Whale Talk - Day 4

Well, I'm still stoked about teaching this book, and I'm still excited to be writing about it on my blog. I like writing about it because it gets me writing. It's something for other people to read, or for me to look back on - as I suspect I might be the only person interested at all in these posts.

Our lesson today wasn't totally Whale Talk centered. The kids have until Friday to read chapters 4, 5, and 6. This was an in-between day. BUT, it was productive, and it was about the novel. I assigned their project. It's a project I did in British Literature at BHS with Mrs. Manhart. We did it in conjunction with Lord of the Flies, but with a little tweaking Megan (the fabulous new English teacher at OTHS) and I made it work. I'm kind of excited. Here's what it is:

I think the kids were a little bit intimidated, but I have confidence that they'll pull it off. It's a really great project because - and I know this from experience - it makes you analyze without really knowing that you're doing that. I loved this project so much that I still have mine. It was on Piggy.

Anyway, we also looked at the basic principles of Taoism today. It wasn't stellar, and if I had researched more ahead of time it could have been. I gave a small handout, read it, and then we listed the basic ideas in the board. The biggest one that I wanted them to get was that nothing can exist without its opposite - good needs evil; light needs dark; male needs female, and so on. They're writing journals about how Taoism relates to the plot/characters. I'm hoping they'll see the opposites thing in the characters.

The best part of today's class was when Riley looked at me, with wide blue eyes, and said, "I've already done all the reading for Friday. This book is AWESOME!"