A Christmas Carol: In 3 quotes!

SEE PREVIOUS POST! Then read below:

WE WILL MEET IN THE COMPUTER LABS so you can type your essays.

In Response to FAQ about the In-Class Essay:

Can I bring my book? NO

Can I bring a printout of my quotes? YES

Can I bring an outline? YES

I want to see your prewriting work - quotes and outline/rough draft.

Can I just write my essay at home? My first response was, "NO. I want you to brainstorm and prepare, but please do write in-class." However, I have decided that you can have a rough draft in addition to quotes and outline/brainstorm.

Do my quotes have to be by Scrooge? NO. Any line or lines in the story written by Dickens.

Can I shorten my quotes using ellipsis? Yes. See below from Purdue OWL - Click here for more:

Adding or omitting words in quotations

If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text.

Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipsis marks, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example:

In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

Please note that brackets are not needed around ellipses unless adding brackets would clarify your use of ellipses.

Will there be a prompt? NO. Open-ended in that you will write an essay explaining why you selected the three quotes you selected and how are they significant as well as meaningful to you.

Can I use the first person? YES. But don't over use it - I think, I feel, I believe, etc. These are wasted words in that it is your essay; thus, the reader understands this is what you think, feel, believe.

How many paragraphs? I recommend a minimum of five; write your introductory paragraph last.

Write about the quotes and how they are connected - then come to a conclusion in your final paragraph.

Go back to the beginning and briefly outline what you wrote - state what you already argued.






We love movies, especially remakes:



We love animated movies:





We love youtube, for laughs and...


 


But here's why I love reading A Christmas Carol... (and free ebooks):

            Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

Lines like this... there is no movie that can express this sentiment as clearly and concisely; only in the written word, in language, can the heart feel this transformation.


The central theme of laughter runs from Dickens to Kesey to us as readers Laughter serves as a reminder to not take life so seriously that we miss the good that we can do. That we can bring to the world in all of our relationships as a friend, as colleague, as a human being in society, in community, in the "good old world."

We see modern day men transform - and how others laugh at them - and the bigger man will not care "he let them, and little heeded them."

This Week - the Last Week

Rewrite's are due Friday. If you take the rewrite option - do more than just correct punctuation.

How can you make your journal better? 

Consider adding detail - paint a clearer picture.

Clarify your writing - change awkward phrases, sentences, etc. 

Elevate the diction so that it better matches your character.

So this will be a wild week...

TUESDAY: Both classes finish the story for tomorrow!

We will select key quotes with partners. 

Z BLOCK drops Wednesday; meets Thursday (no assessment - discussion); In-class Write on Friday for 35 minutes - come prepared - more details below and we will talk more tomorrow! If you prefer to take it Thursday (for reasons such as absent Friday or too many assessments on Friday - send me an email).

F BLOCK meets Wednesday - and will have an In-class Write on WEDNESDAY; We will meet Thursday for discussion (no assessment - unless you prefer to take In-class Write Thursday because you have three assessments Wednesday and/or track meet); F Block - does not meet on Friday because school ends at noon.

BE SURE YOU DO AS MUCH BRAINSTORMING and WRITING in advance.

HWK for FRI:

READ A Christmas Carol through page 80 (ten pages into Stave 3). 

For Monday, I am going to ask that you finish Stave 3 & 4 to page 100.

On Tuesday's Snow day, after spending the morning grading in a coffee shop, I  walked from my neighborhood in Fishtown to City Hall in Center City.
Along the way, I snapped a few pictures - this was taken on 12th St. near Spring Garden.

Questions:

1. In Stave 2, Scrooge wonders, "Was it a dream or not?"(54). Does Scrooge believe it is a dream or does he believe in the supernatural (as possibility in reality?? Make an argument.

2. Who visits Scrooge in his bedroom in Stave 2? What does reclamation mean?

3. What does Scrooge say about Fezziwig's power?

4. What does ubiquitous mean? How is it used in the story?

5. Watch today's BBC Animation of Dickens' Biography again. Dickens was born in _____________(year)  and died ___________________(year). What detail about his life do find most interesting?

