27 November
Due Today, Tues — I did not post yesterday! I apologize!
What is due today is Montana Journal Entry #1 (see below). NOTE: Vocab and sentences and entry are all required to be typed up.
Due Wed, November 28, 2007–
1.Montana Journal Entry #2 (see below)
NOTE: If you are absent today(and there are a lot of you!) and you are well enough, go ahead and pick one of the research topics in Montana entry 2 below and complete the research on it and do the entry as assigned.
2. Your completed film questions on Reconstruction Film, parts 1, 2, 3. FINALLY WE ARE DONE! NOTE: Part 3 can be in note form.
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Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
General Explanation of Journal Assignments and Vocabulary
You will usually have about 20 pages of reading per assignment. Please keep up with the reading. There will be reading quizzes periodically.
You will keep a Montana 1948 Journal; some entries will be done in class and others will be done as homework. Part of your journal work will be to look up vocabulary, define the word, identify its part of speech, and use the word in a sentence that demonstrates its meaning. The pages the words appear on are listed for your reference. You should begin each assignment by looking up the words, defining them, and identifying part of speech before you read. You should create the sentences after reading, checking to see that your definition matches the usage of the word in Montana 1948.
Your entire journal will be graded as a project grade. Please note that each entry is still due for a daily homework check. Your entries must be typed in 12-point standard font, double-spaced, labeled correctly (name, date, entry number), and printed before class begins in order to have the assignment counted on time. Be sure that you save all of your work on your hard drive! Also, please file these assignment sheets in your binder under “language arts.”
Journal Entry #1
The Text is Set Up
A prologue is a device sometimes used by writers to focus the readers’ attention on some particularly important aspects of the novel. It is a taste of what is to come. Good readers ask themselves when they come across a prologue: Why has the writer emphasized these aspects of the text? As good readers continue with the book, they consciously look for ways in which the important aspects of the prologue, and later chapter one, help us to understand the rest of the book.
After reading pages 11-31, respond to the following in complete sentences:
1. What is the tone of the prologue and the first chapter? What, exactly, in the reading sets this tone up? Find one quotation that supports your answer, copy it down and explain how it helps to shape tone.
2. The setting of the text is important and can be seen to be acting as a main character. Find ONE quotation that points to the setting, cite it and its page number, and comment on how it contributes to the tone of the book’s opening.
3. Find a passage that you think is revealing or symbolic in some way. Why do you think this is significant and/or what does it reveal?
4. What are your first impressions of this work? What are your expectations of this novel? Use a specific to back up your thinking.
Your first assignment is to (a) type up your answers to the 4 previous questions and (b) look up, define, identify the part of speech, and write a meaningful sentence for each of these words:
1. indelible (11)
2. transient (18)
3. self-effacing (19)
4. sustenance (20)
5. irreligious (21)
6. cusp (22)
7. strictures (22)
8. malleable (24)
9. amplitude (25)
10. chaste (26)
Note: He was self-effacing is NOT a meaningful sentence. He was shy and self-effacing; he never took any credit for all his amazing contributions IS a meaningful sentence because it makes the meaning of the vocabulary word clear.
Name ______________
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Journal Assignment #2
A Sense of Time and Place
Note: There is no reading associated with this assignment.
Part I: Research
The fact that Larry Watson entitles his novel Montana 1948 immediately suggests that both time and place are important in the novel. Using encyclopedias, the internet (see especially the Library of Congress website http://memory.loc.gov), the library, atlases, etc. find out about one of the following categories that will be assigned to you. Take notes as you work and be sure to write down your sources at the time you are using them. You will have one class period to complete your research, ONLY.
• The Sioux Indians
• white settlement of Montana; the relationship between the white settlers and the Sioux Indians
• the geography of Montana
• the year 1948 in the USA
Part II: Journal Entry
Writing and Thinking
Write and type up 2-3 paragraphs describing your group’s findings in your own words (and listing your sources, of course). Go on to discuss in 1-2 paragraphs what you found interesting or striking about your area of research and making any connections to the first reading assignment. Be prepared to share your work with the rest of the class.