Friday, September 27, 2013

September 27, 2013

Today, Mr. Rosenberg was our substitute teacher!! He started the day with a hello and he put up the agenda for the day. 
HOMEWORK:
  • Annotate, Finalize college essay: must meet with Mrs. Smith before submitting final essay. Sign up!
  • BRING YOUR OWN COMPUTER ON MONDAY!!!!! WEDNESDAY TO WRITE.!!
Afterwards, we discussed what we read on pg. 93-300. We also discussed why did R.P leaving cause Pi such distress, what was his final message, and why is it harder to believe than follow reason? 
  • Some people said when R.P left Pi, it caused Pi to have distress because R.P was the closest thing he had from the past and he did not want to lose him either. R.P and Pi have been through so much together and R.P did not even say goodbye or turn around to look at Pi for one last time. Pi felt alone. 
  • Then someone else said that Pi's final message was saying thank you to R.P for saving his life and surviving together. If it wasn't for R.P, Pi would be dead and never be able to survive the long journey without him. 
  • Another person said it was hard to believe the truth of the story other than over analyzing it.
After the discussion we all read together and finished the book. Then he had to chose what story was better and we chose, the story with animals.
-Grace Bernier

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

9/25/13

Today, we started off with the agenda as always, and then jumped right into a class discussion about chapter 92. We discussed whether or not the island was real. Was it just a way of Pi to subconsciously prolong his life? Or was the island actually there?After we finished out discussion, Smith began to talk about our in class essay taking place next Wednesday, October 2nd. The possible prompts are on the agenda here. You don't have to write about these prompts, you can good to Smith and ask her about writing about a different topic. She then explained the outline of our essay, which follows the prompts on her calender. She expects us to have two body paragraphs with three examples in each, as shown. You are allowed, and expected to, fill out the outline and print a copy and bring it in for the essay. We will be given an opportunity to plan in class on Monday.
H.W. : Read Chapter 93- Page 303 (381 in other version), Stop at "Here's another story."
           Bring your own laptop if possible on Monday and Wednesday next week for essay
           Be thinking about the essay topics

September 25, 2013

Today Mrs. Smith started the class off by telling us to get our assignment notebooks out and write down our homework which was to read chapter 93 and stop on page 303 (381 on other versions) you need to stop reading at the line “here another story.” We then we on and talked about the similarities and differences from them movie to the book. One of the differences we found was in the movie Pi only found one tooth when in the book Pi found all the teeth one by one. After comparing more similarities we went on to talk about the essay that we are going to do in class next Wednesday. Bring laptop on Monday if you have one! You need to make sure you have a good strong thesis. We talked about what the introduction, body and conclusion should look like. The topics we can do are on the assignments calendar.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday, September 23, 2013

Today we started class by getting our homework and talking about revising one of our essays. HW: Read/Annotate chapter 92 and finalize one of our college essays by Friday October 4th. Mrs. Smith told us that we are supposed to take one of our essays that we have written (or write a new one) and finalize it so its ready to be sent off to a college. We have to make time to talk to Mrs. Smith on one of our off hours or after school to sit down and talk about our essay.
We then talked about the reading that was due today and what it meant. We had theories on what was going on.
Theories:
1. Pi has gone crazy
2. Someone else shipwrecked and he was actually talking to someone else.
3. Two different parts of Pi's psyche
  • Civilized
  • Animal/ Primal
We talked about whether or not Pi was going in and out of sanity and if that was possible.
We then watched life of Pi and talked about how the chapters we just read were not even portrayed in the movie. After that we started reading chapter 92 till the bell rang.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Class Scribe 9/20/13

Today we began class like every other day, saying, "Hello Smith!" We first received our Who You Are essays. We went over our next homework assignment which is reading and annotating chapters 86-91. We will also need to finalize one of the written college essays  for Monday and schedule a time to meet with Mrs. Smith between now and October 4th. If anyone is planning to work ahead, Life of Pi essay formats are also available on Mrs. Smith web page for week six.

After discussing homework assignments, we began a discussion of chapters 79-86, and Mrs. Smith asked the question, "How has Pi changed and evolved throughout the story?" After concluding that Pi has gone against his morals and his beliefs for survival, and has lost fear for Richard Parker and other dangers, we began discussing the difference between hope and desperation. As a class we decided that desperation is unending, no matter the situation, and that Pi has difficulty letting go the idea that his family is alive because of the fear that they will be lost forever.

Finally, for the rest of the class period, we circled up and read chapters 86-91 and completed the chapters for Monday.

