Mrs. Moritz's 9th Honors English

Friday, May 11, 2007

6th Hour Manzanar Scribe

Today we started off class a little slowly, because everyone was having side conversations, and then someone asked Mrs. Moritz how her daughter was doing. Mrs. Moritz said her daughter had some sort of virus, and might be sick for a little while, but should get better relatively soon. After we finished with all the side conversations, we found out about the Farewell to Manzanar final assessment. For this final assessment, we have to make a speech-like presentation to the class. The topic of the speech is: Think of a time when you were in a really tragic, depressing, scary, or overall bad situation and even though it was tough, you made the situation the best it could possibly be. An example Mrs. Moritz gave from the book is how Jeanne took her time in Manzanar, and even though it was a bad situation for her, she tried to make her time there the best it could be, and later came back to Manzanar, even though it changed her life so much. Mrs. Moritz also gave a personal example of when her brother-in-law died. She said it was one of the hardest times in her life, but in the end, his death caused her to want to have children, so she could always have a piece of her husband. Mrs. Moritz said that you can write an essay/outline for your speech, but she won’t grade it or even see it. She will only grade off of the oral presentation. Don't just read from your essay/outline during the speech, or you will get a bad grade. We will do the speeches in front of the class on Wednesday, but if you feel strongly about not speaking in front of the class, see Mrs. Moritz to arrange a time to do your speech for only her. After discussing the Manzanar final assessment, we got back into our groups from yesterday to work on our character maps. Yesterday we filled the inside of our characters, but today, we did the outside influences on our characters. We filled the space around our characters with anything from the outside world that had an effect on the character. While working on our character maps, Mrs. Moritz called us up by our Final Assessment/photostory groups. We received a rubric/checklist outlining all the parts of the project that we need to have done. We will have two days in the lab next week, Tuesday and Thursday to work on the project. Homework was to work on both the Manzanar and photostory final assessments.

1st Hour ManzanarScribe

Kevin's scribe will go here.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

1st Hour ManzanarScribe

Hello everyone!
Hope you all had a relaxing Thursday...

May 7th Scribe:

Today we started out by discussing how our scored discussion will work when it comes around. Once again, people disagreed about what makes a successful discussion in a class of 30-odd students, but Mrs. Moritz will make the final decision about the future of our Manzanar final.

Moving on...

Mrs. Moritz put us in groups based on our row in the classroom for a creative project of sorts. In our groups we were supposed to create a character map for the one main character assigned to us. One person in the group is traced on the long sheet of paper. Today's focus was on the soul of the character. We were supposed to describe and draw what defines and fills the character's soul. For example, the heart of the character would be drawn, and inside the heart would be pictures and descriptions of what s/he truly loves.

Tomorrow we will focus on what influences the person's actions, (how the outside world effects character).

Ta Da!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

1st Hour ManzanarScribe

It's me, the sribe for today, which is wednesday the 9th. Today we began class with some interesting discussion topics not pertaining to the book. WE ARE OUT OF KLEENEX, PLEASE, IF ANYONE IS OUT THERE, PLEASE BRING MORE. We then quickly and effeciently located and squashed a small 8-legged friend of ours in the back of the room.We talked about the book for five minutes. Then we read for about 43 minutes. We are all supposed to read until the end of the book tonight. If you don't then the Ghost of Deadlines Past will come out of nowhere and show you all your old rotting paper. That would be nice to avoid. I'm terribly sorry that reading this scribe is not as thrilling or in any way gratifying as I might have hoped. But, when you read for 43 minutes it leaves me with very little to say, others than KLEENEX and ghosts. Have a nice day. No, really. Everyone might be dissapointed if you go and have a bad day.

6th Hour Manzanar Scribe-Tuesday

Hello everybody!

We were all glad that Mrs. Moritz was back today.

First we discussed our semester projects. You must relate your overall theme to one poem that was presented in class and to all three books. We will have 2 days in the computer lab next week. I hope they are coming along well.

Before we started to discuss, we looked at some “Ansel Adams and Manzanar” pictures. They were pictures that had been taken in the camp. We looked for noticeable things and the perspective.

Then we hopped right into our discussion of Farwell to Manzanar. We discussed Papa’s reaction to his daughter wanting to be baptized. He was very angry. He thought that she was too young to decide what she wanted to be. We thought that she only wanted to be baptized so she could wear a pretty dress.

For homework, read the next three chapters: Ch 16, 17, & 18
No sticky notes this time.

