Welcome to 8th Grade Language Arts!

Write a reflection of the digital storytelling process.  Did you enjoy creating a digital story, or was it too frustrating?  Were you more engaged in creating a story like this than you would have been if it were just putting words on paper alone?  What parts of the process were easy or rewarding?  What parts of the process were hard or frustrating?  Were you happy with your final project?  What would you do the same way if you created a digital story again?  What might you do differently?  What did you learn from creating your digital story?

On Friday, you will do an characterization activity on one of the following characters:  Peeta, Katniss, Haymitch, Cinna, Effie, Prim, or Gale.  In your writer's notebook today, write down as many facts and observations as you can think of about each of them.  You should consider things like their background, their motivations, their beliefs, their strengths and weaknesses, and their friends and enemies.  You should consider how others view them and how they view themself.  You might also consider the ways in which these characters might have grown or changed throughout the novel.  Use your annotations to help you find important passages--direct quotes from the book will be very helpful.

Choose ONE of the prompts below and respond to it in your writer’s notebook.

 A.  One of your classmates is struggling to survive. (Actually, many of your classmates are struggling. Times are tough for everyone.) You have the opportunity to help her, but in order to help, you will have to take a beating and perhaps additional punishment. Would you risk a beating in order to help a classmate? Why or why not? What if the person were a stranger you had never seen before? Would you take the beating to help someone you don’t know? Explain.

 B.  The Hunger Games were televised so that the entire country could watch the tributes fight to the death live as it happened. Do you see any parallels to what we call “Reality TV”? Why are reality tv programs so popular? What does it say about us and our society that these programs are watched by so many people?

 C.  Before the Games begin, the tributes have time to train and hone their skills. If you were a participant in the Hunger Games, what do you think your skill would be? What score would you receive in training? Do you think you would be able to get sponsors? Explain.

Write a response to the second chapter of Hiroshima, entitled "The Fire."  Here are some suggestions, but you do not need to be limited to these:

• Focus on the experience of one of the six survivors.  What happens to them?  What is their response to these events?  What is your reaction to these events and how this particular survivor responds?
• Choose one of the passages that you highlighted as being significant and/or important.  Why did you choose this passage?  
• You learned about the bombing of Hiroshima in social studies.  What have you learned from reading Hiroshima that you did not know or learn before?  Does this change your impressions or opinions?
• Now that you have read half of Hiroshima, can you understand why the publication of Hersey's piece was such an event?  Can you imagine what it must have been like for Americans to read about the bombing of Hiroshima from this perspective?

In the section of Hiroshima called "A Noiseless Flash," you meet six survivors of the bomb blast.  Try to adopt Atticus' advice and imagine what it would be like to be one of those six people.  "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."  Which of the six survivors' stories affected you the most?  Why? 

Look over the essays that you wrote for your TKAM test.  Were you happy with what you wrote?  Was it hard?  Easy?  If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?  What goals will you set for the essay you are working on now?

With the members of your workgroup, examine three or four novels with chapter titles and note their characteristics.  Here are some questions to guide your thinking:

• How does the chapter title relate to the chapter content?
• Is there anything special or significant about the chapter title?
• What is the grammatical structure of the chapter title?
• What stands out about the word choice in the chapter title?

You and your workgroup will then create a chapter title for one chapter in TKAM as well as a brief summary and interpretation.  Each of you will be assigned the same task for homework with a particular chapter from the novel.  We will combine our work in a Google Doc on Wednesday.

Each workgroup will have a specific set of questions to answer on Ch. 22-24.  Click on the document for your group to see your questions.  Working together, you should jot down notes within the document to help you present your answers on Wednesday.

Groups 1 & 2:  

Groups 3 & 6

Groups 4 & 5

Each of you will be able to choose your own topic for a persuasive writing assignment on To Kill a Mockingbird.  Although you have not yet finished reading the book, it is not too soon to start thinking about some possibilities. Spend 10 to 15 minutes writing down some of your opinions and ideas about the book and the movie thus far.  Here are some questions to get you thinking:

 

• Who do you think is the most important character in the book?  Why?
• Who do you think is the most interesting character in the book?  Why?
• Which of the characters in TKAM would you most want to meet?  Why?
• Is the movie a good adaptation of the book?  Why or why not?
• If you were to do a movie version of the book today, how would your movie be different from the Gregory Peck version?
• Is this an appropriate or worthwhile book for 8th graders to read in school?  Why or why not?
• Is there a particular passage/episode/quote in the book that is meaningful to you?  For example, what do you think of Atticus' advice to Scout?

 

As you watch the video, take notes in your writer’s notebook. You should record things that you notice as well as questions that you have.  You do NOT need to write in complete sentences—just write down enough so that you can remember what you were thinking.  You will need these notes on Monday.

Some things to think about:

• Does the movie do a good job of reproducing the images you have in your head from reading? Why or why not?

• What do the filmmakers keep the same as the book? What do they do differently?

• Do the actors play the roles of the characters well?  Are their any characters that you think are mis-cast? Any that you think are cast very well?  Why?

• Do you think that Harper Lee would be happy with this representation of her book?  Why or why not?

• In Chapter 4, Scout gives her opinion of her school days.  She refers to the educational system in Macomb as "twelve years of unrelieved boredom."  Write about your experience in school.  Is your experience in school different from or similar to Scout's?  Explain the similarities and/or differences.  You might write this entry in your writer's notebook as if it were a letter to Scout.
• Scout says that "summer was our best season."  She lists several things that make summer her favorite season.  What is your best season?  Why?  Describe the things that make it your favorite season.
• In Chapter 5, Scout shows her youth and immaturity by taking something that Miss Maudie says very literally.  Miss Maudie tells her that "The things that happen to people we never really know.  What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets--"  What do you think Miss Maudie means?  Do you agree with her?  Can you relate a story or incident that shows this?
• Of course, you may choose your own response to the Chapters 4, 5, & 6.  You may want to refer to the handout on reader response ideas on the Handouts page to help you decide what to write about.