choice questions
--1 open response (1 paragraph)
--1 essay (3 paragraphs AT LEAST)

Remember what I said in class about the open response. We have practiced writing paragraphs at a quicker pace. You can do this. Once you get to the open response on the final, look at the clock and time yourself for about 15-20 minutes. And remember the format--TS, CD, CM, CS. This should be so easy for all of you. You know how to do this!

This will leave you enough time to get to the essay and do a great job on it. Remember, at least 3 paragraphs! This will count for at least 30 points of your final so you need to make sure you knock this out of the park.

If you have any questions tonight while studying, please don't hesitate to email me or Mr. Hannah with any questions.

Study hard!

DEETS:
In-class:
--Jeopardy

HW:
--Study for the final exam tomorrow!

NOTE: Remember, go to your third period class BEFORE going to lunch. There will be a different schedule tomorrow so you don't want to accidentally go to lunch and then miss a half hour of time on your final. There will be no extra time allowed.

Final Stretch

Today's class was just a day to catch up on our final assessments for the semester. Today you took the post assessment of the reading exam you took at the beginning of the semester. Remember, this wasn't graded or factored into your report card, it's just to check your progress over the course of the semester.

After that, we briefly discussed the final chapters of Night. If there was any book we read cover to cover, I'm glad this one was it because it is such an incredibly emotional read and teaches you a lot about life and the ways of humanity.

As for the rest of the week, STUDY STUDY STUDY. Your exam is on Thursday and it is difficult. We'll be playing Jeopardy tomorrow to prepare, but the rest is up to you.

DEETS:
In-class:
--Research Paper Materials Turn In
--Reading Post Assessment
--Night

HW:
--Study for the final on Thursday

It's Over!

Today you turned in your Research Papers! YAY! It's over!

Now, we just have to finish up Night. Today we read Chapter 7 where Elie and his father survive another cattle car convoy. We see the desperation in the prisoners--ripping clothes off one another, killing each other for a piece of bread, and throwing each other out of the car for more space.

Here are all the Oprah clips. Please take a look at these if you get a chance this weekend. We see Elie's account of what happened, and hear what he has to say about it now:

For homework, please finish the book. You'll find out what happens to Elie's father, and how Elie is liberated.

Also for Tuesday, make sure you organize all your papers from the research paper process. Here's the list of what you need:

1. Evaluating Sources (3 pages)
2. Index Cards (9 of them)
3. MEAL Organizer
4. Thesis/Introductory Paragraph
5. Concluding Paragraph
6. Rough Draft
7. Peer Editing Papers

Thank you for all your hard work during this process. I truly appreciate it and I hope you have learned the skills needed in order to succeed in the upcoming years.

Have a great weekend!

DEETS:
In-class:
--Research Paper Turn In
--Night Chapter 7
--Oprah and Elie

HW:
--Finish Night
--Gather up your Research Paper materials

Marching On...

I hope today's class was enlightening for some of you. I know this "march" through the school was uncomfortable at points, and I know that you may have even felt stupid during some of it. But I seriously believe that exercises like these help us understand what Elie's world was like. We can watch as many videos, documentaries, pictures, and read as many books as we can about the Holocaust, but can we actually imagine what it was like? Can we truly understand what it was like to be starved, to be thirsty, to be exhausted beyond belief, to be so near desperation that you'll do anything to survive? I don't think I can...

I hope you all learned something, more than you would if I just circled all your contractions on your paragraph paper.

As for the research paper, PLEASE DO YOUR BEST. Remember, this is due TOMORROW. PRINTED. ON TIME. There will be no late papers accpeted NO MATTER WHAT. All the tools you need are on this blog.

Please email me if you have any questions or concerns.

DO WORK!

DEETS:
In-class:
--March
--Chapter 6 Review
--Research Paper Q&A

HW:
--Research Paper due TOMORROW.

Works Cited Page

After today's class we went over Chapter 5 of Night. We went over the main points that I covered in yesterday's post so I won't post it again here. In regards to these paragraphs, I know today's question was a hard one. But you should be able to at least look at your previous mistakes and not continue making the same ones. This is unacceptable. You can do better. If you're consistently getting the same grade that means you need to change what you're doing and try something different. OR come see me afterschool so we can work on it.

