Group Activity- Of mice and men

For the 2 assignments, we decided to do an alternate ending project where they have to creatively come up with a different way to end Of Mice and Men. We thought this would be a fun way to get students to want to write and break away from the typical essay format where students may dread to write. The other assignment that we thought of was bringing in photographs of the times and having them talk about the historical context from the book. This takes place in the 1940's and we want to describe the economic times and the life of a migrant worker. Bringing in the photography can put a mental image in their minds and also have them educated of what was going on in the outside world besides simply on this farm.

Writing Amid Lit Article

While reading Writing Amid Literature Part One: Other Than Essays, I found myself agreeing with all that he had to say. I think that by not allowing students to be creative and not allowing them to break away from the dreaded essay every time, it will not allow students to enjoy the subject. Unfortunately, for many of my friends their least favorite subject was English during high school and middle school which I feel shouldn’t be the case. Students should be able to express themselves in English class because thinking about it, they cannot exactly express themselves in Math or Social Studies, the facts are the facts and many times they cannot be creative and think outside the box. Two things that I want to talk about that I could see myself doing is the idea of having them mimic an old passage or form of an author and making it their own and more modern, and also the short part on prose. One quote that really got my attention was, “Imitating the forms of professionals in fun, instructive, and confidence-building. The model usually provides just the right amount of framework to lead students into their own language” I agreed with this because I myself remember doing this. We had read a Shakespearean sonnet and then had to mimic the form, and it made me appreciate his style and diction a lot more. Lastly, I could see myself using the journal entries, news article or the fictional paper. These are very fun activities that students can do to be creative while they also have to get into the character’s heads and really understand them. Students should not hate English class and only have to write strict-style essays, but instead engage in different types of writing as well to keep English fun and enjoyable as well. 

Ideas for MGP / confusion

Although I am pretty confused about this paper, two of the topics that I am trying to focus in on are How to teach Of Mice and Men in the classroom or how to use technology in the classroom. The thing that confuses me is the 5 different genres.. Do I have to pick five different genre's that I could use to help teach Of Mice and Men? For instance, bring in a poem about friendship or have them write a newspaper article of Lennie's obituary? (those types of things). Those two topics are ones that I am interested in, and I think once I have a more clear understanding of what the 5 genre's really are all about I will be able to begin this paper.

Of Mice and Men

Two things that I focused on during this section was the bond between George and Lennie and the foreshadow and resemblance that seems to be made between Lennie and the old dog. The relationship between George and Lennie is one that people may not understand, but we see that George deep down really cares for him. George constantly is putting Lennie down, yet when it comes to leaving him behind or when Lennie says he is going to go off into the hills and live by himself, he does not let him. Without Lennie in George’s life, it would be much easier and he would not have to be on the run but he chooses to stay with him. It seems like maybe he is a family member or a brother at first, but we learn he is not related. Many people that they work with do not understand since many men do not “travel together,” but we see a close bond that the readers may not understand ourselves. Second, the old dog that is shot in this book I feel is there to foreshadow what is to come with Lennie. Lennie is compared to a dog in this book with his “paws,” and we see character traits from the dog in Lennie. They talk about how they will shoot him in the back of the head and will not know what was going on or even feel it which is important to the owner. When Lennie is compared to this old dog, we see that he is also disabled in a way like many of these people think that both of they are. 

Our Town, act 3

I thought that this act was very interesting as it deals with death. During the previous acts we get the different stages of life, and now we are at Emily's funeral. The one thing that I focused on is when Emily asks to go back to a day in her life so that she can re-live it. She is told that it is a bad idea and when she asks to go back to an important day, she is shut down and told to go back to a day that is boring and has little importance. Going back after you're dead must be very weird, and you get to see all the little things that you stress over that never even mattered. We do not really get to see how precious our life is and the everyday things that we can experience and learn, until we go back. Emily wished that she would have never done it and I think that is important. We do not appreciate the little things in life and I think that is why they told her to go to a day that didn't matter, the simplicity is something that is taken for granted and it really shows.

Our Town

While reading the first Act of Our Town, there was a few things that I couldn't help but notice. For one, the fact that the director was stopping the play right in the middle to tell characters to get off stage or for the audience to ask questions opened my eyes. The director had total control and I thought it was a little weird how it was written that way with so many interruptions. Another thing that I focused on was the title. Since it is called "Our Town" and not Grovers Corners it made it feel like a more general town. We see from the start that there are not really any props so it is up to our imaginations. The characters seem to be generalized so we can kind of picture this town like any other. One relationship that caught my attention was the mother - daughter relationship. When they're at the table and the daughter asks her mother if she is pretty she doesn't exactly have anything to say or when she does it is to general. I feel like many mothers (like my own) go above and beyond to comfort their daughter and tell her yes she is beautiful and someone will want her, but she doesn't really do that.

Movie vs. Huck Finn

Since we just read Huck Finn only a week ago, I still had the book on my mind. Although there were not any black characters or black-white relationships in the film, I think that it forced us to look at other relationships in the movie, or at least that is what I focused on. One relationship which I really concentrated on is the young boy and the new “father.” All I could think of when seeing these scenes were Huck and his father, Pap. All that both of the “fathers” were after was the money, and they would both do anything to get it. In Huck Finn, Pap went to the lengths of locking him up in a cabin to fend from himself. In the movie, their new “father” even killed the mother and tried killing the little children as well when they would not tell him where the money was. Both of these works showed me the theme of greed and the things people would do to get rich. I never really thought about this theme before when dealing with Huck Finn because I think there is so much more to the plot in that story. Another thing that I looked at was the relationship of Ms. Watson and the woman taking care of the little children in the film. Both of these characters were motherly figures but we got to see the difference in the way that the little boys take to her. Huck does not want to be civilized and runs away. Huck stays at Ms. Watson’s in the beginning but does not really enjoy it but instead thinks of suicide and a way of escape. In the film, the boy really seems to confide in the motherly figure when he asks her to tell him the story of the kings again and grabs her hand. He and his sister in the end are adopted and we see him hugging her after giving him a Christmas present. He seems to enjoy having a mother figure and we see a different relationship. There are different characters in the book and the movie, but also some of the same. Watching the film and reading the book made me look at character relationships like I haven’t before. I found a new theme of power of greed in Huck Finn which I sort of looked past before watching the film so I do think it allows us to consider Huck Finn in a new light. I was forced to look at different relationships and I think the film was worth watching so we can look deeper into the book.