Week #2 Vocabulary Fahrenheit 451 and The Fireman

Fahrenheit 451 Pages 25-68

1.    erected: something that has been built

2.      proclivities: things that you are naturally inclined to do

3.      odious: evil or malevolent

4.      ravenous: very hungry

5.      pratfall: joke that involves slapstick or violence

6.      dictum: a declaration from someone with authority. 

7.      noncombustible: does not easily explode.


The Fireman pages 271-291

1.      obscured (271): to be hard to see or covered by something

2.      radiance (272): A warm and glowing light or feeling

3.      idle (277): to not be working or moving

4.      cataract (278): a blockage of the lens that keeps people from seeing.

5.      radical (280): someone who believes in ideas people think are extreme.

6.      rational (281): something that makes sense and is logical. 

7.      serenity (287): a way of being that is calm and relaxed.

The keys on my bed were obscured by the blankets that were covering them. (271)

The radiance of the woman was clear from the way she smiled warmly and said hello.

The car was sitting idle because it had run out of gas.

Once my grandma had the cataract removed from her eye, she could see clearly again.

They called him a radical because he discussed ideas that people thought were extreme.

I explained my argument in a rational and logical way so everyone could understand.

After I had my bath and had a cup of tea, I felt a feeling of deep serenity.

Week #1 Fahrenheit Vocabulary

Here are definitions for this week's vocabulary in Fahrenheit 451. Enter them into your vocabulary journal

Fahrenheit 451 Pages #1-24

 

1. Stolid: calm, showing very little emotion.
2. refracted: to change the course of light in the way a prism would
3. imperceptibly: a change so small it can hardly be noticed
4. pulverized: to break something down into its smallest parts
5. melancholy: a sad feeling
6. capillary: a thin blood vessel
7. multifaceted: having a lot of different talents or sometimes having a lot of different sides (similar to a cut gem)
8. ballistics: the study of how bullets and missles move through the air.

Ray Bradbury Links

Ray Bradbury has been called a "literary prognosticator," meaning that he is able to look into the future and see where society is headed. As you have seen in The Pedestrian and The Veldt, Bradbury has a unique way of seeing how technology might impact our world.

Examine at least two of the following links to learn more about Bradbury and about the ways that technology is changing the way we relate to the world and each other. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Meet Ray Bradbury
The National Endowment of the Arts has a nice video profiling Ray Bradbury and his work. 

Ray Bradbury fights for libraries!

Ray Bradbury speaks out to save libraries from closing.  

Ray Bradbury doesn't let a stroke get him down

This profile talks about the writer's life and politics. 

Duh, It's not about censorship

Ray Bradbury says Fahrenheit 451 is NOT about censorship.

The Danger in Books

What is this unit about?

Books deliver stories. Stories deliver ideas. Ideas deliver power.

What question will we answer?

• What is the danger in books?
• How can reading and writing fuel rebellion?
• How does a story argue?
• What is the danger in your art?

Why are we doing this?

For centuries, books have been the most effective information technology humans have. Stories and ideas from the past are able to shape the thinking of those living in the present. Within the pages of books, many have found the fuel for revolutionary change and transformation.

Because of this, the powerful have often attempted to control and censor books. They think that if you control the ideas and stories a person has access to, you can more easily control and predict their behavior. Chimamanda Adichie described this in her essay The Danger of a Single Story.

Now that books are no longer the dominate information technology, the question is how will you tell your story? How will those in power attempt to control and censor your story? And what can you do about it?

This unit has a variety of reading, writing, and thinking tasks to sharpen our critical faculties. Not only will this help us think about our creative work in a new way, it will help you prepare for the EXPLORE test.

Where did the ghetto come from?

We're reading stories about young people growing up in neighborhoods ravaged by poverty. Although poor neighborhoods may seem like they have always been poor, that's not necessarily true. Here are some links to help give you a historical context to the issue of poverty.

• Did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. used to have an apartment on the west side of Chicago? Strange, but true. King came to Chicago hoping to help end poverty and housing discrimination. The Chicago Tribune produced a short documentary about King's work in Chicago. You can find it here.  

• Chicago is considered by many to be one of the most segregated cities in the United States. There's a NY Times story that talks about how the city's history of segregation played a part in the latest mayoral election. You can find it here.

• Segregation doesn't happen by accident. Historian Beryl Satter wrote an excellent book called "Family Properties" that discusses how African-Americans were kept from buying properties in White neighborhoods. You can find an article that describes the techniques real estate agents and home sellers used to enforce segregation. You can find it here.  

• The excellent documentary, Race the Power of an Illusion, has a segment dedicated specifically to the history of segregation in the United States. We are going to watch a clip of this in class, but you can check it out here. 

Visit at least one of the following links and answer the following in the comments below, or email it.

What are the three most important things you learned?
What is the main idea?
What questions does this article make you think of?
What did you think of what you read?

Scholar Questions for Our America

In class we considered our perceptions of "Ghetto" versus "Neighborhood". Out of that discussion we came up with bazillion questions. Below are some that might be good to use for your reading responses.

About Our America the book...

• What do they mean when they say "Our America"?
• How does Our America relate to Single Stories?
• What is daily life like in this neighborhood?
• Why are people scared of a ghetto when a neighborhood comes close to the same thing?

About our perceptions of "the ghetto...

• Why did we describe the ghetto so badly?
• How is our perspctive "fixed" when we are young?
• How many times do people make single stories and not realize it?
• Why is examining this going to be helpful to us later on?
• Are we the stereotypes we come up with?
• How would I be viewed if I told people I lived in "the ghetto" as opposed to a "neighborhood"?
• Why do people create single stories to take away or dispossess other people?
• So how should we really think of the ghetto, outside of what we've seen?
• Are some parts of the ghetto safer than some "neighborhoods"?
• Are white neighborhoods really problem free? Do they have similar problems?
• Why do we think of the word "neighborhood" so positively if a ghetto is a neighborhood?
• Why do people automatically assume the ghetto is bad?
• Is this book about "ghetto" people?
• How is this similar to the Europe vs. Africa assignment we did?
• Would Adichie see the ghetto as a good thing?

About the Ghetto...

• How will this help us in the long run?
• Why do people move to the ghetto?
• Why do people make single stories?
• Who controls the ghetto?
• Why are Blacks pushed towards ghettos?
• What is the definition of "ghetto"?
• Where did the word "ghetto" come from?
• Who made "the ghetto"?
• Where were the first ghettos?
• How does where you live influence how you live?

 

Words to add to vocabulary log from Adichie article/speech

Empower: being given the power to do something

Incomprehensible: something that cannot be understood

Dignity: having pride in oneself

Perspectives: different ways of looking at something

Dispossess: To deprive someone of something important that they own. 

Malign: To speak of someone badly.

Single Stories: a single view of a person or place

Definitive: The only one, the main one

Unaware: Not knowing

Stereotype: an oversimplified image of someone or thing

Commonalities: Things that people have in common

Humanize: To make someone seem more human.