Welcome, freshmen, to our class blog!

This is the happenin' place to come and visit for updates, reminders, and assignments. Don't forget that you can email me anytime - nwhite@hpregional.org - and that you now have a Google account through High Point, which means you have a full access of Google apps. Go to the High Point website and click on the link to log into the student Google accounts, and make use of this valuable tool.

Below and to the right you will find some valuable links to helpful websites. Below this, you will find Posts that will be my notes to you on various topics, assignments, etc., throughout the year. Be sure to check the older posts, as there may only be one currently showing.

Now, you must remember what Coach Rex Ryan has promised, over and over, that next year is the year for the JETS!! J - E - T - S JETS JETS JETS!!!!

And Let's Go Mets!!!

**Please hold onto the literary terms list that was given to you a few weeks ago. KNOW THEM. We will be adding to this list.

**Be an active reader - use Post-its, and have conversations with the author! Always think about what message is being sent; what purpose is at play?



Monday, February 20, 2012

Night - chapters 1, 2 work due Feb. 23!!

This is Elie Wiesel as a young teenager. He was just your age when he was sent to Auschwitz in 1944.

Read chapters 1 and 2 in Mr. Wiesel's memoir, Night, for Thursday, Feb. 23rd. Be sure to complete the vocabulary and questions below. (You already have these worksheets, but just in case you can't find them or leave them at school...)


Directions: For chapters 1 and 2, please find a “Vocabulary” section (1 point each) and a “Reading Questions” section (2 points each). Each vocabulary entry should include the part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) and the definition. The reading questions should be completed while you read and should be answered in complete sentences.


Chapters One and Two – VOCABULARY (you may need to Google search some)

1. Judaism –


2. Hasidic –


3. shtibl –


4. Talmud –


5. synagogue –


6. Passover –


7. Zionism –


8. Kabbalah –


9. Rosh Hashana –


10. Shavuot –


11. edict –


12. expound –


13. pestilence –


14. pillage –


15. premonition –


16. truncheon –


Answer the following reading questions in complete sentences.

1. Describe Wiesel’s community at the beginning of the story. Describe Wiesel’s family life and his priorities.










2. What are some incidents that FORESHADOW the coming danger to the Sighet Jews? Why doesn’t the community believe it is in danger?









3. Describe the conditions of the Jews’ train journey. How do the passengers react to Madame Schacter’s behavior? Why do you suppose they react this way?










4. Even though it was 1944 and the Nazi extermination of the Jews had begun years earlier, the Sighet Jews had very few facts about it. Do you think it is possible in today’s world for a community to know so little, to be so unprepared? Explain your answer.







5. Write down a passage that you find very powerful, shocking, upsetting, etc. Give citation.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Essay Test Assignment for "A Midnight Clear"

The Price is White Room
CP English 9B – A Midnight Clear Open-Ended Short Essay Test 80 pts total

Choose FOUR of the following essay questions and answer in well-developed (one lengthy paragraph each) essays (topic sentence reiterating the question, and concluding sentence summing up main topic). You may choose one more for extra points! **Read the essay term definitions closely and use them correctly!**
These must be typed, double-spaced, MLA heading format. Use present verb tense!

1. Compare the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and/or the novel Johnny Got His Gun, and/or the film Source Code, and/or the “Christmas Truce” Internet information with the film A Midnight Clear.

2. Contrast Paul Baumer’s motivation for fighting the enemy with Stan Shutzer’s.

3. Criticize the writer’s inclusion of the flashback scene with Janice and the four young soldiers.

4. Discuss Mother Wilkins’ comments while in the attic looking at the paintings. (“Try to remember who the real enemy is, Will.”)

5. Justify the plan to make Mother look like a hero.

6. Define “shared humanity,” using examples from A Midnight Clear and the “Christmas Truce” Internet information.

7. Illustrate the injustice of war, using examples from Johnny Got His Gun, Source Code, and A Midnight Clear.

8. Trace what happens with Father’s body from his death until it is delivered to the grave register.

9. Summarize the surrender plan to which the Americans and the Germans agree, including the events which caused the plan to fail.

