American Civil Rrights links

The following are some links to the civil rights topic that we have been discussing in class.  Please refer to them in order to write your paper.  remember at the core of the paper is still To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  The book takes place in the 30's, but was written in the late 1950's and published in 1960.

Your essay should talk about real sources:
 I Have a Dream- MLK
House Negro/Field Negro- Malcolm X
By any means necessary- Malcolm X
Mississippi Goddamn- Nina Simone
Strange Fruit- Billie Holiday
Emmett Till 
Civil Rights movement (this takes you to Wikipedia; not always the best source, but has good information here and takes you to interesting sites if you want to dig deeper).


And media sources:
Gone with the wind
Mississippi Burning
To Kill A Mockingbird


Remember to think of the book's structure in terms of the dualities- and how that is echoed in so many other relationships both in the book and in the reality of black/white relationship in the South before and since the American civil war.

English: Scripts and performances

Coming Up: your scripts for your first dramatic presentation are due Tuesday.  In Tuesday's class we will be watching the end of the film, working on your scripts and performances, getting your props and sets together.  Names will be chosen at random, and performances will start on Wednesday. 

Good luck in your planning and Happy Thanksgiving!

English: Battle in Seattle

We have been watching the film "The Battle in Seattle".  It works to show the real events of the 1999 WTO protest in Seattle, and does a good job of it.  It does however suffer from some problems.  Because it is a movie and needs to please an audience, it has to have plot lines.  There are several different story lines which intertwine.  here are the basic pairings:

• Django, Jay, Sam, and Lou- the protesters working peacefully
• Dale and Ella- the cop and the pregnant store clerk
• Mayor Jim Tobin, the police and the politicians
• Jean and her side-kick camera man
• Dr. Maric and Abasi- two representatives trying to get their message heard by the WTO

for reference go to the IMDB link.

Coming Up: Once the movie is done, please comment on each of these plot lines, how and why they are woven together and ultimately pass judgement on the performances of the actors and how realistic they and their plot lines are.

Media: BLI

The B(alanced) L(iteracy) I(nitiative) is well underway- if you haven't figured it out yet, we're doing the Investigate Phase of this project.  I've been really honoured to read your stories.  I have also been excited to see the work being done recently; filming the reading of the kids books.  It still remains to be seen how the final product will work/look.

Remember the design cycle steps:

1. Investigate
2. Design/plan
3. Create
4. Evaluate

Media: Digital storytelling

Guiding question: What is the best way to use digital technology to tell a story?


We have used the month of September to get through the investigate phase of the above guiding question. It is sometimes difficult to see what that the design cycle is actually one of the best tools that "life long learners" could internalize, but it is.  Having an understanding of how things work; how you work, is one of the most important skills that you could be left with coming out of your High School years.

The above question leads to two other questions:

1. What is a story worth telling?
2. What digital technology would be the best to tell that story?

Here other questions come to light:

1. Who am I telling the story to?
2. What technology will tell that story most effectively?
3. What do I (you the student) know about either of these two elements?

Coming Up:  Your Design Phase and process log are due  the 14th of October.

English: "To Kill A Mockingbird"

The novel that we are looking at is "To Kill A Mockingbird".

There are certain concepts that we have looked at very briefly and will look at in more detail as the month continues.  Some of these concepts are:

1. Bildungsroman  (notes)
2. Southern Gothic  (notes)

3. Teaching of values and civility?
4. Community and Privacy
5. The “OTHER”  (notes)

6. How is this novel a love story?

Remember you are not reading this book just for pleasure- you are also reading this book to study it!  


Try to single out the characters that are "Others"  and who they are "Others" for (i.e. Boo Radley is an Other for the children).  


Look for repeating motifs and/or events that happen in the book.


Remember to add to your list of characters and where (page #) and how they are introduced (here Sparks Notes can be very helpful)- try not to copy the Sparks notes- look at what language Harper Lee uses to talk about her characters, what metaphors or imagery surround the character, and does this "first impression" hold true throughout the rest of the book?

Coming Up:  Continue reading until pg. 207

English: Protest

Protest unit

You are currently writing a dramatic piece in groups of 3's  (this is Assignment #2)- the outline is due Monday, Oct. 4th.  The piece will be presented the week of Oct. 12th-15th.  Meanwhile we will be watching "The Battle in Seattle", a movie released in 2007 about the WTO protest in Seattle, Washington in 1999.

Some interesting things about the protest that you should maybe check out if you are interested:


To get information look at these two sources:

1. Deep Dish TV : a source for independent news that put together footage of the WTO protest.
2. Battle in Seattle: A "Hollywood" treatment of the events that took place in 1999... 

Further sources that you can look at are:

1. The Real Battle in Seattle with a long list of different organizations that you should check-out
2. Adbusters

Things to look for while you watch the movie are:

1. the protest techniques (the carnival atmosphere, the lock-down of the intersections, etc.), 
2. how the "Corporate" Media vs. "Independent" Media reported the events, 
3. the policing techniques (it should be remembered that the police were working long hours- 36-48hour shifts) etc.