Hello everyone!
I am not in class today because I am scoring the incoming ninth grade exams. However, I have some wonderful fun planned for you!
Today you need to do something called "Centers." On the side of the blog you will see several links named "Centers." These 'centers' will help give you some background to the time period of the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. You need to click on each link and write a response for each. The length of each response will vary depending on how strongly it impacts you. The least you can do is a paragraph though (a well thought-out paragraph which shows you read, and analyzed the topic. DO NOT JUST GIVE SUMMARY.)
You should write your response in a word document and post it at the end of class. This will take you ALL block so use your time wisely. Post what you accomplish today, the rest is homework. I will be able to see how hard you worked by your work quality and quantity. Impress me.
Have a good day. Also, if I did not assign it already you are to write (in your journal) the response under number 1 on the Storytelling paper and make your list of favorite hobbies, etc.
Feel free to email me with questions and I will get back to you before next class.
Gabouryv@averillpark.k12.ny.us. Please write something identifying you as a student in your subject line (so my computer doesn't toss you as spam! :0)
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ReplyDeleteBetween the world and me:
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this poem I couldn’t understand it. It was very dark and I couldn’t relate or find the point. Then after reading the poem a few times I realized that the fact that the "me"s were highlighted might mean something.
I read the poem a few more times and then i realized that the "me" could be something completely different than I thought and that the entire poem could be metaphoric to something else.
I realized that the “me” didn’t have to be a real person or in fact a human at all! I realized that the “me” was highlighted because it actually wasn’t a real person and was actually something much more metaphoric. I believe that the “me” was not even a living person and that the poem was from the point of view from an inanimate object.
I believe that it is from a whiteboard. When someone approaches a whiteboard it has everything from the person before it. When they erase everything from the whiteboard it gets rid of that person from the whiteboard. Lastly when the person writes on the whiteboard they are apart of it and the cycle repeats.
I believe that this happens in the poem but in a way which is much more dark.
^ im with this guy ^
ReplyDeleteGranddaughter’s Sled:
ReplyDeleteThe story Granddaughter’s Sled is has a great message. It proves that a person is never useless no matter how it may seem. In the story the grandfather, who was to be left to die for he was “useless”, ends up saving the town from a famine.
This story portrays this message in a very realistic way. If the grandfather had done an impossible task than the story would be unrealistic and the message wouldn’t get across. The fact that he uses his wisdom to save town proves more that reality of the message.
Granddaughter’s sled
ReplyDeleteThis story basically showed that now matter how old you are you can be useful in some way whether you are able to do physical work or you can help people with your wisdom.
In the story this is shown because at first the Grandfather was becoming weak and physically useless but when famine struck he used his wisdom to bring crop to the family’s in his village.
Water Fountains:
ReplyDeleteAt first seeing how this center was a picture rather than a text worried me for a short while. After looking at the picture and all of the words around the fountain I realized the meaning of it. The fountain is a metaphor. It shows the prejudice in the world. The fountain is a white water fountain. The fact that blacks can’t use it shows the racism.
Between the World and Me by Richard Wright
ReplyDeleteThis was truly a good explanation all wrapped into a poem on the treatment of black people during those times. It was cruel what was happening to these people during those times, and made me really sad and depressed. It gave me a really sick feeling on how just because they had a different skin color than others.
It took a little while to understand the deep meaning of this poem, and I really didn’t understand it at first. When I got it, that’s when I really became sad. This poem has great similarities to the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In this book, African Americans get tarred and feathered and other punishments for being a different race. It makes me sick how people were treated then, and how America actually acted in our past. Now look at our country, going quite a ways from the 1930’s, and we have an African American president.
When the man was describing the event of feeling the tar on his body, the flames leap around his body, it’s just sick and cruel what happened and this poem is a great supporter of those cruel times for African Americans.
Water Fountain
ReplyDeleteThis picture has one sign in it that sums up the whole picture and the sadness of it. White. That’s it. That one sign sums up how badly African American people are treated in the 1930’s. It claims that whites got water while African American’s got a different fountain that might be in even worse shape then this one. It’s really cruel that our society was once like this. It shows how unequal people used to be in America. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, African Americans too were not treated fairly. Never would a white would be tarred and feathered, but a African American person would.
Separate Entrances
ReplyDeleteJust like the Water Fountain picture, this only needs to words to sum up how cruel our society used to be during past times. White and Colored separate entrances. That’s cruel and upsetting to me, and makes me very angry. How can our world be that segregated at once? Just to walk through a door do we need to be separated? It’s sick! Our world was once just like the times in the book To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee where African Americans were treated the same way.
