How do we view ourselves? What shapes our identity? How does how we define ourselves affect how others see us? How do others perceptions affect they way we see/define ourselves? How do these perceptions affect the relationships we have in society? How does our identity change over time, within certain conditions? Watch the video of Jesus Colon. How does Colon see himself? How might others describe him? Create an identity chart for him and compare it to your own identity chart to consider the influences on our sense of self, our identity.
Image: Pulcinella from Commedia Del Arte, illustrated by Luigi Serafini
Jesús Colón describes labels that others have placed on him. Use the following questions to write a response on your blog: What labels does he place on the groups to which he belongs? on other groups? How did those labels shape the way he perceived his choices? the decision he made? Why does he have regrets? Did he make the right choice? Would your answer be different if he were a white American? Who is the victim in this story – Colón, the woman, or the larger society?
from Facing History,Facing Ourselves:Choosing to Participate
Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro- democracy leader of Burma, was finally released on Friday, 13th November after serving 15 out of 21 years under house arrest. 'Her release comes six days after the political party supported by the military won the country's first election in 20 years. The ballot was widely condemned as a sham.'
While many see that Aung San Suu Kyi's perseverence in fighting for democracy has been a 'positive force for Burma', some have been critical saying 'her rigidity has held the pro-democracy movement back'.
Some suggest she should have left Burma when she was able to do so in the late 1990's as she then could have addressed the UN General Assembly and worked for rights for her people from outside.
In Aung San Suu Kyi’s 1990 famous speech, “Freedom From Fear“, she noted, “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
Why could Aung San Suu Kyi be considered a hero?
What does she value? What choices has she had to make? Create an identity chart for Aung San Suu Kyi and consider what personal choices she has made in order to overcome the injustices in her country and help her her people?
Connections:
Have you ever been in a situation where you are aware of an injustice but did not take action? What stopped you getting involved?
Click on the link to watch an interview made in 1995 with Fergal Keane when she was last released in 1995 before being re-arrested.
sanctions
'In foreign affairs, sanction means 'penalty, deterrent': eg.international sanctions against the republic go into effect in January.
• ( sanctions) measures taken by a nation to coerce another to conform to an international agreement or norms of conduct, typically in the form of restrictions on trade or on participation in official sporting events.
root: L. sancire: to ‘ratify'.
After discussing this myth in class, reading two versions of it, watching the adaptation on DVD and annotating a poem....it is time to assess your understanding. "Yipee!" I hear you cry...This post contains the texts that you will be assessed on in class on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Examine the visual text (painting) and the literary text (poem) posted below.
Remember the strategy that we use in class:
C.E.I.
1. Make a claim (What can you see? Examine the text).
2. Explain your claim (Use evidence and examples to justify your claim).
3. Interpret (Extend your thinking - why did the poet, artist etc. use the technique? What are they trying to communicate with you, and how. Make observations and connections, infer information, link to your wider knowledge).
VISUAL TEXT - Painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus c. 1558 by Pieter Bruegel
Pieter Bruegel (about 1525-69), usually known as Pieter Bruegel the Elder to distinguish him from his son, was the first in a family of Flemish painters. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, generally considered the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century, is by far the most important member of the family. He was probably born in Breda in the Duchy of Brabant, now in The Netherlands. His paintings, including his landscapes and scenes of peasant life, stress the absurd and vulgar, yet are full of zest and fine detail. They also expose human weaknesses and follies.
It was his idea, this flying thing.
We collected feathers at night, stuffing
our pockets with mourning dove down. By day,
we'd weave and glue them with the wax
I stole after we'd shooed the bees away.
Oh, how it felt, finally, to blow off Crete
leaving a labyrinth of dead-ends:
my clumsiness with figures, father's calm
impatience, cool logic, interminable devising.
The sea wind touched my face like balm.
He thought I'd tag along as usual,
in the wake of his careful scheme
bound by the string connecting father and son,
invisible thread I tried for years to untie.
I ached to be a good-for-something on my own.
I didn't know I'd get drunk with the heat,
flying high, too much a son to return.
Poor Daedalus, his mouth an O below,
his hands outstretched to catch the rain
of wax. He still doesn't know.
My wings fell, yes - I saw him hover
over the tiny splash - but by then I'd been
swallowed into love's eye, the light I've come to see
as home, drowning in the yes, this swirling
white-hot where night will never find me.
And now when my father wakes
each morning, his bones still sore
from his one-time flight, his confidence undone
because the master plan fell through,
he rises to a light he never knew, his son.
ABOUT CHRISTINE HEMP: Hemp's poetry and essays are heard on NPR's Morning Edition and her work is published widely. She has worked with such groups as Los Alamos Laboratory scientists, Harvard and University of Washington students, National Park Rangers, corporate lawyers, and Native American tribes, as well as the U.S. Navy. She has also has broken new ground in England and the U.S. by uniting youth offenders and police officers, using writing as a tool for crime prevention. Read more on her website: http://www.christinehemp.com/index.html
YOUR WRITTEN RESPONSE In part B you will be asked to write a paragraph about the following:
It has been said that this myth deals with the following themes: "captivity and escape, ingenuity and creativity, flight and fall, success and failure" (J.E.Nyenhuis 2003). Select one pair of themes and discuss how well they fit the idea of a journey for either Daedalus or Icarus.
