Life of Pi - Developing Questions

Here is a link to your work for class today.  Be sure to note you will be submitting your work in a Google document shared with me.  You do not have to answer each question, but you will be working for the entire period. You must answer #8, since that will be your question proposal for your essay.

Here is a link to the outline assignment for the weekend.

Life of Pi - Essay Preparation and Final Discussion

Here is a link to the handout from class today describing the essay assignment, and providing the outline for our conversation.

For your convenience, here are the details of the essay assignment:

Your assignment:

• Use one of the formats we used last semester - either a single-text analytic essay, an inter-textual essay (linked to one of the books we read last semester), or a personal-hybrid essay.
• You can choose any one of these, and you will have the same set of choices for our next book.  
• This will be an 8-page minimum essay - double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font, one inch margins.  
• You will be submitting a question proposal (tomorrow in class) and an outline (weekend homework) before writing the actual essay.

What makes a great essay?

• The essay introduces a compelling claim about the novel
• A claim that is clearly arguable and interprets the text
• A claim that isn’t simply observation and presentation of facts
• The essay has a structure and organization carefully crafted to support the claim.
• There are different sections, each devoted to a topic / idea, not just an example
• The sections of the essay bring together evidence from different parts of the novel
• The essay uses evidence from different parts of the novel, and goes beyond the examples we discussed in class.
• The essay represents hard work and original thought. (pause for a brief discussion of plagiarism)
• An inter-textual essay brings an idea or character from Life of Pi into dialogue with an idea or character from one of the other texts we read this year.  
• It explores similarities and differences in terms how how the texts relate to the thesis
• It brings evidence from both texts together into each paragraph, and does not simply explore the texts separately
• A personal-hybrid essay brings a personal connection into dialogue with Life of Pi in order to explore the ways in which understanding of one influences understanding of the other.
• It uses one specific example, selected by the author - a personal story, an outside connection, another text - and explored in detail
• It brings evidence from both texts together into each paragraph, and does not simply explore the texts separately
• Your work is spell-checked and proofread. It represents your best possible work in a professional presentation.

Life of Pi - Essay assignment and revised calendar

Happy Monday!
This week we will conclude our time with Pi and you will start the process of writing your essays.

Your assignment for Life of Pi is to return to one of the formats we used last semester - either a single-text analytic essay, an inter-textual essay (linked to one of the books we read last semester), or a personal-hybrid essay. You can choose any one of these, and you will have the same set of choices for our next book.  This will be an 8-page minimum essay - double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font, one inch margins.  You will be submitting a question proposal and an outline before writing the actual essay.

I've revised the calendar, adding in a bit more time.  Here's what it looks like now:

1st period:

Feb. 23 - 78 end of the novel stories and truth HW: generate IQ for Wed.	24 - 478 no class	25 - eb123 big questions discussion of generated questions and IQ’s	26 - 34 comp lab - question and outline due Monday	27 - 12 no class
March 2 - 78 discussion / computer lab	3 - 478 no class	4 - eb123 Life of Pi paper due	5 - 34 intro The Stranger	6 - 12 no class

6th period:

Feb. 23 - 78 end of the novel stories and truth HW: generate IQ for Wed.	24 - 478 no class	25 - eb123 no class	26 - 34 big questions discussion of generated questions and IQ’s	27 - 12 comp lab - question and outline due Monday
March 2 - 78 discussion / computer lab	3 - 478 no class	4 - eb123 no class	5 - 34 Life of Pi paper due	6 - 12 intro The Stranger

7th period:

Feb. 23 - 78 no class	24 - 478 end of the novel stories and truth HW: generate IQ for Wed.	25 - eb123 no class	26 - 34 big questions discussion of generated questions and IQ’s	27 - 12 comp lab - question and outline due Monday
March 2 - 78 no class	3 - 478 discussion / computer lab	4 - eb123 no class	5 - 34 Life of Pi paper due	6 - 12 intro The Stranger

Life of Pi - The Ordeal at Sea

This past week we spent time exploring the thoughts and actions of Pi as he survived his 227 days lost in the Pacific Ocean. Many of the chapters have little action, focusing instead on everything from catching fish to taming Richard Parker to Pi's sense of wonder.

We started the week - on Wednesday - by gathering lines from these chapters and re-writing them into found poems.  Here is a link to the full set of poems you created. In those poems you created a refrain - a line to be repeated at the end of each verse or at other parts of the poem.  Here are those lines you created, comprised of words you selected from these chapters:

• I was number one
• I master I master; I tamed I tamed
• And time would be gobbled up
• I die, I die
• Like Richard Parker
• God was not the reality
• You can get used to anything, I promise. Salvation, I promise.
• Time became boredom for me; in the way it was for all mortals
• Morality is a state of exalted wonder
• We were emaciated mammals; parched and starving
• So you see
• I wanted a symbol of time
• Don’t give up
• the whistle
• I can hardly believe it myself

Next, we read chapter 90 aloud in class (thanks for the people who read!). In this chapter, the first after Pi writes "today I will die" in his journal, Pi has a conversation with Richard Parker and with another blind person (Pi temporarily loses his sight) in the Pacific.

Just after that, in chapter 92, the believability of Pi's story becomes even more of a challenge. He admits it at the start of this chapter which takes us to an island filled with fresh water and meerkats, but soon turns out to be carnivorous. Pi and Richard Parker decide to flee.

