3rd Hour Blog

At the beginning of class, Mrs. Moritz explained to us our newest project, making masks for the dance in Romeo and Juliet. First, she told us what they were used for in Shakespearean times. They were used to cover one's face to hide their identity. Next, she showed us some examples that were made out of things like cardboard, plastic, or just regular paper. She also told us we will be learning a dance of that time on Thursday when the masks are due. After learning about the mask project, we began our journey into Romeo and Juliet. We moved the desks to make a stage and Mrs. Moritz began assigning roles based off volunteers. Of course, three boys were left to assign Romeo to. Earlier in the class, Mrs. Moritz said that in the love scene, Romeo would actually have to kiss Juliet. Matthew, Jeffrey, and I were left to be Romeo. We did rock, paper, scissors and unfortunately, I LOST. Before reading the books from when Mrs. Moritz's day, we were told to write down the act, scene, and line number of any time we see the word or any reference to "night". Obviously, it must be a significant word in the book. We read act 1 scene 1 with no difficulties except everyone cracking up at the line "bring me my longsword, ho!" Next, we watched a modern day version of the book and we were amazed how boring the book was but the movie was action packed. Mrs. Moritz explained that in Shakespear's time, sword fights were as entertaining to them as gun fights are to us. We just had enough time to read scene two. So far in the book, Romeo has stated that he loves someone but she does not love him back. He also plans a party. Could that be what we made the masks for? We'll see!

4th Hour Scribe - April 29, 2008

To begin class today, Mrs. Moritz told us that we needed to make masks for Thursday. In the Elizabethan Era, people wore masks to dances to disguise their identity so they could flirt without losing their dignity. The mask needs to be attached somehow so that we do not have to hold it with our hands. We will be learning how to dance like they did back then. We made a stage with the tables, and began acting out Romeo and Juliet. The class volunteered for the parts. Cole and Dennis did rock paper scissors. Cole won crushing Dennis’ rock with his paper. He chose to be Romeo because otherwise he would have to be Paris. While this is being acted out, the rest of us will be following along in our ancient books, tracing the word “night” at the same time. The class got into it right away, especially Seth and Alex, who had to broken apart by Moritz while they were sword fighting. After finishing reading the first scene, we watched an intense modern-day film about the first scene. Mrs. Moritz asked the class why she would show us a film like that. She agreed with the class that she showed us the film because it is more focused on our generation and we could relate to it better. To finish up the class, we finished reading scene two.

Scribing...

We began the day by Mrs. Mortiz collecting our 1984 essays. She then showed us how our t-shirt designs looked. After seeing our marvelous t-shirts, we then took a quiz that consisted of rating offenses, having number 1 being the worst offense. Once finishing, we discussed the answers and gave our opinions why we chose what we did. Once getting about 1/3 through the list, we ran off track and began a discussion about our wacky neighbors. Afterward, we then received The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and a question packet that was on a very amazing pink sheet. We then begin the questions on the amazing pink sheet. The end of class quickly approached…..

4th Hour Scribe

As class began, Mrs. Moritz gave some announcements. She informed us that the A-Team list is finally up. Although almost forty applicants wanted to be a part of this, only a few will make it. And of those individuals, only four were chosen by Mrs. Moritz. Mrs. Moritz then repeated to the class that the 1984 essays were not due until Monday. We have the people who emailed her and frantically asked for the prompts to be posted. As high fives went around, she then warned us not to finish it at 9: 30 on Sunday night. For the rest of the class we went to work on our semester long projects.

Seth

Seth's Question

Winston states that to die hating big brother is to die free. Can people ever really die free if the Party destroys any negative impulse toward big brother that anyone has? Why? How does this relate to the "Freedom is Slavery" and "Slavery is Freedom" slogans that the party states?\

4th Hour Scribe April 23

Today is the ACT day, so we have shortened classes and are having a culminating discussion about the book, 1984. The main question that was asked first was, "Why do you think that Ms. Moritz and Ms. Smith chose to have us read this book?" The class said that they are trying to show us how our world can become.
The next question was, "Can we as 14 and 15 year olds challenge the system?" The class mainly said yes. Hillary said that we could write to the newspaper about things that we disagree with. Moritz said that we could always challenge the system. Moritz said that sometimes taking risks are part of challenging the system and we could succeed if we do that. To a certain point we can succeed by defiance. "It depends on your definition of successful." Olivia said. Just because we defy the system, that doesn’t mean that we are totally successful. Denis said that the true definition of success is where you are happy with the position that you are at in life. "Is Winston successful?" Drunkenness is part of getting him to the point of success in the eyes of the party. Jaclyn did not think that he did accomplished what he set out to do. But Hillary said that he succeed in what he could do in the small confines.
"Do we come to school be choice, or because we are demanded to?" Friends! Is that the only reason that we come or are we coming to learn. As class wrapped up, we all got out a piece of paper and she gave us our options for the final project for 1984:

1) 1984 is a warning that Orwell wrote in the 1940’s. What was he warning us about? (2 specifics with explanations) How has it come true in our society today? (2 specifics with explanations) Typed, double spaced, formal essay format.

2) Write a new chapter in the novel 1984. Do Winston and Julia revolt? Do they become proles? Is there a completely different ending? Does Winston somehow become the new O’Brien? (stay true to the tone/form of the original work) Typed, double spaced, creative piece format.

3) In your life, who can you state "controls" you? Do they control with fear? Opportunity? We would all like to say that we control ourselves, our actions, but is this true? (use specific examples from your personal life) Typed, double spaced, personal essay format.

So there you have it! The agenda of April 23, 2008!

- Kira

Fourth hour Scribe April 24,2008

Today we had a substitute teacher, Mrs. Moritz was not here. In class we are working on our semester long projects. So talk to your group if you were absent. Our essays are due on Monday. If you have a question on the due date email Mrs. Moritz.

