Ok, so I believe that in our introduction, we should only hint to the fact that the theme is really important and probably the main topic that we're going to discuss because our activity is going to revolve around the students creating their own idea of what they think the theme is. So I think that we should definitely SOAPStone the story in our intro, and mention that theme is what we're going to discuss.
Other points are symbolism (the bird) and I believe that we should probably discuss diction as well because of the way they call Mrs. Peter's "the sheriff's wife" and the way the men are always saying "oh you women...blah blah" (I'll find specific examples don't worry haha)
For our activity, I'll create a worksheet that includes a space where the students can write what they think the theme of the piece is, and then below that, will have a space where they can give specific examples and what pg. number it's on. How does that sound for our activity?
and in our conclusion, or end of the presentation, we can discuss what WE believe the actual theme of the story is and possibly give them a quiz to see if they were paying attention to the story.
I hope that helps, definitley say if you have any input, This is like, a light outline or something. So I don't know what you guys had in mind.
Okay I need to read the story again, but everything you said sounds good as well as what we discussed in class today. I did notice the diction in the way the narrator referred to the characters, and I definitely think that's important. And there's one point when it calls one of the men "so-and-so's husband" (haha, see? need to reread it...) but that was important too. And yeah, I like the idea of not really majorly focusing on the theme in the intro, especially if we're going to focus on it in the activity. And then rounding it out with our ideas of the theme is good too. While we obviously need something to wrap it up and a quiz would be good, what would the quiz be about? If we're focusing on the theme and we spend the class investigating that, the quiz should be about the theme too. But it's not like we can give a quiz that's just like, what's the theme, since it's so open ended. And even if we make it more specific about how Glaspell uses different literary devices and whatnot to reinforce and create the theme, that is still very arbitrary. We could do the quiz on the actual facts of the story, but I feel like that's less pertinent (effective, perhaps?) Anyway, your thoughts?
P.S. "oh you women...blah blah" haha good one jaxon :)
Yeah. I think the quiz might take away from the story. I feel like we should do the quiz in the beginning just to see if people read the story. Just the basics of the story before we do SOAPStone. We won't collect it, but we should just go over it. It will be like a path to the SOAPStone.
Wait. Nevermind. That would ruin the introduction.
We should do the quiz right after SOAPStone.
I really like the activity that we planned, but are we going to break people up into groups or have them do the theme activity alone?
yeah, I think we should break them into groups, like count off by 3s or 4s.
And just so we don't say different things during our SOAPStone haha. I think we should break it down here.
Here's what I think (feel free to change/add/take out/completely disagree)
Subject: Mrs. Hale (Martha), she's kind of the main character in this story, I think it focuses on her the most.
Occassion: The murder of Mrs. Wright's husband.
Audience: Wives
Purpose: To show that women can do what men can do. (Technically, they are the ones who figure out the reason behidn the murder of the husband.) I think that the author was trying to show that women might even be "slicker" (for the lack of a better term) haha than men.
Shift: The discovery of the bird
Tone: I have no idea what the tone is, it's kind of dark and mysterious, but I think that's too easy. So what do you guys think?
Oh shoot, I forgot that we needed to get some biographical information on the author. Can one of you guys do that?
Currently, I'm making the worksheet that the students are going to fill out. And I'm also gathering information on important diction and also the symbol of the bird.
Yeah I'll do the biographical stuff! I pretty much agree with everything you said Jax. I think probably groups of 3 would be good because when we did that activity in class I felt like smaller was better in the way of groups. When you take "purpose" literally, I definitely agree with what you said. But I think purpose in this case is more like theme, and I wouldn't say that's exactly the theme. It could be something along the way in which a "superior" culture or group can underestimate the abilities of those they opress, or their "inferiors." And obviously there's more to it than that and other themes and whatnot, but I think that is more of a "theme" from that "purpose." However, since we're focusing on the theme in the activity, we won't want to give it away in the intro so we could use the literal purpose, but just make sure that we make the distinction. I actually think that while the (male) characters in the story do not value women and degrade them in a way, the story isn't degrading. I think Glaspell uses the actions and opinions of those characters ironically, because when it comes down to it, the women figure out the mystery better than the men do. So in reality, the story is almost more empowering. So I don't know if we're going to go tomorrow...? Either way we need a plan to hand in. I don't know if what you wrote down in class Jaxon was everything/hand in-able (hahah). If not, I can write something up. Do we need to say who's going to say/do what?
I re-read the story and I guess in a way it is empowering women. I saw it in a different perspective. The women are doing the dirty work that the men can't do.
Yeah, we are owning this blog thing.
