Learning is Change

Community requires tending.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a story mostly about tyranny and the corruption of utopian ideals, but in the very beginning there is a passage that means something very different to me. It deals with the leadership of Mr. Jones before the rebellion, before the animals decide to take the farm into their own hands.

“The fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed.”

This quotation represents all of the things that happen when Mr. Jones gets too distracted to work, to maintain his environment, and to make life better for all those involved. To me, this is about not tending the community. It is about letting things lie fallow which must be uprooted and overturned to see what is underneath them.

Our communities are just like this I think, both in our classroom and outside of them. The communities within our classroom, especially the collaborative ones that we are all striving for, require an immense amount of tending. The Discovery Utopia wiki that my students are working on (and the reason that we are reading Animal Farm in the first place) is not an exception. If I do not constantly draw attention to the great things that are going on there, the community seems to just pass right on by them. If I do not look for the troubling points, the issues that nearly every student seems to be struggling with, students stop using the community. They find other ways to occupy their time. And that is one of the most interesting parts about our communities. They are communities of choice.

All communities of choice are ones that can be thriving in one minute and vacant in the next. So, how do we tend for consistency? Well, we feed the animals (is it weird that I am referring to my students as animals). We put up new buildings for them to play in. We design the space so that it is inviting and provokes the best kind of authentic creativity: their own.

I think that the lesson is pretty clear. If we do not tend to our communities, they will fail. The inhabitants will rebel and either stop using them, or turn them into something that rejects their purpose. And, if Animal Farm is any indication, the inhabitants of a untended community will become just like us and not tend to their communities. I mean that in both a virtual and real-world sense.

I hope this comes across as something other than a Language Arts teacher’s metaphorical analysis.

04.11.08

Cores 1, 2 +4:

  1. Exemplars:
  2. Work on your utopia for our three purposes:
    • Creating Community
    • Telling the story of Utopia
    • Enhancing our ideas
  3. (Cores 1+4 only) How do your commandments fit into your Utopia?
  4. Extensions:
    • Make sure you have two sections (or one section if you are in Core 2) done by tonight.

Core 3:

  1. Comments Galore:
  2. The debates rage on:
  3. Work on your Belief Statement essay, Start/Continue debates, or Answer questions on your Wiki page.
  4. Extensions:
    • Print off a final copy of your belief statement essay with correct formatting for Monday. I will not take it if you printed it off during class, nor will I take it if it isn’t in the correct format.

04.10.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Read chapter 2 of animal farm:
    • Why is it so easy to overthrow Jones?
    • What decisions do the animals make that go along with Old Major’s speech? Go against it?
    • Is the rebellion just?
  3. Extend the concept of commandments to your own Utopia.
    • What commandments are essential?
    • What types of commandments are specific enough?
  4. Extensions:
    • Write your commandments onto your utopia wiki page.

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Rev-it-up
  3. Read Chapter 5 of Animal Farm
    • What decisions are being made that go against Old Major’s original vision?
    • How do the animals become more human?
  4. Extensions:
    • What safeguards do you have in place that will ensure that your society will not become like the society that you rebelled against in the first place?

Core 3:

  1. Exemplary comments:
  2. Discuss Iron Mills questions:
    • What is so meaningful about the sculpture?
    • What is the “moral” of this story?
    • Why should we heed this moral?
    • What is lost if we head into another time of rapid growth without concern for human dignity?
  3. Extensions:
    • Comment on 2 Belief statement essays that have 1 or no comments on them. (If you can’t find any, look for one that has fewer comments)

04.09.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Write and Discuss-on:
  2. Listen to the BritLit Podcast summary of Animal Farm.
    • What can we find out about the story from this short summary?
  3. Read Chapter 1 of Animal Farm:
    • What are the seeds of rebellion?
    • Who represents whom in the story?
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish your second section of your utopia.

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Rev-it-up (paired shouting)
  3. Read Chapter 4 of animal farm:
    • How do the animals expand their empire?
    • What are their long-range plans?
    • Is their struggle with humanity justified?
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish one section of your utopia for Friday.

Core 3:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Essay writing Examples:
      • What kinds of questions do you have?
      • What kind of comments will allow these people to improve upon their ideas?
  3. Discuss Iron Mills questions:
    • What is the “moral” of this story?
    • Why should we heed this moral?
  4. Extensions:
    • Comment on at least three Belief Statement essays using the wiki commenting feature.
    • Start revising your essay according to your comments.

04.08.08

Cores 1, 2, and 4:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Great examples of creation:
    • How can you add something you find to these exemplars?
  3. Work on your inspirational exemplars?
  4. Extensions: Continue to work on your Utopia (Cores 1+4 should be done with two sections by Friday and Core 2 should be finished with one section by Friday).

Core 3:

  1. Discuss-on:
  2. Learn the format for a MLA paper.
    • Look at it in action.
      • What is missing?
      • What do you think about the addition of this paragraph?
      • “My daughter at seventeen months is complex, beautifully complex. Her ability to look at my crudely drawn cat on her doodle deluxe is nothing short of a miracle. It is not a cat nor does it look like one. It is a series of circles and squiggles, lines and flicks of the wrist. Her understanding of “cat” is already sophisticated enough in order to understand the value of symbols, of representative value. Although her world is simple, not filled with much responsibility or trouble, she is beautiful in her complexity and it is my goal to never teach her otherwise.
  3. Work on Belief Statement Essay
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish for tonight and put it on your wiki page.