But in regards to the Works Cited page, here are the main points you need to know:

1. The Works Cited page is the LAST page of your research paper. Do not start the Works Cited page right after your concluding paragraph. The Works Cited page is its OWN page.

2. The Works Cited page is NOT double-spaced.

3. You must list your sources in ALPHABETICAL order starting with the author's LAST name.

4. The order goes:

Last name, First name. "Article Name." Where It's From.

5. Every line after the first line of one source must be INDENTED. It will look something like this:

Hafner, Katie. “‘Defriending’ Facebook: When Social Networking Starts to Get in the Way of
           Real Life, Some Teens Are Deciding to Log Off.” New York Times Upfront.

If you have any questions with formatting, please come see me or Mr. Hannah afterschool so we can answer them. You will lose serious points if your formatting is incorrect now that we've shown you the proper way of doing so.

DEETS:

In-class:

--Paragraph Quiz

--Chapter 5 Review

--Works Cited page

HW:

--Read pgs. 85-97 in Night

--Research Papers due Friday!

Into the Night...

As we wrapped up today's class, I see that a lot of you still have a lot of work to do in order to get these research papers done. I hope this peer editing process helped many of you, and I hope you use it to your advantage. Look at all the comments your peers wrote on your worksheet as well as on your paper. This isn't the time to point fingers and discredit their advice because you think you're right and they're wrong. This is the time to look at your own work as critically as they did and do the work that's necessary in order for you to get a decent grade on this paper. Remember, this research paper is going to be worth two test grades, and could be the determining factor of whether or not you pass this class.

But in order to do well on this paper, you need to turn something in. Again, make sure that you are not late, that your paper is not in your locker, and that you are not absent. Under NO circumstances will I or Mr. Hannah be accepting late papers. We just can't do it. In order for us to have enough time to grade all of these before final exams, we need to have all papers in by Friday at the time you have class.

Tomorrow, we'll briefly go over how to make a cover page and the Works Cited.

As for tonight's reading, here are some markers that should help you along the way:

--Elie has lost complete and utter faith in God. He writes, "My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man." He no longer feels like the little boy he once was. He no longer puts breathing and living in the same level as God.

--Elie's father feels like his death is coming. He no longer feels like he can make it. He offers Elie a spoon and a knife as his gift to him. Elie looks at the spoon and knife as his inheritance. Make sure you know what this word means and how it can relate to you.

--Elie writes, "Christmas and New Year's we did not work. We were treated to a slightly less transparent soup." Why do you think that is? If all the Germans want to do is kill all the Jews, then why treat them better on holidays? I doubt they actually respect their religious traditions. So why do it?

--Elie seriously injurs his foot. He has to go to the doctor's to get it fixed. The doctor does actually fix his foot, but Elie has to remain in the hospital wing for two weeks to let it heal. But news starts to spread that the Allied Forces were drawing nearer. The camp was to be evacuated. There was talk that they would just take all the prisoners in the hospital ward and carry them right to the ovens. Elie had a choice to make. He could either go with his father and the other prisoners and evacuate the camp OR his doctor would allow Elie's father to be taken in as a patient and they could stay. Elie and his father decide to evacuate. After the war, Elie learned that the prisoners who stayed in the hospital ward were freed two days later by the Russians.

--Elie and his father get up early in the morning and are forced to march along with the other prisoners out of the camp.

If you didn't understand each of these checkpoints, please go back and read them again to make sure you understand each point. One of these will be the paragraph quiz tomorrow!

DEETS:
In-class:
--Peer Review Process

HW:
--Read pgs. 66-84 in Night
--Research Paper due Friday!

Night Chapter 4 Review

Today, we discussed Night Chapter 4. Here's the main points we went over:

--Kommandos were a German word meaing unit or command.
       example: the group of prisoners Elie worked with
--Many Holocaust survivors comment on the concept of luck. Here's a quote from another Holocaust survivor:

“I survived because I was young, and healthy, and strong, and could run fast.  Because they used to come in the woods with the machine guns and you

started running. If you were lucky, the bullet didn’t hit you [...] I can’t say that I was singled out [for survival]. I don’t feel that. I was lucky. And most of the survivors, [if] you ask them how did they survive, unless they are really the frummest [most religious], they will tell you they were lucky.” --Dorothy, child survivor

--Elie comments on this idea when he is able to work alongside his father. This was extremely lucky. Not many survivors were able to stay with their family members the entire time they were at the camps.