3rd hour question

Do you think that Orwell's predictions could ever become a reality? What types of things would they include?

Fourth Hour Scribe- April 22

Today in 3rd period English we had a group presentation. Before beginning this we discussed Mrs. Moritz’s hairstyle; a ponytail. It looked very cute today. After a few minutes of chatting, we started our reading quiz given by Alex and Seth, their other member, Matt, being absent. For their group presentation we had a circle discussion, talking about the end of the book which we should have finished for today.
In the group discussion we talked about topics such as, the proles. The group was divided into whether there are proles that want to rebel and be like everyone else or if all the proles have no want or need to be like the rest of society. Only having met three proles in this book, we don’t really know if any of them want or are going to rebel. Although we hope they have the intent of rebelling, there is no way of really knowing.
The biggest topic we discussed was how fear damages people, such as how it hurts Winston. In the end, Winston ends up betraying Julia, because of fear. Fear is like pain, they both consume you, when you are afraid of something, and nothing will stop you to get away from it. We talked about what would make us so fearful that we would hurt someone we love and care about. It is a hard topic to even think about betraying someone we really love; it is hard to think of a physical fear or pain that would make us do something to hurt someone else. When you are in this type of situation, you don’t really think about anything else but getting out of that situation, you will do anything to make it stop. This is something that is hard for us to think about. In modern day we see betrayal a lot, especially in high school, such as teenagers betraying their friends and classmates. For example; friends betraying friends, by using drugs and alcohol. The want we feel to become part of the popular group, we will betray our closest friends, even sometimes without realizing it. It is just like the power of the party, you have to give up your own thinking and feelings to be a part of the more popular group and to feel like you fit in.
In the end, you don’t get shot until you finally give into the Party. They want you to die being a part of them. The Party owns Winston by keeping him drunk. They give him more and more drinks so that he doesn’t go back to thinking what he thought before. Winston is free, but he is a slave to the party. Also, Julia was in the same state as Winston. In her room 101, they took away her vanity. She had a scar across her face making her not as beautiful. When Winston held Julia again, there was nothing soft about her anymore, she felt embalmed to Winston. In the end there is no more hope of them getting back together, and loving each other again. They felt dislike almost even hatred towards each other. It shows that there is a very fine line between love and hate, which can be easily crossed. It shows that no matter how hard you try, they (the Party) can get into your head and break you.
The discussion we had today was very good for understanding the entire book, “1984”. Ultimately in the end, Winston ends up free but enslaved, he has no right to think on his own, or believe what he wants. He isn’t really a human being. Some people in the class believe that we might be heading towards this type of world, while others don’t. It is very split. Maybe someday our world will be like the world of “1984”, or maybe it won’t, there’s no way of really knowing.
Tomorrow we should be expecting to receive the topics for our essays for “1984”.

4th Hour Scribe-April 21st

Today’s class period was rather simple, but we got everything on the agenda accomplished. The class started with a friendly conversation with Mrs. Moritz about our weekend. After that short conversation, we got down to business and took the grammar quiz. Once everyone finished, we could either finish reading 1984 (if you hadn’t already) or work on next year’s schedule and get Mrs. Moritz’s signature for next year’s class. Homework for tonight is to read pages 274-297, and to bring two questions for Matt, Seth, and Alex’s presentation tomorrow.

3rd Hour Scribe-April 21, 2008

Well… today was actually quite uneventful compared to the insightful class periods we normally have. Of course, we started off today with the announcements, covering pretty much everything from the upcoming Prom Talent Show (which will be taking place this Thursday, April 24th in the auditorium), to the victory of the girls lacrosse team over Douglas County. After the announcements were finally over, Moritz jumped right into asking how everyone’s weekends were. The conversation didn’t last too long, and as soon as Moritz was done picking on Joe, we began our punctuation quizzes. This, unfortunately, was the highlight of our class. We spent quite a bit of time taking the quiz, while Moritz came around signing the yellow schedule sheet for honors classes. If you haven’t given it to Moritz to sign, make sure you fill it out and have her sign it before the due date, which is April 29!!!!! After we finished the quiz, we were given the rest of the period to read 1984 and make sure that we are prepared for tomorrow’s lesson. Be sure to finish reading through page 298 by tomorrow!

3rd Hour Discussion Question

We discussed this a little bit in class but I think it is really significant.
Why is O'Brien keeping Winston alive? How does he benefit from keeping him alive and will he be the one who kills him in the end?

4th hour scribe

Shannon, Jordan, and Ray began the hour by giving a five question quiz, relatively simple to all who read the book. They then led the class in a Socratic seminar, where they asked questions and we responded with our thoughts.

With questions such as “What do you think is in room 101?” and “What would cause someone to rather be killed or have his family killed than go in room 101?” the class really began having some controversy.

The class continued to answer questions, but it didn’t feel as though we really dug as deep as we could have. A question arose asking how O’ Brien was able to tell whether or not Winston was telling the truth, and Moritz followed it by asking if there was some sort of connection between them by comparing it to friends finishing each others sentences.

We* compared how Big Brother is manipulating and controlling society and “brainwashing” the citizens to the United States today. Some of the students believed that our economy was being “brainwashed” through America’s use of the media, while others thought that our society differed too much from 1984 to have it reflect any aspects of their government.

Moritz told us about how she would confess to anything if she were going to be tortured. She then discussed theoretically torturing the class as an example of being able to withstand pain. She used the example of soldiers in Iraq torturing Iraqis to gain false confessions to show how O’ Brien uses torture to show total dominance over Winston.

O’ Brien quickly became a major topic for discussion; about whether he worked for the inner party and used the brotherhood as a trap to catch citizens who lack loyalty to the party, or worked for the brotherhood and used the party as a safety net when something goes wrong within the brotherhood.