Class Details from 9/20

Today we started off class going over our agenda for the next few weeks in terms of due dates and what everything is going to look like further down the road. The biggest assignment coming up is the finalization of our college essay which is due by October 4th (Wednesday of Homecoming week). Mrs. Smith has requested that each of us finds a time to meet with her and discuss one of our three college essays  before this date. This is required but also a very useful tool to help in this process. She handed back our "Who Are We?" essays which is now available to use as an option for the college essay. An edited and revised version of one of our college essays is Due Monday in order to get a more finalized version before having the meeting with Mrs. Smith. Also Due Monday is the remainder of chapters 87-91 (with annotations) which we started in class. To add to that, the outline and essay topics for Life of Pi are up on her Google Calender in Week 6 in order to get a kick start on any planning desired for the in-class essay. She suggested to make a note to bring a laptop (if owned) to class Monday and Wednesday of Homecoming week if you do not want to use the class set of EEE's.

After an update on assignments and due dates we discussed the past reading of chapters 79-86 which was due today. She asked the question, "How has Pi changed from the beginning of the book until now?" The general consensus was that Pi battles between faith and barbarism because we think of the quote where Pi discusses how people can get used to anything, even killing. We also talked about how Pi's fear of Richard Parker is gone and has been replaced more by the fear of hydration and starvation, and the fear of losing Richard Parker. Moreover, Mrs. Smith brought up the idea of hope vs. desperation and what each represents. We came to the conclusion that desperation comes after you can't have something and maybe you need moments of desperation to get through. Following this class "fishbowl" we "circled the wagons" and read just through chapter 90 leaving one chapter left of reading.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Wedensday September 17, 2013

Today we started class like always Mrs. Smith greeting us “Hello class” and we responded “Hi Mrs. Smith” Afterwards we turned in our “Who we are” essays to the front desk and wrote down our homework. We have the following chapters to read by Friday. Chapter 78-86, as always continue annotating and asking question. From there we had a discussion on how we will be picking one of our three essays we have written to finalize with Mrs. Smith sometime next week coming in on our own time. This essay will then be for some major points so pick wisely. We briefly touched on how we will have an in class essay next week and Mrs. Smith has put up an outline for those of us who like to get a jump start on ideas and be well prepared. From then on, in class we got into groups that we wanted to work with to come up with compassion and differences of who we are, and what makes up who we are. From finding quotes from the book, to drawing symbols, and getting main words that describe who we are onto the poster paper. You can now find the posters around the room if you need clarification on how we went about this assignment. Even though today was kind of a laid back day there are a lot of things coming up next week that are worth pretty big points. I would make sure you are caught up on everything and prepare yourself for a success week.

Monday, September 16, 2013


Today we started off class with Mrs. Smith greeting us.: "Hello class" "Hello Smith."
We wrote down our homework for Wednesday: read chapters 67-78, and finish our "who are you?" essays. Ms. Smith handed back out "Reality Checks" and our cross roads essays.
We then had a good class discussion about Life of Pi.  We first talked about in the book it talks about how a person could get use to killing. Some people said we are going to get used to killing and we will adapt to what we are doping. Mrs. Smith then asked us if we would get used to killing and some peoples response were you won’t get used to killing you will still feel bad about what you are doing; you may not feel bad right when you are doing it but you will feel hurt and disappointment latter on. This leads back to when the hyena was eating to zebra Pi didn’t not feel bad for it in the moment but he did latter on. After we discussed what we had read the night before we read a passage on time. It is on pages 191-192. It talks about the dates Pi journey became and ended and how not keeping track of time for Pi was good. We all thought if pi were to have kept track of time he would have ended up going crazy. We also discussed how our lives are run by time and bells and how that is all we know. What would your life be if you didn’t have a schedule or routine every day?  We also read “To be or to not to be” by Shakespeare Hamlet. Below I have attached some of my annotations and the video we watched in class. After we watched the video then we discussed in groups how Hamlet relates to Life of Pi. We looked at the similarities in the fact that they are both dealing with life and death. At the end of class we got the chance to start reading individually.