Westminster Abbey

PREVIEW/REVIEW:

Stave 2 Vocabulary

Stave 3 Vocabulary

HWK for Thursday:

Don't surprised if there's a daily 5 minute quiz to see who has been naught or nice...

Be sure to do the homework!

Homework for Thursday: 

1. Finish reading "Stave 1" (to page 52) in A Christmas Carol (Online text)

2. Google - Charles Dickens - What did you learn?
                Bring three interesting facts to class:
                         A. Fact about his Bio
                         B. Fact about his Times (Victorian England)
                         C. Fact about A Christmas Carol - sorry if this is a spoiler, 
                               but most of you are quite familiar with the plot already.

3. Take a few minutes.... and Study Vocabulary from Stave 1:



Try a practice test:


Also try this.... Grammar Pretest - Know thyself...
And know what you don't know (especially when it comes to grammar).

SEE PREVIOUS POST.

A&E Biography: Charles Dickens, the most popular novelist of the Victorian Era. Please, sir, may I have some more. http://t.co/rnJMt5oFQG

— Kevin James O'Brien (@KOB14) December 11, 2013

Snow Day! Remember to bring A Christmas Carol to class tomorrow.

Greetings!

I hope you had a chance to sleep in and enjoy the beautiful snow day!

I've been camped out at a coffee shop, grading your journals and tests. 

I hope to have them back ASAP! 

In the meantime, as I grade, I am noticing a number of things we need to review... See below!

Here's a couple classic comics for fun:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest meets Calvin and Hobbes!

And one from Gary Larson's Far Side:

I know it's a snow day, and a "day off" but try this Grammar Pretest - Know thyself...
And know what you don't know (especially when it comes to grammar).

A few links to visit:

The Art of Sentence Styling (PDF of the book)

Commonly confused words - as well as misspellings:

I had to Google this one...

Coarse and Course

Have to know:

Their/There/They're 

Take this: On-line quiz 

To/Too/Two

Please, take this quiz - I insist!

Try this On-line quiz for common misspellings

(I am embarrassed by my score; I will tell you mine, if you take it and email me your results!)

More fun Snow Day comics from Calvin and Hobbes!

THE Study Guide!

TEST MONDAY!  Be prepared...

(Don't pray for a snow day - it's going to rain and melt away tonight). 

Most of these quotes come from discussions in class. 

Part I. Quote ID
Part II. Passage Analysis
Part III. Short Essay 

A couple hints to think about for the Short Essay:

Did you know?

TIME magazine listed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as on of the top 100 novels since the magazine began in 1923.

See the list! 

How many have you read?
How many of these books do you want to read?
What does TIME's critics say about Kesey's novel?

Did you know?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has also had its fair share of controversy:

From Wikipedia:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of America's most highly challenged and banned novels.

1974: Five residents of Strongsville, Ohio sued the local Board of Education to remove the novel from classrooms. They deemed the book "pornographic" and said that it "glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of beastiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination".
1975: The book was removed from public schools in Randolph, New York and Alton, Oklahoma
1977: Removed from the required reading list in Westport, Maine
1978: Banned from the St. Anthony, Idaho Freemont High School and the teacher who assigned the novel was fired
1982: Challenged at Merrimack, New Hampshire High School
1986: Challenged at Aberdeen Washington High school in Honors English classes. The local Board of Education votes to keep it for the "promotion of secular humanism".
2000: Challenged at Placentia Yorba Linda, California Unified School District. Parents say that the teachers could "choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again".^[14][15]

Guess who is ranked 29th on this list?
"Best Banned and/or Censored Books (or Worst to Have Banned)"

Here's a cool Prezi about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with thoughts on why it shouldn't be banned:




For the short essay, you will have to make an argument - either "for" or "against" - reading Kesey's controversial novel in freshman English at EA. 


Here's a few quotes to consider for the test... from the text (Search online):

Quote ID's (There will be 10 - know the speaker and audience):

"I had so many insults I died. I was born dead. I can’t help it. I’m tired. I’m give out trying. You got chances. I had so many insults I was born dead. You got it easy. I was born dead an’ life was hard. I’m tired. I’m tired out talking and standing up. I been dead fifty-five years." 

