Class Minutes for Thursday Sept 16th - "The Lottery" class 3

1.Prayer

2.In-Class Paragraph Draft (30 minutes)
“Comment on Shirley Jackson’s use of symbols to reveal theme. Your topic sentence must be theme-based.” Focus on style. (Sentence length, word choice, transitions, quotation integration)

3.The Lottery Film Adaptation
Guiding Question: How do literary devices translate to film?
We watched an excerpt from the film focusing on how the director tried to create tone and mood, how he tried to create foreshadowing, how he incorporated symbols, and how he conveyed the theme.

4.Homework: Finish the film worksheet.

Minutes for Friday September 10th - "The Lottery" Part 1

1. Prayer

2. Brainstorm: "Lottery"
Most of the words associated with "lottery" were positive. Generally, lottery has a positive connotation.

3. Controversy Article
We read the first few paragraphs of an article that detailed the controversy that the short story "The Lottery" caused.  The story was banned in South Africa, and caused many readers to cancel their subscriptions to The New Yorker.

4. Predictions
Based on our knowledge of Shirley Jackson (who also wrote "The Possibility of Evil") our brainstorm, and the article we just read, we made predictions about the story. Many people thought it would have a twist or dark ending.  Some people predicted that it would be about evil or be a dystopian story.

5. "The Lottery"
Ms Meakes read "The Lottery" to us.  After the first paragraph we noticed that the mood of the story was cheerful and light, however the ending was dark.

6. Think - Pair - Share

• Was the ending a surprise? Why or why not?
• Some people were surprised, others were not. Most who were not surprised thought that Shirley Jackson would put in a twist to show the imperfections of a seemingly perfect place, just as she did in "The Possibility of Evil".
• Were there any clues?
• Yes! The boys were collecting rocks at the beginning of the story (foreshadowing). The townspeople were quiet and seemed nervous, nobody wanted to acknowledge anyone else. They smiled instead of laughing at each other's jokes. 
• What is the primary device in this story?
• Situation irony - usually we expect that winning a lottery is a positive event.

7.  Video on technical literacy in the classroom 

It is important for us to learn how to use technology to communicate in powerful ways.  Learning these skills will help us run with the literacy stampede.

8. Homework: register (using a gmail address) on the class blog.