Thursday, September 13, 2012

Honors 11--Thursday, September 13

Objective:
How to prepare for the ACT and How do I extract the theme using the tools I have?

Here's what we did in class today:
1- Went over ACT POWER CONCEPT #2--If you missed this, come get the handout from me!
2- Topic---Theme---Thesis ( topics are usually one word) (Themes are universal truths that reveal something about humanity--a message or lesson) (Thesis Statements are specific to your book, poem, story, etc.)

Some students struggle with creating thesis statements for literature. Hopeful today helped alleviate some of that stress. I teach students a three step process that seems to truly resonate with many of them. Let's look at Harry Potter:
Topics in Harry Potter--friendship, love, death, good vs evil, hate, challenges, trials, loss, trust, revenge, power, challenge, immortality, etc. Typically, students can come up with a few topics on their own. This is a great start!
Themes in Harry Potter-- I take one topic (or a combination of them) and transform them into a universal truth or message. Love is more powerful than hate.
Thesis Statement for Harry Potter-- The third step in the process is to take the universal theme and make it specific to the thing I'm analyzing. In Harry Potter, Rowling uses the conflict between Harry and Voldermort to show that love is more powerful than hate.

Students practiced by listening to a theme song from a movie. Once they identified the movie, they went through the three steps until they had a polished thesis statement.

We practiced using Jekyll and Hyde and The Dark Knight.

Homework:
1- Digest ACT concepts. You are now responsible. Prepare and plan for pop quizzes.
2- Complete The Lady of Shalott handout. If you don't have this, come get it from me. I have extra copies.

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