“She walks like beauty, in the night.”

“Oh, is that it? Is that it, huh? You gonna crucify old Seef just as if he was doing it to spite you or something?” 

“These things are Thorne Smithian daydreams!”

“Sweetheart, you still have scads of time for things like that. Your whole life is ahead of you.” 

“He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”

“It isn’t happening. It’s all a collaboration of Kafka and Mark Twain and Martini.”

“Listen—you don’t think any of us are being taken in by this crap, do you? It’s bad, but we know where the blame lies—we ain’t blaming you.”

“First Charles Cheswick and now William Bibbit! I hope you’re finally satisfied. Playing with human lives—gambling with human lives—as if you thought yourself to be a God!”

“Lady, I think you’re full of so much ___________. ”

"Nothing like him."

"What worries me, [...]is how your poor mother is going to take this"

"I've took their best punch."

"I haven't heard a real laugh since since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh, you lose your footing."

"Hooee those Chinese Commies could have learned a few things from you, lady."

"You're no damned rabbit!"

“EeeeaaooOOOoommm. ... Air to ground, air to ground: missile sighted; coming into my sights now."

Quote Analysis (Select 5 of 7)

1.

“Hell’s bells, Harding!” McMurphy yells suddenly. “I don’t know what to think! What do you want out of me? A marriage counsellor? All I know is this: nobody’s very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down. I know what you want me to think; you want me to feel sorry for you, to think she’s a real bitch. Well, you didn’t make her feel like any queen either. Well, screw you and ‘what do you think?’ I’ve got worries of my own without getting hooked with yours. So just quit!” He glares around the library at the other patients. “Alla you! Quit bugging me, goddammit!” 

2.

I watch the car pull up the hill and stop down a piece from our yard, and the dust keeps coming, crashing into the rear of it and busting in every direction and finally settling on the sage and soapweed round about and making it look like chunks of red, smoking wreckage. The car sits there while the dust settles, shimmering in the sun. I know it isn’t tourists with cameras because they never drive this close to the village. If they want to buy fish they buy them back at the highway; they don’t come to the village because they probably think we still scalp people and burn them around a post. They don’t know some of our people are lawyers in Portland, probably wouldn’t believe it if I told them. In fact, one of my uncles became a real lawyer and Papa says he did it purely to prove he could, when he’d rather poke salmon in the fall than anything. Papa says if you don’t watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite. 

3.

It started slow and pumped itself full, swelling the men bigger and bigger. I watched, part of them, laughing with them—and somehow not with them. I was off the boat, blown up off the water and skating the wind with those black birds, high above myself, and I could look down and see myself and the rest of the guys, see the boat rocking there in the middle of those diving birds, see McMurphy surrounded by his dozen people, and watch them, us, swinging a laughter that rang out on the water in ever-widening circles, farther and farther, until it crashed up on beaches all over the coast, on beaches all over all coasts, in wave after wave after wave. 

4.

“No, my friend. We are lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind. Would you like me to decipher a Rorschach for you? No? You must burry on? Ah, he’s gone. Pity.[...] Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn’t it? Food for thought there.” 

5.

“Please understand: We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you without a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value. A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society in the Outside World, because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them. At some time—perhaps in your childhood—you may have been allowed to get away with flouting the rules of society. When you broke a rule you knew it. You wanted to be dealt with, needed it, but the punishment did not come. That foolish lenience on the part of your parents may have been the germ that grew into your present illness. I tell you this hoping you will understand that it is entirely for your own good that we enforce discipline and order.” 

6.     
        And suddenly nobody’s hooting at him any more. His arms commence to swell, and the veins
squeeze up to the surface. He clinches his eyes, and his lips draw away from his teeth. His head leans back, and tendons stand out like coiled ropes running from his heaving neck down both arms to his hands. His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can’t lift, something everybody knows he can’t lift.
        But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it.
        Then his breath explodes out of him, and he falls back limp against the wall. There’s blood on the levers where he tore his hands. He pants for a minute against the wall with his eyes shut. There’s no sound but his scraping breath; nobody’s saying a thing. 