1st Hour ManzanarScribe-Tuesday

Jordan's scribe will go here.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

6th Hour Manzanar Scribe--Monday

Hey Everybody! We started off the day with our second (and last thank
goodness) substitute, Mrs. Ritzdorf. She went around the room and checked
your sticky note questions, and if she didn't like them, she would tell you
that they were not the correct chapters. This happened to me and I had to go
through each of my questions and find them in the text before she would give
me credit. : ( But to continue, we followed up by circling up.
Our questions were (in order of occurance):
1. Why did papa stay in the barracks for 5 months.
-the class generally felt that he was either too depressed about being in
the inturnment camp to leave, or he was embarassed that he had nothing to do
and nowhere else to be
2.Why was each family presented with an X-Mas tree?
-our response was that Americans generally think they know what people of
all races and types want. We also assume that we can give it to them. It was
an action similar to the presentation of apricots on rice. It was the
American way of Americanizing the Japanese while giving them what WE thought
THEY needed.
3. Would Americans have responded the same way if we were put in the same
position as the Japanese? If we were inturned in Japan...
-we said that we would not respond in a similar way because we are too used
to dominating everything. We would find our own way to turn our inturnment
to our benefit. Also, many of the class members seemed to think that the
majority of Americans would defect and return to America. I know I probably
would.
4. Why does the adjective "inu" offend papa?
-the class responded with the thought that papa was offended because "inu"
basically meant he was disrespectful towards his mother country. In a
culture where respect means everything, being called disrespectful would be
a deep jab to his self esteem.
5. Why does papa want Woody to abstain from going to war?
-The class seemed to think that papa is of the mind that if the American
Gv't wont trust him, why trust his child?
6. Why didn't we imprison other cultures?
-the truth is we did. There were also noted Italian inturnment camps, and I
would bet there were others for other races. But not in the volume of
Japanese Inturnment camps. Japanese people were easily recognized and
isolated whereas lighter skinned europeans would not be as noticeable. The
Gv't just wanted to seem like they were doing something so they put a
noticable effort into isolating those who were different from the typical
American person. Another thought was that we were not directly at war with
the Germans and the Italians and whatnot. Though the Germans did torpedo a
couple ships carrying "passengers" when either coming into or leaving the
United States, what really pushed us over the edge was Pearl Harbor. A
Japanese offensive.
7. If papa doesn't like Japan, why does he cry when he hears songs from his
childhood?
-The general statement of the class was that papa remembers the old times
before he came to America, before the war. And now seeing what a desolate
place he is in now, and how he can't return to what he had set out to
America to become, he breaks down and cries for his past. He could also have
been crying about the war with his home country and his future country. He
could see it as an unfair attack on democracy.
8.Would you give up your ties to the homeland?
-what I wrote down as the class sentiment was "no, you're stuck either
way..." I don't really remember what that meant, but I will take a stab at
it. If one disowns their country, they have nowhere to return to if they are
kicked out of their country of residence. Terminating your ties to a country
does not necessarily mean that the country you are in will give you rights.
So either way you are stuck.
9. In the chapter dealing with the ballots, why were the choices talked
about only "YES ,YES" or "NO, NO?" Why such an extreme point of view either
way? Why not anything in between?
-The class believed that the government would want sufficient evidence to
whether the person in question was loyal to the U.S. or to Japan. The class
also though that saying "YES, NO," or "NO,YES," would be contradictory based
on the questions.
10. Would women have to fill out the ballot and would they be subsequently
drafted based on their answers?
-The class felt that it was just for men, and women could not be drafted at
the time.

The following questions were asked by the substitute:

1.Why would you be willing to die for something?
-We seemed to feel that you would die for something important to you like
family if it was in danger and the only way to remove it from such danger is
through death, this question lead to a further one from the sub...
2. What would dying for your country accomplish?
-As this was an almost personal attack on Natali, she was one of the only
people who answered. She said that it would accomplish death in honor.
Others thought that it would help uphold the country's beliefs system and
make a difference in the world. We also seemed to believe that fighting for
what you believed in is a worthy cause to die.
3. Is this the way people go into Iraq?
-The class seemed to think from second hand experience, that soldiers tend
to not to want to fight but to avenge 9/11. It is 6 years after the fact and
fighting for somehting that happened that long ago is generally seen as
pointless.
13.What differences are seen between the Japanese song in the book and our
national anthem?
-theirs is about growing as a country and becoming better united and ours is
about prevailing in battle. Theirs is also very peaceful and ours is about
bombs and smoke and our flag standing after a bloody battle.

