9-10-08: Siddhartha Ch. 1 (A Days)

Today our punctual piece was to complete the Siddhartha Anticipation Guide. Then we reviewd Hinduism and Buddhism just a bit--and added to our knowledge as well. We talked about how Eastern philosophy reveres three groups of people: 1. Those who are older than you (parents, grandparents, etc.); 2. Teachers (both spiritual and secular); and 3. Kings and Buddha (religious dieties).

We also talked about the caste system. You are born into your caste and you really can't escape it. There are five different castes: 1. Brahmins--priests; 2. Kasatriyas--warriors; 3. Vaisyas--merchants; 4. Sudras--farmers; and 5. Untouchables--outcasts. While we read chapter 1, you were all randomly assigned a different caste and were required to sit in a designated location in the classroom while we read Chapter 1. While we read we also discussed most of the vocabulary words from your vocab. chart. We talked about their roots as well and thought of other words that have similar roots so that when we see the same root in the future we can have a better idea of what the word will mean.

While we were reading we continued to talk about the Hero's Journey. In Chapter 1 we were introduced to Siddhartha. We found a quotation in the text that showed he had a normal birth and childhood and then explained our quotation choice on our Hero's Journey Chart.

Finally we talked about how when books are translated, translators translate passages and words differently. I read another translation of one paragraph from Chapter 1. We compared it to our class's text to look at how using vivid verbs helps spice up our writing. Many of you want to improve your writing by making your writing come to life--one important way to do this (also important becasue you will need to do this on your final assignment) is to use descriptive verbs. To practice you were given a verb assignment.

So...If you missed class or Things you need to do for Friday!:
1. Complete the Anticipation Guide
2. Read Siddhartha Chapter 1.
3. Complete the vocab chart for Chapter 1.
4. Complete the Hero's Journey chart for "Birth"
5. Complete the Verbs Practice