Noticing, caring, belonging

How writers and readers Co-create

the story world

Stages of Relationship with Story (the heroes’ journeys)

• Attraction (or blind date?)• Acquaintance and Transaction

– Communication (do we understand each other? Will this moment break our deal? What are the consequences/benefits/drawbacks?)

– Agreements (if I continue, what will be the consequences/benefits, drawbacks? Am I willing to suspend belief/disbelief)

– Risk (Nothing is Certain (get it?), and I’m willing to go out on a limb)• Immersion: Appreciation, trust and dissolution (“I” dissolve,

entering the story world, swimming around the corners)• Commitment and Correspondence (I continue, but emerge to

share my experience with others)

The Book Thief

• Zusak gives Death a Persona—describe that persona. Why is death not so attractive, typically speaking, just saying…

• http://www.google.com/search?q=Images+of+death&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#

Death Be Not Proud

• John Donne, turn of the 17th century poet who challenges fear of death.

• Who would do such a thing?• Who would we be without the story: “Death is

the ultimate scary dude, villain, creep”• Let’s work on this poem to better understand

the liberating joy of coming to terms with difficult language.

Poemophobia:I don’t know what this poem says, and I don’t need to know, and if I try and fail, I’ll look stupid

• With a little help from our friends… just try• How does this poem relate to Book Thief?• Experience sharing the challenge and looking

closely at the poetry of book thief• Scaffold your creative response to book thief• Yadayadayada• Let’s play with the poem—use page one of

graphic organizer

G.O. Page Three • All Class

• Who does death think (how do we know it’s a) he is?

• And so on

For this week (5/21-5/24)• Wednesday, 5/23: In groups, develop BT questions for all-class

discussion.– Prologue and Part I: SB (point of view, voice, melissa, chloe, elizabeth)– Part 2: AT (characters—ashley, adam, marybeth)– Part 3: P (setting—jen and dylan)

• Attend to language (author’s stylistic choices), your relationship with the story: characters, voice, point of view, and setting.

• Post your first Book Thief Response by Wednesday at 5pm• Discuss responses in class on Thursday, 5/24 • discuss Parts 4 and

5. Read Elaine White article “Young Adult Literature as Key to Literacy,” and Censorship (TBP) for Tuesday.

POV• Death is an observer, shepherd of souls• Doesn’t physically interfere, except when he takes the book• Observer; omniscient• Can we trust this narrator?• Yes, because he dispels our misconceptions• Appealing through sense of humor and humanness. Disarming—real.

Gentle and empathetic. He is almost burdened by what he sees and experiences—he needs a vacation. He is touched by human experience.

• He isn’t gruesome. HE? isn’t responsible for humans’ ends of life. He is responsible for collecting their souls and transitioning them.

• He takes a fancy to Liesel and presumably others throughout beginningless time.

• “Nice has nothing to do with me” (p.3) echoes Rifkin’s empathy video.

Characters

• Why are the Hubermann’s together? Opposites attract? Hans is sweet; Rosa is a drill sarge.

• Rosa expresses love in a rough way.• Liesel, Rudy, parents• The children are somewhat oblivious.

Youthful, innocent, exuberant children• “The Struggler” The mayor’s wife; Frau Diller;

Setting: geography and…

• The mayor’s house and its furnishings • Closet within a warehouse in Stuttgart few

hundred miles in the northwest of Germany• Apple orchards – expansion of thievery• Church, school, book burning site• Candy store and tailor’s shop• Why is setting so important? It’s deeper than

we think—not just geography

POV/Ch/Setting

• Setting is the world created by the narrator in which characters interact

• Characters make choices based on their ability to reason

• Setting establishes the “boundaries” or rules that determine (permit or censor) certain choices and behaviors.

• This can be hard for some characters to “see” because they’re part of “it.”

• Who can “see” in BT?

Setting (again)…we’re going deeper. It’s getting darker…

• Understanding setting and context can enhance our understanding of own lives.

• And how to navigate through.• That is “what’s the game?”• All human activity is allowed, encouraged, shaped, and constrained by

the particular social situation in which it occurs.• Activity can be unpredictable, but can always be understood as goal-

oriented and rule-governed.• Within bounded settings over time, rules become unquestioned ways –

common sense.• How characters follow, adapt, or violate rules reveals character,

relationships to and within their setting. Context is a better word than setting. It “reflext” the complexities of setting.

What people think and do

• Is dramatically affected by Context, or setting. (how static or flexible is the context?)

• Produce tools to help them perform functions in situations/settings.

• “Tools” and their use are “exteriorized” forms of mental processes.

• They develop in a variety of contexts—interactively• Micro, meso, and macrosystems (ecology or context

of human development): nested and dynamic

How settings set up characters (us)

• An address: Climate; Physical features (natural artifacts and climate);human-made features (architecture, floor plans): how a story is located in space

• Historical Time: Era, and Duration (stories that occur in a short duration, usually emphasize the micro level; epics focus on macro level concerns)

• Social and Psychological: Systems of relationships; the interactive space of a setting

Setting (again)

• Always– Provides a situation that is going to deeply

influence what CAN happen in a story and HOW characters feel about what happens.

– Or: Conflict is always a function of setting

– Conflict and consequences derive from settings and situations, containing and driving story action (plot)

Setting is really• About RULE setting• Setting sets rules constraints possibilities conflicts consequences

• Particular groups makes rules that apply to particular settings in order to achieve certain goals.

• Knowing and playing by the rules makes one a valued insider who can participate with that group in their setting.

• Testing, questioning, and violating the rules will inevitably lead to _________________ .

• You can navigate to find a new channel, but you can’t leave the river.

Dumb or Wise? Some word pairs to help with literary themes

• Compassion or pity?• Courage or brazenness?• Knowledge or assumption?• Combat or violence?• Truth or convenience?• Content or complacent?• Loving or needy?• Free or lost?

For Next Week (5/29–5/31)

• No class on Monday• Tuesday • Discuss Parts 6, 7, 8 and assigned

articles. Post second BT reading response. • Wednesday • Discuss Parts 9, 10, epilogue. Quiz

on Thief and Elaine White article “Young Adult Literature as Key to Literacy”

• Thursday • Book Talks (ten minutes each). (Instructional tip: Listen to the book talks on NPR)

As a class; as an individual

• Collaborate to fill in the first 3 cells as I read the poem. Poems need to be read many times, so bear with me. (10 min)

• Working with your book talk group, finish the graphic organizer

• Discuss as a class

What is Metaphysical?

• http://www.bartleby.com/105/72.html

• Metaphysical poetry, in the full sense of the term,” as Grierson writes, “is a poetry which has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence.”