1. Warming up with three good things (or maybe four since you had a long weekend)
2. Enjoying Grammar You Must Know #7: Sentence Fragments
3. Reading first, blogging second: Preparing for today's Socratic seminar on Chapters 18, 19, and 20
4. Offering you a quick overview of Socratic and trying out our first one
- You may only participate in today's Socratic if you have completed the reading through Chapter 20.
- If you haven't finished the reading, you need to sit outside of the circle. You may either use this time to read, and then write a reflection on today's blog, OR...
- You may use this time to take notes on the discussion, and then read later.
HW:
1. Read Chapters 21, 22, and 23 and complete your blog entry for Thursday.
2. Bring back your character's artifacts tomorrow for a big writing day.
2. Bring back your character's artifacts tomorrow for a big writing day.
3. "Quiz" on Grammar Lesson #7 this Friday.
When promises get broken you lose faith in the promises in the future. And when a person brakes that promise it could tear relationships apart.
ReplyDeleteThe author is giving us freedom to what we think about the book and little parts of it where we aren't completely sure about what happened.
It is perfectly ok to jump over large stances of time when writing our memoir because our brain is always jumping around with different events at different time.
The mothers chapters are more controlled and flowing rather than James's Chapter's that jump around more.
Ruth's had more time to think about writing her life and all the events so she is able to categorize her life into different parts.
When Ruth is talking to the guy from her past she starts crying. Are those happy or sad tears? Ruth doesn't really talk about her past very much so to talk to someone from her past probably brings back so many memories.
ReplyDeleteDiscussed the relationship between Rachael and Dee Dee and how Rachael broke a promise and made Dee Dee very upset
Difference between memoir and autobiography. How James' decisions to not do good in school and do drugs, etc has affected his life in the long run.
Eddie Thompson and Ruth's relationship
Why was Ruth's promise so important to Dee Dee?
ReplyDelete-I agreed with Abby when she said that Dee Dee needed help.
-The promise was that Ruth would come and live in Virginia with Dee Dee at some point.
What happened in between James getting on the bus and what happened in 1982
-Abby thinks that it was the part of the memoir where we can assume what he did.
-Did he graduate?
-Mrs. Leclaire was talking about how in memoirs they jump across time. Most memoir writers don't write about their college life.
Chris thinks that the mothers chapters are a lot more fluid.
-He is still living his memoir today
He writes about the bad memories more than the good ones.
-I think that this is because our brains remembers the bad stuff more than the good stuff.
Eddie is on the phone with Rachael. “Don’t cry…”. Are they happy tears?
ReplyDeleteI think they are happy. She is just remembering everything from the past
Didn’t have the best childhood, so that might be true
A couple chapters ago, she was talking about how she had to die then come back
She had to drive to move on.
Why was Rachel's promise to DD so important?
It was important for her brother to stay, because her dad was a jerk and her brother had already left.
Also, DD is a very quiet person who keeps everything in, but when she opened up to Rachel it was a big deal
Maybe part of it was that if DD and Rachel were going through everything together, it may be easier for DD. Also part of it is that DD needs help and can’t do everything on her own.
I agree. She might be mad, because she wants to look up to her parents, but they just went through a divorce.
DD felt really alone. Not many friends and her family was falling apart.
Agree. Sister is best friend. It would be really sad if she left and a broken promise, which is becoming a very big deal.
Chapter 20, What happened between 1982 and him being on the bus?
Giving the imaginary part of the memoirs we are writing. We think he was in college, but not entirely certain.
Throughout the whole book things are jumping around. We watch possible paths that he may go down.
We jump from memory to memory and it is perfectly okay to write only about outstanding events in our memoirs. We just have to ground the reader in a place and time.
Memories that stand out are easier to write about, because they are easier to recall the details.
Mothers chapters are a lot more fluid, but James chapters are much more lucid. It flips between tribute and memoir
Also still living his memoir
Agrees with writing about the significant. And, James writes more about the bad memories rather than the good.
Mother is the same way. Her memories aren’t very good.
Mothers memoirs are a lot more fluid, because she has had a lot of time to reflect on her past.
Some memoirs even lose relationship with their families.
To reflect on chapter 20 I think the message is the beauty of family. Chapter 19 was all about broken promises and the point of chapter 20 is the reconnection of relationships, some relationships that never were real. He learns about his grandfather and his relationship with others so he can in a way really know who he was. Even though he was extremely racist he still was and tried to me a good man. Which is what I think he learned.
