Hey Guys! Welcome back! I hope you guys had a fabulous break!
If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to take a listen to my Spring Break Word Nerds Pocast, which is a couple of entries down. Maybe you’re one of the featured speakers!
Also, the video podcast in the entry below addressees your vocabulary and meaningful sentences for this week.
This week we’re starting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. If you don’t have your own personal copy of the book yet, no big deal, really, but you HAVE to have a single subject spiral notebook to keep your annotations in. I’ve been trying to remind you of this regularly, so I’m going to be picky about it…
Today (Monday) in the computer lab we’re going to do a couple of things to prepare for reading Tom Sawyer. Before we start reading I’d like for you to have a good sense of who Mark Twain was, so I have several links collected here for you to visit, and before you leave the lab today you must leave me a comment with the answers to the questions I’ve listed here. I’m taking a grade, so get busy!
Begin by opening a Word Document and type all of your answers there. When you’ve answered all of them, copy your text, and paste it into a comment.
Follow the following link to a PBS Mark Twain chronology.
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/chronology.html
Read through the events that shaped Mark Twain’s life. Use that timeline to answer the following questions:
1. In what year was Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) born?
2. How old was he when he spent two years “learning” the Mississippi River?
3. In what year was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer published?
4. In what year did Mark Twain die?
5. Why is the year Mark Twain died significant?
6. Name three other works written by Mark Twain besides The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Click below to visit The Mark Twain House & Museum in Connecticut. Read the article there and use it to answer #7.
http://www.marktwainhouse.org/teacher/travelin.shtml
7. Where did the name “Mark Twain” come from?
I imagine many of you have no idea what The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is about, so let me satisfy your undying curiosity with a link to a great summary:
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/54/98/frameset.html
(Notice also that this is one of the many websites that offers the full text of the book…)
Now let’s look at the characters in the story. In the preface of the book, Twain confides that “most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred.” While the names are different, the characters in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer are based upon real people in Mark Twain’s life. Follow the link below and use the information there to answer the questions:
http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/Characters.html
9. Who is the character of Tom Sawyer based upon?
10. Who was the model for the character of Aunt Polly?
11. What location in the book is now known as Mark Twain Cave, and where is it located?
Do you remember when we talked about Banned Books Week earlier last semester? Visit the following link to see why Mark Twain is no stranger to Banned Books, and answer the questions that follow:
http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/index_bbw.html
12. Other than Tom Sawyer, name TWO books by Mark Twain that have been banned.
13. Why was Tom Sawyer banned?
14. When is Banned Books Week this year?
If you haven’t ever spent time at the Internet Movie Data Base, you’re missing out! Click the link below and browse all the films that have been made based on Mark Twain's novels and stories.
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0878494/
15. How many films are listed?
Now choose TWO of the Tom Sawyer films listed and answer the following questions for each:
16. What is the title of the film?
17. In what year was it made?
18. Who played Tom Sawyer?
Below is a link to some virtual Tom Sawyer postcards! Included in your grade today will be a postcard that you send to me. After clicking the link, choose a postcard and fill in the blanks. In the “To” field, type in my name, and use this email: hsandersteacher@sbcglobal.net
In the “From” field, type in your name (first name and last initial, please) and use this email rather than your email address: hsanders@burlesonisd.net In the “Message” field, tell me: a. why you chose that postcard, and b. the most interesting thing you read today about either Mark Twain or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Please put your first and last name in the message as well. Click “Preview” and then send it off!
http://www.boondocksnet.com/postcard/index_mt01.html
Ok…now for your answers. Click the “comments” link below to paste your answers from your Word Document into the “Comment” field. Be sure to use your first name and last initial, and don’t add an email address.
