New York City Setting-Characater Project

To show your understanding of how setting shows Holden's character in Catcher in the Rye, you will make a map of Holden's places. You need a NYC MTA subway map. Make sure you get the project checklist & description from Heather.

The project is worth 100 points and is due by Monday, May 18, 2009. No late projects will be accepted!

Vocab:

The Setting of New York City

Today we begin to consider how the setting of New York City shows Holden's character. We created a three column chart with the following headings to organize some ideas around setting and character. Read chapter 14.

Places Holden goes/would go
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Quotes about the places
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

What setting says about Holden's character
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Vocab: environs (n)
My environs of New York City keep me energized. There are always people out and about, cabs are rushing everywhere, and there's always a party.

Independent Reading

Independent Reading Response: What question would you ask the protagonist of your book? Why? What do you think their answer would be?

Finishing your Catcher in the Rye summaries, chapters 1 - 14.

Vocab: reciprocal (adj)
My friends and I have reciprocal relationships. If they do something for me, I do something for them.

Reviewing Holden

Wait. What were we doing? Since we haven't had school for the past 10 days, let's spend some time reviewing. In teams of 4, collect the following information about Catcher in the Rye through chapter 14 on posters. You will present them to the class Tuesday.

Topics for Presentation (Each person on the team specializes in ONE topic.)

• Characterization of Holden: What kind of person is Holden?
  
• Side Character: Name 5 other characters and explain why they are important to Holden.
• 3 Conflicts & Resolutions: What are three conflicts Holden has had? How does he resolve them?
  
• 10 Important Event: List 10 important events from chapters 1 - 14.

Vocab
rile (v)
My sister used to rile me up by tickling me until I became hyper and crazy.

Problems

What IS Holden's PROBLEM?
Today we read chapter 14 and identified two problems that Holden shows us in this chapter. The problem could be emotional, psychologoical, physical, or relational. Describe the problem and solution to the problem in the following chart.

A problem Holden has is . . . Another problem Holden has is . . .



The solution is . . . The solution is . . .


This is on page . . . This is on page . . .


Vocab: irate (adj.)
When my mother gets irate, she yells at me and her face turns read and her veins pop out.

One More Woman

Today we read chapter 12 and added Sunny to our Women chart.

Vocab: nonchalant (adj.)

Power of Emotion

With our independent reading today we will consider the meaning of a quote and describe how it relates to the books we are presently reading.

All literature shows us the power of emotion. It is emotion, not reason, that motivates characters in literature. - Duff Brenna

1. Explain the quote in your own words.
2. Read your book.
3. Describe the ways your book shows the ideas in the quote.
   

VOCAB QUIZ ON MONDAY, March 30th!

Just Vocab

See yesterday's post for our classwork.

Vocab: inane (adj.)

Sometimes I think going to school is inane and pointless, but really I know it means I will be able to have a good life later on.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Today we started reading chapters 9 & 10. We want get to know the other women in Holden's life. As we understand them, we will be inferring more about Holden's character. We made (yet again!) a three column chart to collect quotes and record our inferences. The three columns should be labeled as such:

1. Woman in Holden's Life
2. Quote about Her
3. What she tells us about Holden's character

Journal entry also included a warm up about someone you were infatuated with.
o What was the person like?
o Why were you infatuated with him/her?
o What did you do about it?
o What did he/she do about it?
o What was the result?


Vocab: infatuation (n)
In 6th grade, I was consumed by my infatuation for John Taylor of Duran Duran. In my spare time, I could think of nothing else because he was so cute and the best bass player ever.

NEXT VOCAB QUIZ on Monday, March 30th! Starting with mutinous.

The Lie

Today we read chapter 7 in which Holden decides to travel back to NYC early. He meets a woman on the train and fabricates a huge lie. Again we used this opportunity to get to know Holden's character better. What motivates him to lie? We recorded his lie versus the truth, then speculated why he told that particular lie. Our notes took form of a three column chart: Details of Holden's Lie, The Authentic Truth, Why did Holden lie about this?

