English 9

Tightrope – Mini-Inquiry Project

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My legs are dangling off the edge

The bottom of the bottle is my only friend

I think I’ll empty this bottle of pills again

And I’m gone

 

 

I’ll Carpe Diem with my newfound love

My legs feeling different than ever before

There’s just so much of her to adore

And I’m gone

 

Lean, lean, left and right

The rope is there for you to walk so light

Happiness and despair you will fight

Like yin, and yang, they must unite

woman-tightrope-walking

Life can’t be full of happiness

Or full of despair

Life is a tightrope

Keep your balance, or you’re gone too

 

‘Tightrope’ by Alex Redwood is a rhyming poem that talks about humanity’s need for balance in their lives. The poem tells us about Alex’s beliefs on balance. He tries to explain that the consequences for having a life unbalanced can be much larger than you think. That the consequences can be invisible to you, that you could be facing the consequences of imbalance right now without even realising it.  The title, ‘Tightrope’, also references the subject matter of the poem. Alex Redwood chose to write a poem such as this because he has had difficulty in his life at the moment with trying to find balance between a multitude of things, and he believed that this was the best way to ‘take some of the heat off’.

 

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Building Understanding: Whirligig and the Theme of Interconnectedness

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Title: Everything is Connected.   Your name:Alex Redwood

Which Essential Question(s) is addressed in this piece of literature? Content:

a)    What happens in the text/movie/Talk?

b)    What is the main message/theme?

 Understanding:

How does the text answer the EQ?

Answer in full sentences. Record relevant quotes and page numbers/lines if needed.

How does the influence of others impact our own lives? There are multiple themes in this book, but I’ve decided to focus on the theme of interconnectedness, and this theme talks about how everything in the world is somehow connected to one another, almost like a web. An small action that is preformed one one side of the world could affect someone on the other side of it. mabi logoSomehow, in some way, everything is connected. Your actions in one place can have a ripple effect across the WORLD.

I feel like this book’s main theme is interconnectedness. Think back to the very beginning, where Lea was just a normal, very successful kid, brightening up the whole room with her smile. Now she’s all over the United States in the form of whirligigs, influencing everyone’s life for the better.

In The Afterlife, Brent begins to think of the word karass, and it’s a term for a goup of people that are someone connected; linked together without even knowing it. He believed that Lea was for sure, part of his karass. Lea was a woman that Brent didn’t know of until he killed her in a car crash. And because he killed her in this car crash, he’s now sent across America building whriligigs with her face on them. These whirligigs end up influencing tons of people’s lives, changing them for the better. Who would have thought a typical girl would end up marking her spot all over America, helping people through the tough times of their life.

In Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, two people attempt to rob him of his belongings. He alerts the bus drivers in time for the muggers to back off, but then he has this thought, “It dawned on him why animals lived in heards,” and this is connected to Miami, Florida, where Flaco sees the shearwaters for the first time, and he’s surprised to see them flying in a flock. Fighting over fish. He’s disappointed to see them flying in a group because he saw them on TV flying alone, looking majestic and all. When he gets backs, he also sees a wooden marching band. It’s a whirligig that Brent made. This whirligig told Flaco, “Birds don’t live alone. They live in flcoks. Like people. People are always in a group. Like that little wooden band.”

Whirligig Pre-Reading Activity: Forgiveness

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“Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offence, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.”

This definition is telling me that I am not a forgiving person.

But vengefulness is not a part of me either.

I can forgive someone for doing nearly anything, but wishing them well is far beyond me. I understand forgiving someone that hurt one of my loved ones, and then moving on from the past. Continuing to live in the past is, to me, a dangerous thing to do. You can get stuck, metaphorically speaking, in the past if you stay there long enough. Your brain will only think about that one horrible accident with your loved one and the offender, causing you to change, and not for the better. It’s just better to move on.

Forgiveness is one thing. Wishing the person that possibly destroyed your life well, is a completely different story.

Your Phone

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Small, in the palm of your hand.

It can do almost anything.

It keeps you connected to the world, your family, your friends.

Your phone.

 

You constantly care for it.

It’s like your baby.

It is your baby.

It’s your phone.

 

You’re babysitting your neighbours.

You give them their parents’ iPad.

Angry Birds captivates their brain.

Three hours, and they haven’t moved.

 

Your phone receives a text message.

It’s your mother.

You went over your data plan.

She is taking your phone away for one week.

 

Sitting in your room, your leg vibrates.

You reach into your pocket to fish out your phone.

It’s not there. You’ve been grounded.

Your phone is gone.

 

You begin to worry about it, wondering if it’s been cracked.

If it’s been hurt.

You’re worried you’ll miss someone’s Facebook post.

You miss your phone.

Only your phone is on your mind.

You think about it all the time.

You think you’re going to go insane.

It causes you oh, so much pain.

 

One week later, your phone is back.

You start to realize what you lack.

But before you realize what you truly need,

Your phone distracts you with a special DING.

 

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Self-Esteem and Identity in Teens

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Nowadays, I’ve seen more and morI look down on myselfe kids with self-esteem issues. Kids don’t like themselves, some hate themselves. They hate every bit of their body, their face, their height, their weight, everything. It gets to the point where they can’t even think properly about anything else, all they do is think about themselves, making sure they’re appealing enough so that they fit in, or that they won’t get singled out. When all they do is think about themselves, they can’t compete anything. Their brain is too busy with thinking about themselves that they can’t complete basic things like homework. It’s not just themselves, it’s also peer pressure. A person’s friends or peers can pressure them into doing things they normally wouldn’t do on their own, like drinking or smoking. And if they stand against that peer pressure, the person becomes different in other people’s eyes. There’s only so much pressure someone’s brain can take, eventually the person will cave in and start drinking or smoking in an attempt to self-medicate, or to make themselves feel better. Except it doesn’t, it just ends up making them feel worse. The person just ends up coming back again and again to–

No, no, that’s not it.