I don't think we need to write down who is doing what, but I think we need to know how exactly it's going to be broken down so we don't just stand there and question who's going after who.
I can pretty much just hand in what I posted on the blog, it's pretty general, but it's the jist (gist?) of what we're planning on doing.
I made the copies, and they look like a legit handout haha so that should go over well. And I totally agree with what you said Michaela about the theme and that is how I think we should close it.
We should present our view of what we think the theme is and see how close everyone came to that theme, I know that sounds like, "theme elitist" haha but since we're the ones presenting/teaching we can tell what's right and wrong.
Chris, bring that quiz in, it definitley would help to have because we want to know if they have read it or not. I don't know when we should give them the quiz, I say at the end :)
I dont know how you want to split up everything, it's up to you guys
So since in our closing, we're basically going to share our view on the theme (is that correct?), we could probably all do that, either sharing our own personal idea of the theme or each taking a certain aspect of it. Also, I guess that means we need a definitive idea of what we think the theme of the story is. I think what I said could be part of it, but what else do you guys think? Since I'm researching the biographical stuff, I can present that. When would that come in, during the intro I guess? Oh and I think the quiz would be a good way to refresh everyone's memories about the story, so it could be good at the beginning. But then again...we don't want our intro to be 30 years long, so maybe not. Should we get Ms. Giggie to copy the handout/quiz tomorrow morning just in case?
I don't think our intro will be too long, I mean we're Soapstoning, presenting biographical information, and quizzing. I think that will be good.
Give them the activity
And then for the closer, I think we should all just agree on a theme, and Michaela I agree with that theme. "The Superior Class of individuals may underestimate the abilities of those that they deem Inferior to themselves"
And for the closer as well, we can just discuss what everyone thought the theme was after they've created their own and presented.
Intro- 1. Memory Refreshing Quiz 2. Bio Information 3. SOAPStone the short story
Activity-Have the students create their own theme and show texual evidence that supports their thinking.
Closing-Each group of students will present their theme. We will then discuss each one and then demonstrate our theme by pointing out important key facts that illuminate our thinking so the students will have a better understanding of the text (hopefully) :P
Be careful with the soapstone... Reading what you have so far, I'd encourage you to dig a bit deeper. Remember subject refers to the topics teh story addresses and audience is related to this.
Symbols: -bird: freedom, which was killed by the husband -empty cage: her empty existence, also the prison that her husband created for her in their home, which she escaped -telephone: reinforces prejudice against women, idea of communication and cry for help which could not have been heard -messy kitchen: kitchen="woman's domain," since it was messy than obviously something is wrong -quilt: covering, oppression, covering her oppression (haha). quilting is a womanly duty, but minnie is oppressed by that role she must play/her husband. similar to kitchen, when her stiches were messed up, something was wrong. also, messing up the stiching is a parallel to her messing up the oppression by her husband.
Diction: -"you women...": condescending to women -"sheriff's wife" "Mrs. so-and-so", etc: women don't have an identity without their husbands -Mrs. Hale is sometimes referred to as Martha, shows that she is somewhat independent of her husband. -Mrs. Peters always Mrs. Peters, completely reliant on husband, backs stereotypes against women. -Minnie Foster vs. Mrs. Wright: even after 20 years of being "Mrs. Wright," Martha still thinks of her as "Minnie Foster." Shows that she is different from other women and not dependent on/controlled by her husband. Characterization (linked w/ diction): -Mrs. Peters is "small and thin and didn't have a strong voice" (pg678), she's a woman that represents how men think of women--needs Mrs. Hale there, etc. -Mrs. Hale can't leave bread half-made, or anything half-done. It's a womanly quality, but it also shows her taking control of things, or wanting to take control of things. -also, Mrs. Hale kind of has power over her husband, when she is trying to keep him from saying anything unnecessary at the beginning
Setting: -rural community, traditional values and relations -before 1920, when women gained suffrage--don't have many rights are not treated equally by any means -no state mentioned, perhaps making reference to the fact that this is happening everywhere
Okay those are all my notes...see you guys tomorrow! We're going to do great!
22 comments:
You guys have any ideas on how to present the project?
Ok, so I believe that in our introduction, we should only hint to the fact that the theme is really important and probably the main topic that we're going to discuss because our activity is going to revolve around the students creating their own idea of what they think the theme is. So I think that we should definitely SOAPStone the story in our intro, and mention that theme is what we're going to discuss.
Other points are symbolism (the bird) and I believe that we should probably discuss diction as well because of the way they call Mrs. Peter's "the sheriff's wife" and the way the men are always saying "oh you women...blah blah" (I'll find specific examples don't worry haha)
To continue haha...
