October
24
ELA 10: Oct 24 Reading Chapter 6 together…
- We began class with a short discussion about the author’s intention of mocking certain parts of society that are unwilling to change or uncomfortable with it. I shared with them how a friend of mine was recently reading in an educational journal and read that some people would like to see words like “mother”, “father”, “wife”, and “husband” out of books for children because they believe it promotes heterosexuality as the norm. It struck a chord with me because the phrase “the norm” is one that’s been repeated often in our novel: that “only the True Image is the norm”. I asked the class to consider this idea and ask themselves whether we, as a society, are really unwilling to accept change or whether it is only extreme groups of society or extreme ideas we are afraid of. We had a very mature conversation about this, with several students waiting with hands raised to add their comment to the discussion. With no judgement passed about the topic of sexual orientation, the focus was more on how sensitive some people are about certain topics, which certainly can be understood when reading about the community of Waknuk in our novel, The Chrysalids.
- We each took turns reading today with students reading a page at a time. They are doing great at reading with inflection and emotion. I’m very pleased, as well, at how eager they are to participate in this. We truly have a great time as a class working together!
- There are three questions for chapter six that students were working on at the end of the class. They are due to be completed for tomorrow.