Our homework was to read through chapter 15. Or at least that is what I did.
It might have been through 16... I don't know.

In Gassho,

Emma Steinebrey

6th Hour Manzanar Scribe--Friday

BAH SORRY MY SCRIBE TOOK SO LONG TO DO. I'm sure you all missed it terribly.

Today, we had a substitute in English because Mrs. Moritz was at a reading conference. Or was she attending her son’s ear surgery? Hm. She was not here, nonetheless. To begin class, the sub called our names on roll and checked our sticky-note discussion questions. We arranged our desks into a circle and began discussing. Natali, Liz, and Kayla led the discussion. Among the topics were Jeanne’s father’s interrogation, and the possibility that he deliberately ‘forgot’ her name when listing his children’s names in an effort to spare her misfortune or discomfort. We also discussed the placid way in which Jeanne’s mother accepted her father’s threats and rage, wondering if she wanted him to kill her. We talked about how Americans living in Japan would react if the same restrictions were placed on their existence, and decided that the Japanese were more willing to accept these hardships because they believed that an American life would lead to more fortune and possibility for the future, however, Americans living in Japan would simply become angry and do everything in their power to have the camps abolished and go home. After discussing for a while, we found we had little left to say, and began reading chapters 10, 11, and 12.
If you didn’t finish chapters 10-12, finish them for homework, and don’t forget 3 more discussion questions for Monday!

1st Hour ManzanarScribe-Monday

Hello!

Today Mrs. Moritz was at a reading seminar, so we had a sub. We took attendance and Mrs. Ritzdorf checked that everyone had their three questions. We moved to large group discussion.

We talked about:

Was the reservoir crew set up, or was it just carelessness on the part of the whites runnung the camp. We discussed how the soldiers were scared of the reservoir crew just because they were japanese, or because they are different. We taled about why they couldn't answer yes no or no yes on the survey because they would contradict each other, and there was no point to go to the army if you didn't support the country. We talked about why papa decided on yes yes, and why he only re-emerged and sobered up to be at the debate. We talked about why he freaked out when the guy called him an inu. we wondered if he would stay sober, or drink all the time again. we asked the class if they would have gone to war or relocate, and what defines fear.

HW: 13-15, 3 more questions.

1st Hour ManzanarScribe-Friday

In English on Friday Mrs. Moritz was not at school due to her son's ear surgery. We started out the day by showing the sub that we had our sticky note questions from Farewell to Manzanar. Then we jumped right into the day's discussion. We put all of the desks in one big circle and Rachel, Elyse, and Melissa led the discussion. First we talked about how Jeanne's dad goes into a rage and gets into a fight with her mother. Jeanne hides under the bed because she is scared and she wanted them to stop. This was ironic because the next chapter features Jeanne's dad being interrogated. Not only does he forget Jeanne's name during this time but when talking about his countries--Japan and the United States--he uses an analogy. The anology was something to the effect of "When your parents are fighting you don't want one to just kill the other, you want them to stop fighting." This is ironic because just a chapter earlier, he threatens to kill his wife. We discussed whether or not this abuse was recurring and also the parallels between Jeanne's family situation and World War II. Going off of that, we discussed what it would be like to have to choose between what your parents wanted and what you believed, which also seems to bea recurring theme. Woody decided that he would accept going to war to fight for the US even though his dad wouldn't. Mr. Wakatsuki has to choose between his "parents" -Japan and the United States -and what he believes about the war. Next we discussed how hard it must be for the Japanese to forgive America for what we put them through. We disregarded the fact that they were hard-working American citizens simply because they looked like the enemy. We also talked about what it would be like to have nowhere to go. If you left the country of your birth and went to a country with which that country was at war, the people of your first country wouldn't accept you back. If the country you immigrated to wouldn't accept you either, you had no home. That would be a feeling that no person should ever have to deal with and it's within their rights not to. The discussion pretty much took us up to the bell, then we put the deska back.

Homework: Read chapters 10, 11, and 12 plus 3sticky note questions...

1st Hour ManzanarScribe

At 0730 hours(7:30) the class filed in for roll. Commander Moritz started class and graced us the "Peeps", the popular marshmallow candy. Here we had a brief discussion about whether sugar coated marshmallows were actually edible. Moving on, Commander Moritz told us that she pleased with our blogging last night. Several slackers were court-marshal- I mean reprimanded and told to get it done as soon as possible. Commander Moritz was pleased with the fact that we showed some emotion regarding this novel. Commander Moritz moved along and started a discussion regarding the Japanese and how they were treated. This developed into a discussion about the narrator's father and what exactly happened to him at Fort Lincoln. Taking care of business, Commander Moritz informed us that we would a sub on Friday and Monday. She then informed us that we would be having discussion those days that would be led by class members. With some time left Commander Moritz allowed us to begin on tomorrow's assignment. Read Chapters 7, 8, and 9 by 0730 hours tomorrow. We got the order to commence and read for a short time. Then at 0823 with a curt nod, the order to dismiss was issued and the platoo--I mean class, strolled out to carry on our days.