7.

There had been times when I’d wandered around in a daze for as long as two weeks after a shock treatment, living in that foggy, jumbled blur which is a whole lot like the ragged edge of sleep, that gray zone between light and dark, or between sleeping and waking or living and dying, where you know you’re not unconscious any more but don’t know yet what day it is or who you are or what’s the use of coming back at all—for two weeks. If you don’t have a reason to wake up you can loaf around in that gray zone for a long, fuzzy time, or if you want to bad enough I found you can come fighting right out of it. This time I came fighting out of it in less than a day, less time than ever. 

And here's more just for fun:

"Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing." Ken Kesey Making a test for Cuckoo's Nest. So many quotables http://t.co/IaImX75gne
— Kevin James O'Brien (@KOB14) December 7, 2013

To Be Continued...STUDY GUIDE for Test Monday

Please check back here tomorrow afternoon (Saturday).
Enjoy your Friday night. See a movie. See previous posts.

For now check out these links, especially if you missed class...

1. polleverywhere.com - What is your favorite quote? Some of these may be on the test.

2. Socrative.com - Our room number is 753258. Again, some of these may be on the test.

3. What is the difference between a reference and an allusion? Harding makes a reference while McMurphy makes an allusion. How are they significant in their own way?

4. Throughout the novel, Kesey makes biblical allusions. What diction does he use?
Be sure you know examples (quotes) from the novel.

P.S.

Opportunity to learn more...

A. Here's a great Quizlet list of biblical allusions - No, these will not be on the test, but how many do you know?

B. Take this quick quiz on Commonly Confused Words - it will give you the answers after you submit your answers. You should know all of these by now! And no, it's not on the test.

An experiment in F Block with Google Hangout

Unfortunately I didn't click "Start Hangout" in Z Block - not just once but twice!

So I will be shooting a Google Hangout Review session that will be more concise and more helpful.

Stay tuned!

Review: Commonly Confused Words

Remember...

Post to your respective blog...

http://zblockea14.edublogs.org

http://fblockea14.edublogs.org

If you have difficulty, please email me your journal. 

Also bring a stapled hard copy to class!

If you're missing class email/post your journal tonight! Bring a hard copy Monday. 

I will post notes and info from class Friday that will help you on the test Monday! 

Finishing Cuckoo!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest


HWK for Thursday:

Start your 3-Part Journal - a 1st person narrative in a character's "voice" (of your choice).

       1. Journal entry early in the book - use a key quote
       2. Journal entry towards the end - use a key quote
       3. Journal entry alternative ending

Be creative, be true to the story, be specific - use diction that is true to your character.

Include a few Kesey-eque similes that tap into the senses of your readers.

In-Class: Computer Lab 2nd - floor full period to write...
HWK: Finish your 3-Part Journal.


Journal Due Friday - Post to edublog and submit hard copy in class:
3 pages, MLA format header, double spaced, Times New Roman font


Friday In-Class: Review for Test


Test Monday

Part I. Ten Quote Identifications: Character and audience.

Part II. Passage analysis: 5 of 7 longer quotes which you will explain the significance.

Part III. Short essay

Bringing awareness to Shame - and how it can drive us.

When I read this passage below in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I immediately thought of Brene Brown's second TED Talk "Listening to Shame":

 Harding shook his head. “I don’t think I can give you an answer. Oh, I could give you Freudian reasons with fancy talk, and that would be right as far as it went. But what you want are the reasons for the reasons, and I’m not able to give you those. Not for the others, anyway. For myself? Guilt. Shame. Fear. Self-belittlement. I discovered at an early age that I was—shall we be kind and say different? It’s a better, more general word than the other one. I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn’t the practices, I don’t think, it was the feeling that the great, deadly, pointing forefinger of society was pointing at me—and the great voice of millions chanting, ‘Shame. Shame. Shame.’ It’s society’s way of dealing with someone different.” (307)

In this passage, Kesey writes about how shame can bully individuals that are different in society. We will discuss this passage in class next time we meet.

The first time I read this passage it did not click for me. The beauty of teaching, and rereading books, is that we are constantly learning, unlearning, and relearning. The theme of shame had not resonated in my first reading nor my first teaching of this novel ten years ago.