For our activity, I'll create a worksheet that includes a space where the students can write what they think the theme of the piece is, and then below that, will have a space where they can give specific examples and what pg. number it's on. How does that sound for our activity?
and in our conclusion, or end of the presentation, we can discuss what WE believe the actual theme of the story is and possibly give them a quiz to see if they were paying attention to the story.
I hope that helps, definitley say if you have any input, This is like, a light outline or something. So I don't know what you guys had in mind.
Okay I need to read the story again, but everything you said sounds good as well as what we discussed in class today. I did notice the diction in the way the narrator referred to the characters, and I definitely think that's important. And there's one point when it calls one of the men "so-and-so's husband" (haha, see? need to reread it...) but that was important too.
And yeah, I like the idea of not really majorly focusing on the theme in the intro, especially if we're going to focus on it in the activity. And then rounding it out with our ideas of the theme is good too. While we obviously need something to wrap it up and a quiz would be good, what would the quiz be about? If we're focusing on the theme and we spend the class investigating that, the quiz should be about the theme too. But it's not like we can give a quiz that's just like, what's the theme, since it's so open ended. And even if we make it more specific about how Glaspell uses different literary devices and whatnot to reinforce and create the theme, that is still very arbitrary. We could do the quiz on the actual facts of the story, but I feel like that's less pertinent (effective, perhaps?) Anyway, your thoughts?
P.S. "oh you women...blah blah" haha good one jaxon :)
Yeah. I think the quiz might take away from the story. I feel like we should do the quiz in the beginning just to see if people read the story. Just the basics of the story before we do SOAPStone. We won't collect it, but we should just go over it. It will be like a path to the SOAPStone.
Wait. Nevermind. That would ruin the introduction.
We should do the quiz right after SOAPStone.
I really like the activity that we planned, but are we going to break people up into groups or have them do the theme activity alone?
yeah, I think we should break them into groups, like count off by 3s or 4s.
And just so we don't say different things during our SOAPStone haha. I think we should break it down here.
Here's what I think (feel free to change/add/take out/completely disagree)
Subject: Mrs. Hale (Martha), she's kind of the main character in this story, I think it focuses on her the most.
Occassion: The murder of Mrs. Wright's husband.
Audience: Wives
Purpose: To show that women can do what men can do. (Technically, they are the ones who figure out the reason behidn the murder of the husband.) I think that the author was trying to show that women might even be "slicker" (for the lack of a better term) haha than men.
Shift: The discovery of the bird
Tone: I have no idea what the tone is, it's kind of dark and mysterious, but I think that's too easy. So what do you guys think?
I agree with what you said.
I think the tone is more like superiority. I feel like the story is kind of degrading to women.
I have no idea if that is anywhere near the actual one though.
I have the plot quiz just in case you guys want to actually do it.
Oh shoot, I forgot that we needed to get some biographical information on the author. Can one of you guys do that?
Currently, I'm making the worksheet that the students are going to fill out. And I'm also gathering information on important diction and also the symbol of the bird.
Yeah I'll do the biographical stuff!
I pretty much agree with everything you said Jax. I think probably groups of 3 would be good because when we did that activity in class I felt like smaller was better in the way of groups.
When you take "purpose" literally, I definitely agree with what you said. But I think purpose in this case is more like theme, and I wouldn't say that's exactly the theme. It could be something along the way in which a "superior" culture or group can underestimate the abilities of those they opress, or their "inferiors." And obviously there's more to it than that and other themes and whatnot, but I think that is more of a "theme" from that "purpose." However, since we're focusing on the theme in the activity, we won't want to give it away in the intro so we could use the literal purpose, but just make sure that we make the distinction.
I actually think that while the (male) characters in the story do not value women and degrade them in a way, the story isn't degrading. I think Glaspell uses the actions and opinions of those characters ironically, because when it comes down to it, the women figure out the mystery better than the men do. So in reality, the story is almost more empowering.
So I don't know if we're going to go tomorrow...? Either way we need a plan to hand in. I don't know if what you wrote down in class Jaxon was everything/hand in-able (hahah). If not, I can write something up. Do we need to say who's going to say/do what?
P.S. We're totally owning this blog business haha :)
I re-read the story and I guess in a way it is empowering women. I saw it in a different perspective. The women are doing the dirty work that the men can't do.
Yeah, we are owning this blog thing.
I don't think we need to write down who is doing what, but I think we need to know how exactly it's going to be broken down so we don't just stand there and question who's going after who.
Good idea Michaela.