For the last fifteen minutes of class, we discussed whether or not the government would ever go to such great lengths that they would begin placing cameras or other devices within our society. The class seemed pretty divided, where some of the students believed that it was possible, and that, in a minor way, they have already begun to do so by tapping into phone lines of suspected terrorists.

Scribe 3rd Hour April 16

So.......As we walked in today, we had a quick discussion about how amazingly fabulous Beauty and the Beast was last night. Then we moved on to the important stuff.

We talked about the three choices for Honors American Lit next year: Robinson, LeClaire, and Ackerman. Moritz said good things about all three and told us to see her if we want her further opinion/recommendation on who we should take individually. Most of us also got our PLJ's back with grades (Mine happened to be decorated adorably by David).

We then got an introduction to our political t-shirt assignment, which is due on Monday. We offered examples of political t-shirts and bumper stickers that we'd seen, and then Moritz showed us some examples of past shirts. We chose our groups and brainstormed some ideas for the project, which is basically this: Create a political t-shirt design that is dealing with the government in 1984. I heard many good ideas floating around by the end of class. By the way, sorry this is posted so late.

4th Hour Scribe-April 16th

At the beginning of class Mrs. Moritz discussed the fact that we have to go see Arapahoe’s production of Beauty and the Beast. There was much discussion. Then, Mrs. Moritz tried to get us back on track by talking about the fact that we have to take English (American Lit) next year and that there are three choices of teachers: Mr. Robinson,Mrs. Leclaire,and Mrs. Ackerman. There were lots of questions about the different teaching styles. Then, a question was asked, inquiring if the grammar quiz was going to be hard and Mrs. Moritz decided that was a perfect segue to get the class back on track. We turned in the last two pages of the packet. After, Mrs. Moritz asked us if we ever saw anti-government t-shirts and what they said. Such as “Obama for your mama” or “No ones ever seen a hot piece of elephant”. And then we erupted into side conversations and Mrs. Moritz asked if we ever saw a t-shirt or political cartoon that was personally offensive. Mrs. Moritz said that, personally, the Link Crew political cartoon in the Arapahoe Herald was offensive to her. She then put us into small groups to discuss political cartoons/shirts. We saw shirts that were from last year, one that started with the quote “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” and the group changed it into Newspeak pertaining to the party. There was also one that had McDonald in the telescreen telling a child to “Put a smile on”. After seeing the shirts, in our groups we were given the assignment of making our own creation for an anti-1984 government t-shirts.

Read 224-274 for Friday! Grammar quiz on Monday!

Sribe 4th hour~ April 15 '08

Sorry, this is a little late. In class on Tuesday Mrs. Moitz was absent and we had a substitute named Mrs. Ritzdorf. Mrs. Thurnau came into our class to discuss registration for our sophomore year. She distributed our papers and explained to us how to go about filling them out. She explained and went through all the pages of the packet containing all the possible classes to us. She then went through arena scheduling with us. After she left the sub let us choose between filling out our registration forms, reading and completing our grammar packets.

Scribe 3rd hr.-April 15

Sorry about the late post everybody absent on Tuesday, but here's a little summary of what went down in class. First, we had another presentation by Jeffery and Patrick and Alyssa, with their five question quiz. Then we got into a fishbowl setting with an inner and outer circle, and we started discussing the questions we have written about pgs. 167-224. The conversation included the big topic of trust. Which characters can be trusted was an example of the talk. We discussed trust as well as betrayal and whether or not Winston would turn on Julia or vis versa. We also talked about the sudden revelation of Mr. Charrington as a member of the Thought Police, as most everyone was surprised when they read that part.
For the second part of class we had a Q and A session with a teacher from South Africa, that teaches 9 th grade English and History. He was really cool and fun to talk to, as he had a pretty strong accent. We went from the topic of giraffes to poverty, so it was interesting. I think I'm right in saying that he told that he was on a scholarship to observe United States/Arapahoe High School teaching methods and techniques. So overall it was a good class, fun to chat with a foreigner. That's it in a nutshell.

Period 4 Discussion Question

In what ways is 1984 a reflection of both Orwell's politics, and the politics of the Cold War Era?

Monday April 14 4th hour scribe

To start off the class we were a little disruptive and Mrs. Moritz began and then ended various sentences mid sentence. We took our first 10 question quiz of this unit, and the reasoning behind this is that it we missed one question it would only be 10 percent of our grade as opposed to the usual 20 percent. Moritz told us that we would be getting our schedule cards on Tuesday and she would sign them on Wednesday. For our activity we had a fishbowl discussion with no laptops and an inner circle that could be tapped out, although for the most part those in the middle stayed there, and no one took their place. This may have had something to do with the fact that, because we were not being graded on our performance in the discussion there was little motivation to move into the inner circle.
The first topic discussed was that of Mr. Charrington, the owner of the antique shop above which Julia and Winston rent a room, and the fact that he had turned out to be a member of the thought police. The main discussion was on weather or not there were any signs to his being thought police, and why did he wait so long to turn them in? For the first question the only thing that we came up with was the way it seemed too easy to get the room above the shop. They were baffled because he seemed almost anti party, seeing as he owned a shop that wasn’t exactly of the type, that The Party to a liking to, on the other hand that would be a good place to catch people for thoughtcrime. For the former question, we only came up with that the thought police wanted to get Winston for something good, something that was actually wrong and anti-party, as opposed to a little rule breaking.
The next subject was on whether or not Winston could trust O Brian, and the resounding answer was, no. There was speculation that he may have set them up, and his instructions were way to vague. It was also said that if one must do all of that to be part of the Brotherhood, wasn’t just the same as the Party?
We then moved on to how Orwell’s political views are displayed in 1984. The first thing was that his book displayed anti-anti-communism, and that the thought police were similar so what was happening with McCarthyism at the time he wrote this book. He also shows that the government’s way of keeping power is too control the thoughts of the people. He also demonstrates the differences between capitalism, and then fascism, and then socialism.
Next was, what was the significance of the rhyme that Mr. Charrington says fragments of? We establish that the meaning was that the catholic churches wanted your money, but you could not pay them until after the shortage. We also decided that maybe it had to do with the way that Julia gives so much to the party in the form of labor that she is able to get away with certain things. This had to do with the fact that catholic priest would pray for you if you gave money, giving was a way to “cheat” the system.
After that we were asked the question: is Orwell good at predicting the future? We ended up establishing that our society could have gone two ways, the way of 1984 or the way of Fahrenheit 451. After this we decided society was more similar to Fahrenheit 451, but it was not too far away from 1984. At this we also discussed that people already did not want to read, which was something Bradbury mentioned in his book, and that would lead to books being outlawed.
Another question was: think about how our government controls us? Our answers were, the school system, which tells us what and how to think, and the CIA, which for all we know, spies on us…
We then discussed how ignorance is strength, and it boiled down to how if you are ignorant and forget the past, you can stay relatively sane, while going absolutely senile because you are convincing your self that what you know is fake, and the believing that you didn’t do that, doublethink. We also said that with knowledge, you will go crazy because you are sane in the midst of insanity, which will drive you out of your mind, and yet to the end you will be completely lucid.
We also discussed the idea that war is peace, and that constant war is the same as peace, and is just a way to use up resources without raising the standard of living. It was also a way to keep the proles down, and to keep fear among the proles; the government most likely drops the bombs themselves.
. There was the some discussion on the war in Iraq and how in out country we have multiple viewpoints of events as opposed to 1984. We then discussed to possibility that Julia is also on the side of the thought police, and maybe just seduces non-loyal party members so that they could be caught. She also seems to be good a crimestopthink, because of the way she always falls asleep when Winston talks about really defying the party.