Monday September 16, 2013

Today started off like every other day: "Hello class" "Hello Smith."
We wrote down our homework for Wednesday: read chapters 67-78, and finish our "who are you?" essays. Ms. Smith handed back out "Reality Checks" and our cross roads essays.
We then had a class discussion about Life of Pi.
First we talked about the passage in the book about how a person could get use to killing. Some people said that they did think a person could get use to killing, that eventually a person would just become numb to it. Other didn't think it would be that easy. We all agreed, though, that if it meant our survival, we would get use to killing.
After that we discussed the passage about how Pi forgot about time. We realized how much of our lives revolve around time and numbers. We talked about what life would be like if we didn't have such scheduled routines everyday. Some people thought that not having certain times for everything would make their lives easier and more controllable, while others thought that it would make their lives more hectic.
Later Ms. Smith passed out a copy of the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet. We watched one of the many movie clips from this particular scene, and then we discussed in groups how Hamlet relates to Life of Pi. We looked at the similarities in the fact that they are both dealing with life and death.
At the end of class we got the chance to start reading individually.
And that was what we did on this 16th day of September of 2013.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Friday September 13,2013


  • Today we talked about our next college essay: Who are you? Due on Wednesday. Some examples Mrs. Smith talked about what really makes you, you like genealogy, eyes, sports, attributes. She talked about how we really need to talk from the heart in this essay.
  •  We then did a reality check in which we reflected on how the last couple of weeks have been going.
  • How's it going?
  • What's on thing that is going well?
  • What's one thing that is really challenging?
  • How can I help?
  • While we were doing that she gave us time to read some of our HW-Read and annotate chapters 60-66 Due Monday!
  • We watched Shawshank Redemption and talked about hope and fear. We talked about the quotes "Hope is a dangerous thing, hope can drive a man insane." and "Hope is a good thing maybe the best of things." from the movie and on the power and hope and how hope and fear coexist.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Friday September 13, 2013


Today we started off class talking about our "Who Are You" essay that is due on Wednesday. Mrs. Smith did emphasize on showing not telling in the essays.
Then we did a reality check which is just a hand written page of  answering these questions:
How's it going? Really, hows it going? 
What is one thing that is going well for you? Tell me about it. 
What's one thing that is really challenging you? Tell me about it 
How can I (Mrs. Smith) help?

After we were finished writing the reality check she gave us sometime in class to start reading our homework: chapters 60-66.

We did have a discussion connecting hope in fear, we talked about if we need hope and fear to be human, or any other contradicting concepts like hatred and love etc.. We talked about how Pi might need both moments of fear and hope to be able to survive, that way he won't be over reliant on hope and be too confident but he won't be so afraid to try to survive. There was also a discussion  about Richard Parker giving Pi a purpose, and how that may have helped him survive. This idea will be brought up again next week when we start really defining who we are.

Lastly, we watched a clip from Shawshank Redemption to show us the power of hope, and discussed how in the end hope and fear do balance each other out.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September 11, 2013

First things first: HW is to read Life of Pi chapters 52-59 for Friday!
We turned in our Crossroads essays.
As we came into class we each got a card. These cards divided us into groups to make posters about Fear and Hope as seen in the book. (Pictures below)
                   On each poster are: a main idea about the topic (either fear or hope) from Pi.
                                                  Quotes about fear or hope
                                                  Symbols
                                                  Predictions about fear or hope



We wrapped up class by discussing fear and hope that we've seen in the book so far.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September 9 2013


  • In the beginning of class we wrote down our homework in our planners. 
  • HOMEWORK: read chapters 46-51, and crossroads essay: 1 1/2 pages describe a crossroads you have faced in your life? How did it shape you? define you? 
  • Afterwards, Mrs. Smith showed our hopes power point that was assigned to us last Friday. Every student who did the power point explained why they chose the quote and what it meant to them. Then, we watched parts of the movie "Life of Pi". We ended the movie at the part where the hyena was eating the zebra. 
  • After the movie, Mrs. Smith had us discussed about hope and fear.
  • Finally, we took turns reading a paragraph of chapter 46.
  • All homework is due Wednesday!!!!!!!

Monday, September 9, 2013

Monday, September 9, 2013


  • Crossroads Essay (due Wednesday) was discussed at the begging of class.
    • Write about a crossroad you faced and how you have been sharpened by it
    • Tell a story
    • ex: Moving 
  • Looked over Hope slides and discussed why we chose them.
  • Watched the ship sinking scene of Pi
  • Started Reading
  • HW:
    • Ch.46-51
    • Crossroads Essay


Saturday, September 7, 2013

September 6th fourth hour

             The day started out with Mr. Rosenberg introducing himself as our substitute for Mrs.Smith and went over the Agenda with us. We then began today's lesson by viewing our Power of fear slides we created as a class and discussed each quote with Mr. Rosenberg, who posed some very interesting questions for us to ponder. Such as: Do we mostly fear the known or unknown more?, Do people truly fear the joy of life?, Can fear be a motivator or a hinder? and many more thought provoking questions. He also asked each individual slide creator about the quote they picked and how it shows the power fear can possess. 