I think one person should write the SOAPStone on the board.
One person does the biography.
One person explains the activity.
One person closes it up.
By the way, how are we ending the project. I know we only have three people.
I can pretty much just hand in what I posted on the blog, it's pretty general, but it's the jist (gist?) of what we're planning on doing.
I made the copies, and they look like a legit handout haha so that should go over well. And I totally agree with what you said Michaela about the theme and that is how I think we should close it.
We should present our view of what we think the theme is and see how close everyone came to that theme, I know that sounds like, "theme elitist" haha but since we're the ones presenting/teaching we can tell what's right and wrong.
Chris, bring that quiz in, it definitley would help to have because we want to know if they have read it or not. I don't know when we should give them the quiz, I say at the end :)
I dont know how you want to split up everything, it's up to you guys
haha "theme elitist"
So since in our closing, we're basically going to share our view on the theme (is that correct?), we could probably all do that, either sharing our own personal idea of the theme or each taking a certain aspect of it. Also, I guess that means we need a definitive idea of what we think the theme of the story is. I think what I said could be part of it, but what else do you guys think?
Since I'm researching the biographical stuff, I can present that. When would that come in, during the intro I guess?
Oh and I think the quiz would be a good way to refresh everyone's memories about the story, so it could be good at the beginning. But then again...we don't want our intro to be 30 years long, so maybe not.
Should we get Ms. Giggie to copy the handout/quiz tomorrow morning just in case?
I don't think our intro will be too long, I mean we're Soapstoning, presenting biographical information, and quizzing. I think that will be good.
Give them the activity
And then for the closer, I think we should all just agree on a theme, and Michaela I agree with that theme. "The Superior Class of individuals may underestimate the abilities of those that they deem Inferior to themselves"
And for the closer as well, we can just discuss what everyone thought the theme was after they've created their own and presented.
Outline!
Intro-
1. Memory Refreshing Quiz
2. Bio Information
3. SOAPStone the short story
Activity-Have the students create their own theme and show texual evidence that supports their thinking.
Closing-Each group of students will present their theme. We will then discuss each one and then demonstrate our theme by pointing out important key facts that illuminate our thinking so the students will have a better understanding of the text (hopefully) :P
Okay sounds good! I like that you wrote what I wrote, only you sounded a lot more eloquent and took out the awkward slashes. haha :)
That sounds good.
I sent her the quiz already, so it's all done.
It is just the basics, so if they don't know the answers, that'll be kind of scary.
It's just one plot. I couldn't really do anything with the symbol or the theme because that is all subjective.
Be careful with the soapstone... Reading what you have so far, I'd encourage you to dig a bit deeper. Remember subject refers to the topics teh story addresses and audience is related to this.
what time are we meeting?
Okay, so here's the stuff from today.
Symbols:
-bird: freedom, which was killed by the husband
-empty cage: her empty existence, also the prison that her husband created for her in their home, which she escaped
-telephone: reinforces prejudice against women, idea of communication and cry for help which could not have been heard
-messy kitchen: kitchen="woman's domain," since it was messy than obviously something is wrong
-quilt: covering, oppression, covering her oppression (haha). quilting is a womanly duty, but minnie is oppressed by that role she must play/her husband. similar to kitchen, when her stiches were messed up, something was wrong. also, messing up the stiching is a parallel to her messing up the oppression by her husband.
Diction:
-"you women...": condescending to women
-"sheriff's wife" "Mrs. so-and-so", etc: women don't have an identity without their husbands
-Mrs. Hale is sometimes referred to as Martha, shows that she is somewhat independent of her husband.
-Mrs. Peters always Mrs. Peters, completely reliant on husband, backs stereotypes against women.
-Minnie Foster vs. Mrs. Wright: even after 20 years of being "Mrs. Wright," Martha still thinks of her as "Minnie Foster." Shows that she is different from other women and not dependent on/controlled by her husband.
Characterization (linked w/ diction):
-Mrs. Peters is "small and thin and didn't have a strong voice" (pg678), she's a woman that represents how men think of women--needs Mrs. Hale there, etc.
-Mrs. Hale can't leave bread half-made, or anything half-done. It's a womanly quality, but it also shows her taking control of things, or wanting to take control of things.
-also, Mrs. Hale kind of has power over her husband, when she is trying to keep him from saying anything unnecessary at the beginning
Setting:
-rural community, traditional values and relations
-before 1920, when women gained suffrage--don't have many rights are not treated equally by any means
-no state mentioned, perhaps making reference to the fact that this is happening everywhere
Okay those are all my notes...see you guys tomorrow! We're going to do great!
Post a Comment