Examining Context-Average Joes

Examining Context

Task:

1. Identify details from the story that show/explain the following aspects of the social/historical context: (1) politics, (2) traditions,(3) foods, (4) values/beliefs, (5) other (add a fifth category of your own). 1.)The story talks about the Iranian Revolution and that when her family members moved to America after it happened they were not met with the same kindness as before. 2.)She says that when Halloween came around a family gave her a costume to wear during the Halloween parade. 3.)She talks about the Caspian Sea where the “famous caviar comes from” also known as fish eggs. 4.)Some beliefs that Americans had on Iran was that is was a giant desert and people there didn’t have electricity and rode camels. 5.)When Dumas’ family came to America they were treated with kindness as people didn’t know much about them but after the Iranian Revolution more people knew about Iran and in a negative way and they had prejudice towards them.

2. For each category, include a quote or detail from the text that demonstrates what you are   talking about. 1.) “They saw Americans who had bumper stickers on their cars that said, “Iranians go home” or “we play cowboys and Iranians.  2.) On Halloween, one family brought over a costume, knowing that I would surely be the only kid in the Halloween parade without one.” 3.)  “Most people in Whittier did not know about the famous caviar, and once we explained what it was, they’d scrunch up their faces. 4.)”We were also asked about electricity, tents, and the Sahara. Once again, we disappointed, admitting that we had electricity, that we did, that we did not own a tent, and that the Sahara was on another continent.”  5.)  “We remember the kindness more than ever”
3. Then discuss and write about how Dumas uses each detail to support an insight about America, American identity, and/or what it means to be an American immigrant.

Dumas claimed that being an American immigrant, the first few years. Yet the american kids were curious as they thought they didn’t have cars in Iran so they asked Dumas about camels. The kids also thought Iranians were poor living in tents without electricity. Some american children were naive and asked how to say some bad things in Iranian, Dumas had them say “I am an idiot!”. Around the end before they left to go to Iran for a couple years the Americans treated Dumas and her family with great kindness.

Figurative Language-Average Joes

Figurative Language

Background-Humor: language that is used imaginatively rather than maturity is called figurative language. Writers often use language to make their ideas more vivid and rich. Since figurative language involves surprising contrast, writers also use it to make their writing funny. In this memoir, Dumas uses three types of figurative language—metaphor, simile, and hyperbole—to add zest her to her story.

Task 1: Define and write an example for each of the following terms. The examples should be original: from your head, not the internet or the text.

1. Metaphor-a figure of speech, “I fell in a black hole of sadness
2. Simile-a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind---tough as a bear, brave as a tiger
3. Hyperbole-exaggerated statements not meant to be taken seriously---The baseball team won like 1000 to 6.

Task 2: Read the examples of figurative language from the text, “With a Little Help from my Friends.” Determine which type of figurative language each is and then explain the effect that each use of figurative language has on the story/idea.

1. My life became one long running Oprah show, minus the free luxury accommodations in Chicago, and Oprah (paragraph 1). A simile, because she is comparing her life to an oprah show.
2. I tried my best t be a worthy representative of my homeland, but, like a Hollywood celebrity relentlessly pursued by paparazzi, I sometimes got tired of the questions (paragraph 9).A hyperbole because she is comparing her life to the life of a hollywood celebrity.
3. This  avalanche of kindness did not make our impending departure any easier (paragraph 16).Metaphor because she is using “avalanche” as a figure of speech saying that they were receiving so much kindness.
4. If someone had been able to encapsulate the kindness of the second-graders in pill form, the pills would undoubtable put many war correspondents out of business (paragraph 15).Hyperbole because it’s saying that a kindness pill to give people the kindness of the 2nd graders would put an end to wars.

Making Connections - Rogelio Ceballos

Making Connections

A way that people in the past and now, have connected is through time capsules. Time capsules are items from a period of time put together for others in the future. This Brings people together because people can see what kind of things people experienced through their life. Almost everyone that uses a time capsule is there for a couple of main reasons. They go to, contribute putting in stuff from that period of time, or they can go to observe what kind of things people have picked up during their lifetime.

Time capsules revolutionized communication and human connections by bringing people together for similar reasons. For observing people’s lives and contributing apart of your life for people in the future. Time capsules have been around for many years serving the same purposes they do now.  Even many years ago they served their purpose.

Making Connections by Jonathan Gillespie Average Joes

In Jerusalem there is a Western Wall where people can place their prayers which are believed to  ascend to Heaven through the temple mount. The earliest account of this happening was back in 1937 when a rabbi named Chaim ibn Attar instructed a destitute man to place an amulet in the wall. Since then, this practice has been continued today with there being over a million notes a year in what has now become a custom. There is a dispute though that about whether this is permissible as some argue the practice debases the holiness of the wall. Even then the practice is still continued and the notes are buried twice a year at the Mount of Olives.