04.03.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Write-on: How are our/all utopias symbolic?
  2. Leaving yourself areas to extend on the wiki:
  3. Introduction to animal farm:
    • What would a farm of animals represent?
    • What is an allegory?
    • How does the Russian Revolution and Communism fit into a utopian/dystopian novel.
  4. Extensions:
    • Craft at least one section (complete with enhancements) by the end of tomorrow.

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Rev-it-up:
    • Read about junk.
    • Draw Junk.
    • Write about junk.
  3. Continue Animal Far, Chapter IV
    • Like Aric said, how are the Pigs becoming more human?
  4. Extensions:
    • Put your Commandments on your Utopia.

Core 3:

  1. What is the mood that is created with the following passage?
    • “[The smoke] rolls sullenly in slow folds from the great chimneys of the iron-foundries, and settles down in black, slimy pools on the dingy boats, on the yellow river,—clinging in a coating of greasy soot to the house-front, the two faded poplars, the faces of the passers-by.”
  2. What are the Belief statements that you have created?
    • What kinds of stories/anecdotes/examples are the best to back them up?
  3. Read exerpts from “Life in the Iron Mills or The Korl Woman” and answer the questions on the handout.
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish the story and the questions for Monday.

04.02.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Examples of Digital Storytelling in our Wiki:
  3.  Work through your utopia for some aspect of digital storytelling.
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish a section of your utopia for Friday.

Core 2:

  1. Rev-it-On
  2. Finish Chapter 3 of Animal Farm
    • How are the animals more aware of their society now that they have Animalism as their organizing force.
  4. Work on your Utopia, starting from your commandments and Origins. 

Extensions:

  • Finish your Commandments (at least 7) on your utopia and work on your origins for Friday.

Core 3:

  1. Write-on: 
  2. Listen and Read 5 Belief Statement Essays from This I believe.
    • Discuss the common elements of these stories with a partner.
  3. Discuss with your group possible belief statements that you would want to construct an essay about.
  4. View the essay writing tips and start to write your belief statement essay rough draft.
  5. Extensions:
    • Finalize your belief statement for your belief statement essay and brainstorm a list of anecdotes, stories, or examples that would help to support your belief.

04.01.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Discuss-on:
  2. What is building our community?
  3. Work on your Utopia to build community, complete at least one section by the end of the week, and find new ways to enhance our understanding of utopia.
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish one section of your utopia by Friday.

Core 2:

  1. Brainstorm-on:
  2. Introduce the Wiki:
    • Creating a Page
    • Copying the template
    • Answering the questions
    • Enhancing your utopia
  3. Practice working with the wiki by creating your utopia space.
  4. Extensions:
    • Make sure your entire utopia page looks the way you want it to by Thursday.

Core 3:

  1. Listen and View-on:
  2. The Purpose for Creating an -Ism.
  3. Create your own Belief Structure using Google Sites
    • Create your own page.
    • Copy over the template.
    • Start work on writing down your strongest held beliefs.
    • Set up an Idopia account.
  4. Extensions:
    • Before Friday:
      • Set up an Idopia account.
      • Create your own -Ism page.
      • Copy over the template.

03.31.08

Core 1+4:

  1. Write-on:
  2. How does having a rational or irrational population influence your utopia?
  3. Response to discussion:
    • The concept that Edward Bellamy (the author of Looking Backwards) was
      trying to get through to the reader was that in their society it didn’t
      have a reason for anyone to rebel. In other words, it was really rare
      for someone to go against something since their society created
      equality amongst the people. I think that the utopia that Bellamy
      created was “perfect” where people had nothing to disagree with. If
      someone were to do something wrong rather than a jail, the person was
      sent to the hospital.
    • I disagree with frostbittentomato because once a utopia is corrupted
      people will know how to corrupt it once more. In the Giver people are
      like robot people. They did their job and slept. They had no feelings
      and past memories. If some one corrupted people would not know how to
      rebuild it. They have to start from scratch and a new generation.
    • Since in the book We it was corrupted and was in a 200 year war i do
      not think that they could come back as a utopia. The society of We is
      built up upon the idea that every person is categorized by numbers and
      letters so it allows for people to live in harmony and trade in
      harmony. The integral is just like the internet when a place gets a bad
      wrap not very many people will go there and the people who stay will
      internally corrupt the society. When a site on the internet doesnt have
      any reason to stay and it still costs money for the people to keep it
      alive the site will be shut down.
    • I don’t think that the society in Looking Backward could ever happen
      because it’s too perfect. It does not seem possible to have a world
      that will agree to have the exact same amount of money. The people who
      are richer than others will most likely not agree to suddenly change
      into a world where there are no richer or poorer people. The usually
      richer people will have to live the same lives as the ones that once
      were really poor. The richer people will surely resist, and this will
      start a big argument. Bellamy’s imagined utopia also has a flexible
      society with a wider range of personal freedom. That much freedom, I
      think would not be possible.
    • In Fahrenheit 451 not everyone was happy they just put on an act of
      happiness in order to fit in with everyone. For example Mildred (Guy’s
      wife) didn’t seem all that happy but she still said she was.
  4. Utopias-in-Progress Analysis
  5. Extensions:
    • Continue to work on Utopias. (You should be fully completed with at least one section by the end of the week.)

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Rev-It-Up
  3. Utopia Reviews (How will past utopias affect ours?):
  4. Read Chapter 3 of Animal Farm
  5. Extensions:
    • