All groups worked on the Macbeth projects today.  We will have at least one more class period to work on them.

HOMEWORK:

WHAT’S NEXT:  Swift and satire.

We listened to the first few chapters of Huck Finn.

HOMEWORK:  Continue reading and finish chapters 1-18 by Tuesday.  Complete first weblog assignment posted at http://mrvarnum.learnerblogs.org.

WHAT’S NEXT:  Learning how to post and comment

We listened to chapters 3-6 of Huck Finn in class today.

HOMEWORK:  Continue reading.  Chapters 1-18 must be complete by Monday.

WHAT’S NEXT:  Jim and the river.

More layout today.

HOMEWORK:  Story Generators due Friday.

WHAT’S NEXT:  Review writing.

For your first blog post assignment, answer the following question:

Based on the evidence from the text, what kind of a kid is Huck? What characteristics/quailites does he possess? Does this make him seem like a typical pre-pubescent boy? In what ways does he seem more mature than his age? In what ways does he seem less?

In addition to your other observations/comments/questions from your reading, please address these questions with supporting examples from the text. Your contribution should be posted no later than Monday, February 5. Good luck!

I distributed copies of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to all students.  They also received a reading schedule and essential questions.

We tried to set up weblogs on learnerblogs.org, but their site was very slow and uncooperative.  We eventually set up blogs on blogger.com and played around with templates and themes.

HOMEWORK:  Read the first four chapters of Huck Finn.

WHAT’S NEXT:  Posting our first weblog post.

Essential Questions

As we begin our study of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, always keep in mind the following questions:

1. What aspects of American society does Mark Twain satirize? What flaws in the character of the American people is he attempting to expose?
2. What comment does Twain make about the nature of a family?
3. What comment does Twain make about the nature of racism?
4. What comment does Twain make about the American Dream?

As you begin to work on your weblogs, keep these questions in mind and feel free to comment on them.

Other Information

• The novel was published in 1885.
• It is set around 1845 along the Mississippi River in Missouri and Illinois
• Key Characters:
  • Huckleberry Finn
  • Tom Sawyer
  • Widow Douglass
  • Miss Watson
  • Jim
  • Pap

We began reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  We listened to the first two chapters on audio.

HOMEWORK:  Read the first 18 chapters by Monday (page 88).

We printed out what we had laid out, cut them up and did some proofreading.  We’d like to get this issue out by next week.

HOMEWORK:  Four story generators due on Friday

We reviewed the UCEs, and several students had problems with the “best answer” concept. We discussed several of the questions and the answer choices.

Following the UCE discussion, we began to talk about the Huck Finn weblogs. All that information is available at HOMEWORK: Create your weblog at learnerblogs.org and begin reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.WHAT’S NEXT: Your first weblog entry.