Hunter and I finished watching the movie "Of Mice an Men" from 1934. The movie was in black and white, the original version. We stopped to discuss and analyze along the way. Hunter was very happy that he accomplished reading a classic and that he read the book first before watching the movie. We discussed the differences between the movie and the book, although the movie remained fairly true to the book.
Hunter will complete Khan Academy modules in "Dependent and Independent Clauses" and "Compound Prepositions". Once he has completed the modules he will move on to the short story "The Night the Ghost Got In". If time permits he will work on discussion questions related to the story.
Hunter and I watched the 1939 Oscar-nominated black and white movie "Of Mice and Men" today. It was a great culminating activity after reading the book. Hunter and I stopped to analyze and discuss - the purposeful title related to the expression "..the best laid plans of mice and men." We also discussed how the movie was very true to the book, made a larger issue of the female, and made the themes of loneliness, responsibility, friendship, and commitment more meaningful. During our second hour, Hunter continued with his writing assignment about being held back a year in school. He worked on the introductory paragraph, an attention-grabbing thesis statement, and the conclusion.
Hunter finished reading "Of Mice and Men!" He can say that he has read a classic. Afterwards we discussed and answered some guiding questions. We read from "Readings on Of Mice and Men" and discussed literary anlaysis and criticism of this work. We read "Christian Symbolism in Of Mice and Men" by Lee Dacus. Hunter could relate and agreed with the author's comparisons and discussion of symbolism - the mouse as symbol, the deed of love. We discussed themes of friendship, responsibility, loneliness and independence. Afterwards, we returned to Hunter's essay-in-progress. He was writing a persuasive essay about holding students back a grade level. He has difficulty pre-writing, organizing his writing and structuring his thoughts before going the the final written draft. We discussed the plan for Friday. We will devote it to writing (in response to prompts about "Of Mice and Men" )and grammar and Hunter and I will watch the movie starting tomorrow.
Hunter and I spent this class period reading aloud and answering guiding questions. We also discussed writing prompts based on "Of Mice and Men" that he will respond to after finishing the first essay he began this morning. We discussed continuing themes in the novella - loneliness, responsibility, dreams. Hunter related which character he liked best and why. We read and discussed the death of the puppy and the murder of Curly's wife.
I reviewed How to Write an Essay with Hunter this morning. We discussed step-by-step strategy to tackle the essay. We discussed making an outline or diagram with support of thesis and then formulating the introductory paragraph and conclusion at the end. We also read about ways to formulate the thesis statement, which often "stumps" Hunter. We looked to several high school essay writing prompts, including an SAT example wherein he would write about how an author strengthened his or her argument. He read over prompts, chose one, and began structuring his essay. We will need to continue in our next class.
During our first hour today, Hunter and I read aloud from "Of Mice and Men." During our second hour, we read more in the literature text "The Bat" by Roethke and "The Southern Mansion" by Bontemps. Hunter analyzed, discussed tone, and answered post-reading questions. He also completed grammar exercises from the workbook and decided on the next writing exercise - prompts for essay-writing.
