25 November 2008

Homework for tonight: Finish reading Part Two of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (which is through page 105).

Hour One: Quiz tomorrow on your notes! Make sure you bring them with you.
Hour Two: Quiz tomorrow on the book through page 105. Be ready!

My observation from today's reading:
I really like this quote: "Once again, I watched the Little Seamstress's face with fascination. She was breathtaking, as she had been the night before at the open-air cinema. But now that she was laughing I was so utterly captivated that I wanted to marry her there and then, regardless of her being Luo's girlfriend. In her peals of laughter I caught the musky fragrance of wild orchids, stronger than the scent of the flowers lying at her feet" (88). I like the connection between the narrator and the little seamstress--it seems pure and good. I also think it is interesting that the Little Seamstress if often called "wild" or wild things are associated with her. She is this free and wild girl that fascinate them; she is happy and has this big wild laugh that seems to escape from her. Although Luo things he is more civilized than her, the narrator seems to just love her without judgment--a true friendship. The narrator feels all of this knowing she is his best friend's girlfriend and he would never betray his best friend, which makes this reaction to the little seamstress even more pure and innocent.

24 November 2008

Homework: Read through page 75 in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Write 3 questions for each chapter.

Part II observations:
On a side note, I love the imagery that surrounds Four Eyes and his "perpetual fear" (45). On the next page, it states: "In his presence everything became tinged with danger. At his house we felt like three criminals huddling conspiratorially around the oil lamp" (46). Even though Four Eyes lives in fear, his actions create the narrator to feel a brotherhood, a connection, with the secrecy of Four Eyes's actions. The narrator describes life being "tinged with danger" which shows creates a feeling of excitement and a life of intrigue--"criminals huddling conspiratorially" versus prisoners of the "three in a thousand" sentence that they really have.

Journal question we will write in class tomorrow (in case you want to think about it beforehand):
What does Ursule Mirouet mean to the characters? Why do you think Four Eyes gave Luo and the narrator this book versus any of the other Western books in his possession? How does this book significant to the meaning of the novel?

Asking Questions

While reading Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, I want you to write at least three questions per chapter. Questions can range from a variety of topics. Here are a few things you might want to ask questions about:

• Plot
• Characters--major characters, minor characters
  
• Conflicts--physical, emotional, intellectual, moral
  
• Structure of novel
• Narration
• Imagery
• Point of view
• Setting
• Certain passages that catch your attention
  
• Symbolism
• Style of writing
• Theme
  

19 November 2008

Imagery assignment: choose a quote from part one that shows imagery (it must appeal to at least one of the five senses). Create a visual from this quote--write it out on construction paper and draw a symbol or picture that represents the quote. Then, on the reverse side of your paper, explain the importance of the quote. What does it tell us about the story? How does it add meaning to the story overall? What does the images enable to reader to see, hear, feel, taste, or smell?

The World Going Digital

Janessa asked on the wiki: "Hey Ms. Peifer--how do you really feel about our society going digital????" Well, Janessa, I had so much to say about this that I thought I would write out my answer as a blog post.

I believe that technology has the ability to equalize our world--"flatten the world" (Friedman idea) . According to wikipedia (yes, not a reliable source for an academic paper, but for this blog post, I am going to use it because the explanation is good): "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is an international bestselling book by Thomas L. Friedman, analyzing the progress of globalization with an emphasis on the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as flat or level in terms of commerce and competition, as in a level playing field —or one where all competitors have an equal opportunity. As the first edition cover indicates, the title also alludes to the historic shifts in perception once people realized the world was not flat, but round and how a similar shift in perception —albeit figurative— is required if countries, companies and individuals want to remain competitive in a global market where historical, regional and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant" (http://tinyurl.com/2uvvy3). What if we could really equalize the playing field? What if we could interact in a way where people could not discriminate because they wouldn't know what the person on the other side of the computer looked like--you could just see the quality of their mind? What if technology could do this?

On the other hand, what if we don't learn about technology--but everyone else does? We are then left behind in a "participation gap" that prohibits you from doing the same things--having that same playing field--that everyone else gets to have. Studies show that people in affluent schools get more technology training in more meaningful ways--even at a young age. Already, we see the "participation gap" affecting people's opportunities to succeed. I don't want that for any of you. I want you to know what the tools are and then decide if you want to use them or not. I don't want the fact that you don't know something thus mean you are excluded from social equality and being able to create meaning in our world--create policy, create laws, create meaningful text, because even if you aren't writing the laws, you still have to live by them. I want to make sure each of you have the power to use your voice to create the lives you want--technological tools give us this power because we have a voice online, we are publishing text, but then we have to focus on how strong that voice is in order to have people listen. The better written the writing is, the better your ideas can be heard. The more educated you are, the more relevant your voice is and the more people will take you seriously--the more your voice will matter.

