Ideas of Escape in Fahrenheit 451

Several months ago we did an activity on "escapism" where every student was to find an image on the internet that fit the definition of escapism and explain why.

Here are 5 examples of images people chose:

Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Example 4, Example 5

The idea of escaping an unpleasant reality and the ways people choose to do that has been a major theme of Fahrenheit 451 in our reading so far.

In a word document, make note, in paragraph form, of two different examples of people attempting to escape an unpleasant reality in the book (either literally or metaphorically) and explain why these are good examples using the definition of escapism (linked above). Please refer to a specific page number when giving your examples.

When finished, copy and paste your paragraph as a comment to this post.

Change in Plans

Due to some technical difficulties in getting tests printed out, the grammar skills assessment I informed the class of yesterday will be postponed until tomorrow.

In place of the test, what I would like you to do is look at the Supplemental English section of this blog and pick 2 of the 3 posted activities to do. Take a look at all three and then decide which 2 you would like to do.

These are activities designed to highlight specific interesting tools or concepts within the English Language that may prove useful for developing your skills in the language.

In each case I have provided instructions, but feel free to ask me questions of clarification if you need to.

As with the blog posts related to our rights study, these posts count towards your term 2 mark; the more detailed your posts are, the better you are likely to do. As always I expect your name to be a part of the post, and in this case also please indicate your group #:

               Example: Bob Smith
                               Group 02
                               A Review of Grammar Sites:

Remember I am asking you to do two out of the three options during today's class, so use your time well!

Oral Presentation Instructions (Rights Final)

Groups are already underway making PowerPoint presentations for the final assignment in our study of rights. The progress and brainstorming I have seen from most groups has been pretty good so far.

As per the instructions, you are expected to give an oral presentation along with your PowerPoint.

Since there are 8 slides to the PowerPoint, in a 4-member group each group member gets 2 slides.

The Oral will be a part of your Talk mark for term 2, but the written transcript will be a part of your written mark.

By doing well on this one assignment you can get 2 good marks for your term!

I have asked that each member of the group speak for about 2 minutes, which works out to about 250 - 300 words in your written transcript.

That's only 125-150 per slide.

Remember when writing:

1. You are presenting as a group, so make sure each person presenting transitions to the next smoothly to make your presentation flow together.
2. Write to engage your audience and get them interested, also write to inform: your speech is where your information and project planning should come through
3. Your speech is a major factor in whether your project will succeed in convincing judges to pick your project.

Rights Assignment steps 3 & 4

Final Rights Assignment

Group Project

Having completed steps 1 and 2 of the project by submitting your individual ideas for how to make a community in your life better, it is now time to proceed to the group project.

Step Three:

In the real Aviva Community Fund all ideas are posted online for the public to vote on.

In our competition we will be doing the same thing, except inside of  our classroom.

1) Every submitted idea will be posted in the classroom for students to read and look at.

2) You will have three votes to indicate what projects you think are worth working on.

Even if you really want to work on one project, you must still cast your other two for projects that you think are also worth looking at.

            Please indicate vote 1, vote 2 and vote 3 next to your name.

3) Once everyone has cast their three votes (or once time dictates that we must move on) the votes will be tabulated and the top six/seven projects in the class will be named.

4) These six projects will now become group projects. Groups will be decided based on who voted on the projects. People who wrote an idea get priority on their own project.

Step Four:

With Projects picked and groups made, your job is to turn your project into a winner. Each of the groups will create a PowerPoint and oral presentation illustrating why their idea is the one most deserving of winning the top prize.

The more visual, informative and interesting your presentations, the better you are likely to do. Remember that there's an organization in our competition that wants to see organized ideas before it gives away any money.

 I will show examples of good and bad PowerPoint projects in class to help in the creation of your presentation.

All group members are expected to participate in the Oral presentation, so make sure the work is being spread evenly. Conflicts between group members should be brought to the attention of the teacher.

Writing Webquest

For today's post, follow the link below to a creative writing/creation webquest.

Start by clicking on the "Task" tab at the top of the screen and follow the instructions from there through the 2 processes to the conclusion at the end.

This is a creative writing exercise, so be expressive and use your imagination.
When your Powerpoint presentation is ready at the end of class let me know and I will come to collect it. Feel free to speak to me with any questions or concerns.

Webquest:
http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/ocean/index.htm

-Mr. Lambie

Rights Final Assignment

We've looked at rights very broadly the last few weeks, briefly exploring issues of refugees, child soldiers and poverty in general as seen in other parts of the world. Most recently we compared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Canada's Charter of Rights and freedoms to start thinking about rights closer to home. Through our responses we discussed the idea of how people in troubled situations share stories to build hope for a better world.

The idea of Human Rights was created to try and encourage people to actively make the world better than it is for all people.

In the spirit of all of those ideas, our final project in this exploration of rights and freedoms will ask you to look at your own communities.

As we saw early on, there are lots of bad things happening in the world all the time. It also became clear that a lot of people in our classes feel bad about those things, but don't really know what to do to help, and don't really feel all that connected to the issues.

The best problems/issues/ideas to work on are the ones that mean the most to you, and those are usually the ones that you see or are somehow a part of every day.

People in Canada have a lot of freedoms and privileges, but that does not mean that our lives feel magical and perfect, and it is hard to feel like helping someone we don't even know when there are things happening at home that take up more of your attention.

Your Final Assignment:

Inspired by the Aviva Community Fund, I want you to imagine that a charitable organization is offering to give money to community projects in our area. They want to give the money to specific projects, however, projects that support a community and its people. They will not support any projects that are illegal, or that remove rights from certain groups of people to give them to others

Building a better world doesn't just mean working in Africa or Haiti. There are things about our own communities that could be better. This is your chance to share your story and your ideas: start thinking about how a difference could be made.

Step one: Outline

1) What community do you feel most attached to? In this case I'm talking about a group of people, but also a place. Which out of your school, city, town, other, do you feel the strongest attachment to?

2) What do people in that community need to make their lives better? (What are you entitled to? What is your right?)

3) What do the people in that community want? (What privileges do you have? What privileges do you deserve?)

4) What project could help fill these needs and wants? (be specific, where do you think the money could do the most good?)

5) What are the most important details of this project if you want to get other people to support it?

Step Two:

Once this outline is complete, You will be asked to write a very brief (100 word) introduction to what your project plans to do for your chosen community. Try to use as much detail as possible in that 100 words.

Steps 1&2 will be due: Monday November 28, 2011

Step Three:

The Real Aviva Community fund is a competition; once all introductions and outlines have been submitted, they will be put on display in the classroom and the top six ideas will be chosen.

Step Four:

Each of those six top ideas will then create a powerpoint and oral presentation Illustrating why their idea is the one most deserving of winning the top prize.

Clearer instructions on steps three and four will be given at the start of next week

Comparing Rights Documents

For your post-response reading assignment, please consult the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/Charter/page-1.html
(Note that there are 2 pages)

and the UDHR:
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/plain.asp

The instructions on contrasting the two documents are on your handout.

Whereas the UDHR is a set of guidelines put together for the whole world by the UN, the CCRF is a measure of how those freedoms are granted in Canada. The two documents are different, and it is worth taking the time to examine how those difference effect our lives.