Homework: February 14

English 12

Spend another 15 minutes responding to today's question from class. Remember, that's 15 minutes IN ADDITION to what you did in class today.

IN WHAT WAYS IS PLEASANTVILLE A COMING-OF-AGE STORY?

Remember to include specific details from the story. Consider:

• David
• Jennifer
• The town
• People in the town
• Check out your BILDUNGSROMAN handout to get you started, or to help you think.

Honors English 11

We've been studying Sherman Alexie's writing, and we've talked a bit about some of the cultural references and about current day Native American experience on reservations. Tonight, spend about 15 minutes browsing a topic connected to our classwork that you're interested in. Make sure to keep notes about what you find, and, even more importantly, WHERE you find it (you know, the website URL). Remember, you always want to know the source of your information. As always, when searching online, be careful of which links you click, and what sources you use.

Here are some options to get you started...don't feel limited to these!:

• Check out sports team mascot discussions. Cleveland Indians? Washington Redskins? This issue, especially, is in the news right now--there's a video here that shows clips from a major symposium that happened just last week, discussing sports mascots. (WARNING: the video uses challenging language) There are many articles about the symposium, and there are lots of opinions out there about this topic. Local Massachusetts high schools have been reconsidering mascots, and the NCAA has post-season restrictions regarding mascots.
• In the 30 Days documentary we watched, Morgan Spurlock visited the Navajo Nation. The ABC series 20/20 focused on the Pine Ridge reservation, called Children of the Plains...you can watch it here. Diane Sawyer spends time getting to know some children on the reservation. Again, parts of the video are very challenging to watch; topics include alcoholism, poverty and attempted suicide.
• A photographer name Aaron Huey visited Pine Ridge as well, and spent a long time getting to know people and photograph them. Here's the National Geographic piece sharing his photos and his story.  Don't miss all the content down the left-hand sidebar of the website! 
• You might visit Sherman Alexie's website, fallsapart.com, or seek out some of his interviews, either video or print. Here's one you might start with, from Time Magazine's 10 Questions series. Or, read this interview, where he discusses his idea for a True Diary sequel (FINALLY! This interview is from November, and he's been thinking about how to write this book for years!). Alexie has also appeared on The Colbert Report twice, going head to head with the host. You can find those here and here.
• Alexie makes a lot of references to cowboys, John Wayne, The Lone Ranger...do you even get these references? Have you ever seen the Lone Ranger? See what you can find!