Vocab: authentic (adj.)
The statues at the Wax Museum looked so authentic! But we all knew they weren’t real because they didn’t move or talk.

Making Movies out of Books

For independent reading response today, we wrote our picks for casting the characters in our books for a movie. What actors would you want to play the characters in your book? Why?

Dear Jane . . .

Today we experimented with using Holden's voice. We looked at the notes we collected: what words he uses, what sentences he uses, what tone he uses. Then we used Holden's voice to express the following three expressions.

1. School sucks, man.
2. That guy is mad annoying.
3. I wish I could see Jane again.

After this practice, we began writing out letters to Jane. Here's my suggestion for writing the letters.


March 16, 2009
Dear Jane,
Use the first paragraph to remind Jane how you as Holden know her and what you used to do.
Remember when . . . .
OR
The last time we saw each other . . .

Use the second paragraph to tell Jane how you feel about her NOW.

Sincerely,
Holden

Vocab Today: mutinous (adj.)
The prisoners on the pirate ship were fed up with Captain Hook's cruel punishments. They beceam e mutinous and threw him overboard.

VOCAB QUIZ TOMORROW! Including boisterous, sadistic, unscrupulous, idiosyncracy, monotonous

Visit to the Museum of Natural History

We visited the Museum of Natural History as Holden does in Catcher in the Rye and took notes on the museum as a setting. We looked for imagery and described what we saw, smelled, heard, and felt. Here are some pics of our adventures!

Holden's Feelings about Jane Gallagher

Independent Reading

Today we read our independent reading books while focusing on the voice of a particular character in the book.

For your reader response entry, describe a character's voice according to the definition we developed in class.

Characteristics of Holden's Voice

Using our great definition of literary voice from yesterday, we took notes on the details that make Holden's voice so Holden. We read chapter 6 looking specifically for details of Holden's voice. On our notes sheet, we collected the words that Holden typically uses and the kinds of sentences he typically uses (structure and specific examples). Get the notes sheet from Heather!

Today's Vocab
Idiosyncracy (n.)
You couldn’t tell the twins apart except for their particular idiosyncrasies. Fred never wore matching socks and Calvin always had a koosh ball that he played with constantly.

Literary Voice

We listened to four distinct pop culture voices today: Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, Jessica Rabbit, & Bunsen Honeydew. After listening to them we wrote down the characteristics that made their voices unique.

From those characteristics, we generalized a definition for voice. We came up with this impressive definition! Make sure you have this in your notes.

VOICE is . . .

• pitch (high/medium/low)
• speed (fast/slow)
• accent
• volume (loud/soft)
• tone/mood/attitude
• word choice/phrases
• sentences (long/short; simple/complex)

Voice is one way that writers use characterization in literature. (Make sure you have the characterization notes from the poster in the room. Too complicated to put here!)

Today's Vocab:
scrupulous (adj.)
The nuns at my Catholic school were scrupulous, because they always did the right and moral thing. They also made sure we acted scrupulously and morally too!

Snow Day!

If you think your English teacher just sits around reading books all day, think again. Here's a taste of what she does on official snow days! Hope you had a restful snow day and are ready to get back to work! Hey, do I hear vocab quiz, anyone?



TEN extra points on your Teenager Poster Project for all those who can name exactly what I was doing on Monday. Send me an email with your answer at hmnords@gmail.com.

Introducing . . . Stradlater!

In chapter 4, we meet Holden's roommate at Pency, Stradlater. We want to use Salinger's characterization of Stradlater to understand Holden's character better. (Tricky I know!) Using the same method we did for Holden in chapter 2, we took notes on Stradlater and made inferences about both Stradlater and Holden. Create a three column T chart and insert the following topics.

Quotes from Chapter 4
1.

2.

3.

This shows that Stradlater . . .
1.

2.

3.


This shows that Holden . . .
1.

2.

3.

This assignment is due on Thursday, March 5. There will be a quiz on that day.