Friday, April 11th- 4th hour scribe

We were relocated to C-15 during this class period and thus I had no access to a laptop. Because of this dilema I will simply scribe a general overview of what occurred during this class period. First, we took a short 5 question quiz to ensure all of us had completed the reading. We then commenced with a jeopardy game (with super-rad ultra-high-tech buzzers). The quiz consisted of mostly literal questions and team three ended up winning. At the end of the quiz, Carly led a discussion with some extremely thoughtful questions; however, we only were able to discuss one or two of these questions due to the shortened class period. The main question we discussed was the significance of the singing Prole woman. This led us to question what she symbolizes and whether she could be Winston's mother or sister (due to the fact that he possesses absolutely no idea what happened to either of them). WE finished the period with some rather delicious starbursts and an official tasting of the new orange three musketeers by Mrs. Moritz, Carly, and myself (they're actually very good by the way).

3rd Hour Scribe for April 14th

Today at the very beginning of class, Mrs. Moritz returned our PLJ’s. Also Mr. Orsmond came and observed our class today. He is a teacher from South Africa. He teaches 9th-12th grade English and 9th grade history. This is his first trip to the United States. After reviewing our PLJ grades, we went over the grammar packet. Some students asked questions about things they did not understand. Today Patrick, Jeff, and Alyssa presented on pages 167-224. However Alyssa was not here, so it was just Jeff and Patrick. They started out by giving a five question quiz. Afterwards they collected everyone’s discussion questions. The room was set up like a fishbowl with an inner circle and an outer circle. Questions were then asked and people in the inner circle had a discussion, but others could come in and tap them out so they could talk. During the discussion, there were many topics that were brought up, such as trust and the discovery that Mr. Charrington is part of the Thought Police. We also talked about the book Winston read that was given to him by O’Brien. The inner circle compared the government in 1984 to our own government. There were some shocking similarities. The issue of airport security was also brought up. The final question asked was whether people thought Winston would be willing to give up his life for Julia. After our discussion, the class was able to ask Mr. Orsmond some questions about South Africa and the work he does there. It was very interesting to find out about the life in South Africa and some of the poverty that is there. It really makes people think about life and how often we can take things for granted. My favorite question was when Kenna and Lisa asked him if when we talked it sounded like we had accents, and he said we did. I thought that was interesting, plus he had a really cool accent. Overall I think the day went pretty well and we had a good discussion and had a good conversation with Mr. Orsmond.

3rd Hour Discussion ? for 167-224

The very first question in today's discussion was about trust: who is or isn't trustworthy, is there anyone that you can really trust, etc. Our questions for you are...

Do you think that there are any characters in 1984 who are entirely trustworthy?

Are there any major characters ("major" meaning have they been named/mentioned multiple times) that are not playing two sides? Does this make everybody traitors?

How can you connect this to your life or to the world today?

3rd Hour Question Pg.147-167

Winston, during the 1st part of the book is always straching his varicose ulcer. Once he meets Julia he no longer finds the ulcer itchy. What is the symbolism/ signifigance of this?

Reference the book when answering. (Pg. 150)

Scribe 3rd Hour April 10th

Hey guys,
Sorry this is late but I have not been able to get to a computer until, well, right now.

Moving on, Ashley, Kenna, Mackenna, and Kelsie presented pages 117-147 in the book 1984. They started out by giving a 5-question quiz. At first, this quiz wasn't like the rest because they gave us hints for the first 3 questions, but for the last 2 we were on our own.

After finishing the quiz we broke off into 3 groups/teams. Then we took our stickynotes, we were asked to write a question on a stickynote for homework, and stacked them. Then the presenters took each stack from the groups and gave each group a different stack. We were told that we were playing tic-tac-toe with a twist. The rules were simple your team would answer questions and if the answer was correct it would be put on your tic-tac-toe broad. The first team with a tic-tac-toe gets a point. The game, however, was not working the way the presentors had wanted it to but they changed the game a little. Instead of each team having their own stack of question, the questions were asked to all the teams and the first to answer correctly got the point.

Once we finished playing the game, Mrs. Moritz asked a question. The question was, "what is ironic about the way George Orwell writes about the way Winston and Julia have sex?" Every team tried to answer but none came up with the correct answer. The correct answer was he describes making love as a violent act, but it is a willing violence. We then discussed Winston and Julia's relationship for the remainder of the class.

3rd Hour April 11 Scribe

Friday's class started with Mrs. Moritz informing us that it was her daughter's birthday! MacKenzie turned 5 on Friday, and when her mom asked her what she wanted to have for her birthday dinner, she said chicken nuggets. When Mrs. Moritz asked if it would be OK if her and David had chicken nuggets and the other people had some real chicken, she got a very frank "no". In the end they elected to have ravioli in order to please everybody.

This story made her think of a different story, but instead of going into that, I am just going to give a warning, directly from Mrs. Moritz, to all of her students: do NOT serve chicken nuggets at your wedding.

Now, on to the important part of the class period, the group presentation of pages 147-167 in 1984. Today's presnetors were Kalyn, Holly, and Catherine. The prenentation started with each student writing down a main point from the story on a half sheet of paper, and then taking a five question quiz on the pages read. Questions included "What happened to one of Winston's co-workers and who was it?", "What week is it and what song are they singing?", "Where are Julia and Winston meeting?", and a few others. The presentors then took the main ideas from that we wrote down and, after filtering out duplicates, divided us into two teams and we played pictionary. Because of the high number of duplicates in the class, the game didn't last very long and eventually we moved into a deeper discussion of the section. One major point that was discussed was the scene where Winston was remembering his childhood and he greedily took food and chocolate from his sister, and how he thinks that, somehow, that was an indirect cause of their disipereance. After Mrs. Moritz coughed "semester project" and then asked what that scene showed about humans, we decided that it said that we are greedy, that we can be cruel, and that when we are desprate we will do anyting to fulfil our needs.

4th Hour Blog Question

Here are our group question for pages 147-167.

Do you think there is any significance behind the St. Clement's Church song? Does it foreshadow anything significant in the future or relate to Winston's interest in the past in any way?

What do you think the Red-Armed prole woman represents for all the proles as well as Winston? What kind of attitude do you think proles have in life because of how they are treated?

4th Hour Scribe, April 9

Today was a shortened class period due to PLC... our last one of the year! The whole class had individual discussions with Mrs. Moritz about continuing on the honors track next year. In the class room, the students worked on their grammer packets. We were also to be thinking about the questions up on the board.

How can we compare current U.S. conditions to setting, characters, etc. in 1984?

How can we compare your (teenager's) behavior to winston's?

Feel free to blog your reaponse to these questions on this post. Homework for tonight is to blog question from leading group, work on grammer packets, and read 117-147 in 1984. Be prepared for the discussion tomorow led by Sydney, Anna, and Stephanie.

4th Hour Blog Question

Our group question is:

How are Clarisse and Julia alike with love and rebelling when dealing with Montag and Winston?

4th Hour April 10th Scribe

Today in class we began by voting on some rescheduling. Because counselors are coming to class on Tuesday, our reading of pgs 167-224 is due on Monday. Mrs. Moritz will be taking more control over our presentations so that important subjects in the sections get discussed. Next we focused on some grammar clarifications about commas. We talked about when to insert a comma before the conjunction, as well as where to insert bookend commas (around interruptive commas). By Monday, we need to be done with page 264 in the grammar packet. Moving on, we took a quiz about pgs. 117-147. The quiz was awesome and hopefully everyone did super on it. To discuss the section of reading we did, the presenters presented a game of Jeopardy! We split up into our presenting groups of three for the game. This resulted in 7 teams. To determine which group went, the presenters called out a number that was on a grid, and the first group to name the coordinates got to go! Pretty darn creative, although sometimes it was hard to discern which group found the coordinates first since we alternated from calling it out to raising hands. Mrs. Moritz eventually intervened and went in front to determine whose hand was raised first. Most of the questions were content based so little in-depth thinking was required. A few were opiniated questions, like "Is Julia more optimistic than Winston?" and "Do you think Julia really loves Winston?" People's thoughts on this question varied greatly, from yes (why would she risk so much), to no (her affair with him is political rebellion), to it's hard to tell (we're not given very much information about her past affairs). Final Jeopardy was "Explain the irony in the way George Orwell writes about sex." It was an intense game and everyone got really involved. Our homework tonight is to read pages 147-167. Have fun reading!

April 8th 3rd Hour Scribe

This is the scribe for yesterday. Sorry, I got the stomache flu last night and forgot to do the scribe. Before we did our dicussion we talked about how Mrs. Moritz can help us to learn Grammer better and the general concensus was that we had learned most of it in previous years but needed a refresher on grammer definitions and she said that we could come see her on our own time if we needed extra help. Also, she plans on doing more discussion led by her and not only the student led discussions. We discussed pages 69-117 of 1984. The group leaders were Erin, Olivia and Catherine Cole. Our "ticket" into class was having a question prepared for a socratic seminar. They collected these questions and but them into a hat, then put everyone's name into a bag. They began by assessing our reading comprehension by doing a five question quiz, which if you had read the section, should have known the answers to. For instance two of the questions included "What does the note that the brown haired girl gives to Winston say?" and "Where does Winston meet the brown haired girl?" Then we circled up and commenced with the socratic seminar. The way that it worked was that one of the group leaders would have another person in the cirle draw out a name from the bag and a question which they would ask the person whose name they had drawn. A few of the questions included " What was the revolution and what happened during it?, What were the purges?, What does the glass, coral hemishpere represent? Is every aspect of life in the society in 1984 negative, even love and relationships? Is Big Brother a real person or not?, How does Winston go from wanting to bash the brown haired girl with the glass hemishpere int the head to passionatley loving her?" For the first question, we discussed how the revolution was when Big Brother first came to power and when the other revolutionary leaders, Rutherford, Aaronson, Goldstein and Jones, were exiled. Then we talked about how the purges may have been a time when the older generation, who had remebered life before the revolution, were killed and the people who were against the Party were taken away and killed as well. In this way the Party was cleansing itself of anti-party ideas. Catherine thought that the glass hemisphere represented Big Brother's opressive power over the Party the same way that a paperweight holds down paper. Other people (Joe?)thought that the glass hemishere represented life as it was before the revolution and as preserved history. I think another opinion was that it represents the love between Winston and the brown haired girl. Then we talked about Winston going from wanting to kill the brown haired girl to loving her, which led Mrs. Moritz to ask whether relationships and love in their society are always negative. Erin stated that when Winston thinks that the girl hates him then he hates her and when he thinks she loves him he loves her back. Then we talked about how the emotion of love and hate both fuel relationships and they are sort of the the same emotion. Then Mrs. Moritz mentioned that the theme of this book is negative and dark so their relationship is in many ways negative, at least when it begins. It has to be negative because that would ruin the mood of the book if it was positive. Then we ended by talking about whether Big Brother is real or not and the majority of the class didn't think he was real and was simply a symbol of the Party. I mentioned that the statue of him pointing southward in Victory Square could be symbolic of an event that may have happened though it could be a made- up event that was made to be fact. Then we finshed class and had parts of a new Grammer Packet assigned on commas.