People bring in notes of prayer that can be vary from a few words to very long requests and are then placed in the cracks of the wall. There also online services that allow people to send them their notes which they will place in the wall for them. The Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch also receives hundreds of letters addressed to god which he places in the wall for them. He is also the one in charge for burying them as him and his followers do this twice a year. This helped revolutionize human connection as you have hundreds to thousands of people coming in everyday placing their prayers in the wall having them all connect through this one great wall.

Making Connections-Richie Bartley-Average Joes

Current Events

Background: As you already learned, “The Writing on the Wall” is an informational text originally printed in the form of a blog. The author uses her blog to comment on social issues that she feels passionately about. This is a very unique form of communication because it allows people to share their thoughts and ideas without the limitations and requirements of using a publisher. This form of communication is, in many ways, similar to the way that the Chinese immigrants she writes about shared their thoughts and ideas: by writing on the wall, they were able to share their thoughts freely with their followers. Through their poems, time and identity are no longer barriers to human connection.

Task: Think of other ways in which people today or in the past have connected across time, distance, and even background through their shared circumstances. Write a two paragraph informational piece commenting on this phenomenon. It can be something modern or from the past. Make sure to discuss the following:

• Background info (what is it? How did it start?)
• What is it typically used to communicate? (Are all of the “followers” generally there for the same reason? What brings people to reach out in this form?)
• How did it revolutionize communication/human connection

A time capsule. Most capsules are buried for a few hundred years. They can be for anyone and sometimes aren’t dug up by who they wanted to. Either way it can hold important things such as a country's riches, to a historic artifact. The oldest time capsule was The Samuel Adams and Paul Revere time capsule.

It started as a way to communicate or send letters, information, or other historic items to people of the future. It’s also a method of communicating with future archaeologists. A time capsule usually has a big event when it is buried in which people bring some of their valuables and place it in the capsule. They also have an event when dug up so the public can see the relics of the past. The time capsule allowed humans to communicate with other humans hundreds of years in the future.

Making connections-Edwin Farley-The Average Joe's

Making Connections

Background: As you already learned, “The Writing on the Wall” is an informational text originally printed in the form of a blog. The author uses her blog to comment on social issues that she feels passionately about. This is a very unique form of communication because it allows people to share their thoughts and ideas without the limitations and requirements of using a publisher. This form of communication is, in many ways, similar to the way that the Chinese immigrants she writes about shared their thoughts and ideas: by writing on the wall, they were able to share their thoughts freely with their followers. Through their poems, time and identity are no longer barriers to human connection.

Task: Think of other ways in which people today or in the past have connected across time, distance, and even background through their shared circumstances. Write a two paragraph informational piece commenting on this phenomenon. It can be something modern or from the past. Make sure to discuss the following:

• Background info (what is it? How did it start?)
• What is it typically used to communicate? (Are all of the “followers” generally there for the same reason? What brings people to reach out in this form?)
• How did it revolutionize communication/human connection

Some ways people today connect to the past is social media and stuff like time capsules. Really social media isn’t all that good at connect to the past, for example snapchat it has no history to look at, and Instagram people don’t bother. I, in my personal opinion think a time capsule is the best way to connect to the past, more of your past. What it is, is either a box or container that can hold personal items or other objects you want to save and/or remember.  When it started it wasn’t called a time capsule, but it was explained, “they made it in 1936, the Crypt of Civilization is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records as the first Time Capsule – That means that it is the ‘first successful attempt to bury a record of this culture for any future inhabitants or visitors to the planet Earth’.”.

The way it can communicate is to connect to your past. It is said to be, “the closest we can come to time-travelling – They are a unique way of communicating with future generations through objects from today.”. The reason you’re their to dig it up is to remember and reach out with others to discover/learn what life was like back then and finding the interesting items. It was a revolution to communication with others is by talking to your/others past and respond( not by commenting back but laugh about it with others). It’s like walking in the past and see what others see.

Authors Style: Word Choice- The Average Joes

Author’s Style: Word Choice

Background: Both poems and prose are enhanced by the use of sound devices, such as alliteration, assonance, and consonance. The use of sound devices may emphasize meaning, create a particular mood or express tone.

Task 1: For each of the following words, find a definition and write an example:

• Alliteration- It is the recurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Big Black Beetles bleed black blood.  
• Assonance- repetition of a sound of a vowel.  In poetry, no one knows what you will write, only you know.  
• Consonance-an agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions
• Mood-a temporary state of mind or feeling
• Tone-the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc.

Task 2: Find an example of assonance, alliteration, and consonance in “Writing on the Wall.” Then, explain how that sound device enhances the meaning and/or the tone in the text.

consonance-”Even Su Wu was detained among the barbarians,” because there is an agreement that Su Wu is considered a barbarian type person

Alliteration- “...to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.” It enhances the meaning of the text as she was talking about how we are conserving the poems and this gives you a better connection with the poems.   

Assonance- “:to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, to conserve”  This adds to the meaning of, the power of poetry.  

*include an image that is related to your ideas somehow.

Writing on the Walls-Analyze Craft and Structure-Average Joes

Task: Complete the following. Don’t forget to make it visually appealing and organized!

