wanted: good humans

You're the captain of the team, you have a 4.6 G.P.A., and you started a nonprofit that cured cancer.  But are you a GOOD PERSON?

why journalism matters

Read the full story HERE.

pre-essay socratic seminar

TOPICS:

• Montag as dynamic character
• Montag as role model
• Themes of the book
• Writing techniques/ literary elements
• Symbolism
• Author tones & reader moods
• What Bradbury's predictions say about our society and us
• Individual and group psychology of the characters
• Preston's scribblings
• How we write
• What we should write about

ESSAY (due on your blogs by 11:59 PM PDT Sunday, April 9):

OPTION 1: Describe the difference in Ray Bradbury's tone with regard to Clarisse & Beatty. Support your analysis with examples of Bradbury's diction and detail.

OPTION 2: Analyze Bradbury's language, especially his figures of speech and his syntax, to convey how Montag's inner world differed from the world around him.

OPTION 3: Analyze the language and rhetorical devices that Dr. Preston uses to convey his point of view about reading. (Essay HERE)


NOTES:

• Bradbury's predictions are pretty accurate
• We eat garbage, it's not too different from Mildred overdosing
• Those @$#%$^ earbuds that everyone has
• Mildred watching TV all the time is just like everyone on their phones
• It used to be that people read books and talked to each other; now everyone is addicted to electronics
• False news stories, like the chase where they set up some innocent bystander -- there have been a lot of false stories, like Santa Maria PD lying about arrests

• You feel like you're there, like when he describes the jets flying over
• At the beginning of the book, Montag wants to burn books.  At the end he wants to save them. 
• Technology isn't making us smarter
• We believe things that aren't true
• We do what our phones tell us to do
• We spend too much time staring at screens

• Yeah but... 
• We can read anything online including books that used to be in print 

• What do you guys think about the ending?  An attack on American soil?  All of Bradbury's other predictions came true...

• Why was Mildred such a $#^! ?
• The author showed that Montag was a good person because he still cared for her even though she mistreated him
• Maybe she started off good but gave into a world where screens and earbuds were the best entertainment, and eventually became the only way she felt comfortable relating to people

• It seems like some of us have better relationships with our phones than we do with each other 
• The news of the Syria bombing reminded me of the book and how it must have felt for the planes to be flying over
• When Faber was explaining the qualities of books it reminded me how important the media is
• Montag as dynamic character; at the beginning he didn't question anything, and by the end he questioned everything.  When he was being chased, he threw off the hound at the river, and it was like he washed off who he used to be and started a new life
• Everyone is on their phones in here, quiet, and it made me wonder what if Granger and Montag and the others succeeded, and phones are our new books

april 7

JOURNAL TOPIC: ["In One Ear" by Cage the Elephant/ except for period 6 part of "Echoes" by Pink Floyd]

Listen to the lyrics:  
They think they know my thoughts/ But they don't know the least/
If they listened to the words they'd find the message tucked beneath

One thing authors, songwriters, and (now that I'm thinking about it) just about everyone hates is having their words twisted into something they didn't intend.  Describe a time you thought you communicated clearly and someone else didn't agree.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Socratic seminar

april 6

JOURNAL TOPIC: ["Eat It" by Weird Al Yankovic; "Savoy Truffle" by The Beatles]

Describe your favorite meal in mouth-watering detail.  By the time I finish reading this journal entry I should be hungry and jealous.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Residual F451 Q & A/ status
3. Deconstructing my essay

*Tonight it would be a good idea to make sure you are up to date.  Tomorrow (Friday) we will have a Socratic seminar in which you will be expected to participate.  Over the weekend we will have an essay, and then it will be time for the Masterpiece Academy.  The students will become the masters.

best high school spirit day display ever

Today is 90s day.  I have no idea why.  The only "fashion statements" I've seen are plaid flannel shirts, and it's not like Kurt Cobain invented those.  So, meh.  But then Satchel walks into class, says, "Happy 90s Day!" and hands me this:

april 5

JOURNAL TOPIC:

Sometimes, when athletes at the Olympics complete their event or earn a medal, they cry.  Athletes are stereotypically tough humans, and crying is stereotypically not a tough thing to do, so how do you explain this?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. F 451 Wrap Up

QUESTIONS ON pp. 148-158

1. Why did the men laugh when one told Montag not to judge a book by its cover?
2. Why does Montag still care about Mildred?  What does the author want us to know about this character?
3. How do the hands of Granger's grandfather and Mildred symbolize these characters?
4. How does Granger's remembrance of his grandfather parallel Faber's telling Montag that it wasn't the books that were important, but what was in the books?
5. Why (on p.151) is three seconds "all of the time in history"?
6. What is the significance of the Phoenix?
7. After the bombing, the men get up, prepare breakfast, put out the fire, and rise to move on.  Montag realizes they are following him, and he steps aside to let Granger lead, but Granger just looks at him and nods him on.  What is the significance of this scene?  How has Montag grown since the beginning of the book?