Teachers.io

On Tuesday, May 21st, you'll have a fill-in-the-blanks quiz from the text, so make sure you read carefully.

As you read, you will keep a rhetorical journal, which you will turn in each week. In this journal, you will include specific pieces of text. You will write down the specific text and explain its local significance to the novel in terms of plot/character development/etc. You will then write about the quote's global significance to the novel--how its word choice, sentence structure, and meaning all contribute to some larger idea/theme you see Steinbeck trying to communicate. All quotes should help to build this idea/ theme. Be very specific about how the quote contributes to the larger idea--do not continue to repeat the same thing. The quotes you select SHOULD all support the same idea/theme, but they will not support the theme/idea in the same way...that's where you can distinguish between your different "global" entries.

In this first journal entry, identify and then write about six pieces of text--they can be dialogue or narration. Three pieces of text must come from the plot chapters, and three must come from the non-plot chapters. Remember--you have to show how each piece of text supports the same idea/theme.

"The record player was in the most spider-infested corner of the room."

Conroy says this when he is talking about introducing music into the classroom.

What this shows is that opportunities go wasted on Yamacraw. They sit in "the most spider infested corners" while the kids flounder. The people in charge in some ways are also leaving the children in these corners...and Conroy is showing all it takes is for one person (in this case him) to dig and scrounge and work, and things can begin to get better.