Barney 2.0

Read: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mouse-sex-studies-1.3545486

Imagine a companion story to “Barney” by Will Stanton – “Barney 2.0.”

Think about the possibilities of a parallel story where a female rat also experienced “awakened intellectual curiosity.” Her name is … Barbara. (It has to be Barbara, I’ll tell you why if you ask after all stories are done.)

1. Begn the diray in trees in the stial of the ratt Barney.

Or

2. Begin a new sequence of enlightened diary entries in the voice and style of Barbara.

No “R” rated male/female stuff for the rats, please. I could not handle that. Classical allusions, metaphors, allegory, suspicion, trickery, betrayals, violence, fear of isolation, love and loss. Barney and/or Barbara have “flipped through” more books. Go.

PG-13 ok. Imagine the musical soundtrack if you like, just no sex.

Have fun, but try to remain faithful to the purposes of Will Stanton in the original.

What does your “Barney 2.0” reveal about the human condition after critical examination?

http://iblog.pingo.snowotherway.org/english-language-arts-general-outcomes2003/environment-and-technology-reality-and-responsibility/

http://iblog.pingo.snowotherway.org/english-language-arts-general-outcomes2003/equality-pain-and-pride/

The Wheelbarrow Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdxLxnhGnvo

Molly Malone
In Dublin’s fair city,
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”

“Alive, alive, oh,
Alive, alive, oh,”
Crying “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh”.

She was a fishmonger,
But sure ’twas no wonder,
For so were her father and mother before,
And they wheeled their barrows,
Through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”

(chorus)

She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
But her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”

(chorus)x2

Stop to talk with Molly Malone and, on the pretext of buying some mussels from her, strike up a conversation with her about her life and her dreams.
Write the dialogue that goes on between you.

Conduct Your Own Oral History Project

The Courage of Conviction
Conduct Your Own Oral History Project

An oral history project preserves part of a person’s life history—as viewed through that person’s eyes, experiences, and memories. In general, oral history projects add to the knowledge we share about our lives and also add details to our understanding of the past. History is not simply a series of isolated events that you read about in text books. History is truly made up of the life experiences of individuals just like you.

To gather oral history, it is important to conduct a good interview and to take good notes.

Get Started: This activity can be done with a friend or two—while one person interviews by asking questions the others can take written notes or record what is said on tape. Successful oral history inter- views will cause the person being interviewed to start telling colorful stories—just like those captured on film and in the book form of Glory Road.

You, too, can capture the story of a person who has acted on his or her beliefs or convictions.

Think about someone you know who has done something wonderful, overcome a hardship, or committed an act of courage.

Make an appointment to talk with this person and to interview them. Tell the person you will need about an hour of their time. Be sure to bring a note pad. A tape recorder would also be help- ful, if you have one. You may also wish to bring a camera to take a picture of the person you are interviewing. And, bring a friend or two to help if possible.

Before you go, make a list of questions that you would like to ask. 10-12 questions are about the right number. Here are a few oral history questions you might use:

  1. What is your full name? Did you have a nickname when you were growing up?
  2. Where were you born and when?
  3. What would you consider to be the most important inventions that have been made during your lifetime?
  4. How is the world now different from what it was like when you were a child?
  5. Do you remember your friends and/or family discussing world events and politics? What did you talk about?
  6. Who was the person that had the most positive influence on your life? What did this person do?
  7. Is there a person that really changed the course of your life by something that he or she did? Who was it and why?
  8. Do you remember someone saying something to you that had a big impact on how you lived your life? What was it?
  9. What were the hardest choices that you ever had to make? Do you feel like you made the right choices? What would you do differently?
  10. Have you done something that you feel especially proud of? Please describe it.
  11. As you see it, what are the biggest problems that face our nation today and how do you think they could be solved?
  12. Describe a time and place when you remember feeling truly at peace and happy to be alive. Where were you? What were you doing?

Be sure to thank the person you have interviewed and let them know that you will share what you write. Remember to ask permission to share their story with others. You could even write them a thank you note!

Now, write or record the stories you heard during the interview in a way that will be of interest to other young people.

If granted permission by the person you interviewed, be sure to share your oral history with others—adults, your peers, younger children or your local paper!

Does Music Speak to Your Values?

The Courage of Conviction: Social, Political, and Spiritual beliefs

The 1960s was a time when popular music—whether country, R&B, gospel, Motown or rock—spoke of themes such as overcoming adversity and the possibility of freedom and equality. Songs touched on messages about the hardships of racism, poverty, and the urban experience. During the Vietnam War, many songs were also written raising questions and calling for peace. Not only were songs on personal issues heavily requested, but also personalized songs, dedicated for a loved one, were pervasive.

Composers of songs that addressed social issues took risks to express their values, as well as their social, political and spiritual beliefs through their music. Some songs were ignored by radio stations. Yet, some of these same songs from the 60s are still on the airwaves today and most of them have endured and been recorded on CD, and are widely available online (YouTube, iTunes, Play). Newly composed and recorded music still speaks to us on many of these social themes and concerns.

