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The Last and Great Reflection

In this course, I have completed several fairly large assignments this quarter, the lesser of them being the book talks. For my talks, I chose a book that I was interested in and a book that I could use in my classroom. For the book I was interested in, I chose Ender’s Game . Ender’s Game is a household favorite for myself and my family. It presented me with an opportunity to discuss with my peers about a critically acclaimed book with deep and rich lore that I enjoyed. The second book that I chose was Manga Classics: Romeo and Juliet . This manga was originally supposed to be part of my unit plan, but I substituted it for a traditional graphic novel at some point for simplicity’s sake. My unit plan was inspired by this version of Romeo and Juliet , and as such, I felt that talking about the manga was necessary even though I did not end up using it in my unit plan. The greater of the assignments that I have completed is the unit plan. For my unit plan, as I previously mentioned,...
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The Casque of Amontillado, The Raven, and Lenore -- Blog 14

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most favored poets in my household—William Ernest Henley takes the top place for me because of “Invictus”, but I digress—because, mostly, of my fiancée’s obsession with ravens, crows, and goth culture. My first experience will Poe was in Challenge Reading (think Honor’s English) in the sixth grade. We read Tell-Tale Heart and it terrified my little sixth-grade mind, but I loved every second of it. The dark, gritty nature of most of Poe’s writings inspired the tone of a number of my own short stories, especially those dealing with modern mythologies or superstitious ideas, e.g. angels, demons, ghost, magic, etc. For today’s reading, I revisited The Casque of Amontillado , as well as “The Raven” and “Lenore.” In The Casque of Amontillado , the narrator takes his friend, Fortunato, into the crypt to look for a cask of Amontillado wine. As they traverse the long crypt, the narrator beseeches Fortunato to return to the party, for a number of reasons, but ...
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Elie Wiesel's "Night" -- Blog 13

Elie Wiesel’s Night is a nonfiction memoir that follows Eliezer as he and his father try to survive the Holocaust. The story starts in Sighet, Transylvania and ends in the concentration camp of Buchenwald in Germany. On their way to Auschwitz, Eliezer is separated from his mother and sisters and never sees them again. His father survives almost until the Americans free the prisoners at Buchenwald, but sadly, is taken to the crematorium, having been sick with dysentery and unable to move. Night also tells the story of a young man losing his faith in God as he views and experiences the atrocity of man under God’s watchful eye. While watching a young boy be hanged, another man asks where God is, Eliezer hears the answer within him, “"Where He is? This is where--hanging here from this gallows..." As a life-long doubter and, nearly as long, an atheist, I struggled with the question of how God could allow atrocities and, among of the things, killed what little faith I had ov...
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Into the Wild -- Blog 12

I am detecting a bit of theme here. Though certainly a different brand of it, Into the Wild is still a coming-of-age novel, at least I think so. While the other novels we have talked about do not necessarily end or begin with the death of the main character, Into the Wild is a story about the young man growing up, up until he dies that is. Christopher McCandless, also known as Alexander Supertramp or Alex McCandless, fled his home in an old Datsun to escape the troubles of his family. One of the main differences between Into the Wild and the other coming-of-age novels that we have discussed in this class is the ending. Normally, a coming-of-age novel ends with the main character learning  some sort of lesson and matured because of it. However, in Into the Wild , the main character dies before the beginning of the story, and the lesson is learned by the narrator. The other major difference between this story and the other coming-of-age stories—the other stories in general—is the...
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Romeo and Juliet: The Manga

A Romeo and Juliet Graphic Novel Description Everyone should be familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet. However, just in case, Romeo and Juliet is the tragedy by William Shakespeare. The Capulet and Montague families feud in the streets of Verona, Italy. Count Paris works to court Juliet, the daughter of Capulet, while Benvolio talks to Montague’s son, Romeo, about his depression. Romeo is infatuated with Rosaline, one of the Capulet nieces, but when he attends the ball to see Rosaline, he meets Juliet. He is immediately smitten with her. A fight nearly breaks out at the ball between Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, and Romeo. Juliet’s father breaks up the fight, not wanting there to be any bloodshed. After the ball, Romeo overhears Juliet admitting that she fell in love with Romeo. Friar Laurence marries them in secret the next, hoping it will help their families resolve their differences. Meanwhile, Tybalt and Mercutio have a duel because Tybalt is still upset about the ball, Romeo...
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"The Round House" -- Blog 11

Like many of the stories that we have discussed in this class, “The Round House” is a coming of age novel for Joe, a thirteen-year-old, Chippewa boy. His mother, Geraldine, is tortured and raped at the beginning of the novel. Throughout the novel, Joe faces tribulation after tribulation, most of which stem from the event at beginning of the novel. First his mother is raped, then he gets caught spying on Father Travis, his father, Bazil, has a heart attack at the grocery store, Linden, his mother’s rapist, is acquitted of the crime, Joe tries to kill him, fails, and then Joe’s friend Cappy has to help him, then on their way to Montana, they get in a car crash, and Cappy dies while Zack and Angus, Joe’s other two friends, are injured. As a coming of age novel, “The Round House” features moments that make it more of an adult novel. It has moments that I would not necessarily feel comfortable having my students read the novel aloud, I would not object if they wanted to read it for a p...
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Fake Reading and the High School Students -- Blog 10

“I Read It But I Don’t Get It” by Cris Tovani covered the topic of “fake reading” in the first chapter. The chapter in question explains what “fake reading” is and how students accomplish it. “Fake reading” is the act of pretending to read an entire book. Tovani explains that this could be done by “attending classes, reading first and last chapters, skimming the Cliffs Notes, and making Bs or better on essays and exams.” The chapter certainly hit close to home for me, I have been fake reading for about 15 years at this point and still do occasionally. Fake reading is a hard habit to break, especially when it works for the most part, and I understand why Tovani worked so hard against it. It was also a demonstration in one of the struggles of teaching that no one really talks about. Teaching students who dislike reading is hard enough, but teaching students who dislike reading and know how to almost convincingly pretend as though they read what they were supposed to read. I connected to...
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