And we are done...

Hello all.

All grades are done and in the computer.

I enjoyed you all.  Please keep in touch a you go on to live your lives.

Warren

Last Assignment of the Year: LOTF Chapter 12

And just like that... we are on our last assignment.  I am proud of those of you who stuck with it all the way through.  If you have me in AP Lit your senior year, you will be better off than those who didn't read it because I mention it all of the time.

OK so before you finish the book, lets discuss Chapter 11.

Of course this chapter is most known for the death of Piggy.

With his death comes the destruction of two huge symbols:  the conch and Piggy's brain. 

If you look at the imagery of that scene, the author was definitely trying to make you see it.  The conch is shattered into 1000 pieces.  And Piggy's head literally smashed against the rocks below and opened up and pick stuff came out.  That would be his brain.

So now all three parts of a successful society are gone.  Nothing is left and only human's real nature is left:  Main is Basically Evil.

Ralph is alone.  Samneric have been taken captive. 

OK for Chapter 12.  No dialectic.  I am tired of those and I am sure that you are too.

So for the last chapter, just send me an email with a paragraph like the last part of the Book Report.  Just tell me what you thought of it.  The book as a whole.  And don't worry about writing rules.  Just be you, tell me your thoughts.

Miss ya!!  Warren

Digital Learning Assignment 11: LOTF Chapter 11

Hello all,

OK, Chapter 11 is kinda a transition chapter as I said.  Not a bunch to talk about for this one...  but just wait til Chapter 11...

1.  All the Biguns (the older boys) except for Samneric have joined Jack's tribe.  They have set up their camp at Castle Rock.

2.  Ralph talks about Simon's murder.  Although all the boys participated, they all also deny it.  Ralph, Piggy, Samneric.

3.  Ralph has trouble remembering his past life in civilization.  He has trouble really thinking about anything now.

4.  At night, Jack's tribe raids Ralph and his group.  They come for "fire" and end up taking Piggy's glasses.  Piggy is now totally useless, except for his brain...

5.  The comic relief that the author tried to instill in this chapter was the fight scene.  Ralph and Sam (I think it was Sam) thought that they were fighting the other boys.  But when they discuss the fight, you should realize that they were actually fighting each other.


OK, now to the book's climax.  Prepare yourselves!

Only two chapters left.  Miss ya!  Warren

Digital Learning Assignment 10: LOTF Chapter 10

Hey all,

Sorry this is one day late.  I had to wrap up the AP class after Wednesday's test.

We have three chapters to go.  I know the dialectics may be getting old to you, but it's all that I can do in this "place" in time.

So if you ever want to just go ahead without me... that's what we will do through Chapter 12.

OK Chapter 9...  My least favorite chapter.

Simon is dead.   My favorite character was literally beat, stabbed, clawed, bit and whatever else... to death. 

But we knew it was going to happen.  Simon himself foreshadowed it (just like Jesus foreshadowed his death) when he told Ralph that "you will get back" alright. 

Heck, even the Lord of the Flies told us that he was going to die (they will do you) in the last chapter.

So the keys to the last chapter:
1)  Simon went to the top of the mountain.  He found the best and confirmed that it was a man.
2)  He freed the beast from his tangled mess and the parachute was able to fill with wind and it takes the body off of the island and out to sea.  Thus, no more Beast.
3)  Simon comes down the mountain to reveal the "truth" to the others.
4)  The boys (all of them) were doing their chant/dance and he comes down the mountain in the dark.
5)  The boys mistake him for the beast and "do" him.
6)  Simon's body washed out to sea, but his body is circled by little shiny fish.  Forming a symbolic halo.

So if we go back to the first Power Point.  Golding believed that a successful society needs three equal parts to survive.  Intelligence (piggy), Rules and Laws (Ralph), and Spiritualism and Religion (Simon).  He believed society would collapse without ONE of them.

Well... get ready.  Chapter 10.  I call this a transition chapter.

What do many authors do when they find their work becoming overly dark and depressing?  See if you can find it.  Think Cinna the Poet!

Miss ya!

Online Assignment 9: LOTF Chapter 9

Hello everyone.  Hope you had a nice weekend.  The weather was awesome!!!

OK so LOTF Chapter 8.  The most important chapter.  This is actually my favorite discussion to have each year.

1.  Jack leaving to form his own group.  This is symbolic.  Remember I said that Jack represents Satan.  Well, in the Bible, originally Satan was God's number 1 angel.  But he challenged God for control and power, so he was cast out.  Just like Jack.

2.  The crazy part.  The killing of the sow.  I would love if you would all re-read that part where it begins with "The Pigs lay, bloated bags of fat."  This is the part that I read each year.  As you read it again, look at the word choice.  There are words in there that just don't belong with the description of boys hunting a pig.

So if you study it, you will realize that it is a symbol or metaphor.  Remember I told you that the author served in WWII.  He witnessed and heard of horrible things that made him believe that all men are evil.  Well, he had to show that here.  The horror that men are capable of doing. So what he did was he personified a female pig.  And the boys figuratively raped her and killed her in front of her children.  The worst thing (to the author) that a man can do.

3.  Pig's head on a stick.  You will notice from the time that the boys killed the sow, the author does not refer to them as boys anu more.  They are either the tribe or the savages.  So what do savages do?  They make sacrafices to their "god," which in this case, is the Beast.

