Past projects 2
Sophomores Read Of Mice and Men
Funded Sep 24, 2024My Sophomores have just finished reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies and will be starting Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis tomorrow. After that we'll read Tommy Orange's There, There and then we'll start John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men which you so kindly helped me fundraise. What this means is that my thank you letter to you is due before we get a chance to read this simple and impactful tale of the American Dream. I promise you I will send another update during or after we finish Of Mice and Men. What I can tell you now is that this year's crop of Sophomores is a lovely group and we are making a journey through Lahiri's tale of immigrants, Satrapi's story about forming identity in times of upheaval and Orange's heartbreaking and loving tale of urban Native Americans in the American West. By the time we get to Of Mice and Men, students will be primed to talk about the American Dream, leaving home for something better and finding people you really care about.
I'm already finding that this year's Sophomores are thoughtful, deep thinkers with deep creative wells. I look forward to telling you more about how Steinbeck fits into their sense of identity, friendship and willingness to strive.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrne
Chronicle of a Death Foretold for Latin American Literature
Funded Aug 26, 2024We just had our Socratic Seminar for Chronicle of a Death Foretold and it was so fun to hear students come alive with ideas about who should take the blame for Santiago's death, what honor means in the context of the book and in today's world, which characters they are most sympathetic to, which moments of magic realism serve as metaphor or transformations in memory and many more ideas. This has been such a fun book to teach and hear students think about. They've been especially intrigued by the magic realism, irony and contradictions in the characters.
Students will be working on their key passage analysis at the end of the week and have done a lot of writing about the key concepts of memory, dreams, community, animal imagery, magic realism, weather, narrator, social class, religion, gendered expectations, reputation, irony and honor. I've enjoyed watching them hone in on key passages that interest them and watched them become stronger close readers of text. Some of my students who are also in A.P. Spanish have enjoyed some deep dives into how some of the words and phrases were translated by GGM's favorite translator, Gregory Rabassa.
An unexpected bonus of having the books donated was being able to check these books out directly to students. It made it so much easier and faster everyone the materials they needed right away, even when students were absent.
Thank you so much for making it possible to teach this book and to start the year with such a strong text.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrne