Once Upon A Time In Ms. Smith's English 5th Hour

Welcome, today we had an interesting hour during 5th block!

Let me start with the homework:

• Tomorrow there is a quiz over book 2, but this will be a discussion quiz. There will be 2 fishbowls going on at the same time, and NO BLOGGING! This is purely discussion! And for all who have read ahead, don't reveal any information past book 2! Tonight we are to think of different comments we would like to say, or different questions we may have had, and we will be graded on what we say and how often, be prepared!
• The RELATIONSHIP TRACE is due tomorrow! For all that still have to finish there project, we need to connect Danny, Reuven, Reb, and David all to each other and state the relationship, the feelings about the relationship, and examples. Then we need to compare 3 aspects of our life together; Ms. Smith said to make them specific people rather than a group. And she doesn't mind how you present the information, as long as it's all there.
• And also, for anyone interested, the pod-casts are online for anyone to hear what our classmates had to say.

Today, the theme seemed to be the old saying, "What am I, chop liver!?" Some how we managed to connect this comment to many aspects of our discussion. We also had the common Emma story, and our discussion over chapters 9-10.

Here are some notes on our discussion:

Remember back to chapter 9 and the part where Reuven is describing so vividly the fly, spider and spider web. There is so much symbolism in these things, we just had to discuss what they may be! Corresponding colors are corresponding ideas) I wish I could be giving you more detail, but I couldn't write fast enough so I hope you can get the idea.

• Fly: Danny(getting caugth up in a web of the beliefs he is meant to follow and what he wants to do with his life), Reuven, Reb, Danny/Reb, David(being caught up in his controversial stories with strong meaning).
• Spider: Reb(focusing on, kind of, betraying Danny), Reb, anything that challenges Reb's beliefs, Reb/Danny, David.
• Spider Web: Reb's ideas, Reb, Reb's beliefs and expectations, Reuven(holding together Danny and Reb's relationship), Davids stories.
• A point was also made on the parallel between Billy and Danny. How they are both exposed to the world and then shut off.
• Also, a spider web is so simple, yet it has such intricate detail, like points of this story, how it has such simple language yet the message goes so much deeper.

Also, this would be important for all to pay attention to, she gave us a hint to our final; How does The Chosen fall under our theme of challenging the system? Not the superficial comparisons, but the deep meanings. Here are some of the comments people made about this question to help jog your brain for the final and the quiz tomorrow.

• Friendship choices: everyone has a black and white mold of who should play with who, or who can be friends with who, but these boys challenge the system with their relationship, both opposing forms of Jew, but thriving together.
• Also, the friendship of Reb and David.
• Reuven and David: Reuven comes breaking the system of Danny and Reb's silence. David breaks the Hasidim system established for Danny by giving him controversial books to read.
• Reb is challenging the common system by developing his own leadership, David seems to be challenging his system with his writings, Danny challenging both systems with his great mind, and this train continues...
• Danny challenging the system by wanting to be a psychologist.
• Reuven didn't pity Billy like most everyone would because of his blindness, instead he saw the real Billy and found him as someone to look up to.

As anyone can see, we had quite the discussion! I hope you are all ready for the quiz tomorrow! And one more thing, we must take out time in out busy lives to remember our wonderful English teacher in this time of giving! Have a great evening!