10. Enumerate the instances of death which affect the men personally in A Midnight Clear.

11. Interpret the meaning behind the frozen bodies of a Nazi and an American soldier posed as if dancing in the forest.

12. Interpret the following quote: “We pass through the mythical barriers between boys and men, men and death. Janice takes us with her.”

13. Prove that A Midnight Clear is a good movie.

14. Describe the Christmas scene.

15. Prove that A Midnight Clear, Johnny Got His Gun, and All Quiet on the Western Front are all powerful anti-war works.

16. Define a “million dollar wound,” and explain what happens to Stan Shutzer.




Essay Term Definitions

compare:
To show how things are alike OR
To show how things are alike and different

contrast: to show only the differences between things

criticize: to make an overall judgment on the merits and faults of a thing

discuss: to consider something from (at least two) different points of view

justify: to show why something is right or has a right to be

define: to make clear the meaning of something and set its limits

illustrate: to show by giving examples

trace: to show the development of something in sequence

summarize: to state the main points of something briefly, often by lists

enumerate: to give a list as completely as possible

interpret: to give the underlying meaning of something

prove: to subject to a testing process

describe: to tell about in detail

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Internet Links for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT...

Today you will be heading into the trenches, so to speak, and learning more about what it was really like for the soldiers in WWI...click on the link below, which will take you to other links to click on...the first one to do is "The Christmas Truce." Click on it, and then read through and complete the worksheet. Very cool stuff...you will need to hand in the work when it is completed. You should be able to finish in the period, but if you don't, we will have more time. Hand in what you get done today for classwork credit!! And yes, you may listen to your Ipods while you WORK...


http://www.hpregional.org/departments/english/freshmen/aqwf.htm



Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Happy Summer!




Keep on reading and writing...it's healthy. Stop by and visit The White Room any time!




Be sure to do at least one thing this summer: listen to some great ol' Bruce Springsteen and the E Streeters jam! You must check out the amazing Big Man, Clarence Clemons, and pay a tribute to him.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

March Reminders, etc...read all about it !!


1) Personal Journal Entry "A Day in Auschwitz" should be typed up (MLA format :)) and handed in or sent to me via email by Tuesday, March 15th. (35 pts) Please hand in with the instruction sheet/rubric. Thanks.


2) Please bring in all of your Holocaust/Night PowerPoint notes, vocabulary, etc. and your Night book on Monday, March 14 for an open-note quiz.



3) Hopefully we will be viewing the very powerful film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas this coming week (3/15 - 3/18). Check out the interview with the director of the movie and the author of the book:



*** AND WE DO HAVE SCHOOL ON MONDAY, MARCH 21!!***





Monday, February 28, 2011

Mon., 2/28/11 - Check it out!!




Just in case my email did not get through to all of you, here is the list of what I would like you to search for and define/explain IN YOUR NOTEBOOKS today :)...this will help with your reading of chapter 1 in NIGHT for tomorrow. This will be worth 24 points. (Remember, first get Friday's work done - the vocabulary, the visit to the Holocaust Museum, and the two paragraph response in an email to me).




1. Moishe the Beadle (he is a character in NIGHT, so Google search him...)


2. Judaism


3. Hasidic


4. shtibl


5. Talmud


6. synagogue


7. the ghettos (during WWII)


8. Passover


9. Zionism


10. Kabbalah


11. Rosh Hashana


12. Shavuot


Thursday, January 6, 2011

Send a thank you card!

If you go to this website - http://www.letssaythanks.com/ , you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and send it to a soldier currently serving over in Iraq. You can't choose anyone in particular to receive it, but the card will go to a member of the armed forces. Wouldn't it be awesome to put a smile on a soldier's face? And the best part of it all - it is free!

Send yours today.