              Mr. Rosenberg then handed out a poem titled "The Fist" by Derek Walcott (* link posted belowand split us into groups of four so that we could have small meaningful evaluations of the poem and receive help answering these  questions: 
  1. Annotate and comment on the poem. What line strikes you the most? Why? What lines do you  have Questions about?
  2. What is Walcott's message?
  3. How does it connect to Pi or to "Life of Pi"?
We then discussed these same questions as a class and kept the questions to possibly turn in on Monday. And the last ten minutes of class were spent reading "Life of Pi" individually to get an early start on this weekends homework.
             Homework for this weekend is to read chapters 37-45 of "Life of Pi" and to create a slide illustrating the power of hope.


                                                    Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

September 4th Period 4

           Today Smith started class off by collecting our first college essay addressing the question, how do our beliefs and faith (either absent or present) define us? We then received back our annotated song lyrics with comments from Smith. Smith then introduced our homework to us which was to finish the reading from today (chapters 28 through 36) and to add a quote about the Power of Fear with a visual to the power point: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13MkO633p0ME1jSEpyZ23tLrm_Vk5Y8r5daQfhtEaUfA/edit?usp=sharing .

            After we received our homework we then had to break up into small groups and talk about what we wrote in our belief essays. As a class we then discussed what everyone talked about in their small groups and how are beliefs do affect us when present or absent. Also, we discussed why Pi was interested in many different religions especially when they have different beliefs and why he took an interest in religion when he never grew up in a religious household. When our discussion was over Smith gave us free time to work on the reading or the Power of Fear assignment up to the bell.

           That was our day and hope your day was good!

           

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

English Literature Period 1 September 4th, 2013


Today class started off the way it has for the past two weeks, Smith walks in saying loudly, "Hello everybody!" then we all answer with a dull, "Hello Smith." We turned in our essays today, the ones about faith defining us and received our song lyrics back. The homework for today is to finish the reading up that we started in class today chapters 28 through 36. Everyone also needs to add a Google docs slide to the power of fear slideshow.

In class today we discussed The Life of Pi and why Pi prefers different religions such as Christianity, Muslim, and Hinduism. He loves Christianity because of the love shown to each other and how it feels so mutual. Then we moved onto the Muslim faith and he loved to devotion to prayer and how they could pray anywhere they were at. Finally, he loved the culture of Hinduism. In practicing all three he seems to be trying to find completion in himself. Then we discussed faith ourselves and came to the conclusion that in school it is put to the side what we believe in but overall everybody does believe in something whether it be science or the devil. At the end of class everybody had work time to finish up their reading or work on the slideshow post.

I hope everyone has a great day!

-Justin Morrall


Friday, August 30, 2013: 
- The song assignment was turned in at the beginning of class
- The college essay assignment was explained (How do our beliefs and faith define us?)
- The class was divided into three sections: Observations, connections, and questions in regards to Life of Pi. Each group wrote on the chalkboard and we had a class discussion afterwards. 
- Watched a scene from the Life of Pi movie that was not included in the book. We discussed the particular scene and why the director decided to include it in the film. 
-The last ten minutes of class were spend silently reading or working on the college essay assignment.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Day 6 English Literature Period: 4

Hello and congratulations because you have survived the first two weeks of school!

On Friday, we turned in the song assignment, which is where you picked out a song that best described you and annotated it to your hearts content. Then Smith took about ten minutes to describe the homework. 

DUE WEDNESDAY:

-College Essay #2 about how do our beliefs and faith (either absent or present) define us? This essay needs to be typed, 1 and a half pages in length, proofread and tells a story. HINT: Your story (from start to finish) should be half of a page. The remaining page that you still need to write, will be Explaining your story and Connecting the reader to you. SHOW the reader do not just tell. Also, AVOID cliches, BE POSITIVE and know that your story is one worth telling and reading.

-Please read and annotate Life of Pi for chapters 16-27 as Smith will be checking them on Wednesday. 

 Then, after going over the homework, the class circled up and talked about the chapters that we had read and annotated for Friday. We discussed Pi's connection with animals, how humans are like animals and how humans are the most feared animals.  It was an interesting and intriguing conversation and I am sorry that you missed it....

For the remainder of the class period, we started reading chapter 16 and continued to read until the bell rang.