4.   The Lord of the Flies:  Most of you noticed that the "rape" of the pig happened in Simon's secret spot.  They defiled his sanctuary.  Then put a pig's head on it.  Then Simon wakes up and talks to it.  He is hallucinating, but it is all symbolic.  Where did the author come up with the name for the book?  Well Simon is talking to the Lord of the Flies, but he is really talking to Satan.  In the Bible, Satan has many names.  One is Beelzebub.  Which translate to Lord of the Flies.

5.  Temptation Scene:  So Simon talking to the LOTF is an allusion to when Jesus was tempted by the Devil to become more like man.  He tells Simon to go down and play with the others...  go have fun.

6.  We will DO YOU.  And the LOTF says to him that if he doesn't join the rest of them, they will "do you."  Means kill him.  And look at the names that the LOTF throws out who will "do him."

Ok that was not as fun as talking about it.  Actually sucks!!!

I hate this.

Anyway, Chapter 9:  A View to a Kill...  :(

Online Assignment 8: LOTF Chapter 8

OK, I have to get this done.  Because for some reason I have 40 book reports, videos, pics, and oral text questions to deal with right now.

Thanks again to all of you who waited until the last day.  I was hoping that you would because I am sooooo bored.  It's my lucky day!

I will grade them today and tomorrow, but I will wait to put the grade into the computer until the very last day that they are required  to be in.  I think June 1st.

So anyway, Lord of the Flies.  I don't have any more of my own dialectics to share.  Because at this point in a normal year, we would be well into our Lord of the Flies game.  I would have divided you all into 6 groups of my choosing.  I would make the groups very diverse, trying to put "friends" into separate groups.  The groups would be made up of very different personalities, kinda like the boys on the island.

I then would assign a chapter to each group.  Six groups,  six chapters left.

And you all would teach the rest of the book.  I literally sit and watch and grade you.  If you missed something in your presentation and lesson, I would make sure I covered it for you.

So here are some brief insights into Chapter 7:

1)  Ralph wishes he wasn't so dirty and unkept.  He wants to look more civilized.
2)  The boys go on a search for the beast.  Along the way, they see a pig and Ralph throws a spear and hits it.  It does not die, but it bleeds.  The blood causes Ralph to get VERY excited.  THEME!!
3)  I think this may be a part where Simon walks into a tree and blood runs down his forehead.  This is symbolic of Jesus and the crown of thorns.
4)  Simon and Ralph talk about getting rescued.  Simon says the key words:  "Don't worry Ralph, you'll get back okay."  Look at the words that Simon uses.  Why doesn't he say, "We."
5)  The boys see the beast.  They run like heck away from it.  The beast is confirmed.  They just don't know that it's just a dead MAN.

OK Chapter 8.  This is the next chapter that has a scene that I read out loud.  It is my favorite part to discuss, although many kids look at me like I am crazy when I do.  See if you can figure it out.

Do a dialectic for 100 points.

Online Assignment 7: LOTF Chapter 7

It was nice talking yesterday to many of your parents.  Nice people!

OK let's talk about Chapter 6 first. 

There are three parts of the book that I actually sit down, have you all open your books to a page and I read OUT LOUD (in my monotone voice) a section.

Chapter 6 is the first.  Just the first three paragraphs where the "beast" comes to the island and Samneric see it.

Many kids don't see what is happening and it's an incredible "image" that the author creates.  So I will try to help you here.  You should re-read the first paragraphs to you "see" in your head what the twins wake up to see.

The beast comes from the world of adults.  It is a "man" (theme) that was a pilot that was shot down in a dog fight above the island (remember there is a fictional world war going on).

The pilot is dead.  You have to see the word choice that is used.  The "figure" with "dangling limbs" is just hanging from his parachute as it comes down.  So if you visualize.  He dead.  Probably bloody!

Then he lands at the base of the island and is dragged up the mountain over sharp rocks.  So, even though he has one of those leather helmets that they had back in the day, his face is  probably all screwed up now, torn up, bloody, missing teeth and eyes maybe.  Not pretty.  But that's not all.

He is tangled in his parachute strings,  He is sitting, head between his legs, and each time the wind blows, it fills the parachute and he lifts his bloody head and torso and the parachute behind him looks like wings or a huge body.

And Samneric wake up to this.  They hear the "plop" of the parachute fill with wind, and then see the "Beast" sit up and stare at them. 

Now picture two 11 year olds.  Already scared.  Already thinking about some creature on the island.  And they see that!!

Here is my Dialectic:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/0B3L_VvieQoSodzBqQ2lINXJMSnc/edit#slide=id.p5

Now on to Chapter 7.  It is kinda a transition chapter.  Then we get to read Chapter 8.  The most symbolic chapter.  I love talking about that chapter!!!!

OUTSIDE READING REQUIREMENT!!!!!!!!!

You guys are so lucky that we are not in school right now!!!!!!!!

Otherwise I would be yelling!!!!  And I never yell.

Only 26 of you have completed the Outside Reading. 

You have had almost 2 months off. 

You have known about this for 5 months.

The two kids that we transferred in at semester, Cherry and Amarah, have finished it already.

What is up with you!!!!

Is my anger coming through to your screen?????

You have 4 days.  May 6.  If it's late.  Your grade is what is says right now.

And to the 26 of you who have done it.  Thank you.