Yet after watching Brown's TED talks, I recognized my own fear of vulnerability (Watch "Power of Vulnerability") and the way in which shame has driven me in my own life. I admit that using the first person and sharing this post with you makes me uncomfortable since I feel vulnerable, so I will direct your attention back to the text and to Brown's point about gender:

The other thing you need to know about shame is it's absolutely organized by gender. If shame washes over me and washes over Chris, it's going to feel the same. Everyone sitting in here knows the warm wash of shame. We're pretty sure that the only people who don't experience shame are people who have no capacity for connection or empathy. Which means, yes, I have a little shame; no, I'm a sociopath. So I would opt for, yes, you have a little shame. Shame feels the same for men and women, but it's organized by gender.

Since reading "A&P,"we have discussed stereotypes, particularly in terms of gender as well as the power of empathy, one of the freshman themes for the school year - thank you, Dean Willis. Remember the first TED Talk I shared "Be a Man" by Joe Ehrmann.

In order to appreciate this novel fully, I want you to consider expanding your horizon and your understanding of mental illness through these nine TED talks in the playlist "All kind of minds"  - this is not required but merely a challenge to learn more. Perhaps, over break you will have time to watch them. I believe you will find them enlightening and even inspiring.

Lastly, I realize I have been reluctant to share and open up fully at a new school - like a new kid wading into the shallow end of the pool - afraid of the deep end. So heres' to going there - together as freshmen at EA.

As some of you know I lost my brother Conor to suicide in 2000. He had struggled with bipolar for eight years, beginning when he was hospitalized at the age of 15 for a manic episode.

Please consider watching my own talk on mental illness. In 2011, I was the keynote address at a walk for the Suicide Prevention's Education Alliance. No one wants to talk about suicide and mental illness, especially in front of a crowd of almost 2000 people, but I am glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone since sharing has helped others.

Laughter: Fake it until you make it!

How important is laughter? 


What role does laughter play in the novel?


What role does laughter play in your life? 



From Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:

      While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, at the guys, at George, at me sucking my bleeding thumb, at the captain back at the pier and the bicycle rider and the service-station guys and the five thousand houses and the Big Nurse and all of it. Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there’s a painful side; he knows my thumb smarts and his girl friend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won’t let the pain blot out the humor no more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain.
       I notice Harding is collapsed beside McMurphy and is laughing too. And Scanlon from the bottom of the boat. At their own selves as well as at the rest of us. And the girl, with her eyes still smarting as she looks from her white breast to her red one, she starts laughing. And Sefelt and the doctor, and all.
       It started slow and pumped itself full, swelling the men bigger and bigger. I watched, part of them, laughing with them—and somehow not with them. I was off the boat, blown up off the water and skating the wind with those black birds, high above myself, and I could look down and see myself and the rest of the guys, see the boat rocking there in the middle of those diving birds, see McMurphy surrounded by his dozen people, and watch them, us, swinging a laughter that rang out on the water in ever-widening circles, farther and farther, until it crashed up on beaches all over the coast, on beaches all over all coasts, in wave after wave after wave. (250)

Think about the other passages about laughter (239) and how it is important "to see some good" (256). 

Laughter Yoga Mantra:
Fake it until you make it!



Another good video with more info on laughter yoga.

Reading Schedule for F BLOCK...

Homework F Block:

Week of Nov. 11th

For Tuesday - Read through 175.

In Class Tuesday - "Pop quiz" on reading - Beginning reading for Wednesday...

For Wednesday - Read 176 through 201 - Finish Part II.

In Class Wednesday - Short quiz on end of Part II. Wordly Wise Chapter 5 Vocabulary with partners. All exercises.

For Class Thursday - Read 205 through 224 (and Chapter 5 of Wordly Wise if you don't finish all the exercises in class).

For Class Friday - Read 225 through 244 (1st half of the last chapter in Part III)

Week of Nov. 18th

For Class Tuesday (drop F Block) - Read 245 through 258 (2nd half of the last chapter in Part III).