3rd Hour Scribe April 9th

Today was a PLC day, so we did not do a whole lot. Moritz had had some coffee preceding the class and was pretty much high on caffine! But it was a good class. We discussed a couple questions Moritz put on the board for us relating to 1984. Our homework is to read pages 117-147, bring a question on a sticky note for tomorrow, and blog your answer to the discussion question posted by the leading group. Sorry this is posted so late! See you guys tomorrow!!

3rd Hour Blog Question

Who do you think Big Brother really is? What do you think about him? Is he a real person, or just a bunch of people working together as him?

Good discussion today guys!

4th Hour Discussion Question

These are the questions for pages 69-117:

Winston repeats the phrase "If there is hope, it lies in the proles." What does this statement signify? Consider Winston's theories of the consciousness and rebellion of the proles in your answer.

On page 103 Winston says, "the issues that you fight for are always forgotten." What does this say about Winston, his rebellion, and how he will choose to act?

4th Hour Scribe April 8th

Hi everybody. Today in class, Mrs. Moritz started off clarifying some questions on what we've been doing this semester. The first clarifications was on our grammar backgrounds and for Mrs. Moritz to understand why we did less-than-satisfactory on the quizzes. People said that they did not have a very good background in grammar, and others said the directions on the quiz were not very clear. Mrs. Moritz said that she was under the misconception that we all had learned a considerable amount of grammar before high school. She also clarified the explications of poems. The last question was on 1984; she said that it was student driven, a part of what sets us up for classes in later high school and to be college ready. Mrs. Moritz said that she's trying to do the best to prepare us for AP and higher classes. She also said that if anyone is not happy with what is going on in class, they should talk to her and clarify how they feel about what the class is doing. Next, we were presented a quiz on pages 69 - 117, and some people did not create a quiet quiz environment so other people could work, thanks a lot...anyway...then we divided into four groups and played a simple jeopardy game on the book 1984. The directions were pretty self-explanatory. The first question (400 points) on the dark-haired girl (is she a friend or not) brought up answers from all of the groups - some said yes she is a friend because why would she risk so much for him if she was not a friend, one group also why would she wait that long to rid of him if she really was going to rid of him, but Dennis (G2) brought up the possibility of her just getting him isolated to "assassinate him or something" - Group 3 got 400 points. They picked a question (for 500 points) that was "How has the girl changed Winston and his outlook?" People said that she has brought up in his mind the possibility that there are other people out there who are secretly fighting the Party. One group said that she has brought hope to him to fight the Party, and that he has something worth living and risking his life for because he knows that he is going to be vaporized. Group 1 got 500 points. They picked a question for 300 points "This church is near the location where Winston met the dark-haired girl". The answer was St. Martain's, and Group 3 got 300 more points. They picked a 200 point question. "Why are capitalists viewed the way they are in the book?" One answer was that capitalists are viewed bad because the Party is using propaganda to show that capitalism is bad, so they won't want to turn to anything different from the Party. Group 3 yet again got the 200 points. The next question was "Do we have proles in our society? In the societies of F451 or Animal Farm?" One group said that yes we have "proles" but it's not freedom and it's only poverty and some people are trying to do something about it. But one group disagreed by saying that there's more freedom in poor neighborhoods than rich because the poor may do a crime or something because they have nothing to loose, and in rich neighborhoods, that can't happen as much. But another group said that the "proles" in our society do the unskilled labor, and they just are here, and even though people say that their going to do something about their poverty, they really can't do anything about it. The last group basically said that people don't really pay attention to or worry as much about the proles. Mrs. Moritz compared and paralleled the "proles" in 1984 to the poor/less rich people in our society, and in our society we don't focus on poor people, we focus all of our attention on rich people. Even with Mrs. Moritz's great answer, Groups 1 and 3 got the 300 points divided between them. The next 100 question was "These two items were bought at Mr. Charrington's store." Group 4 (with no points) answered with the diary and the paperweight coral drop, with a more descriptive answer than Group 2 (who didn't have any points either). The Points were divided 50 - 50 among Groups 2 and 4. Final Jeopardy: "Winston's fascination with the past is changing his present. What is this going to do to his future?" One group answered with the guess that he will become dangerous to the eyes of the Party. Another said basically the same thing. Another group said that it will make him overthrow the Party because he wants a better life than the Party can offer. The last group said that he will do things with a purpose. Group 3 ended up with the most points.

