Notebook

Notebook assignments are 20% of your grade. You can turn in your entire notebook or staple the pages together. I will collect your notebooks the week of June 2.

Notebook 4.1: Six Word Memoirs

Writer Ernest Hemingway famously wrote this six word memoir:

For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

Get it? A touch depressing, huh? 

Notebook 4.1 is to write at least five of your own. They don't have to be personal. They can be about life, how you're feeling today, the Badgers and the Final Four, whatever. We watched this three minute Youtube clip to give some ideas. Here are some of Mr. L's examples: 

• My passions: teaching, traveling, hiking, Packers.
• Oh crap. Getting married on Sunday.
• Minnesota, Madison, California, Vietnam, Chicago, Madison.
• Sunday Game of Thrones. And marriage.
• Get busy living or get busy dying.
• Eddie Lacy. The new Marshawn Lynch.

Notebook 4.2:

Part A: Plot map of Tim O'Brien's (author of The Things They Carried) life

Today (Monday, 4/7) we read about author Tim O'Brien's life. Use the following bio about his life to make a plot map for Notebook 4.2, part A:

Born in 1946 in Austin, Minnesota, and raised in Worthington, Minnesota, O'Brien experienced childhood in a rural environment. As a young boy, he had a desire to write. After graduating from Macalester College in 1968, O'Brien was drafted into the United States Army and served in Vietnam as an infantry soldier from 1969 to 1970. This experience would forever shape his perspective on writing and life. When he returned home from the war, he attended graduate school at Harvard University, and after he graduated his career as a writer officially began.

Part B: What genres (category, style) of books or film most appeal to you? And why? (Write about a paragraph)

For example: 

I really like mystery novels and have read them since I was a kid. I like being creeped out and spooked by the suspense in a book. However, I can't stand the horror film genre. Those movies give me nightmares and the suspense and gore is too much for me. I guess I can stomach it on the page but not the screen. I much prefer psychological or crime thrillers.

Notebook 4.3: Chapter One Vocabulary

You will need to take a worksheet from the front shelf next to the window to complete this notebook assignment. The worksheet explains everything. See me if you still have questions.

Notebook 4.4: Character Charts

Choose three characters, recording quotes/evidence from the text, as well as inferences and analysis of the characters. Below is an example using the character Kiowa. Your chart should look something like this.

Character	Quotes from the text	Assumptions/Inferences/ Your own thoughts and  analysis about the Character
	“ “ (pg. #)
Kiowa	“a devout Baptist” (pg. 3) “carried an illustrated New Testament” “also carried his grandmother’s distrust of the white man, his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet” (3) -describes Ted Lavender’s death and “how the guy dropped like so much concrete” (6) -takes moccasins with him on ambushes (8)	-religious -Native American? -seems fairly sensitive, perhaps  not as matter-of-fact as the  narrator, based on the way he describes Lavender’s death
	What things do they carry?

Notebook 4.5: Anti-War documentary commentary

Watch the Youtube videos below and write some commentary. Commentary is NOT a plot summary. Write down something new or interesting you learned or some questions you have.

1) How the Vietnam War Changed America
2) Anti-Vietnam War Movement Documentary

Notebook 4.6: Free Write

Write about anything that comes to mind. Spring Break is over and you may have a lot on your mind. Get it off your chest and on to paper about anything you might be feeling: how you spent your break, your hopes for the rest of the year, or your summer plans.

Notebook 4.7: In Tim's shoes

Pretend you are in Tim's situation. You get drafted for a war you "hate" and think is "wrong." You have the opportunity to flee to Canada or go to Vietnam and fight, and quite possibly die, for a cause you don't believe in. What would you do? Why?

Notebook 4.8: "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" sketch/doodle/picture

Draw, sketch, or doodle whatever you picture while listening to the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong."

Notebook 4.9: Courage commentary

Respond to one or several of the quotes below, writing for 10 minutes. Apply the quotes to the book, soldiers, and war or apply it to your own life. It's up to you!

“He is who not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

-Muhammad Ali

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal:

it is the courage to continue that counts.”

-Winston Churchill

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

-Nelson Mandela

“Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without it we can’t practice any other virtue with consistency.”

-Maya Angelou

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

-Winston Churchill

Notebook 4.10: Reflect on Revenge

Revenge is a word that connotes feelings of bitterness. It also could be a form of catharsis for some people. It is a powerful force in war. Reflect on revenge in the following two scenarios:

1) In the chapter "Ghost Soldiers", the author describes seeking revenge against one of his fellow soldiers. Do you think revenge is justified? You may want to think about the implications for the other soldiers if no action (or revenge) is taken.

2) Think of a scene that shows revenge in a film you have seen. Describe why the characters seek revenge and how they acted. What was the final result of their action/s?