I believe that technology should enhance our world--not replace all our favorite things. It allows us to be more efficient and thus, hopefully, more effective in our lives--while having fun. Why shouldn't learning be fun? Why shouldn't reading the news be interesting? If technology can reengage people into caring about learning, versus a letter grade--or worse yet, not caring at all--then I am all for it.

Additionally, technology gives us one more edge. It allows us to connect outside of school, which means people are engaged in class for longer than the one hour (actually less) that we have in school. We have a way to create a community where you can learn from each other and from the comments I give all of you--a real community of learners. In the end, you get more education, you get more knowledge, you get more practice using skills you'll need to be successful everywhere--writing skills, critical thinking skills, developing your own ideas, recognizing quality of voice and reliability of resources, and the list goes on and on. That is my ideal world--where everyone is engaged and sharing ideas and inspiring others to learn and be better too...think more, think differently, critically think about the world we live in.

18 November Journal

Early in the novel, the narrator says, "The only thing Luo was really good at was telling stories. A pleasing talent to be sure, but a marginal one, with little future in it Modern man has moved beyond the age of the Thousand-and-one Nights, and modern societies everywhere, whether socialist or capitalist, have done away with the old storytellers--more's the pity" (18). Is he right about the marginal status of the storyteller in the modern world? Is there a place for stoerytellers in our culture ? Explain with examples...

Tiananmen Square Protest

The Tiananmen Square protest that occurred in 1989 left indelible impressions on the world. Here is a link the shows some of the pictures from this protest--including the one lone man that stood in front of a line of tanks to try to stop them. The writing is obviously biases so keep that in mind, but I thought this would be interesting to anyone who wants to know more about communism in China after Mao.

17 November 2008

A few notes from today:
Homework--read chapter three (pages 21-27).
While reading, write down your questions/comments. This can be done either on your blog or on paper that you bring with you to class.

Some of your blogs are not working. The feeds aren't working or your blogs have been shut down. Please take a look at this before Friday so we can work on your blogs in class.

Homework 14 November 2008

Just a reminder--your homework over the weekend is to read chapter one in the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Write down any questions that you have when reading chapter one. You can write your questions either with paper and pen and bring them to class on Monday--or you can write your questions in a blog post that you will share with your classmates. Either way, we will be discussing chapter one and your questions in class on Monday. It is an assignment so make sure you are thorough with your questions and write in formal standard English. Your questions may seem basic to you, but don't be shy--we won't be able to fully appreciate the book without asking questions. All good readers ask questions while reading. They can be about plot, about character motivation, about vocabulary, about the culture, about the imagery...you get the picture.

If after wracking your brain and are unable to think of any questions, you can choose option two for this assignment: Choose two quotes that you liked from chapter one and explain why you liked them. What appeals to you about the text? What intrigued you or made you stop and reread a passage? Remember to cite your quotes in MLA format.

Have a great weekend!

China Today

Here is the link to the article about factories in China closing that I referenced in class today. It is very sad how much everyone is suffering economically all over the world. The article states, "The slowdown in exports contributed to the closing of at least 67,000 factories across China in the first half of the year, according to government statistics" (http://tinyurl.com/6o2dfn). Some of the workers protested, trying to get their wages that they weren't paid, "demanding two months of back pay, or $440 on average. The government called in the riot police. Seven workers were thrown in jail and six were beaten" (http://tinyurl.com/6o2dfn). I also thought this quote was interesting: "The social problems arising from the slowdown have stirred anxiety in the top leadership of the Communist Party, whose legitimacy is based on maintaining economic growth" (http://tinyurl.com/6o2dfn).

Works Cited
Wong, Edward. "Factories Shut, China Workers are Suffering." The New York Times. 13 November 2008. 14 November 2008 .

Pictures of China

Thinking you might like to see some more pictures of China, I uploaded a few of my pictures to flickr so you could see them, but when I attached them--the slideshow that was uploaded (shown to the left) turned out to be someone else's pictures. I have no idea whose pictures they are, but I thought that they were interesting so I am leaving them. They are from flickr: China 1999. Some of my pictures are attached in this blog. :)

Information on China

I thought this article was interesting about modern day China. Did you watch the Olympics when the little girl who was singing turned out to be lip synching because the nine year old girl who was really singing was deemed not attractive enough to be the face to show the world? The world was shocked and now China is working on a law to ban lip synching. For the full story, look at this link from the story on gadling.

First Blog Assignment

Remember that you need to write about 200 words. If your blog posts are too short, blogger will think you are a spammer and lock your blog. This will create a lot of problems so just don't do it.

Also, if you are using photos or quoting text from anywhere (including the Internet), make sure you cite your source!

Hour One:
After watching the movie King of Masks, write a reaction. What did you learn from the film? What surprised you? What images struck you from the film? What values can we infer?

Hour Two:
What is your previous experience with technology? How was your experience setting up your blog? How do you think technology could be used in the classroom?