--Elie has only been in the camp in a couple of days, but he's already gotten used to being called my a number. His new name is A-7713. He responds quickly to that number as if that's what he's been called his entire life.

--Elie's entire life revolves around a little bowl of soup and a crusty piece of bread. Imagine if that's what your entire life revolved around? Then we discussed the issue of surviving vs. living. Is Elie really living right now? I don't think he is. He refers to hismelf as a body, not even. A hungry stomach.

--On pg. 54 Elie watched his father get beaten up by Kapo. But Elie doesn't get mad at the Kapo for beating up his father, he gets mad at his father for making the Kapo beat him up. This is what he says:

"I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What’s more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn’t he have avoided Idek’s wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me…"

This is an extreme, but this happens all the time in our society. When women are raped, sometimes people say things like, "Well, she shouldn't have been dressed that way..." or "Well, she shouldn't have been out at that bar. She knew better..." Why are we so quick to cast the blame on the victim rather than the criminal?

--During a bomb raid (pg. 59-60) where all the prisoners took shelter, one prisoner crawled out to the cauldron of soup:

"Lying on the ground near the cauldron, he was trying to lift himself to the cauldron’s rim. Either out of weakness or our of fear, he remained there, undoubtedly to muster his strength. At last he succeeded in pulling himself up to the rim. For a second, he seemed to be looking at himself in the soup, looking for his ghostly reflection there. Then, for no apparent reason, he let out a terrible scream, a death rattle such as I had never heard before and, with open mouth, thrust his head toward the still steaming liquid. We jumped at the sound of the shot."

Why do you think the prisoner screamed? He may have been screaming beacuse of his reflection. Think about it: how often do you see yourself in a mirror every day? If I asked you to draw yourself, you could probably do so. Imagine not even being able to recognize yourself because you're so different--you're face is so skinny, your eyes are sucked in, you ahve scratches and bruises everywhere...

Or perhaps the anxiety, the fear, was too much for him to take. He couldn't believe he was about to get away with it because he has lived in fear for so long.

--When the camps were being bombed, prisoners no longer feared death. They were happy when the camps were being bombed because it gave them a sense of hope. It made them feel like freedom was near and that someone was doing something on the outside to stop the Germans.

--The last scene of the chapter was very emotional. A child was hung in the gallows because he was sabotaging his factory work. As he hung there between life and death for more than half an hour, Elie wrote:

 

“For God’s sake, where is God?”

And from within me, I heard a voice answer:

“Where He is? This is where—hanging from this gallows…”

That night, the soup tasted of corpses.

Elie no longer has faith in God, his devotion to God is dead, hanging on the gallows with the child. There is no God. If there were, he wouldn't allow this to happen.

Remember, for homework, you have one final night to get your rough draft done before we peer review tomorrow. If you have any questions, please email me or Mr. Hannah.

DEETS:

In-class:

--Rough Draft Check

--Chapter 4 Paragraph Quiz

--Chapter 4 Review

HW:

--Rough Draft

--Read pgs. 66-84 in Night by Wednesday

Rough Drafts on the Rise!

Today's class was all about finishing up the skeletons of our research papers. We already had the major part of our body paragraphs--the evidence and the analysis--we just needed to complete our main ideas and links. Here's a summary of what those are:

Main Idea: The Main Idea of a body paragraph is to state the general topic of what your paragraph will be about. For example, for this evidence and analysis,

EVIDENCE -- “In part, Formspring is just the latest place to   hang out and exchange gossip, as teenagers   have always done.   But because of the anonymity, the banter is unvarnished,”   (Lewin).

  ANALYSIS -- Formspring is a new website that give teens a space   to   talk, mainly about other people. They can post comments without   leaving their names which allows them to talk in very raw   language. It is sort of like the Jerry Springer effect where people   can say all kinds of mean things about someone else without   consequence.  The users of this site make comments, and the   subject of  their insults cannot respond.  They do not know  who   said it.  This can lead to bullying by a group of unnamed people.    The pressure can grow so intense that the a teen will choose   suicide rather than fight these anonymous enemies.

