additional-theme-examples-part-two-of-book

1. We have finished reading this novel!! Students were asked to read the final three pages for today’s class and we discussed whether they were surprised that Boo Radley was a part of the novel’s story once again before the end. It seemed fitting since we had learned so much about him at the beginning of the novel to meet him, finally, at the end. We talked about the unlikelihood of Boo being one of the novel’s heros, as he is so shy and timid and hides in the shadows of the room after the attack, but he is an example of courage and bravery in a way that we are not as familiar with.
2. We read through a few handouts students were given that review the important aspects of the final chapters, particularly chapter 20 and 25.
3. We watched the short video clip attached to a previous post on the blog here that ellaborated on the idea that people pass on their prejudices to their children. In the video, a man gives his son the honour of being the one to shoot the black man, but the son is too uncertain and takes too long. He’s slapped by his father for being a disappointment and the father then shoots the black man. It’s hard for us to understand that type of hatred and prejudice, but it continues today.
4. We had previously compiled a list of themes from the novel and found examples for each. That was for part one of the novel. Now that we have finished reading it, we added to those examples with new evidence from part two of the book. For the unit final, I explained that there would be another question regarding themes and their answers should include the new examples we compiled together.  (See the attached PDF file for the notes.)
5. Tomorrow, we’ll briefly discuss the essay assignment and it’s particulars and look at a few student examples. They will have Tuesday and Wednesday to work on writing the essay, and possibly Thursday. (We’ll see.)
6. There is a unit final on Friday that covers anything from our class so far and then we will begin the second, albeit smaller part, of the course.