In Class Tuesday - Short quiz on Part III. Worldly Wise Chapter 6 Vocabulary with partners.

For Wednesday - Read 261 through 275.

For Thursday - Read 276 through 288.

For Friday - Read 289 through 309.

Week of Nov. 25th

For Monday - Read 310 through 325 - FINISH THE BOOK!

In Class Monday - TEST on the ENTIRE BOOK

Tuesday - Review results of Test - then.... HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING BREAK! 

Reading Schedule for Z BLOCK

Homework Z Block:

Week of Nov. 11th

For Tuesday - Read through page 196 - last line "I don't seem able to get it straight in my mind..."

For Wednesday - Read through page 201 - Finish Part II.

In Class Wednesday - Short quiz on end of Part II. Wordly Wise Chapter 5 Vocabulary with partners. All exercises.

For Class Thursday - Read 205 through 224 (and Chapter 5 of Wordly Wise if you don't finish all the exercises in class).

For Class Friday - Read 225 through 244 (1st half of the last chapter in Part III)

Week of Nov. 18th

For Class Tuesday (drop Monday for Bio) - Read 245 through 258 (2nd half of the last chapter in Part III).

In Class Tuesday - Short quiz on Part III. Worldly Wise Chapter 6 Vocabulary with partners.

For Wednesday - Read 261 through 275.

For Thursday - Read 276 through 288.

For Friday - Read 289 through 309.

Week of Nov. 25th

For Monday - Read 310 through 325 - FINISH THE BOOK!

In Class Monday - TEST on the ENTIRE BOOK

Tuesday - NO CLASS - Drop for Bio - HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING BREAK! 

HWK for Thursday...

Finish Part I - to page 145.

HWK for Wednesday...

Read next two "Chapters" 9 &10 - through page 125. 

Check this party out:

 http://youtu.be/3tsp4L4Pn_c

Online Cuckoo's Nest

A searchable online pdf of the novel - command F to open a "find" window.

Chapter 7 & 8 Review

Quote:1
"Singing everyones thunderstruck they haven heard such a thing in years not on this ward"....."how come the black boys haven't hushed him up out there they havent let anyone raise such a racket before" - page 91-92 

Question1:
why don't they stop McMurphy from singing?
Quote 2: "This time he doesn't untie the sheet but walks away from me to help two aids I never saw before and young doctor lift old Blastic on to the stretcher and carry him out covered in a sheet - handle him more careful then anybody ever handled him before in all his life" -page 90

Question 2: How did the vegetable Blastic die? 

Quote: "You havin' a bad dream, Mistuh Bromden." -Mr Turkle, pg. 90 paragraph 2 line 2
Question: Is Mr. Turkle really trying to be kind?

Quote: "There! Damn you right there! That's where I want you workin', not gawkin' around like some big useless cow! There! There!"
 -black boy to Chief, pg. 94 paragraph 2nd to last one
Question: Why is he yelling at chief? 

8. "I get a smell of something that's makes me realize [that] never before now, before he [McMurphy] came in, the smell of dust and earth from the open fields, and sweat, and work." (101)

What is the history of the patients prior to their admission?


7. "The worker takes the scalpel and slices up the front of old Blastic with a clean swing and the old man stops thrashing around. I expect to be sick, but there's no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see -- just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire or glass." (88)

What does Bromden's understanding of the Combine's affect on the patients symbolize?

uhuh, uhuh, I think I can see what your driving at... yeah, I can see your point 

bottom of page 93


what regulations are included in ward policy

top of page 92

How come they treat this new guy different...combine as anybody else, don't they?

how did the acute feel about the way Nurse Ratchetd
treats McMurphy

chapter 7: 

page 86

"And then probably help one of the workers lift me onto one of those hooks himself saying, How about lets see what the insides of an Indian look like?" 

do you think chief was imagining this or were these events actually occurring?

chapter 8:

page 101 

"but never before now, before he came in, the man smell of dust and dirt from the open fields, and sweat, and work."

why does McMurphy smell like this? do you think he brought in a new aroma, if so what?

1. "You havin' a bad dream, Mistuh Bromden." -Mr. Turkle
Do you think the dream is real?