...here's a sample main idea:

SAMPLE TOPIC SENTENCE

   Young people have engaged in gossip since the dawn of time, but many of today’s social media sites encourage users to make comments about other people without saying who they are, where they are from, or even if they know the person they are putting down.

Notice that it talks generally about social media and it's the quote that goes into the specific harms of Formspring. 

Link: The purpose of the link is to quickly summarize your body paragraph and then connect it back to your thesis. Here would be an example of a link for this paragraph:

Sample Link (concluding sentence):

  Cyber-bullying like that found on sites like Formspring can lead to tragic consequences, and points out one of the harms of social networking.

After we finished off our body paragraphs, it was time to begin outlining out concluding paragraphs.  Here is the function of a concluding paragraph:

1.It signals the end of the essay.

2.It summarizes the main points.

 (remember points 1, 2 and 3?)

3.It leaves the reader with the writer’s final thoughts on the subject.

So first, briefly paraphrase your thesis statement in one to two sentences. Then, summarize each of your three points with one or two sentences each. And finally, express your opinion, or give a recommendation about your subject matter. Here’s an example:

            Humans just want everything to be done for them so they do not have to do anything. In brief, the film Wall-E shows us what humans could be like in 700 years if we continue to do nothing.  Technology will take over our lives.  Pollution will destroy our environment. If we are to actually live for another 700 years, we will have to get up off the couch and not wait for cartoon robots to help us out.

I hope this helps. Remember, rough drafts are due MONDAY. These will be worth a quiz grade. Another note, all rough drafts must be HANDWRITTEN, unless I or Mr. Hannah told you otherwise. Please do your best on these. These will mark the tone for your final drafts which are due this Friday.

Also remember, you must read to pg. 65 of Night by Monday as well. There will be another paragraph quiz when you come in.

As always, if you have any questions, please email me or Mr. Hannah.

Have a great weekend!

DEETS:

In-class:

--DEAR time

--Finish MEALs

--Concluding Paragraphs

HW:

--Rough Draft

--Read to pg. 65 of Night

Introductory Paragraphs

Today we discussed introductory paragraphs. For tomorrow, you need to write out your entire introductory paragraph on a lined piece of paper, with skipped lines, according to the outline we handed out today in class. Here are the six elements you need for your introductory paragraph:

1) Hook
2) Transition
3) Summary of Point #1
4) Summary of Point #2
5) Summary of Point #3
6) Thesis

There are three types of hooks:

™Surprising fact:

(ex) The Pentagon has twice as many bathrooms as are necessary.

™Humor:

(ex) When my older brother substituted  fresh eggs for our hard-boiled Easter eggs, he didn’t realize our father would take the first crack at hiding them.

™Quotation:

(ex) Hillary Rodham Clinton once said that “There cannot be true

democracy unless women's voices are heard.”

Your transition is the sentence that connects your hook with what you'll actually be writing about. Here's the example we went over in class:

 

The pentagon has twice as many bathrooms as are necessary. The famous government building was constructed in the 1940s, when segregation laws required that separate bathrooms be installed for people of African descent. This building is not the only American icon that harkens back to this embarrassing and hurtful time in our history. Across the United States there are many examples of leftover laws and customs that reflect the racism that once permeated American society.

The italisized section is the transition. Notice how it still brings in the idea of the bathrooms, but now brings in the idea of segregation. That is what the essay will be about.

All you need to do is summarize your main points after that. These should be short and sweet sentences that get to the point and address those themes we talked about in your thesis statements.

Here are the themes you should be hitting:

Benefits:

--engaged students in learning

--increased social awareness

•--provides a new form of self-expression

•--develops technical skills

•

--expands social circles

Risks:

--possibility of alcohol and/or drug abuse

•--Internet addiction

•--identity theft

•--loss of privacy

•

--loss of self-identity

Please get these introductory paragraphs done, because tomorrow we're moving on to the conclusion paragraph. Rough drafts are due Monday!

DEETS:

In-class:

--Thesis Work

--Intro Paragraph Organizer

HW:

--Write out Introductory Paragraph

--Rough Draft due Monday

--Read up to pg. 65 in Night due Monday

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed." --Night Chapter 3

Today's class started with our Chapter 3 Paragraph Quiz. As I said in class, we need to start practicing writing our paragraphs at a faster rate to prepare ourselves for the final exam and all future tests that you'll be taking--MCAS, SAT. Unfortunately, you can't get all the time in the world to finish these exams so we need to start practicing writing at a faster processing speed.