Fourth Hour Scribe

April 7, 2008

Today, class started out with multiple side conversations before the bell rang, but once Mrs. Moritz entered the room, all conversation seized. To begin our class session, Mrs. Moritz began to explain the horror that was our grammar quiz. Apparently, the highest score that was achieved on the quiz was an 86%, not too shabby, but for the vast majority of not so fortunate students, an 86% appeared to resemble a perfect score. Because of the insufficient quiz grades, Mrs. Moritz presented the class with an opportunity to redeem some lost points. The activity concerned the morning's announcements and was very difficult (considering that most of us do not pay substantial attention to the morning’s dealings). Then, Mrs. Moritz reminded the class of scheduled appointments with her to review our Wikified papers. Most of the class seemed to be accommodated for, but a few still remained. Then, Mrs. Moritz passed back our five question 1984 quizzes, grammar packets, and our grammar quizzes. After exclaiming her frustration with our grammar quizzes, our teacher proposed a new grammar unit/ packet to further compliment our knowledge in the field of grammar. It must also be noted that Mrs. Moritz has updated our grades and that we are all instructed to go look at them. Furthermore, Mrs. Moritz has altered our reading schedule regarding 1984; for more information on this slight change, please visit Mrs. Moritz’s teacher web page on the school’s website. Afterwards, the class became engaged in discussion about the previous night’s assignment: to comment on a question situated in the class blog (of course, dealing with 1984). Only a few students took the liberty of completing the assignment, but hopefully more will feel inclined to in the future. A majority of the discussion addressed the issue of possible revolt (especially by the proletarians) and how upperclassmen seemed more detained (surveillance wise) than other poorer inhabitants of Ociana. We discussed the importance of the absence of telescreens in the homes of proletarians. Could this reduction of surveillance promote revolution? Generally, students agreed that this could potentially generate some revolt. After the discussion, the class was granted time (around 10ish minutes) to start reading 1984 for our homework. By tomorrow, all of us should have read to page 117. Good luck everyone!

-Dennis K.

3rd Hour Disscussion Question

This section kind of reminded me of the Cold War with the children being spies and turning people in for absolutely no reason and other things that are happening. What are some of the communistic themes that we have seen in the book?

4th Hour Discussion Questions

Here are a few questions over the section we read (pgs 37-69). You can choose which question or how many questions you want to answer.

1. How do you think Party supporters working in the Ministry of Truth view the work they do? How does this relate to doublethink?

2. How has working in the Ministry of Truth affected Winston's perception of reality?

3. What is the purpose behind producing lower forms of entertainment for the proletarians in society?

4. Why do you think Winston believes that intelligence, no matter how orthodox, will ultimately lead to vaporization?

4th Hour Scribe April 4th

Today we began English class with a quiz on pages 38-69 in the 1949 novel 1984 by George Orwell. After the presenting students pick up each of our quizzes, Mrs. Moritz tells us that she will be updating our grades this weekend. She also informs us that we need to give her our voice thread addresses. Olivia, Kira, and Rachel tell us that we will be participating in a “game” for our 1984- inspired activity of the day. The class then bursts into an onslaught of hysteria and excitement because (WOO!) we get to split into groups. Though I do not understand why this class gets so excited when all we are doing is playing an educational game, they do none the less. The rules are simple, we will each be given a question and if we get it correct we will dominate the other team. A point-by-point game, it is the standard educational activity that teachers typically force upon us when they are bored of the old lecture method of teaching. I, being the benevolent scribe, do not participate in this game but instead act as an invisible entity within the confines of the classroom. The game is nearly disregarded by both sides as the excitement of the classroom swells. At this point, our teacher leaves the classroom, leaving even more room for random conversations. As I focus on the individual conversations, I realize that most of the conversations do not even involve the proposed question in any way. Mrs. Moritz reenters the classroom after about 5 minutes of going AWOL. Even this is not motivation for the class to focus, as the side conversations still rein supreme. As time passes, the class begins to focus more and more on the questions that are proposed by the mediators. For example, one of the questions asked about this chapter is “What are some comparisons that can be drawn between 1984 and Fahrenheit 451?” This question is met with answers along the lines of, “There is a connection between Montag and Winston (protagonists) in that they both want to challenge the system.” The class continues in this general pattern for quite some time, so I feel no need to bore my audience by continuing to report on this topic.

Scribes and Discussion Questions for April 4th

3rd Hour Scribe April 3, 2008

We began class by gathering our jackets and walking across Dry Creek to Einsteins for breakfast. The entire trip took about a half hour, and $70 later we were back in the classroom. With full stomachs we were left about 20 min. to finish the discussion we began yesterday with Laney, Joe, Evan and Matt's group. Joe stood at the front of the class and resumed discussion. There was truly not much to say. We talked about the significance of the parlor dream and every ones opinion on the possibility of this event to be a glimpse of foreshadowing or simply a memory. With only a few minutes left Mrs. Moritz ended the class period with a few questions her other class presented her with. We discussed our views over the possibility of the governments control of oil and gasoline, and the possibilities of an alternative fuel that is not being released to the public. We also had a small discussion of the holding of information about the cure to cancer and aids. This short but incredibly intriguing discussion is sure to be continued tomorrow...

4th Hour Scribe April 3, 2008

We started the class by eating Coldstone’s Ice Cream to celebrate all the money we raised for Wish Week. Tasha took all the chocolate ice cream. Yum… We discussed the question Dennis posted on the blog yesterday since only a few people responded. The question talked about how Big Brother came to power and the relationship between Big Brother’s rise to power and Hitler’s rise. Most people felt that Big Brother would cause his own demise just as Hitler did. Moritz then posed a question asking about the importance of Winston’s dream of his mother and sister. People had a variety of ideas on the subject; people thought the dream meant Winston would be left to start a rebellion or symbolized Winston’s detachment from women. Mrs. Moritz asked the class if we thought the war was really going on. Students thought the war was a device to control the people and keep them in their place. Jordan brought up vaporization, mentioned in the book, and then Madison connected it to the gas chambers in World War II. Mrs. Moritz mentioned a theory that one of her students had that the government created an alternative fuel source, but was keeping it from the public to stabilize the economy. This started a discussion on the economy and gasoline. This student also theorized that cures for cancer and other diseases had been found, but were kept from the public to keep the prices of medication up. The conversation expanded from there with a range of views from different people. That was where our discussion ended for the day, leaving everyone with a lot to think about.