Rosewood
ReplyDeleteThis just makes me feel really angry at our world. A massacre spree for African Americans, that’s just… how do I sum it up into one word? It’s horrifying. It’s horrifying, terrible? There are just not big enough words to describe this event. To think, to just think that a women was raped by an African American man, is not enough to go on a killing spree for the race and so many innocent lives. This is what happens in To Kill a Mockingbird, similar, in that many African Americans are tarred and feathered, killed, even though they are innocent. That’s pretty sick. In the case for Rosewood, where they have 25, 25 witnesses of this event, evidence, and still cannot find the people guilty and just push it aside, like it’s nothing, is really sickening.
Simon Wiesenthal
ReplyDeleteSimon Wiesenthal was a Nazi camp survivor and was determined to set out and find the people who had caused this mess in the after times of World War II. This man is a great man who stood up in honor of the many Jews who were killed due to Hitler and the Nazis. This man never let people forget of the disasters that the Jews went through, the millions killed due to the Nazis. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird I have a feeling that at some time, a man, white or African American, will stand up for the African American race and actually cause change to happen for the race.
Cultural Background of the times
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930’s, Shirley Temple was the new actor and person everyone was talking about. During the Depression, if you had some change left or could afford it, going to the movies was taking a break from the sad times that were going on outside the movie theater. The black and white screen was homw to some actors that are known greatly even to today.
Field Picture
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930’s it seems that technology wasn't the best. Farming was what kept them alive, while in these days farming is getting smaller and smaller. When the Dust Bowl hit though, they really hurt them. Now the thing that kept them all alive was gone and life was going to get very, very hard. They tried to keep their farms from going, but it hardly worked and the Depression just got even more harder.
Today in our times we are going through a smaller depression, but our farming hasn't been effected like the people in the Great Depression had
Dorothea Lange Pics.
ReplyDeleteLife back during the Depression for most was very, very hard. The Depression hit them bad, and life was terrible. It make me sad to see the faces of the poor children who had to go through a life that I couldn't even manage to think of going through. Their whole life was in a small tent, their house, their family, their friends, all lived in one tent. All these people had during those times were a small trunk of their belongings, a chair, and tarp above your head. It's terrible, and must have been so hard to survive, like getting food must have been difficult.
We Cater to White Only Pic.
ReplyDeleteThis is another segregated photo that really makes me angry. It's really just upsetting. Life during the 1930's was very hard for African American’s, for all whites except for a few were racist. It would make sense to cater to both races. It's great how much our society has changed since those 1930's for the greater good of the African American’s race, thanks to people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. to where we even have an African American president today.
Seperate Entances:
ReplyDeleteLike the water fountains, this picture shows the prejudice of our society. Both in the entrances and the fountain, blacks and whites are being seperated. This seperation is terrible and makes me feel embarresed to be part of a society that used to be like this. I am just thankful that our society has changed so much since then from having different entrances to now having an african american president.
This event really sickens me. To think that in the early 20th century that people in our country could massacre so many blacks just because of their skin and get away with it scares me. If our country wouldnt take action on such a huge event how do we know that they will in the future? Also, it sickens me to think that an event that may or may not have happened caused a massacre of an entire town. One person who does something (or maybe doesnt do something) doesnt characterise an entire race. If people back then really thought that a good punishment of a black man was to murder all the blacks in a town, i am disgusted to live in a society like that.
ReplyDeleteRosewood^^^^
ReplyDeleteSimon Wiesenthal:
ReplyDeleteSimon Wiesenthal was a great man. He devoted his life to finding Nazi's who werent punished for their crimes in the holocaust and found 1,100.
All of the last 4 centers were based on racism so i believe that To Kill A Mockingbird will have a lot to do with this. There will most likely be seperate entrances, water fountains, murders, and because of this document, a man or women who stands up and helps the blacks. I havent read To Kill A Mockingbird but if the passages relate to the story i believe that it will be very good.
Shirley Temple was a popular young movie star during the depression. When one went to the moives during this time it was to get away from all of the bad outside the theater and to have some fun which was very rare. Shirley Temple brought happiness to many people which makes her a great person in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteField Pic:
ReplyDeleteThis picture shows the hardships of the early times of the early 20th century. Farming was a great way of gaining an income, and to have food. The only problem was that the technology of this time was, well, nonexistent. People would have to pick all of the food by themselves and didnt have the luxuries of technology. I have no idea how i cuold have done this and it makes me thankful to have all that i do in my life.