Every single time we take a chapter quiz, we'll be writing a paragraph. In order for us to continue building upon these skills, I will allow you to reference every previous paragraph you write in order to physically see your mistakes and be able to fix them. Hopefully, these will eradicate any silly mistakes you guys continue to keep making and help us reach better writing.

After our quiz, we reviewed the main poitns of Chapter 3:

--Elie and his father are separated from his mother and sisters forever. Elie never sees his mother and sisters again. Until this day, Elie has no idea what happened to them. He can only assume they were taken to the crematorium.
--A fellow prisoner told Elie and his father to lie about his age. Elie pretended he was older and and Elie's father pretended he was younger so that they could look strong and healthy and not be sent to the crematorium.
--Elie asks, "How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?" (32). He then asks, "I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes..." (33). Elie has now begun to question his religion. Remember, this is a huge deal. Elie was a child that used to cry every time he cried and put praying, living, and breathing in the same sentence. Now, he looks up into the sky and damns the God that brought him here. He has no God. His God has been kept silent. No God would allow this to happen.
--This passage is the most famous section of Elie's memoir. He uses repetition in order to emphasize the terror and the trauma he experienced on the first night of being in the camp.

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith for ever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live
as long as God Himself.
Never.

--The word "chimney" is the only word that had meaning in the camp. That word brought real terror to anyone who said it because the chimney was a constant reminder of the death that awaited all of the prisoners if they step out of line for any reason.

--Elie's father gets beat up right in front of him because he is suffering from colic disease. Elie doesn't even flinch. So many prisoners, including Elie's father, suffered from diseases such as colic disease, typhus, lice, starvation.

--There are many instance of irony in this chapter:

1) "At every step, white signs with black skulls looked down on us. The inscription: WARNING! DANGER OF DEATH!

2) "This one had an iron gate with the overhead inscription: ARBEIT MACHT FREI."

3) "The unskilled were kept until the end."

--Elie writes, "The three 'veteran' prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713." Imagine what it would be like to have no name, but be referred to as a number for the rest of your life.

As for the documentary we watched, I know some of it was difficult to watch. However, I feel that it is important to witness what Elie witnessed every day for MONTHS. We can only begin to imagine what that must have been like, so we should show our respect to him and all Holocaust survivors by being brave enough to witness for ourselves the terror of the camps.

As for your MEAL organziers due tomorrow, please complete the E's and the A's. For the E section, just rewrite the quote. To introduce the quote, you can use some of these sentence starters:

-- According to "..."
-- Research shows "..."
-- One writer states, "..."
-- One study found, "..."
-- One piece of evidence that social media works/does not work is "..."

For your analysis, please summarize and analyze your quotes according to the edits your classmate gave you. Do the work!

DEETS:
In-class:
--Chapter 3 Paragraph Quiz
--Chapter 3 Review
--Fog and Night Documentary

HW:
--MEAL Organziers
--Read up to pg. 65 in Night due Monday

Analysis and Exploration

When we finished Chapter 2 of Night, I think this subject matter suddenly became very real for a lot of you. We shared some moments of silence after I and Mr. Hannah explained exactly what was happening in these concentration camps. As we discussed today, Elie and his family arrived in Birkenau, the extermination sub-camp of Auschwitz. Here are some pictures of Auschwitz:

This camp (including its sub-camps) was more than 5,000 football fields. That is incredibly huge space, a space for death. Today, Auschwitz remains the most renown concentration camp in the history of the world, both for its size and its operation. Up to 3 million people died here (2.5 million gassed, and 500,000 from disease and starvation). It is difficult for us to imagine, or even begin to comprehend that number, but with Elie's memoir, we can begin to. If we think about his journey and the millions of people's stories who were unlucky and were never told, his story starts to change us, to affect us on a much deeper level.

In Chapter 2, we learn that Mrs. Schachter wasn't crazy and she wasn't going mad when she saw fire and flames every night on the cattle car ride. She was actually having premonitions, visions of what their future would hold. Once they reached their destination (Birkenau), everyone could see the fire and the flames for themselves. The scent of burning flesh was in the air and no one could run from it or hold their noses. Without a moment's notice, Elie, his family, and the rest of the people in the cattle car were ordered to the front of the gate.