In class you read the story of the Garden of Eden from the Book of Genesis. We explored the ways in which the archetype of Eden helps us to think about this challenging section of the novel.

• Here is a link to the handout we used, including the in-class writing assignment

This coming week, we'll see how the novel wraps up - then we'll start to ask and answer some "big questions."

Life of Pi - Routines and Rituals

I asked you to write about your daily routine - to name what you do on a typical school day from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep. In addition to the actions that play a practical role, list everything else - emotions, thoughts, other actions.

Then you wrote about your routine during a particular event - one that appears with some regularity, but not each day.  This might include preparing to play a sport, rehearse a dance, go to a club meeting, attend a worship service, etc.

Then we discussed these questions:

• How are those (two different lists) routines similar / different? Why?
• Why do we have routines?
• When / How do we set them?
• What different categories are there in your routine?

Then we looked at the routine Pi describes in chapter 63.

• How is his routine similar to / different from yours? Why?
• What are some things included on yours and not on his / vice-versa? Why?
• What are some of the different ways we can categorize what happens in your routines?
• for example, does Pi have anything he does just for pleasure? Are there things he does because he is lonely? What is the role of prayer?

Our conversation then turned to prayer - why do people pray? Does it serve a particular purpose? When does it appear for Pi? For you?

Life of Pi - Fear

Today we'll focus our attention on chapters 56 and 57, and the notion of fear.

• What is fear?
• How does Pi define it?
• What are the sources of fear?
• What can change it for him?

We noticed how chapter 56 focuses on the concept of fear and little else - there is no narrative in this chapter, no characters, and little in the way of setting.  Why might the book include a chapter like this? What other chapters call attention to ideas instead of show progression of the narrative? How does that affect your thinking about the novel?

We then focused on Pi's changing sense of Richard Parker, and his decision to keep him alive. Pi looks at the tiger with "fearful wonder," and after his decision to tame Richard Parker notes his "fear was defeated."  But why? What was it about Richard Parker that allowed Pi to reach this new understanding?  How do the lessons Pi learned earlier in life - to be afraid of tigers - affect his thinking at this point in the book?

We'll close with a look at how this question applies to our beliefs about fear outside the novel.

Life of Pi - Interpretive Questions

Today we discussed and created "interpretive questions" - questions based on ideas raised in the text, incorporating both a close look at the language of the text and its broader implications.  These questions follow this basic format:

• When the text says (quote) does it mean (interpretation)? If so, then (implication)?

Here is the sample one I created:

• When Pi says, "the attention brought to making each one of these mass-produced goods felt like a special attention paid to me," (144-5) does he mean mass-produced things aren't usually thought of as "special" or providing something meaningful? If so, then does an object have its own value, or only what we bring to it?

In addition, you had the chance to respond to the text on a personal / reflective level, using one of these questions:

• What feelings did this part of the book awaken in you?
• What line specifically calls out to you for a response - and what is that response?
• What image(s) did the text call to mind? Why are these significant?
• Upon what, in the text, did you focus most intently as you read?
• What is the most important word (in this section) to you? Why?
• What is there in the text that you have the most trouble understanding?
• Did you respond emotionally or intellectually to this book? How / why?
• Did you feel involved with or distant from the work?

Life of Pi - Survival

Today in class we played two different survival games - here is a link to the handout.

As we went over the answers we discussed not only the usefulness of each item, but also what the different goals and challenges facing the group are.  Some people knew things others didn't, such as what Crisco is, the importance of signaling the plane, and the dangers of drinking the whiskey.

Pi faces these same challenges after the sinking of the tsimtsum.  In chapter 52, that you'll read tonight, you'll see the list of items he has. Just like you, he knows how some of the things are potentially useful, but has no idea about the others.

How does he learn? How does he survive, which we, of course, know that he does?

Life of Pi - Topics from Week #1

Names

     Earlier this week we did some writing about names.  You listed different names you are known by, including: names used by family, friends, or teammates; your DJ or Twitter name; names associated with religions or cultures; nicknames; and formal names.  You selected one of these to tell a story about and then we shared these.

     After that we discussed the idea of names as used in the novel.  We discussed Pi's actual name and where it is from, as well as his choice to re-name himself and why.

Animals

     We watched several YouTube videos (selected by you) about animals. Then, you made a poster about an animal you selected.  You highlighted several qualities about that animal for your poster, phrasing it in this format: "Be like a _____ / Always ______ / Never ______."  See below for some examples of your work.

     Then you selected passages from the book in which Pi speaks about animals and zoos.  In our discussion of them we explored ways in which those ideas apply both to animals and to humans.

Religion

     Focusing on chapters 15-25 we turned our attention to matters of religion.  As a young man your age, Pi explored several different religions.  Although he wrote about how "the world makes sense to [me] through Hinud eyes" (47) he also write about his passion for Islam and Christianity.  In a confrontation between a priest, a pandit, and an imam, we saw how these religious leaders acknowledge Pi's devotion in their particular religion, then go on to say he needs to choose one of them because he can't have multiple religions.  We read chapters 26 and 27 out loud, and saw his parents struggle with the same question.  Pi doesn't see a problem with this - he "just wants to love God."  We raised the question about what "religion" is, and how it is similar to / different than "beliefs."