It will help you to go to the Moodle page and look at the 4 step paragraph planner there. You might like to plan a response in preparation for the assessment using this format. This method of writing is what I will be looking for in your response. Remember a great place to find a 'hook' and an 'anchor' quote could be in a dictionary (hero, journey, pride....whatever your theme will be), the myth, or maybe even our novel (but choose wisely, this is more difficult). Write these on your planner. You can use your planner in the test - but don't abuse this privilege, writing the whole paragraph there really tiny and copying in the test is not Living Ethically!
You can also view the videos below as more sources of the myth:
Source: Jim Henson's The Storyteller - Greek Myths, Sony Pictures (2006)
Think about the name Phoenix in Alan Gibbon's 'Shadow of the Minotaur'. Authors can be very deliberate in their naming of characters. Note the allusion to the myth which many of you have picked up from The Harry Potter book 'Order of the Phoenix'. Follow the links and read the myths of the phoenix and consider the number of cultures this bird occurs in. Why might this idea recur throughout time and culture? How do the associations and symbolism of the phoenix link with the character Phoenix? what are the qualities of the phoenix? What is being suggested here in Shadow of the Minotaur with this name? Phoenix myths: The Legend of the Phoenix Rise of the Phoenix
Read Matt Harding's Connecting to a Global Tribe after watching the video clip below. Read and be inspired by Matt's essay and at the same time note how he starts, the personal experiences he describes, his conclusion that connects to a deeper idea. Identify what he values.Respond in your blog to his writing and the video.
The painting is by Marc Chagall, The Juggler.
Both Matt Harding and the Compliment Guys (see below) make me smile and restore a belief in the basic goodness of people. Read the article outlining the medical benefits of smiling.
And for a little more inspiration... read the poem below:
Stream of Life
The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet and in fact won Asia's first Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He first started writing poetry at the age of eight! It is this poem that becomes the inspiration and lyrics for the music in Matt Harding's video. Talk about connections.
Compliment: noun, a polite expression of praise or admiration.
com+pli+mentfrom L. complere "to complete," via notion of "complete the obligations of politeness from the Latin root: plere, to fill (Harper,D 2003).
When was the last time you received a compliment?
How did it make you feel?
When was the last time you complimented someone?
How did it make that person feel?
The Compliment Guys are making a difference to people's days. I like the idea of small steps that we can all take to make the world a better place and I do believe this can have a ripple effect.We all have the power to connect and effect each other so it might as well be for the good! With so much in the news of disasters and wars it's refreshing to read of positive actions, of goodness and kindness. I believe that a smile towards a stranger, a compliment to someone can create connections and warm the world. I believe we can all connect positively to everyone and in doing so make the world a little better.
What connections can you make between these videos, poems and pieces of art?
The painting is by Teesha Moore, an inspiring collage artist. Visit her site, look at how she combines text and images together. She blends quirky paintings, images, colours and textures in her work. For those of you who may be interested in keeping graphics in your theme notebook, read about how she creates her pages and the materials she uses here in How I Journal. References: Moore,T.My Journal Pages,retrieved from http://www.teeshamoore.com/teeshasjournalpgs.html
“Brie” by Henri Cartier-Bresson, June 1968, Brie, France
What do you believe in? This is as Allison ( 2006) notes, is a simple if difficult invitation: "Write a few hundred words expressing the core principles that guide your life- your personal credo." When you visit the NPRsite you can read hundreds of essays from people expressing what the believe in. Look at the links to the previous essays and note how many of the writers have made their essays personal. They have taken us into the experience that underlies the belief: they show us the moment and then tell us what they learned. Read:
You can use theThis I Believe database to search by theme or by age of writer. Read as many as you can to become immersed in the style. How do they start their essay? How do they conclude? What example do they use to give life to their belief?
Look in your pack to find Tips for Writing. Use this as guide. Also check the page Lesson 6: How Do I Support My Personal Essay? This gives some suggestions. Then read more essays noting these devices when they occur.
Your personal narrative essay will be uploaded to your electronic portfolio. We will revisit it again at the beginning of each trimester to revise, edit and add to it before we share the final, polished piece with your parents at Student-Led Conferences next May. Go back as many times as you want and adapt your writing in between these 'set' times. This will be a piece you are sure to be proud of.
Here you will find examples of our work together in class, interesting links for you to visit and many other resources. This year we will be working on a THEME notebook as we read and explore literature in humanities and reason critically to find the 'Big Ideas' found within our reading. There will also be a page on your blogs where you can free write in response to anything that I upload onto my blog, or about anything (linked to our work) that you find inspiring. I will look at your blogs at the end of every month and mark work that I have set, as well as looking at your free writing pages (where you can earn extra credit).
I made a commitment at the start of the school year to try to behave in an environmentally sustainable way in class, and this is an excellent way to do just that. Using blogs also has the extra advantage of allowing us to share our exemplary work and read each other's ideas and musings as we embark on the journey of seventh grade humanities together. Trust me, you won't want to upload shoddy work here, because everyone will see it! Here is a space where you can shine. You will be linking your blog to your electronic portfolio. You can even share you blog with family and friends far away.
Your first blog assignment was to find a quote and image that symbolized the essence of the meaning of a journey or the hero. You were asked to 'think big', and should be prepared to explain your choices and justify why they have a strong link with our units of study this year.
In order to work to your best ability on this blog, I strongly encourage you to:
Write any postings in a Word document first, then paste into your blog after checking grammar, spelling and so forth.
Carefully review the blog rubric against which you will be graded. You will find this on the class Moodle site.
Employ all of the pre-writing, editing and revising strategies that we use in class to ensure that your word is of a publishable quality. Remember that this is a shared public space - a chance to shine in all your brilliance!
Enjoy the blog site - I am full of excitement to see where this path will take us.
