Old School : Exploring some of the Essential Questions
Directions: Select a significant and dense passage from chapters 4-6. Make sure that it is a passage that you can closely analyze. Consider its relevance to one of the essential questions listed below.
Essential question #1: How is identity linked to storytelling? If we are authors of our own lives, how do the narratives we create about ourselves influence our behavior, our attitudes, and our actions? How do these stories help us to make meaning out of our experiences and to make choices that steer the directions of our lives?
Essential question #2: Evaluate the belief in meritocracy. Do we totally earn our own accomplishments and failures? How responsible are we for the honors bestowed upon us? How much are we to blame for our failures? Are we also responsible for the happiness and success of others? If we have experienced success, are we obligated to share that success with others who have not earned it? Can a belief in meritocracy coexist with a belief in the greater good?
Essential question #3: How do we know if a piece of writing is good? What makes writing powerful, effective, interesting, or worth reading? If the author intends one meaning but the reader interprets the text to mean something very different, how should we make sense of those discrepancies?
Essential question #4: As different writers influence the narrator, how do his values and his identity morph and change? Is that pliability a sign of a weak character? What do you think of him along the way and why?
Essential question #5: What impressions can you draw about the characters and the professional writers from the glimpses into their work that the narrator provides? How does their writing compare to the details of their lives?
Essential question #6: What does it mean to discover one’s voice? How original are our voices? How do we distinguish between the people/texts/social roles that influence us and those aspects of ourselves and our voices that are truly unique and individual? What is the difference between influence, imitation, and plagiarism?
Essential question #7: Notice continual references to acting, role-playing, performance and theater. How does this motif help us understand the characters, the school, and some larger themes in the book? To what extent does this notion of performance become internalized? Is our identity simply an internalization of the roles we play? Are we something more than that?
In your blog post be sure to do the following:
1. Center your discussion around the ANALYSIS of one particularly dense passage that you believe connects to one of the questions above.
2. Articulate a claim that clearly designates a stance or an interpretation about the passage and the essential question.
3. Closely analyze the passage. The majority of your post should center on analysis and examining specific textual details that contribute to the overall meaning of the passage. Consider diction, figurative language, repetition, syntax or any other devices that apply.
4. You can make larger connections to other parts of the text. However, we want to see an in-depth analysis of one passage. Doing this will help prepare you for your paper when we come back from break.
5. Write about 300 words and proofread.
6. One you have finished writing your post, get involved in at least two other online conversations. Be sure to use respectful language! Here are some things you can write in your response:
a. Agree or disagree and use something in the text to develop your response.
b. Comment on someone’s post that makes you notice something that you didn’t think of before. Talk about what this person’s post helped you to see.
c. Make connections to other aspects of the text that might develop someone else’s idea further.
d. Offer an alternate way of interpreting the text that someone discussed in his or her post.