People turn to drugs, or drinking, or smoking because they believe it will make them feel better. But it doesn’t. It may help them calm their mind o

Building Understanding Hubris

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After watching a movie or listening to a TEDtalk or reading a piece of literature, a poem, or any other piece of writing, fill in the chart below. When complete, file into your “Inquiry” folder OR print and keep for future reference. Your teacher may ask to keep your work as an example to expand understanding in the class

Title: The Sea Devil and A Mountain Journey    Your name: Alex R Block B

Which Essential Question(s) is addressed in this piece of literature? Content:

a)    What happens in the text/movie/Talk?

b)    What is the main message/theme?

 Understanding:

How does the text answer the EQ?

Answer in full sentences. Record relevant quotes and page numbers/lines if needed.

 

What motivates us in the face of dispair and oppression?

 

In times of trouble, what gives us hope?

 

 The story is about a man who goes up a mountain, trapping animals to obtain fur, and sell them on the market for profit. The story starts with the man traveling down the mountain, trying to reach civilization with his newfound furs. On his way down, he runs into multiple problems, such as falling into an airhole, his planned resting place burned down, and getting frostbite, so he could no longer use his fingers.

 

The main theme is about how we believe that we can control nature, but in reality, our fate is in nature’s hand. We are all at nature’s mercy. We’ve been blinded, we believed that we’re stronger, and we’re better than nature that’s nowhere near the case, as the two stories illustrate to us.

 What motivates us in the face of dispair and oppression?

There is a good portion of dispair in the two stories, except only The Sea Devil’s character uses the dispair to his advantage. In A Mountain Journey, the character, Dave, simply accepts his fate without realizing it, and dies of hypothermia. In The Sea Devil, the character already believes he is going to die, and he accepts the fact that he could die right then and there. But when he accepts that fact, he is able to think properly, and come up with a plan that could give him a chance to escape the manta ray and live another day.

 

In times of trouble, what gives us hope?

I think it is the things that we love that give us hope. In The Sea Devil’s case, the man accepts the possibility of imminent death, which clears his mind of fear, and in turn, helps him make up a plan. He realizes he gets once chance to return to his wife, and plans to use this chance

In Dave’s “time of trouble”, he has no hope, because he doesn’t even realize he’s dying, and if he does, he doesn’t acknoledge it in the story. He’s in denial, never admits his mistakes and trys to learn from them. He blindly worked towards his downfall, and he didn’t even realize it.

 

Building Understanding for The Friday Everything Changed

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After watching a movie or listening to a TEDtalk or reading a piece of literature, a poem, or any other piece of writing, fill in the chart below. When complete, file into your “Inquiry” folder OR print and keep for future reference. Your teacher may ask to keep your work as an example to expand understanding in the class

Title: The Friday Everything Changed by Anne Hart Your name: Alex R

Which Essential Question(s) is addressed in this piece of literature? Content:

a)    What happens in the text/movie/Talk?

b)    What is the main message/theme?

 Understanding:

How does the text answer the EQ?

Answer in full sentences. Record relevant quotes and page numbers/lines if needed.

When is it acceptable to challenge the values of society?

 

Why do people feel the need to conform to society and it’s expectations?

 

Why are we afraid of change

 In the story The Friday Everything Changed, there is a question that goes against the norms of society. A girl named Alma asks the teacher, “Why can’t girls go for the water too?” The water bucket was shown as a job that only big, strong boys could do. The story takes place in the 50s, where gender roles were strongly enforced. Alma asked the question, believing that girls could be just as, or more stronger than boys. When is it acceptable to challenge the values of society?

I think it’s acceptable to challenge the values of society when these values go against a large portion of the population. In the Friday Everything Changed, one value, or norm, in that society was “boys always carry the water bucket”, but that value excluded the girls. It went against them.

 

Why do people feel the need to conform to society and it’s expectations?

Going against the norms of society is change, and for some reason, we’re practically afraid of it. Conforming to society’s expectations is the norm. Sometimes, going outside society’s expectations, creating change, is met with resistance. In the story, after Alma askes the special question, the boys are worried because the water bucket is theirs. It’s always been theirs, and they don’t want to share it. So after they all leave the classroom, the boys try to jump Alma, in an attempt to deter them from wanting to carry the water bucket (pg. 6).

 

Why are we afraid of change?

We’re scared of things that we don’t know, and that’s change. It’s something that we sometimes don’t understand. Society has had this whole understanding of “boys will always be stronger than girls” for a long time, and some people are perfectly content with how society is. But when people try to change society, some people will retaliate because they don’t want to change.

 

 

Mushrooms

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Mushrooms              Sylvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot’s in the door.

 

I think this poem describes the minority; the oppressed. Mushrooms will slowly, but surely, grow. They don’t grow overnight, but over time, they WILL grow, and you couldn’t stop it. There was a very small population of people in the 1950s who believed in equality between men and women. It was a small community, so no one noticed it, and wives seemed more like humane slaves in the 50s. But this community grew, and grew. The line, “We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible,” seems to describe women, how they were simply used to keep the house clean, or to bring food to the table. Men were portrayed as the ones who kept the world standing, while women were treated like idk. This is relevant to the Friday Everything Changed because that both the story and this poem revolve around gender roles.