Again our assignmnet for tomorrow is: Read Chapters 7, 8, and 9.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

6th Hour Manzanar Scribe

We started off the class looking at the last t-shirt that was left. After this we talked about "Farewell to Manzanar", and talked about why sand could get into their cabins. This was because their floors had so many holes. Then we talked about how we have a bad conception of what Asians eat and how the book makes fun of us for this. Ms. Moritz then handed us a sheet to read, the sheet had the orders given to Japanese people telling them that they needed to get ready to move to camps. Then on the same sheet we read the back, which was a letter from someone in a camp explaining what it was like in there. Then we talked about celebrities, and how people act like they know who they are when they really don't. After this we read up to page 59 in our book.s Friday we have a substitute and Ms. Moritz asked us to lead the discussion then. The homework was to finish reading to page 59.

Read the following passages that occur in the beginning of the book. What do you think of them? How do they make you feel? What emotions have you experienced since beginning this novel and how do you feel about this part of American History? How can we prevent this from happening again?

"It is sobering to recall that though the Japanese relocation program, carried through such incalculable costs in misery and tragedy, was justified on the ground that the Japanese were potentially disloyal, the record does not disclose a single case of Japanese disloyalty or sabotage during the whole war..."
HENRY STEELE COMMAGER
Harper Magazine, 1947

Life has left her footprints on my forehead
But I have become a child again this morning
The smile, seen through leaves and flowers,
is back, to smooth
Away the wrinkles
As the rains wipe away footprints
on the beach. Again a
Cycle of birth and death begins.
THICH NHST HANH
Viet Nam Poems, 1967

1st Hour ManzanarScribe

We began our class today with a reminder that everyone needs to turn in overdue books to the library and pay fines or YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO REGISTER. Then we viewed yet another 1984 T-Shirt, the last I believe. We then moved onto discussion of last night's reading, a full 5 pages of large print type. Basically, the rooms that the Japanese people are given in these camps suck. They are 2 feet off the ground and there are cracks in the floorboards so, during the night, dust blows up through the cracks and covers everything. The family attempts to cover the holes with tin can lids and scrap lumber. At the end of the chapter, Woody is also very mocking of the Caucasians with his comment about the food.
Next we got a handout with a copy of the document that was handed out to "Persons of Japanese Descent" in 1942. It gave Japanese-Americans around 6 days to sell their house, furniture, cars, and pets then pack for the trip to the camps. All these people were allowed to bring were: Bedding and Linens, Toiletries, Extra clothing, eating utensils and anything else that could be carried. This brought to light the extreme racism that was shown in this time and how this racism connects to the aftermath of 9/11. We heard many stories of personal racism and came to the conclusion that everyone is racist in some way and in certain situations. We also discussed how the younger generation is typically more accepting while older generations are more set in their ways and views.
Then we read the back side of the handout- a letter from and interned Japanese-American child. Some people wanted to know if someone who was not Japanese could go into the camps to be with their families. This brought up the question of why the Japanese were interned and not the Germans or Italians. We decided it came down to how they looked. It is not easy for us to identify a certain descent among Europeans, most look more or less the same. However, it is very easy to tell a Japanese person from a European so it was easier to round them up so to speak. Mrs. Moritz then gave us a visual of how much living space the people in the camps had and what it would be like to live in that space.
Also, for most of the class period, Jordan was making rounds with a giant tub of mints. I believe the end count was 6 mints for each person, not a bad haul. THANKS JORDAN!
For the rest of class we read our books.
HOMEWORK: Read up to Chapter 7 respond to blog question on blog or on paper due tomorrow.


Read the following passages that occur in the beginning of the book. What do you think of them? How do they make you feel? What emotions have you experienced since beginning this novel and how do you feel about this part of American History? How can we prevent this from happening again?