Listen and Respond

Think of a song that you enjoy today that you believe speaks of an important social issue, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Listen to it a few times, and reflect on the following questions. Write out your answers.

  1. What are lyrics from the song that stir emotions in you? Why? Record the lyrics that you believe are the most powerful or memorable below:
  2. How do you feel when you listen to this song?
  3. Why do you think the themes and messages in the song are important?
  4. Do you believe that a wide range of people, for many years to come, will be able to connect with the meaning of this song (in the way that people have connected with the meaning of “People Get Ready” for more than 40 years)? Why or why not?

Group Discussion

If possible, share your song (by playing it) with a group and have each person share the song that he or she chose for this activity. Talk about the messages in the songs. Tell each other what your answers were to the questions above.

Write a Post

Write a post about a song in which its composer addressed social issues and took risks to express their values – their social, political, and spiritual beliefs – through their music.

Inspiration:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-protest-songs-of-all-time-20141203/bob-dylan-blowin-in-the-wind-20141203

Try These:

Sweet Music (One of These Days)
Written by Alicia Keys
Produced by Alicia Keys and Kerry Brothers (as Kerry “Krucial” Brothers)
Performed by Alicia Keys

Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
Written by Stevie Wonder, Sylvia Moy, Henry Cosby
Performed by Stevie Wonder

Woo-Hoo
Written by George Donald McGraw
Performed by Rock-a-Teens (as Rock A-Teens)

Rave On
Written by Del ‘Sonny’ West (as Sunny West), Bill Tilghman, Norman Petty
Performed by Buddy Holly

Kaw Liga
Written by Hank Williams, Fred Rose
Performed by Hank Williams

Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
Written by Hank Williams

If We Never Needed the Lord Before We Sure Do Need Him Now
Written by Thomas A. Dorsey

I Can’t Get Next to You
Written by Norman Whitfield (as Norman J. Whitfield), Barrett Strong
Performed by The Temptations

I’m Blue
AKA “The Gong Gong Song”
Written by Ike Turner
Performed by The Ikettes

Last Night
Written by Charles Axton, Chips Moman, Floyd Newman, Gilbert Caple, Jerry Lee ‘Smoochy’ Smith
Performed by The Mar-Keys

Shake It Up Baby (AKA Twist and Shout)
Written by Bert Berns, Phil Medley
Performed by The Isley Brothers

My Guy
Written by Smokey Robinson
Performed by Mary Wells

Function at the Junction
Written by Eddie Holland (as Edward Holland Jr.), Shorty Long (as Frederick Long)
Performed by Shorty Long

My Home is on the Delta
Written by Muddy Waters (as McKinley Morganfield)
Performed by Muddy Waters

I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honeybunch)
Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland (as Edward Holland Jr.)

Can You Do It
Written by Richard Street, Thelma Gordy
Performed by The Contours

Burnt Biscuits
Written by Chips Moman, Booker T. Jones (as Booker T. Jones, Jr.)
Performed by The Triumphs

I’m on My Way to Canaan
Written and Performed by Mahalia Jackson

Baby Love
Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland (as Edward Holland Jr.)
Performed by The Supremes

Jordan River
Written by James Herndon
Performed by Shirley Cesar

Texas Fight
Written by Colonel Walter S. Hunnicutt, James E. King, Burnett “Blondie” Pharr

Green Onions
Written by Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Lewie Steinberg and Al Jackson Jr.
Performed by Booker T. & the M.G.s (as Booker T. and the MG’s)

I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)
Written by Otis Redding, Jerry Butler
Performed by Otis Redding

Ain’t That Good News
Written by James Cleveland
Performed by The Meditation Singers

El Paso
Written by Marty Robbins

Going to a Go-Go
Written by Smokey Robinson, Marvin Tarplin, Warren Moore, Bobby Rogers (as Robert Rogers)
Performed by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Shotgun
Written by Junior Walker (as Autry Dewalt)
Performed by Jr. Walker & The All Stars

You’re a Wonderful One
Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Edwards Holland, Jr.
Performed by Marvin Gaye

Get Ready
Written by Smokey Robinson
Performed by The Temptations

Ain’t That Peculiar
Written by Smokey Robinson, Marvin Tarplin, Warren Moore, Bobby Rogers (as Robert Rogers)
Performed by Marvin Gaye

Down in the Boondocks
Written by Joe South
Performed by Billy Joe Royal

Ballad of the Green Berets
Written by Barry Sadler (as Barry A. Sadler), Robin Moore
Performed by Barry Sadler (as Sgt. Barry Sadler)

Road Runner
(AKA “I’m a Road Runner”)
Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland (as Edward Holland Jr.)
Performed by Jr. Walker & The All Stars

Dancing in the Street
Written by Marvin Gaye (as Marvin P. Gaye), Ivy Jo Hunter, William Stevenson
Performed by Martha & The Vandellas