Scribe for April 2, 2008

April 2, 2008
Today we started by talking about how to post our scribes on the class blog. Then we took a quiz. Then we started the discussion. Cole asked the question what is the importance of everybody calling each other “comrade?” We then talked about how this makes everybody the came status. The next question asked is smart for the government to change history records. We thought that it was smart if the government was looking for complete control and it helped to make the party look like it was perfect. Then we went into if the media facts were true or not? We thought that it wasn’t completely true because the media tell us what they want us to hear. We thought the truth is manipulated and changed to show morals and important lessons. Does Winston’s ability to touch his toes show how he will break out of the usual mold and change society? We think that he will have to bend and change in able to escape from dying. Are there any governments that are like this government that are in our world today. We thought that the USSR under Stalin and his totalitarian regime. We also thought that it was also a lot like North Korea today. The next question was what does the dark haired woman taking off her clothes in Winston’s dream represent? We thought that it represented detachment and showed that Winston didn’t have a connection with the Party. We decided that people should be able to choose for themselves and not have someone else decide for them. The next question we went into was what was the Thought Police’s purpose and how do you think that they will leave society better off? We thought the thought police were there to instill fear on the people. We think that there main job is to watch people and make sure they keep conforming and don’t rebel. The people forget what happened in history if they are never able to talk about it. Do you think that Obrien’s glance means anything or is it just Winston’s wishful thinking?

OliviaO said...
The presenters for today were Delaney, Matt, Evan, and Joe. We started out the day by taking a quiz based on simple facts that if you did the reading you would have known. After that, they had everyone in the class to write a question about the reading on a sticky note and put ours on the board. Then they split the room up into two teams and a person from each team would go up and face off to see who could answer the question right the fastest. Some examples of the questions are as follows. Where does Winston work? What connection did Winston have with O'Brien. What are the four different ministries and why are the names ironic? Why did the excercise instructor call everyone comrade? Why did Winston dislike the dark haired girl? Why did Winston write about big brother in his diary? Is there a connection between Winston's dream of the dark haired girl taking off her clothes and their political party?When did Winston write in his diary? Did their government have laws? And so on... after every question the class discussed their opinions on the answers. That was pretty much how the whole class period went. Our Homework for tonight is to read 37-64 and to answer the question Delaney, Joe, Evan. and Matt are supposed to post. Tomorrow is Einstien's!

Fourth Hour Fischbowl Question

Here's a question our group came up with.

After WWI, the German Empire crumbled and became desperate for a "reincarnation" to its former glory/ power. Do you think that England (in 1984) resorted to a "dictatorship" after the suffering and loss it had endured after The Second World War in order to regenerate its former prosperity as Germany had done with Adolf Hitler? Do you think Big Brother will be destroyed much like Hitler was after defeat was encountered in war (maybe the one mentioned in the book)?

Scribes for April 1st

Anna K said...

Our fourth hour class lost the wish week competition but we are very proud to say that together with the other class we raised $1200. For celebration on Thursday, we will be having ice cream from Cold Stone.

Presentation will start tomorrow. We have four things to do in order to be prepared for the presentations. First, come up with a written syllabus to hand into Mrs. Moritz. Second, the presentation needs to be creative (as in a fisch bowl discussion or any other creative way to present the information to the class). Third, you need to prepare a blog question after your presentation. Fourth, hand out a reading check quiz to the class when you finish.

We then broke into our groups and talked about presentation plans. Cole, Jason, and Dennis told us that they are going to do a seminar and we are supposed to bring 2-3 thought out questions tomorrow and bring our books. There will be a 5 question quiz at the end.

Our next activity was looking at four political cartoons and we were supposed to reflect one it. The first one was a cartoon about Condoleeza Rice and George W. Bush (people interpreted this cartoon like all the other ones in different ways). The second was a picture of a card castle that said Iraq on them with US soldiers trying to hold it up. The third one, was a big girl sitting with all her toys feeding her doll and in the caption on the bottom it says something like don’t feed me [the doll], help feed the people who made me. The fourth one we briefly looked at and will continue looking at it tomorrow.



catherinec said...

Our third hour class was very thrilled today, to learn that we had won the wish week competition. But we would all like to thank the fourth hour class for helping raise over $1200! Our class decided to take the opportunity to miss class and take a field trip to Einstein’s.

We have just started to read the novel 1984 by George Orwell. After each reading assignment a group of three or four people will present a review of the chapters we had read. These presentations have to be presented in a creative way, for example: jeopardy. At the end of the review, a quiz or some sort of assessment will be given in order to make sure that the class has read the assignment. The group will also have to prepare a blog question after the review. For Mrs. Moritz, the group will have to organize a syllabus of their plans for the period.

Following the introduction to the presentations, we got into our groups and discussed what we would like to do for our review. Tomorrow, Laney, Joe, Evan and Matt will present their review. They were being very secretive and only told us to bring sticky note cards.

We then looked at political cartoons and completed quick responses to the cartoons. Most of the political cartoons had opinions on the upcoming elections and other current events in the world. Most of the cartoons were deciphered in the say way. The first two had Condoleezza Rice and her views as Secretary of State. The second one depicted the views on the unstable war in Iraq. The last cartoon we looked at portrayed at girl trying to feed her doll while the doll refused the food saying something like, “Don’t feed me, feed the abused girl who lives in a third world country.”

Our homework tonight was to finish reading pages 1-37 in 1984.