1. At what point in “The Writing on the Wall” does Dungy state her central idea? Quote and then restate the idea in your own words.Dungy says the central idea in paragraph 6, when she says what some of the immigrants were going through. “If there were health concerns or irregularities with the paper, if the would be immigrants suffered the chinese exclusion act of 1882, they were sent to a detention center.” This means if anything went wrong they would be sent to a detention center and the author wanted to show how they were treated.
2. Identify four types of supporting details used in “The Writing on the Wall” (see notes above for types of supporting details). In 1-2 sentences, explain how each develops or refines the central idea. The story mentions the Chinese exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited the immigration of all Chinese laborers. The reason this supports the story is because it gives us a reason why they were detained. There was a lot of racism in the time period of this story as it quotes “that the European men received comparably better treatment than asian men.” In the beginning of the story he gives us an example of what happened to most Chinese men when they arrived on Ellis Island showing that they were treated unfairly. The author says “The inmates often sigh” as if they were in a prison.

Essential Question- Rogelio Ceballos

Essential Question

Some American rules that Waverly’s family adopted were the rules of chess. Even though at the beginning of the text Waverly’s mother didn’t want to keep it. Waverly says that chess is a game of secrets because, “A little knowledge withheld is a great advantage one should store for future use.” so so basically that knowledge you keep for yourself, you can use to win. I think she loves the secrets because it can possibly help her with chess. I think that Waverly acts like an impatient child because she wants her opponent to accidentally make a wrong move, or something along those lines.

What this section has taught me about being truly American is that you can still be American without being from America. By that I mean, Waverly’s family is a Chinese family is America. They have some American rules and some of their own Chinese rules they hang on to. Chess, in this text, can potentially used as a metaphor for American life by the way Waverly’s mother talks about rules. She says things like judges send you back if you’re from a foreign country and don’t know the American rules. She is comparing the rules we use in chess to the rules that judges in America use.

  

Rules of the Game Essential questions Jonathan Gillespie Average Joes

In “Rules of the Game” Waverly’s family do adapt to some American cultures and customs but overall, they keep their own way of life and don’t change from it that much. One major American culture they do celebrate is Christmas. They go to a missionary church where gifts are passed out and that is where they receive the chess set. Mrs.Jong wants to throw away the gift which would be rude to the person who gave it to them but the kids decide to keep it. Waverly’s mom also acts stereotypical at times(which does fit the era they live in as a lot of were) with some examples being when she said,  “Chinese people do business, do medicine, do painting. Not like lazy American people. We do torture. Best torture.”

Waverly though, is the one who I believe adapts the most American customs for when she plays chess. In the story she becomes a national champion and it says, “I was still 429 points away from grandmaster status, but I was touted as the Great American Hope, a child prodigy and a girl to boot .” This shows that she achieves the American dream which is part of our culture as people come here hoping to get big. She also acts like an impatient child to trick her opponents into thinking that the reason she is there is because she is lucky and doesn’t know what she is doing. Chess can also be seen as a metaphor to American life as it is like one giant game  where g you can plan ahead and try to anticipate what your opponent ( who is life) will throw at you and try to counter it.

Rules of the Game-Essential Question-Richie Bartley-The Average Joes

Essential Question

Write a two paragraph response analyzing this text’s relationship to the unit essential question: what does it mean to be American? In other words, how does this text shed light on this question? To answer this thoroughly, you should also discuss Waverly’s culture and how she and her family fit into (or don’t fit into) American culture/rules. Remember to cite specific lines or instances from the text (minimum 2).

Use the questions below to guide your response: Incorporate your answers into a cohesive, well written response. DO NOT simply answer the questions like you would on a worksheet.

• What are some "American rules" that Waverly's family adopts? Why is Mrs. Jong willing to adopt them?
• What are some "Chinese rules" that Waverly's family holds on to?
• Why does Waverly call chess "a game of secrets in which one must show and never tell"? Why does she love the secrets?
• Why does Waverly's chess game involve acting as well as skill? Why does she act like an impatient child and pretend to be undecided while playing?
• What has this section taught you about what makes people feel truly “American?”
• How is chess potentially a metaphor for American life in this text? (Think about how the text talks about the rules of chess).

When you have finished your response, find three images online that relate to or represent your ideas. Use them as visual aids/decoration on your blog post.

The Jong family adopts the american rules for chess. Mrs. Jong is willing to accept them in order to let her daughter compete in chess tournaments. Waverly shows instead of telling because if you say your next move your opponent will probably counter it. So if you keep your plan of attack a secret you have a better chance at winning. She acts like an impatient child in order deceive her opponents into under estimating her.

Waverly pretends to be undecided so her opponent thinks she doesn’t have a tactic. Chess is a game that shows that americans would battle each other if they didn’t have a government to stop it. Also everyone has a part just like all the chess pieces play their role. Chess also shows that you can’t win right away that you need to work your way to victory. It also shows born to lead while others are born to follow.