2. "No. No, I'm afraid I wasn't. Not a thing this morning but the cap that's on my head and-" -McMurphy
What's he afraid of?

chapter 7 -page 90

"I know already what will happen: somebody will drag me out of the fog  and we'll be back on the ward and there won't be a sign of what went on tonight and if i was  fool enough to try and tell anybody about it they'd say, Idiot, you just had a nightmare; things as crazy as a big machine room down in the bowels in a dam where people get cut up by robot workers that dont exist. But if they don't exist, how can a man see them?"

question: Do you think that this really happened or was it just a dream? 

chapter 8- pg 93

" "It's ward policy Mr. McMurphy, that's the reason." And when he sees that this last reason don't affect McMurphy like it should, he frowns at that hand on his shoulder and adds, "What you s'pose it'd be like if evahbody was to brush their teeth whenever they took a notion to brush?"

Chapter 7 Quote-

"Oh, a beer, I think, for the long night ahead." (85)

What is the fog that Bromden keeps seeing and gets lost in? What is it really?

Chapter 8 Quote-

And when he sees that this last reason doesn't affect McMurphy like it should, he frowns at that hand on his shoulder and adds,"What you s'pose it'd be like if evahbody was to brush their teeth whenever they took a notion to brush.

(93)

Question- Who is stating those quote and what is happening in the conversation?

Chapter 7
"I hear the high, cold, whistling wet breath of the fog machine, see the first wisps of it come seeping out from under McMurphy's bed. I hope he knows enough to hide in the fog." (88-89)
Question:
Who does Chief Bromden refer to when he hopes that McMurphy knows to hide in the fog?

Chapter 8
"-but never before now, before he came in, the man smell of dust and dirt from the open field, and sweat, and work." (101)


Question:
What type of person do you think came into the ward before McMurphy?





Ch. 7 Quote: If I shook somebody awake he'd say, Why you crazy idiot, what the hell's eating you? And then probably help one of the workers lift me onto one of those hooks himself, saying How bout let's see what the inside of an Indian looks like? (88)

What does this show about Bromden and his awareness of his mental state?

Ch. 8 Quote: Her lips are parted, and her smiles going out before her like a radiator grill. I can smell the hot oil and magento spark when she goes by, and every step hits the floor she blows up a size bigger, blowing and puffing, roll down anything in her path!

What reoccurring theme of the book does this demonstrate? Explain.

Chapter 8 quotes: "her doll smile is gone, stretched tight and thin as a red hot wire. If some of the patients could be out to see her now, McMurphy could start collecting bets." Page 98 2nd "She can't have them see her face like this, white and warped with fury." (99)


Question: Does ratchet give in to mcmurphys torment?


Chapter 7 quotes: 1st "I expect to be sick, but there's no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see—just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire or glass. (88)


Question: what is significant about what bromden sees? Why are the doctors doing this to the patients?


Chapter 7

It-everything I see-looks like it sounded, like the inside of a tremendous dam. (87)


Why does Chief Broom think that everything is a machine?


Chapter 7

"It's Mr. Turkle that pulls me out of the fog by the arm shaking me and grinning."

Quote: "You havin' a bad dream, Mistuh Bromden." -Mr Turkle, pg. 90 paragraph 2 line 2
Question: Is Mr. Turkle really trying to be kind?

Quote: "There! Damn you right there! That's where I want you workin', not gawkin' around like some big useless cow! There! There!"
 -black boy to Chief, pg. 94 paragraph 2nd to last one
Question: Why is he yelling at chief? 

QUESTION-What does the fog represent in the story?

CHAPTER 8

"They never let anyone raise this much racket before, did they?"

 QUESTION-Why do they treat McMurphy differently 91-92

Chapter 8
> She starts moving, and i get back against the wall, and when she rumbles past she's already big as a truck, trailing that whicker bag behind in her exhaust like a semi behind a Jimmy Diesel. PG 96
> What does he mean when he says she is as big as a truck?