Here is a picture of the entrance. You can see the chimneys smoking in the background:

Like I said in class, as you read the next chapter for tomorrow, be prepared for some emotional scenes. These are the first few days that Elie and his family enter into the concentration camps and he sees the evil and the horror of what the Nazis became capable of. If you have any questions or problems, please email me or Mr. Hannah.

Whew. Okay, switching gears. As for your research paper, I cannot say AGAIN how imperative it is that you do this work and that you do it well. Mr. Hannah and I can only do so much to assist you, but if you don't do the work, we can't help you. With that being said, due THURSDAY are your MEAL organizers. Now that you've gotten some feedback from a partner about what you need to fix on your quotes, it is now time to start constructing your paragraphs. On your MEAL sheet, you should have something that looks like this:

M: (main idea)
E: (evidence)
A: (analysis)
L: (link back to the thesis)

For Thursday, you only need to be concerned about the E's and the A's. You need to copy each of your 3 quotes into the E sections. Then, I need you to revise your analysis (including both the summary and the analysis) according to your partner's corrections, and then put it in the A sections. Here's an example from the powerpoint that we went over to give you a better idea of just how thorough we want you to be:

An article on social networking states that, “In part, Formspring is just the latest place to hang out and exchange gossip, as teenagers have always done. But because of the anonymity, the banter is unvarnished,” (Lewin). Formspring is a new website that give teens a space to talk, mainly about other people. They can post comments without leaving their names which allows them to talk in very raw language.  It is sort of like the Jerry Springer effect where people can say all kinds of mean things about someone else without consequence.  The users of this site make comments, and the subject of their insults cannot respond.  They do not know who said it.  This can lead to bullying by a group of unnamed people.  The pressure can grow so intense that the a teen will choose suicide rather than fight these anonymous enemies.

Things to notice:
--introduces the quote, doesn't just stick it in there
--COMMA QUOTE PARANTHESIS PERIOD
--the summary is 2 sentences, explaining each sentence of the quote
--the analysis is 5 sentences, breaking down each part and making judgments about what the effect of social media in this instance is

For your MEAL organizers, we expect the very same. If you have any questions or feel as if your analysis isn't strong enough and you can't figure out why, STAY AFTER SCHOOL and I or Mr. Hannah will help you. Or, shoot us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as possible, but the best thing for all of you is to stay after school and get the extra help that a lot of you need. 

DEETS:
In-class:
--DEAR time--Finish reading Chapter 2 of Night together
--Analysis Model
--Analysis Peer Review

HW:
--Read up to pg. 47 in Night. Paragraph quiz tomorrow!
--MEAL organizers due Thursday.

"Night had fallen." --Night Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of Night gave us an introduction into the terrible abyss that Elie and his family are about to enter. Here are the main points we talked about in class:

--Moishe the Beadle was captured by the Germans, and left for dead when he was shot in the leg. He came back to Sighet to warn the rest of the Jews, but no one would listen to him. They didn't want to believe him. This was your quiz questions--It is human nature for us not to believe that negative things can happen to us. We don't want to believe that negative things can come to our doorstep and affect us.

--Elie puts praying, living, and breathing in the same thought. This shows us how deeply religious he is and how much his world will shatter when he reaches the concentration camp.

--The yellow stars were a way for the Germans to categorize and separate the Jews. You could not easily tell a Jew from any other religion, as they have no distinct features. The yellow star enabled Germans to label Jews and keep them visible. The psychological effect of these stars is astounding. You become a number, a stereotype, another face in the crowd without a true identity.

--Most Jews, including Elie's family, thought of the ghettos as a "good" thing. Why? They felt that now they were amongst other Jews, their brothers. Here they felt they had strength in numbers and strength in safety. At least now, they would be less likely to be singled out. What's twisted about this way of thinking is that the ghettos were unguarded. It was the fear that kept the Jews inside.

--Elie and his family had multiple chances to escape.
1. Moishe the Beadle's warnings
2. Elie's family's maid coming to tell them about a shelter she made for them
3. An old friend banging on their door

--The Hungarian police were Elie's first oppressors. Remember, these were their police at one time--their protectors. And now, they were calling them out and lining them up on the street. He hated them because they were his neighbors, his own fellow people.

