logbook guide

The logbook

You must keep a logbook, which consists of writing about your working process at home for this class. To begin, this will consist in writing about your reading and your reflections about reading.

When we have finished The Cowards, your logbook will be about research and project building.

To help you begin your logbook, I am giving you the questions that we use in the reading club to help readers keep a reading logbook. You should begin to appropriate the questions so that when you read you naturally answer these questions.

After each time you read write down all of your thoughts about the book.

Write or draw everything that comes to you.

To begin more easily you can begin with these phrases:

Today, I read the passage in which...

I ask myself...

If I was...

I think...

I believe...

I find...

I would like to know...

I imagine...

I looked for...

The images that stay with me are...

The words that come back to me are...

What surprises me is...

What I don't understand is...

What I find shocking is...

It makes me think of...

You can add drawings, maps, sketches, photos that you took because your reading inspired you to take them...

You can recopy segments that you particularly enjoyed.

At the beginning of each entry you need to write the date and the pages read.

Remember, you need to write ½ an A4 page per week (or an A5 page).

Link to Prague video

One last post for the night:

Here is a link that our teaching correspondent sent us about Prague.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ffxGB2j9ADo

The city that the school is in is called Vysoké Myoto. Here is the school web page:
https://gvmyto.edupage.org/blog5/?bid=blog5&lang=cz

 Many students live in the neighboring town of Litomysl. Here is a link for images of that city:
http://www.czechtourism.com/t/litomysl/

Enjoy!

The Cowards link and character list

For our new classmates, here is a link to the novel that we are studying, The Cowards by Josef Skvorecky.

http://www.rect.muni.cz/summerschool/New_Europe/Preliminary_readings/The%20Cowards%3B%20Penguin%20Modern%20Classic%3B%20Josef%20Skvorecky/

Reread the first chapter entitled "Friday, May 4, 1945".

It is 34 pages long. Write down vocabulary that you don't know in your vocabulary book.

To help you with the character names (since they are very unusual to us) here is a list:

Protagonist - Danny Smiricky

Boys in the band with Danny:

Benno – fat and lazy

Venca

Fonda

Lexa

Haryk

Jindra

Others:

Irena – The love of Danny’s life

Zdenek

Helena – Benno’s girlfriend

Lucie – Haryk’s girlfriend

Dr. Sabata – a respected town figure and a leader in the negotiations for the peaceful retreat of the Germans out of Kostelec

Cemelik – acting Colonel of the Czech Army in Kostelec

the youth resistance

Prema – a central figure in the Kostelec resistance

Vahar

Perlik

Jerry

Prochazka

Vasek Vostal

BendaKocandrle

Berty – son of a local photographer, and a photographer himself

Answer questions 1-4 as best as you can, and we will discuss the chapter next week.

Materials list, project and expectations

MATERIALS:

1 48 page notebook or a binder with plastic sheet protectors → for work in class

1 48 page notebook or a binder with plastic sheet protectors → logbook for work at home

1 alphabetic notebook → vocabulary

TOPICS:

1968 as a transnational social and political movement

visions of the place of the human in the world

PROJECTS:

This class is an exchange based class. You will be asked to produce multiple digital projects based on the documents you will study. The goal of this is for you to teach your correspondents in the Czech Republic what you have learned about their history and culture. They will be doing the same, creating digital documents about your history and culture.

You will:

read, discuss and create a short films in groups about The Cowards

Watch, discuss and create short films about The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and The Hand

Study, discuss and create recordings about the visual poems of Kolar

Study, discuss and create digital explanations about Revue K

The projects will be sent to your correspondents and presented for Journéees Portes Ouvertes in April and during the “Semaine des Langues” in May

EXPECTATIONS:

1/ logbook: You must write a half a page each week.You will explain; your research, the websites, the difficulties encountered, new concepts you are exposed to, what you have learned, the process of putting together your presentations...

The logbook will be collected and graded throughout the year.

2/ vocabulary book: You are expected to write all the words that you encounter that are relevant to the project you are working on that are new to you. In addition I will be giving lists of relevant words that you must enter into your vocabulary book.

The vocabulary book will be collected and graded throughout the year.

3/ class notebook: You will keep a class notebook for in-class lessons and discussions.

4/ Language: You are expected to speak English in class. Although it is certainly easier to express yourself in French, the classroom is English only.

In-class English is graded (quantity not quality).

5/ Presentations: Presentations are to be memorized. You may have a small card with keywords if necessary.

Presentations must be done on-time. Late presentations will be penalized.

6/ Attendance: You are expected to be in class each week. Any absence must be justified. If you are absent for an evaluation or presentation, you have one week to make it up.

7/ Digital work: You will have assignments that are turned in via email. The expectations are the same: you must send them by the deadline, otherwise they will be considered late.

This is my email address: alexisbuckley45@gmail.com