Chapter 7:
"When you take one of these red pills you don't just go to sleep; you are paralyzed with sleep, and all night long you can't wake, no matter why how's on around you. That's why the staff gives me the pills; at the old place I took to waking up at night and catching them performing all kinda of horrible crimes on the patients sleeping around me." (88)

Who is the man that dies and how does Chief Broom believe he died?



Chapter 8:
"Singing! Everybody's thunderstruck. They haven't heard such a thing in years, not on this ward." (p. 91)

What does McMurphy want that the staff won't let him have?




"He finally winks at the nurse and shrugs and unwraps the towel, drapes it over her shoulder like she was a wooden rack. I see he had his shorts on under the towel all along."(99)

What is significant about McMurphy's action? Why is it ironic?

Nov. 1st Friday Read...

Read through page 101. 

Create titles for chapters 7-8

In the meantime, listen carefully to labels people use to describe the mentally ill as well as deragotory terms for gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, etc. 

Be prepared for Test on Monday!

There will be: 

- character ID - match to quotes 

- passage analysis - annotate 

- short essay 

Happy Halloween!

Homework for Friday...

Homework is to get a jump start on your research project due Monday.

Maybe share some info via email or a google doc...

You will be in the library computer lab Friday. You have the technology to collaborate from afar. 

You should have received an email invite to your edublog:

http://zblockea14.edublogs.org/

http://fblockea14.edublogs.org/

Be sure to log in and change your password. See respective edublog above for details. 

A Busy Week! Homework for the weekend:

For Monday, please read through Chapter 4 - for most of you that is pages 3-41. Some of you have fallen behind already on the reading. You need to catch up and keep pace.

Therefore, get a jump start...

For Tuesday, you will need to READ through Chapter 5 - pages 42-75.
(We will read some in class on Monday.)

If you missed class, be sure that you are adding new names to your character list that you have started in your notebook.

Be sure you know ALL the characters - as well as significant details, physical descriptions, Acute or Chronic, etc.

We will have a Who's Who? Quiz on the characters and key vocabulary next week.
Be sure to annotate.


FYI - These are the links we watched in class:

Ken Kesey’s First LSD Trip Animated

Plus the trailer to the story about Ken Kesey's Magic Trip

Ode to Poetry

Homework for long weekend:

READ One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pages 3-14 (First two chapters - which are un-numbered and un-named).

The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

I once taught a senior elective entitled: Why Poetry Matters - check out the blog.

My goal is to demystify and to inspire a passion for poetry.

No matter what you do when you grow up...
May poetry always offer solace
and a respite from your day to day challenges.
May it bring back awareness to what is real,
to what is important, to what is ephemeral,
to what is love, to what is life.

Ode to Students

Please give poetry

A chance. Like a toddler

That is learning to walk,

We hover holding your hand.

Forgive the mess we make

Of poems, annotating and analyzing.

In biology, and English class,

a frog that once kissed a princess

Lies dissected and desecrated.

Please forgive us

In the way we teach poetry

And talk at you.  Let’s let

The poetry speak to you. 

Ode to a Nightingale

BY JOHN KEATS

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

         My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

         One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

         But being too happy in thine happiness,—

                That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees

                        In some melodious plot

         Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

                Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

         Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green,

         Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

         Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

                With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

                        And purple-stained mouth;

         That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

                And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

         What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

         Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

         Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

                Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

                        And leaden-eyed despairs,

         Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

                Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,

         Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,

But on the viewless wings of Poesy,

         Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:

Already with thee! tender is the night,

         And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,

                Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;

                        But here there is no light,

         Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown

                Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

         Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,

But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet

         Wherewith the seasonable month endows

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

         White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;

                Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;

                        And mid-May's eldest child,

         The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

                The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time

         I have been half in love with easeful Death,

Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,

         To take into the air my quiet breath;

                Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

         To cease upon the midnight with no pain,

                While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad

                        In such an ecstasy!

         Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—

                   To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!

         No hungry generations tread thee down;

The voice I hear this passing night was heard

         In ancient days by emperor and clown:

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

         Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,

                She stood in tears amid the alien corn;

                        The same that oft-times hath

         Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam

                Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell

         To toll me back from thee to my sole self!

Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well

         As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.

Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades

         Past the near meadows, over the still stream,

                Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep

                        In the next valley-glades:

         Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

                Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?