Dorothea Lange Tent pic:
ReplyDeleteThis picture shows the hardships of the 1930s. During that time people lived day to day and it was hard to get by. Just like the field pic, this picture makes me realize just how fortunate i am to have such a nice home and the things i have.
Dorothea Lange Pic 2:
ReplyDeleteThis picture really makes me sad. You can see on the faces of the parents the sadness and longing for a better life. The description is even worse. It talks about how the seven young children will go hungry and that they had to sell their home for food. I really couldnt manage a life like this and even more than the others, this picture makes me thankful for all that i have.
We Cater to White Trade:
ReplyDeleteThis picture is once again, another picture of segregation and prejudice. Pictures like this really make me upset for of the cruelty that they display towards african americans. I really cant understand, even back then, why people would think that blacks are somehow below whites and that they have to be seperated. I really cant imagine the way that african americans feel when they read this if i get upset when i read it for its not even directed at me. I am just happy that our society has changed so much since those times.
Simon Wiesenthal was a Nazi hunter, who dedicated his life to finding and capturing racist leaders who were responsible for the deaths of millions. When I see things like this I enjoy life a little more knowing that even though terrible things like this happen there will always be people fighting for justice and what’s right. In addition to hunting for Nazis he also wrote books describing his experiences to inform others about what was really happening. Simon Wiesenthal was a very brave man for continuing to search for Nazi leaders through all the threats and even a bombing. He was a true hero.
ReplyDeleteI’m not exactly sure what to do here so… I will ask about it in class and do it later.
This picture is of African Americans picking cotton or something of that nature. This shows me that even though they were no longer slaves the still hadn’t moved up the social ladder at all. This also shows that all the good jobs were dominated by whites and if an African American wanted to get a good job even if they were qualified they would probably still be turned down and a less qualified white guy would have got the job. This shows me that even 50 years after slavery ended African Americans still did virtually the same jobs as when they were slaves.
The tent picture showed me that even though there was a lot of racial hate white people had it bad to. This is a sort of depressing picture because it is a single mom with four kids and living in a tent, I camp in nicer tents then that. Also all of their stuff fit in two suitcases. If my family tried to live with all we could fit in two suit cases we would probably look a lot worse than the people in the picture. These people also must be very mentally strong because I definitely couldn’t handle living in a tent like that with barely anything.
The other Dorothea Lange picture is also very depressing. She is only 32 and she has more wrinkles than my grandma. She must live a very stressful life. She has seven kids and no money and has to sell her tent which is pretty much all she has just for food. This must have been a very hard time for everybody. Also she has two kids clinging to her which means even though she looks really mean and grumpy, that she is just a loving mother trying to get her kids the best life possible.
The white trade only picture shows me that people were very racist against African Americans and even though blacks were free the whites were secretly scared that they might take over so they did all they could to keep the African Americans at the bottom of the “totem pole”
P.S. Mrs. Gaboury all of the others are at school and I will post them later.
Between the World and Me is a very dark poem. I think that this poem is written by a African American who lived during one of the more racist times in American history when lynching was common. This guy on the other hand was burnt to death on a tree. It was a very dark description. I was disgusted by this poem even though it was based on a time in history not to long ago.
ReplyDeleteGranddaughter’s Sled is about a little girl who’s grandfather was o weak and taking up to much food so the dad tried to kill him but the little girl said no. then there was a famine and the grandfather told them to eat straw so they did and they all survived and after that old people were honored in the village. This poem shows me that often people are misunderstood and need a chance to prove themselves much like the African Americans in the 1930s.
Water Fountains to me means that the white people had it better and there was a lot of racial hate. I also noticed that the word JEW was spelled JWE this confused because a kindergartener or a dyslexic person most of written it because it was only a three-letter word. Then I realized it was out of hate, spelling someone’s name wrong is like the ultimate sign of disrespect. I would be pretty pissed if some one spelt my name nahtna intentionally. It was just White Supremacy.
When I first looked at separate entrances the first thing that stuck out was hot wieners 5 cents, and I thought wow this must have been a long time ago but it really wasn’t. I then noticed the colored and white entrances and I thought wow racism is bad and this was a very bad time. This was the time period that TKAM is based in. if I was “colored” it would be very offensive to have to walk in a separate door and stand on the bus and have crummier schools.
Rosewood is a massacre in which 6 African Americans and 2 whites were killed. That is only 8 people but it is the concept that is disturbing. Lynching is terrible and bad. Would hate to be hung publicly just because of my race that is just not right. I think that racism is bad and should have been stopped a lot sooner, there is still racism today but it is nowhere near as bad.