Tag Archives: metamorphosis

1/22/23

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Happy Monday! No, really. Happy Monday! If I *have* to get out of bed and come to work, I’d rather be here with y’all rather than any place else. 🙂

We are spending the next few days preparing to write a literary analysis with your table group.

In the group analysis chart for The Metamorphosis, Philip Niemeyer is an art director who interpreted American life through this chart. On the left side, Niemeyer lists elements that he interprets (e.g. fears, fads, couples), and across the top, he lists the years in which these elements gained prominence. What makes this a great chart is that Niemeyer interprets our society metaphorically. For instance, in listing Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher as the couple of the year in 2004, he represents them with a picture of a cougar. This chart also has the three essential elements of analyzing and interpreting embedded in it: (1) it helps the reader gain a better understanding of a person, place, phenomenon, or thing – in this case, American society; (2) it takes a subject apart and closely examines how it trends; and (3) it considers the societal context involved.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
Transformation
Isolation
Identity
Family
Existence
Noun
Most important quote or phrase

Here is an example of a completed chart over Romeo and Juliet created by a 9th grader:

1/18/23

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Ugh. Today’s activity ISN’T working out the way that I had hoped, so we are just going to switch to Plan B: reading and annotating.

You can find the article in Schoology or right here. You can see that I have started to annotate. I want you to add to this. The idea was that we were creating a collaborative document with notes, but it’s not working out that way. I’m frustrated, but what can you do?

You can share with other people, but make sure that you share the document with me, as well.

Tomorrow will be better, I promise! Tomorrow we play Jenga!

1/17/2023

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I was so scared that it was going to be chilly at school today, but it’s nice and warm! Maybe it’s because the building had time to warm up all day on Monday? At least you had one more extra day to read The Metamorphosis!

We have two things on the calendar today: The Sesame Street Quiz and I Read the Book, Now What?

The Sesame Street Quiz needs some explanation, so if you aren’t here today, you still might need to come into a KOnnect for me to explain it.

First of all, take a look at this slide. Which character doesn’t belong? There really isn’t a wrong answers – it all depends on how you justify it. This is my answer: In this quartet, Mulan is the character who does not belong. She is a warrior who fights to protect her country against the Huns, breaking gender norms for her family, her country, and her culture. Ariel, Pocahontas, and Jasmine are heroines of their own story and battle their own fights, but they are not trained warriors. Mulan disguised herself a man to learn how to to fight both physically and with strategy.

But, today a student had an answer that I was jealous of: Jasmine doesn’t belong because she is not the main character of her movie

On this quiz, you will do two things: One slide one, you will exaplain which one of your words doesn’t belong and why, making sure that you connect it back to the novella. One slide two, create a Sesame Street Quiz over The Metamorphosis using four words of your own choosing – you do not need to explain them. Just write them down. 🙂

Then, start to work on I Read The Book, Now What assignment that is due on Sunday. My goal is that this will help you with the essay over The Metamorphosis next week.

1/12/24

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Today is a reading day. I have lo-fi music, coffee, and headphones for you in class, but you are the one who needs to read. Remember, the novella needs to be read by the time you get to class next week. If you do ten pages a day, you are already halfway done! Reading a summary alone won’t help with textual evidence or working with the language.

If you weren’t here and you saw that you got ten Live School points, it’s because I awarded points to both your group and the class for putting seats back in the correct spot today!

🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳🪲🐞🦗🪳

The Metamorphosis is in the tenth grade on-level textbook, so I have managed to find a few extra copies that are in my room if you would like to take it home this weekend. 🙂

What kind of bug do you think Gregor is?

January 11th

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If I were a sea creature, I’d be the noble sea manatee. Don’t ask why.

We are starting The Metamorphosis today! I have paper copies in class and the pdf (and other resources) can be found in Schoology. Make sure that when you are reading that if you use a source like Shmoop (my favorite) or SparkNotes that you still read the story. We are not focusing on plot and character recall – we are going to working with language and ideas, so if you only read the summary, this is not going to help you with textual evidence and the language.

If people do not use this time to read, then that tells me that there is no need to give class time to read. If everyone is going to read outside of class, I will use the time in class for something else.

We read the first few pages today and you have tomorrow to read silently in class. That means you’ll be responsible for reading the rest before class on Tuesday. You can either read it all in one go or read about ten pages a day. Just don’t put it all off until the last minute – give yourself time to appreciate Kafka!

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January 10th

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Quiz day! Don’t worry – you’ll be fine. There are four things involved in this grade:

  1. Marxist Video Transcript
  2. Jigsaw Question
  3. Anticipation Guide (on paper as a table today in class)
  4. Complete the Gimkit!This forces you to really understand the concepts of Marxist Criticism and existentialism (rather than just rote memorization or copy/pasting answers).

If you manage to make it to Summit 6, take a screen shot and send it to me for 25 Live School Points!

January 9th

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I am so happy to back at school. No, really. I love having a routine!

We previously talked about existentialism when we read Rhinosceros in 1301, but we are going to look at it a bit more with The Metamorphosis.

We are creating a collaborative group document where each person will answer one question so that we can use this document on the quiz tomorrow.

When you are done, you may finish yesterday’s activity if you still need to do that.

 

1/8/24

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I am not here today, but I have left legitimate work for you to do. I want you watch this lecture over Marxist Criticism and revise/edit the transcript into fully accessible sentences and paragraphs (you can find this file in Schoology). You can either listen to the lecture or just simply read the lecture to find the the pauses and breaks.

Why are we doing this? Because just taking notes or answering questions is passive. I want you to actively manipulate the text and words because it forces you to read in a different way.