Feb. 4th Daily Plan

9th Grade - As we continue our mythology unit, we took time today to particularly focus on archetypes. There are certain types of characters that appear throughout all mythologies, and can be found in many different cultures. I provided several examples to the class (for example, the wise old man), and students were asked to develop lists of contemporary examples that fit.

The characters we discussed -

The Trickster, The Sage (The Wise Old Man), The Hero, The Mentor, The Devil/Demon

We also discussed the psychological usage of the term "archetype," which divides personality into three categories -

The Self, The Shadow, The Persona. Of these three, we focused primarily on the Persona; which is the "mask" that each person wears when interacting with others. I explained to the students how everyone acts different based on the people around them, and these differences define the Persona.

JOURNAL ENTRY - Describe how your persona changes in three different environments. One-page minimum.

New Vocab - ritual, allegory

10th Grade - First, all SUMMARIES for the Research Mini-Project are due by hard copy or by e-mail by end of day today.

From this point on, most of the reading for TKAM is expected to be done outside of class. In-class today, we discussed the idea of symbolism, and how author's will pick particular names for characters that help define them as people.

The contemporary examples I used were from the films "The Truman Show" and "The Matrix."
The Truman Show, for those that have not seen it, is a film starring Jim Carey, where his character is unknowingly the star of a reality-TV show from birth. Therefore, it makes sense that his character would be named Truman (True Man), since he is the only genuine person.

The class looked at four names from TKAM - Finch, Atticus, Scout, and Calpurnia. They completed a worksheet in class that compared the literal meaning, the symbolism in TKAM, and provided examples from the text.

New Vocab - diminuitive, indigenous, auspicious.

HOMEWORK - Read CH 4 for Monday, as we are discussing. If EVERYONE is able to contribute and has read, no quiz for the next following chapters. If not . . . let's just call this foreshadowing.