2. Rice without Rain: Ch. 5 "Whose child would die next?"

Bodhi Tree from Thailand

Comment with your responses to these questions.

1. Why is the baby's death so important to the village?
2. What does the buffalo represent?
3. Search "Stop Hunger Now" and "Rachael Ray's Yum-O Organization" and see some of the organizations that help end hunger here in America and in foreign lands. Comment with your thoughts on hungry kids and what we can do.

2. Rice without Rain Ch. 3 - Intellectuals?

Hibiscus Flower, like the one Grandma rubbed on her nose

In the story, they complain that "the problem with today's intellectuals is that they can't do anything for themselves. All they have been taught is to think." 

Comment with your response to this question: what is the danger of only knowing to think and not do? 
Also, Jinda says, "what is the purpose of thinking if you don't notice the pigsty around you is empty?" 

Also comment with your response to this question: If someone is an intellectual, chances are they have questioned the world around them.  How does Jinda's grandma represent this "enlightenment" we all have?  What has your intellectual epiphany been about the world around you?

1. or 4. Poets - Research & Share

Choose one of the poets from this list, research them online, and choose your favorite poem by them.  Comment with the poet's name, your favorite poem of theirs, and why you chose them specifically.

• Emily Dickinson
• Countee Cullen
• ee cummings
• lucille clifton
• Rita Dove
• William Carlos Williams
• Ezra Pound
• Marge Piercy
• Mary Oliver
• Robert Frost
• Elizabeth Bishop
• William Butler Yeats
• Billy Collins
• Theodore Roethke
• Allen Ginsberg
• Sylvia Plath
• Wallace Stevens
• Walt Whitman
• Nikki Giovanni
• Martin Espada
• Max Lucado
• Julia Alvarez
• Yusef Komunyakaa

EOC Prep

To prepare for online EOC testing that will take place in just a few weeks, NCDPI strongly recommends students complete the Online Assessment Tutorial.  The Online Assessment Tutorial is not a test; it is only for practicing the mechanics of navigating through the testing platform. 

During the Online Assessment Tutorial, students have the opportunity to become familiar with navigation, item tracking/flagging/response features, interactive items, and other test interface features.  The Online Assessment Tutorial is available at:  http://go.ncsu.edu/nctdemo

Use Internet Explorer, and choose English I or English II.
Please complete the tutorial and COMMENT with your thoughts on the format.  Also comment with how ClassScape is going.

Remember, your next Benchmark is tomorrow, so be here early, get plently of sleep, and eat breakfast!

2. Rice Without Rain Chapter 1

This is a picture of the actual river Dao and Jinda visit in Chapter One. It is located in Maekung, Thailand.





Please comment with your first impressions of the novel.

What are some similarities and differences you see in Asian and Latino culture?

1. or 4. "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

“Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”

By Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Comment with your reaction to this poem, as well as something you learned about the poet, the rhyme scheme, the form, or the theme (message). 

2. Magical Realism Wrap-Up Vocab. 10

Salvador Dali's "Melting Clocks" represents Magical Realism because the clocks are very real, however, just as time melts away, in this picture, the clock is literally melting.

Review for your Quiz tomorrow on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."






1. Magical Realism - n. a style /genre in painting or literature where fantastic elements blend into the real world.
2. hypothesize - v. making an informed guess
3. bountiful - adj. abundant and ample
4. labyrinths - n. complicated network or paths that are difficult to follow; mazes
5. haggard - adj. torn up, ragged
6. resistant - adj. tough, strong, defiant
7. destitute - adj. needy, desperate
8. virile - adj. manly, fertile, characterized by strength
9. resign - v. quit
10. obliging - adj. kind

Comment with one of your sentences or a brief summary of the Garcia Marquez story.

1. or 4. POETRY Vocabulary 10

Poetry Literary Terms

1. narrative - a poem that tells a story, so it has a plot, characters, etc.
                      - also known as blank verse
2. dramatic - poetry that has characters speaking to each other, much like a play
3. simile or metaphor - comparing two unlike things; similes use "like," metaphors don't.
4. hyperbole - exaggerated speech
5. lyric - poems that are personal and confess something about the speaker
6. rhyme scheme - the pattern of rhymes in the poem
7. stanza - how a poem is broken up, like into paragraphs
8. form - the way the poem is created, whether it is free verse and doesn't rhyme or                is a sonnet, villanelle, sestina, haiku, etc.
9. refrain - repeated phrase or stanza in a poem
10. speaker - the narrator of a poem (not always the poet!)

Bonus: synechdoche - part for the whole, like "your wheels" represents your car

1.or 4. Open Poem Assignment

Express yourself! Comment with your original poetry here. 

Make sure your poem has a TITLE.  Beneath the poem, make sure you list the types of poetic devices you used (specific figurative language or rhyme).

