Figuring out Our First Two Narrative Voices: September 20, 2017

Focus: What background do we need to understand our first two narrators?

1. Warming up with your first journal entries and answering each other's questions

• Find three passages from the first 15 pages. Type them out.

• For each one, ask a Level 1 and a Level 2 question (or two Level 2 questions if nothing is confusing you).

• Hit the "Publish" button!

Sample: When Oskar asks his dad why the earth doesn't fall through the universe, his dad replies, "The earth does fall through the universe...It's constantly falling toward the sun. That's what it means to orbit" (Foer 12).

Level 1 Question: Why is Oskar so interested in science?

Level 2 Question: How is Oskar "constantly falling" in the first chapter of the book, and what is keeping him in orbit?

Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. You want to do have at least three passages, each with two good discussion questions.

• Note: If you'd like to listen to someone read the book aloud, click HERE for the audiobook. You can do a free 30-day trial, but I believe you do need a credit card number.

2. Discovering background on Dresden; using a Venn diagram to consider 9/11 and Dresden side-by-side

• Click HERE to read about the bombing of Dresden.

• Click HERE for before and after pictures of Dresden (before the bombing and after).

• Click HERE to read a survivor's story (he was a POW in Dresden at the time).

• Click HERE to read another survivor's story (this one was a child at the time).

• Click HERE to watch an interview with a Dresden survivor (contains war footage).

3. Reading aloud Thomas's narrative (he's a Dresden survivor)

As we read...

• What are you learning about Thomas?
• What are you wondering?

After we read...

• How do Oskar's and Thomas' narratives relate?

HW:
Finish reading through page 52 for Thursday's first Fishbowl discussion. For your second journal entry, I'd like you to perform the same activity we did in class yesterday: 

• Find three passages from pages 16-52. Type them out.
• For each one, ask a Level 1 and a Level 2 question (or two Level 2 questions if nothing is confusing you).
• Hit the "Publish" button!

• Note: If you'd like to listen to someone read the book aloud, click HERE for the audiobook. You can do a free 30-day trial, but I believe you do need a credit card number.