Hurricane Sandy

Stay safe! Enjoy your two days off from school, and remember that your narratives are due when you come back! 

I miss you guys :)

Chapter 14/15:: Due October 25th

Chapter 14 and 15 Online Discussion Questions: Due Thursday at midnight (online) Friday (paper copy)

1.    Describe James’ experiences after his step-father’s death as either positive or negative. You must use at least two quotations, include three supporting detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a conclusion sentence. Be sure you explain why his experiences were positive or negative.

2.    What lesson do you think James learns at the end of chapter 14? You must use at least two quotations, include three supporting detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a conclusion sentence.

3.    What lesson do you think Ruth learns in chapter 15? You must use at least two quotations, include three supporting detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a conclusion sentence.

Chapter 13 Online Questions Due October 23

Chapter 13 Online Discussion Questions: Due Tuesday at midnight (online) or Wednesday (paper copy)

1.    Explain the reasons why Ruth liked New York. Remember, use at least two quotations, include three supporting detail sentences, a topic sentence, and a conclusion sentence. Refer to the checklist if necessary.

No More Make-Up Discussion Questions

All comments have been published for last week's discussion questions. As a result, you will no longer be able to turn in discussion questions for credit. It is also the end of the marking period, so no more grades will be added after today to the first marking period. 

Remember your vocabulary quiz tomorrow. All words/definitions are on Jupiter Grades. Check the second marking period section of assignments. 

Your interview questions and answers are also due tomorrow! 

Your online discussion for today has been cancelled. 

Enjoy!

Homework: OCTOBER 18

Chapter 9-10: Choose two of the following questions to answer using quotations from the novel.

DUE OCTOBER 18th by midnight (THURSDAY)!!

1. In Chapter 9, Ruth reveals some of the struggles she faced as a young Jewish girl in the South, surrounded by racism and poverty. Do you think her identity was shaped more by her Jewish experience or by her experience as a somewhat wealthy child surrounded by families that were starving?

2. When it comes to shaping your identity, what do you think matters more: your race or your economic class (how much money you have)? Why? Explain in at least three sentences.

3. Explain the problems James and his siblings had understanding their race and identity. Does race determine your identity? Do you think Ruth thought race determined her identity or her children’s identities? What did she encourage instead?

Homework: OCTOBER 16

Chapter 8: Brothers and Sisters

Answer both questions using at least two quotations from the novel. Due Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012

1. Helen, one of James’ sisters, told her mother “The white man’s education is not for me.” Why do you think Ruth encouraged her children to do well in the white schools? What is the significance of one of her children rejecting the white man’s education? Do you think it was hard for her daughter to reject “white” society? Why?

2. How do you think Ruth’s lifestyle influenced Helen and Dennis’ radicalism? Explain the different reactions Helen and Dennis had to the black power/pride movement. Why was Ruth more accepting of Dennis than Helen?

Online Discussion Chapters 4-7

Chapters 4-7: 

Directions: Choose two of the following questions to answer. Leave your answers in the "comments" section of the blog. Be sure to sign your name and respond by October 15th at Midnight (Monday).

1. Compare Ruth’s childhood experiences to James’ childhood experiences, focusing on family, religion, and race. Find at least two experiences they have in common and one experience that is different. Use at least three quotes from the novel to thoroughly develop your response. Please cite page numbers in parentheses after your quote.

2.  What kinds of experiences led Ruth to leave her old life as Rachel? List at least three experiences that led her to reject her family and Jewish religion, providing quotations with page numbers for each example.

3.   In chapter 7 Ruth explains, “Tateh hated black people. He’d call the little children bad names in Yiddish. 'They don’t have a dime in their pocket and they’re always laughing.' But he had plenty money and we were all miserable" (61). What sorts of things do you think the people without a dime in their pocket valued more than money? How do you think this influenced Ruth? Please use at least two quotations from the novel to thoroughly support your answer. 

9th Period Discussion Questions

Directions: 

After reading chapters 4 and 5 of The Color of Water by James McBride, answer EIGHT of the following discussion questions in the comments section of the blog. Be sure to complete this by midnight WEDNESDAY.: 

Chapter 4: Black Power

1. Characterize Ruth’s parenting style. How does that style influence the relationship between McBride and his siblings?

2. McBride writes, “Yet Mommy refused to acknowledge her whiteness” (23). In what ways does she register this refusal?

3. McBride describes the effect black power has on his neighborhood, and he suggests his appreciation for aspects of it, but he has fears for his mother in relation to this movement. Why is he afraid for his mother?

4. Ruth’s rules for her children include a combination of privacy, good grades, and distrust of others. Why would she suggest such a policy?

5. McBride writes, “Mommy’s house was an entire world that she created” (27). Describe that world and the manner in which it functions.

6. McBride says that Ruth’s childhood experiences offered “the best and worst of the immigrant mentality” as a model (29). What does he mean, and how does this influence Ruth’s philosophy of life and, therefore, that of her children?

7. McBride writes, “Yet conflict was a part of our lives, written into our very faces, hands, and arms, and to see how contradiction lives and survived in its essence, we had to look no further than our own mother” (29). How is conflict written into the McBride children’s very bodies? How did contradiction live and survive in his mother?

8. How doe Ruth respond to insults?  

9. What role does religion/spirituality play in Ruth’s life?

Chapter 5: The Old Testament

10. How would you characterize the life Ruth has with her family in Suffolk? 

11. How does her first husband change her life? 

12. Why is this chapter called “The Old Testament”?