Happy writing! April is National Poetry Month.  Learn more here: http://www.poets.org/

Don't be like her and let your voice be silenced.

4. Lyric Poetry - Word Choice (Hughes & Angelou)

Lyric poetry means the subject of the poem will be personal and more informal.  The word choice (diction) of the poem will be very specific to the mood of the speaker.

Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou are two poets that specialize in creating mood through their distinct word choice. 

Learn more about these two poets by searching them on http://www.shmoop.com/.

Read the poems below.  Think of vivid words or figurative language (alliteration, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, etc.) to fill in the blanks.  Once you have a complete poem, COMMENT with your new version of one or both of these poems.

"April Rain Song"
by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain __________ on your head with
_______ drops
Let the rain sing a _______________
The rain makes ______________ on the sidewalk
The rain makes ______________ in the gutter
The rain plays __________ __________ on our
roof at night
And I love the rain.

This poem by Maya Angelou describes the power of long-forgotten memories.

"When You Come"

When you come to me, unbidden
beckoning me
to ______________ rooms,

where memories lie,

offering me, as to a child, an attic,
gatherings of days too few,
baubles of stolen kisses,
trinkets of __________  ________,
trunks of _______ ___________,

I CRY.

1. Lyric Poetry - Word Choice (Hughes & Angelou)

Lyric poetry means the subject of the poem will be personal and more informal.  The word choice (diction) of the poem will be very specific to the mood of the speaker.

Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou are two poets that specialize in creating mood through their distinct word choice. 

Learn more about these two poets by searching them on http://www.shmoop.com/.

Read the poems below.  Think of vivid words or figurative language (alliteration, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, etc.) to fill in the blanks.  Once you have a complete poem, COMMENT with your new version of one or both of these poems.

"April Rain Song"
by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain __________ on your head with
_______ drops
Let the rain sing a _______________
The rain makes ______________ on the sidewalk
The rain makes ______________ in the gutter
The rain plays __________ __________ on our
roof at night
And I love the rain.

This poem by Maya Angelou describes the power of long-forgotten memories.

"When You Come"

When you come to me, unbidden
beckoning me
to ______________ rooms,

where memories lie,

offering me, as to a child, an attic,
gatherings of days too few,
baubles of stolen kisses,
trinkets of __________  ________,
trunks of _______ ___________,

I CRY.

4. Concrete Poems

Traditionally, concrete poems are about a special object.  The text of the poem fills in the outline of the object's shape.

For this blog assignment, add a comment where you describe your object along with the Concrete poem itself.

"Mrs. Perkins' Locket"

This locket reminds me
to keep a joyful heart
leave it open
so love can creep in
when I least expect it
and leak out
when I am not paying
attention.
It soothes me
in dark days;
the times I don't want
to forget my hurt.
Instead I focus
on the future,
and love
that will surely
come my way
if I let it.

4. Cremation of Sam McGee

"The Cremation of Sam McGee"
by Robert Service

A ballad (lyric poem that tells a story, rhyme scheme varies, made up of quatrains/4 line stanzas)

Please write your review of the poem in the Comments section. 

Bonus: Comment with your own original ballad.

1. __________a  - contains internal rhyme
2. __________b - end rhyme with line 4
3. __________c - contains internal rhyme
4. __________b - end rhyme with line 2

There are strange things done in the midnight sun - INTERNAL RHYME
By the men who moil for gold;
The arctic trails have their secret tales - INTERNAL RHYME
That would make your blood run cold - END RHYME with Line 2

2. Rice Without Rain Intro.

The novel we are starting is about Thailand in the 1970s.  It is about one girl's coming-of-age in a small town (sound familiar?).  She wants to be different from the people in her family and change the culture she lives in, while maintaining respect for her heritage.

Please post a COMMENT where you answer all of the questions below after reading the Foreword and doing some research online:

1. What happened at Thammasat University in 1976?

2. What are some pros and cons of the communist government in Thailand back then?

3. What kinds of problems are often faced by poor peasant farmers?

4. How did university students try to help the peasant farmers?

5.  Why does the student Jiranan say in the Foreword, "Naively, we thought that we could do anything, if only we tried hard enough?"

6. Do you agree or disagree that it is naive to believe you can do anything if you try?

Minfong with her three children, Danfung, MeiMei, and Chris   

Bonus Question:
What does Thai mean?



1. Concrete Poems

Traditionally, concrete poems are about a special object.  The text of the poem fills in the outline of the object's shape.

For this blog assignment, describe your object along with the Concrete poem itself.

"Mrs. Perkins' Locket"

This locket reminds me
to keep a joyful heart
leave it open
so love can creep in
when I least expect it
and leak out
when I am not paying
attention.
It soothes me
in dark days;
the times I don't want
to forget my hurt.
Instead I focus
on the future,
and love
that will surely
come my way
if I let it.