9.10.15

Discuss: "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" Questions for discussion:

How do the different family members and townspeople affect the story? How are they characterized? What is important about the setting in this story? How does the place affect the people? How/why are names, language, architecture, nature, and food important in this story? Are there important symbols, metaphors, or other literary devices that Bradbury uses? What do they make you understand? Why does Bradbury choose to set this story in Mars? How is it also about Earth? What issues around colonialism does this story make us analyze? What is Bradbury warning us about, or what is he trying to teach us? How does this story relate to the ideas about identity and culture we’ve discussed, or your group researched? What does this story reveal about the process of cultural assimilation? How does it relate to the notion of “us and them” or what it means to be an outsider/alien or an insider? 1) Plot summary (level 1) 2) Literary elements/devices (level 2) 3) Themes/big ideas/author intent (level 3)

Writing Practice: We're starting out analytical writing for the year by working through a paragraph. Today we began by talking about thesis statements, guiding questions, themes, and literary devices.

Sample guiding questions:


 * Why would people move to a new place that is different than their norm?
 * Why was Mr. Bittering so afraid of Mars and his surroundings? Who would he represent back on Earth?
 * What does the rocket represent to Mr. Bittering?
 * What was Bittering expecting when he landed on Mars?
 * Was there something on Earth that made Mr. B afraid of change/new places/new cultures?

Themes:


 * People feel isolated when they are in new places or around people who are different than they are, and this often leads to them reacting in fear instead of acceptance, with calm analysis, open to trying new things, adjusting to a new environment…
 * Assimilation can be strange for people who are assimilating and those whose culture is being visited.
 * Assimilating can inform us about new viewpoints and lead to a more well-rounded and knowledgeable individual.
 * The change from being the outsider to being an insider is a seemingly never ending cycle. Is Bradbury calling us to action to interrupt this?
 * When we don’t experience change for ourselves, we don’t learn from our mistakes and past experiences, and thus, history repeats itself.
 * Humans tend to want to be in control, and when we do not feel that we are, we often react with…(strength/weakness)

Here's the assignment handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WBrHbLy2YyLUoJn100Ti7wcQfaTHtCJHw2p5IWXCqK8/edit?usp=sharing

We will keep working with this next week, so bring this to class.

HW: Finish the second page of the packet that we worked on in class--questions, themes, and devices. Bring this to class on Monday.