ReplyDeleteReflections
ReplyDeleteChapter 19 - It is interesting to hear about Ruth’s romance with James’ real father. I feel like the book thus far has been mostly about Daddy, Chicken Man, and other important male figures in James life. I wonder how hard it really was for Dennis to introduce a white woman to his family and friends. From learning about racism, I know that racial stereotypes can go both ways, and sometimes blacks seem to be racist towards whites. It is interesting to see how Dennis and Ruth defied racial stereotypes. Ruth has been jealous of her younger sister Dee Dee. Ruth promised Dee Dee that she would come back and live with her in virginia. Breaking that promise caused tension in her relationship. Why did she promise this if she couldn’t keep it?
Chapter 20 - Why did James mom hate Karone? She says that he is ruining his future and dreams by dating her. Why does she think this? Is James throwing away his future for this girl?Karone and James have no plans to get married, they aren’t even that close. James finds it hard going into the real world being black. It seems like he thought racism would end when he finished college, and he was surprised when it didn’t. James mom tells James about her best friend Frances. Why is she so secretive about her past? She claims that Frances is her only childhood friend she can recall. James wanted to understand his mother's past, so he went to Suffolk looking for Frances. He found Eddie Shilinsky who told him stories about Old Man Shilinsky. This chapter is interesting because it connects James to his mother. In the past, the chapters have been seperated James from Ruth. It is interesting to see both of their tributes intertwine.
Reflections:
ReplyDeleteChapter 18, was very similar to 17, just told in James eyes. James, in this chapter, is looking for a new life, and he finds that in Delaware. Back in New York, he was on the wrong path. Sure recently he had been doing better, but he still needed to get away. In Delaware, he found just that, with music.
A question I have, is will he keep on this path of music? Or will he find a new path in writing, considering the book? Multi-talented?
Chapter 19, was a continuation on how she was furthered away from her family, but also getting accepted into a new one. The beginning of this chapter, she was getting introduced to Dennis's family, who accepted her, despite them being different race. Fast forward to the end, we see tension breaks out between her and her sister, due to a broken promise on her sisters part.
A question I have is why does the promise mean so much to the mom? Was it a back then thing? Like, sure if someone nowadays breaks a promise, you can be upset, but to further yourself, and ruin the relationship over it... Seems a little much
Chapter 20 - This chapter, largely focuses on finding answers. His mom, has been so quiet about her past, that James knows very little, so he takes it on his own to find answers. He drove down to Suffolk, Virginia. On his journey down there, he found out a lot, due to a man named, Eddie. He told James all about how her father was not a great guy. This, showed to James, that growing up, she had a rough life and didn't necessarily have family support. This explains to him why she kept quiet about most of these things.
One of the major things I would have talked about was how the ending of chapter 19 relates to the world we teenagers live in. We all react to people not following through in many different ways and I wanted to know how other would have reacted if it would have happened to them. Also I would have talked about what others believe James's future holds, because I know he wants to pursue this whole music thing but what will he decide to do. The last thing I wanted to talk about was the beginning of chapter 18. I know moving is a different experience and I would like to know if anyone has moved from a different state and what its like.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapters 18-20, my contribution to the discussion would have been along the lines of the prominent presence of the concept of prejudice in these chapters. When group of people are seen for who they are and not the color of their skin, progress can actually be made. Things can almost been seen as going well for James when the Dawsons help him out with his pursuits. Even though he was black, he was given an opportunity and it really helped him in the end. Chapter 19 brought about even more information pertaining to the behavior of Tateh. He truly was a terrible person to his family and this is reinforced by the remarks of Eddie Thompson in chapter 20. Ruth and James were both set up to fail and these chapters help show the power of ditching prejudice and letting people in. It only led to success for Ruth and James.
ReplyDeleteChapter 18- Lost in Delaware: We see the impact music has on James, I would've liked to talk about how music has helped people in our class get away. Music is an escape and we see this so often today, listen to music when you're sad or want to get pumped up. For some reason music is the one thing that you can connect that strongly with so that would be my main takeaway from chapter 18.
ReplyDeleteChapter 19- The promise: Ruth breaks the promise with Dee Dee and creates an awkward situation between them. Again I'd connect this with our every day lives, I think so often we make promises we cannot fulfill. I think making a promise and breaking it is worse than just saying no from the start because when you break your promise you are breaking their trust as well. Ruth realizes how hard it was for Dee Dee to be the only one at the house and I think this can also relate. At least for me I know sometimes I do stuff for myself first and then when I look back on it later I realize the people it affected and how I hurt others. The focus points for me in this chapter would be Tateh and his treatment of his family and the idea of promises in today's society related to this chapter.
Chapter 20-Old Man Shilsky: James took a trip to the south seeking truths about his mothers past, where he met with Mr. Thompson. Thompson referred to James's mothers father as cold hearted and rude, providing James with some of the answers he had been seeking. My main focus from chapter 20 would be on how sometimes you look for answers that you may never find but in the process learn a lot more than you originally planned on.