These Arms of Mine
Written and Performed by Otis Redding

People Get Ready
Written by Curtis Mayfield
Performed by The Impressions

Up All Night Blues
Written by Rick Garcia, Craig Eastman
Performed by The Raven Shadows

The Eyes of Texas
Written by John Lang Sinclair

On, On, U. of K.
(University of Kentucky)
Written by C.A. Lampert

People Get Ready
Written by Curtis Mayfield
Produced by Alicia Keys and Kerry Brothers (as Kerry “Krucial” Brothers)
Performed by Alicia Keys and Lyfe Jennings

I Will Make the Darkness Light
Written by Charles P. Jones
Produced by Alicia Keys and Trevor Rabin
Performed by Alicia Keys

Conversation Starters

Are you a good listener?

Turn to the person beside you and ask them to talk to you for about 30 seconds about one of the following:

  • Tell me what you would do if you won a million dollars?
  • Tell me about the last movie you watched?
  • Tell me about why this school year is (or is not) better that last year?

Study Skills

Write a post about study skills.

most students fail in examinations simply because they lack study skills and/or examination taking techniques.

What study skills do you use that make you a better student? What skills should you be using?

Macbeth: Personal Response after Act 5

Examine one of the following topics and write a narrative or personal essay:

Kingship (Consider the differences between the four Kings in the play)
Ambition (Consider the differences and similarities between the ambitions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth)
Guilt (Consider Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s response to guilt)
Order (Consider nature, politics, relationships, and how order is restored)
Deceptive Appearances
Fathers and Sons
Sleep
Loyalty and Patriotism
The Ideal Marriage

Stand Up

Have you ever stood up for something you believe in?  A brave and proud woman takes a different path at the … Borders.

Background Check:
Locate the following on a map:

  • Western Canada
  • Western United States
  • Alberta
  • Montana
  • Follow Alberta Highway 4 to the border where it becomes Interstate 15 in Montana.
  • Follow I-15 through the states of Montana, Idaho, and Utah to Salt Lake City
  • Locate other place names: Vancouver, Edmonton, Vermilion, Lethbridge, Coutts, Sweetgrass, Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Kicking Horse Pass, Banff, Cardston, Browning, Calgary, Pincher Creek, Chief Mountain.
  • Locate the Blackfoot reservations closest to Coutts.

Refresh your familiarity with the Blackfoot. What details did you already know? What new interesting details(3-5) have you found?

Read the short story “Borders,” by Thomas King.

Respond to the Story

  1. Why is not stating her nationality such an important issue for Laetitia’s mother?
  2. Do you think the mother did the right thing in not telling the border guards what they wanted to hear? Explain fully.
  3. What role does one’s nationality play in forming your identity
  4. “Native literature gives readers new ways of looking at the distinctions between the real and the imaginary, diffusing the tensions of identity checking by looking beyond to wider contexts.” Discuss.
  5. To what extent do you believe the mother and her son suffered discrimination from both the American and Canadian border guards. Use explicit information from the story to support your view.
  6. When asked what he found so “compelling” about borders, Thomas King, in a 1999 interview, replied, “The fact that there is one. The fact that right in the middle of this perfectly contiguous landscape someone has drawn a line and on one side it’s Canadian and therefore very different from the side that is American. Borders are these very artificial and subjective barriers that we throw up around our lives in all sorts of different ways. National borders are just indicative of the kinds of borders we build around ourselves.” He speaks further of the need to keep constructing new borders: “As soon as we get rid of the old ones we construct new ones” (Interview with Jennifer Andrews). Discuss.

Editor’s Desk
In “Borders,” Thomas King uses a variety of sentence structures: simple, compound, complex, and parallel structures. Any story that is full of simple sentences tends to be choppy and sound, um, boring. King uses different sentence types to create variety and keep the reader interested.

Write a post about Thomas King’s sentence structure.

Examples:
Simple
“Her gun was silver.”

Compound
“The Canadian border guard was a young woman, and she seemed happy to see us.”

Complex
“The border was actually two towns, though neither one was big enough to amount to anything.

Parallelism
“He leaned into the window, looked into the back seat, and looked at my mother and me.”

Pick 5 and Synthesize (Part 2)

Pick 5 of the following words and synthesize them into a piece of your writing:

  • divergent
  • amity
  • pseudovision
  • extremities
  • abnegation
  • transcribe
  • apparitions
  • prototype
  • plod
  • cultivating a narcotic
  • contingency
  • incrementally
  • unfathomable
  • threshold
  • gumbo
  • dauntless
  • perpetual
  • candour
  • idyllic
  • perfunctory
  • polyurethane
  • bureaucrats
  • ontologically
  • erudite
  • intuitive
  • ventilator
  • roundabouts
  • decompensating
  • reverberated
  • skeletons
  • ghosts
  • invisible
  • primal
  • vigilant
  • tenuous
  • gourmet
  • pungent
  • hyperthyroidism
  • catastrophic