"It is sobering to recall that though the Japanese relocation program, carried through such incalculable costs in misery and tragedy, was justified on the ground that the Japanese were potentially disloyal, the record does not disclose a single case of Japanese disloyalty or sabotage during the whole war..."
HENRY STEELE COMMAGER
Harper Magazine, 1947

Life has left her footprints on my forehead
But I have become a child again this morning
The smile, seen through leaves and flowers,
is back, to smooth
Away the wrinkles
As the rains wipe away footprints
on the beach. Again a
Cycle of birth and death begins.
THICH NHST HANH
Viet Nam Poems, 1967

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

6th Hour Manzanar Scribe

Hello everyone!

First off, I'm sure everybody hopes that Mrs.Moritz's foot feels better and also that David's ear surgery goes well. NOTE: Mrs. Moritz will not be in class on Monday or Friday, also we will have 2 more days in the computer lab for the semester project and hopfully everyone is progressing with their projects.

Later, we got our Farewell to Manzanar books from the book room and we were to write our names in the inside cover. For our final assesment for this book we will be having a scored discussion. Mrs.Moritz then read aloud the first two chapters of Farewell to Manzanar and we talked about how Mama must have felt having to take care of 10 children while her husband had been arrested for crimes he did not commit and being Japanese when their ethnicity was the "enemy". How would it feel to be born in one country and live in another and have them both fighting and both of them disown you? We also talked about the television show "Deadliest Catch" and how it was similar to our new book. If anyone has time, I might suggest tuning into the show.

Homework: We are supposed to read Chapter 3 for tomorrow, it's very short so it won't take very long. Have a great day everyone!

1st Hour ManzanarScribe

In Mrs. Moritz's class, we started out the day by seeing the rest of the 1984 shirts, and then Tim and Dan hung them on the wall. We talked about the show , "The Bachelor" and how no one has any idea who is going to win. One of the boys on the show bought his girlfriend a diamond necklace, diamond earings, and a diamond bracelet. Everyone brought their "1984" books to the "creppy" book room, and we all got our brand new "Farwell to Manzanar" books. When we got back to class, Mrs. Moritz did a read aloud to the whole class, and she read pages 1-21. We discussed how the mother, Chizu, in the book dealt with her anger when someone wanted to buy her only prized posession for $15.00. She threw the China because that was the only way she knew to deal with her anger. Our homework for tonight is to finish chapter three, due tomorrow.

Monday, April 30, 2007

6th Hour 1984/Manzanar Scribe

Konbanwa! Today your scribe is the amazing Ra-sama!

First off, Moritz-sensei showed the class some of the tee-shirts our classes had done on 1984 propaganda. These was an especially impressive one done by 1st hour.

After the glorious tee-shirt display, the class turned in their 1984 books and final assesments.

Then, the class spent most of the rest of the hour discussing Japanese Internment camps (the subject of our next book, Farewell to Manzanar ) The Japanese were moved from the west coast to the middle of nowhere because of their descent during the second World War. They were interned because the Americans were fearful that they had contacts with the Japanese government and were spies.

This brought up the discussion about how the American government didn't do the same thing to Middle Easterners after the 9/11 attacks. The students argued America is more conceredn about rights in the present day, and even though they weren't interned, Middle Easterners were still discriminated against in other ways.

For the final portion of class, we discussed a powerpoint Moritz-sensei had put together containing questions about rights:
What rights should be protected?
When is it Justifiable to violate these rights?
If the government, or anyone violates your rights, what should you do?

We start Farewell to Manzanar tomorrow!

Also, we hope for the best for Moritz-sensei's son!

1st Hour 1984/ManzanarScribe

4/30 Scribe Dan Eigner

We started class by turning in our 1984 final assessment papers. Then we looked at our final T-Shirt designs after Mrs. Moritz printed them. Unfortunately the iron on didn’t work front and back so all designs were on the front. After that we talked about our live blog on Friday. Then we discussed time for our semester long projects. Then we handed in our copies of 1984, but Mrs. Moritz was unhappy about us not writing our names in the books. This was because she can’t hold people responsible for damage. Mrs. Moritz asked for any more graded quizzes.

Then we got into our new unit. She started by asking about what we knew about internment camps and why the Japanese were put there. This is for our next novel Farewell to Manzanar. Mrs. Moritz then asked a controversial question: Why didn’t we put middle eastern people into camps after 9/11?

Then we got into human rights and their protection by law.
Which of the people’s rights should be protected? Under what conditions, if any, might it be justifiable to violate citizen’s legal rights? What should people do if they feel the government is violating their rights? What about the rights of others? What are examples of current legal decisions that you might consider unjust in which the government mistreats people?

Then Mrs. Moritz gave us the night off of blogging and homework.