--At the end of the chapter, Elie and his family, along with 80 other Jews, were loaded into a cattle car and taken away without a word of how long they would be travelling or where they were travelling to. Here is an image of one:

Just a note as we continue reading this memoir, the subject matter is incredibly serious and it is very intense. We need to approach this memoir as mature adults with an open heart and have the courage to be vulnerable and let this story affect us, and perhaps even change us. It's all right to laugh sometimes to keep our classroom atmosphere light-hearted and fun, but at the same time, I would like to try to be serious and appreciate the tremendous effort Elie had when he wrote his story. We can only begin to imagine the pain and the grief he must have had when recollecting all these memories of this horrible past. Let us be wise and pay respect to that by reading this book with a mature and respectful manner.

DEETS:

In-class:

--Night Paragraph Quiz

--Night Chapter 1

--Begin reading Night Chapter 2

HW:

--Analysis Flash Cards

--Read to pg. 47 of Night by Wednesday

Index Cards Analysis

Today's class was all about analysis. We started the most important, and probably the most difficult, part of the research paper. After DEAR time, we began the process of analyzing our quotes. Here's what we discussed:

In order to analyze a quote, it is necessary to have two parts:

1. Explain the quote.
          Example: Just like we did for Shakespeare, take each sentence of your quote and translate it. What is              the quote saying?

2. Analyze the quote.
          Example: How does this quote show the benefits or harms of social media? What are the effects of this outcome?

On the back of your index cards, you can use these sentence starters to get you going:

For the first part, use "This means that..."

For the second part, use "This shows that social media is beneficial/harmful to _______ because..."

These sentence starters will allow you to properly analyze your quotes by being specific and detailed. Remember, the harder you work on this over the weekend, the easier your job will be in the end. As Mr. Hannah and I said in class, this is the most difficult part of the research paper because it's making you think, and think hard. Everything after this is downhill. So do the work, and do it now!

Remember, these quotes are due Tuesday so you have an extra day to work on them; however, if you feel like your analysis is weak, get them done earlier, so that on Monday you can show them to me or Mr. Hannah and we can advise you where to go from there so you'll be ready to go on Tuesday. Take advantage of this opportunity!

Also remember (last one I promise), you need to read all of Chapter 1 of Night by Monday. We'll be going over what you read. I may even be feeling a little POPPY.

Have an excellent weekend and please email me or Mr. Hannah if you have any questions.

DEETS:
In-class:
--DEAR
--Index Card Analysis

HW:
--Analyze ALL your index cards (due Tuesday)
--Read Chapter 1 of Night

Index Cards Mania

I think I speak for both me and Mr. Hannah when I say for the people who stepped up and read aloud their paragraphs, we were incredibly impressed. We can finally, FINALLY, begin to see the improvements in your writing. All of you have gotten increidbly more specific with your language and more creative. Thank you for being so vulnerable and opening yourself up to the class. It was very admirable.

As for the research paper, I unfortunately can't say the same. We can do better! Like I stressed in class, if you do one homework assignment, please let this be the one. Get your index cards done! Here is what it should look like:

Source A

“Your data is shared more widely than you may wish. Even if you have restricted your information to be seen by friends only, a friend who is using a Facebook app could allow your data to be transferred to a third party without your knowledge,” (Golijan).

 

                                                                                                           S.C.

 

Put the source letter on the top left-hand corner. Then put it in the quote. Put the author's last name in paranthesis at the end of the quote. Then, put your initials on the bottom right-hand corner of the index card. Please do all of this on the blank side of the index card. We'll be using the lined side tomorrow in class.

 

Also, for Monday, you must read all of Chapter 1 of Night. That is up to page 22. You may use DEAR time tomorrow to get a jump start on it. Like I mentioned in class before, this is more of an emotional and mental read. We will not be annotating as intensely as we have with the past books. The focus of this book is to notice the themes Elie present before us and how those themes affect us today in our modern lives.

 

Happy reading and get your index cards done!

 

DEETS:

In-class:

--Paragraphs Share Out

--Index Cards

--Night Chapter 1

 

HW:

--Finish your Index Cards and begin reading Chapter 1 of Night

 

NOTE: Remember, we will be reading Night on the iPads. Click on the link on the right-hand side of the blog labeled "Night text" to access it on PDF Notes.