The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Day 2: Friday 10/18/13 Yesterday: Students researched Mark Twains life and developed
a celebrity-sighting piece using the information they gathered. They have turned this in and will begin reading about the controversies surrounding this book tonight. Objectives: SWBAT familiarize themselves with Twains life to influence their reading of his books through the Celebrity Assignment SWBAT identify examples of the themes Realism and Superstitions SWBAT develop representations of characters by collecting defining character traits SWBAT define and recognize satire SWBAT differentiate between the humor developed through irony, deadpan, hypocrisy, and satire Standards: CCRS 10.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. CCWS 10.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. (10 mins) Dark Romanticism QUIZ After finished with quiz: Grab a sticky note, playing card, and get out your notebook to copy down the chart from board [TOTAL 30 MINS] (5 mins) Charts and Notes: A way to keep all of our notes together and streamline them- asking you to format your notes in this way: Show chart on board, you will keep your own set in your notes- which you should have already copied down - Within this chart are separate themes - You will be responsible for filling out each section as you read- to keep up on notes We also have Post-its hanging up around the room - These will be our communal place for notes - In class activities - Will be asked to fill out smaller post-it notes with pieces of evidence that fit within each theme as we read Ok so technically, how does this work? Introduce Theme Post-its - Each person has received a playing card - The suit determines which theme you will be working with every day. - Look around room for 4 different themes o Write an example from these 2 chapters on your sticky note and post-it o These are pieces of evidence so think about quotes, page numbers, or main ideas Just like we ask you to be specific with examples in your writing, we want you to be specific here in practice o For today, I want everyone to put one up, even if there are repeats (5 mins) Fill in PLOT together: what do we know has happened so far? - What are the main points we need to remember? - Characters we meet - Setting - Mode of transportation Explain Theme Post-its: These post-its are specifically evidence
Will go through each group- I will explain the things Im looking for in each category and will ask those people in that group to add their points on their stickies and explain to us verbally (5 mins) Realism: Hearts **Hold up your cards** - True to life characters - Familiar settings - Use of regional dialects - Societal pressures - Ethical/moral decisions 1 EXAMPLE FROM GROUP (add to Post-its) (5 mins) Superstition: Clubs While Realism doesnt focus on the supernatural, superstitions were a prevalent part of Southern culture in this time period and are therefore a part of our story. Both Huck and Jim believe in some superstitions and in good/bad luck. - What are some examples? 1 EXAMPLE FROM GROUP (5 mins)Character Traits: Diamonds Realism is all about the characters: - How are they described? - Personality - Physical descriptions - What is their specific point of view? 1 EXAMPLE FROM GROUP (5 mins) Humor: Spades - Irony: meaning the opposite - Hypocrisy: not conforming to your own moral standards - Deadpan: humor spoken with a straight face, blunt, insincere, sarcastic 1 EXPLANATION FROM GROUP - Satire: social criticism, using jokes and follies to highlight social problems EXPLAIN: Celebrity Assignment: Turned in your celebrity assignment but I want to go back and make some connections for us (10 mins) -- Teacher facilitated Mark Twain House website - During his lifetime Sam Clemens watched a young United States evolve from a nation torn apart by internal conflicts to one of international power. He experienced Americas vast growth and change from westward expansion to industrialization the end of slavery advancements in technology big government and foreign wars. And along the way he often had something to say about the changes happening in his country . (marktwainhouse.org) o Realism piece o Missouri Free/slave state? Family actually owned slaves, but Twain was an abolitionist This affected Twains writing - And in perhaps his most famous work Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Clemens by the way he attacked the institution of slavery railed against the failures of Reconstruction and the continued poor treatment of African Americans in his own time. (marktwainhouse.org) o We have talked about Mark Twain and his use of humor and satire. However, maybe the most important thing to note about satire is that it is using humor to present controversial ideas to help lessen the blow.
Think Emily Dickinson Tell all the Truthbut tell it Slant (we talked about her a couple weeks ago) What was she saying in that poem? Tell the truth, but try to lessen the blow a bit by telling it slant, or beating around the bush. Satire does the same thing: in presenting these ideas in a humorous way, maybe we will be more willing to receive the real information
You read in the chapter the n-word was used a lot. Many people who read this novel find this word offensive for many reasons including the historical reminder it carries with it, especially when used during this time period. However, some people have taken this use differently and have gone as far and to place it on the banned books list in America. That means not everyone in the U.S. is going to get the chance to read this book. (10 mins) There are 2 different perspectives surrounding the use of the word in the text and this is what we will be focusing on for homework. There are those who do not believe in its valid use in book and believe it should be taken out, and those who think it brings a true sense of realism to the book. Im introducing these sources because these are questions you will ask yourself in coming across this term in the book. How will you address it? There are many different ways to, none of which should be offensive in the least. I need you to do this work for yourself. I have decided for myself how I will address it with you in class, however, there needs to be a great awareness of this word and context it brings to the discussion. We need to meet it head on to be comfortable with using or not using it. First we will watch a clip from CBS news about the book and the controversies surrounding it. 3 bullet points from the article: what are the main points? What do you agree/disagree with? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbDy-IhiR4c (2 mins) Homework: Another point of view on this subject. Read Getting Past Black and White taking notes in the margins and come back on Monday to decide the way that you will address it in class
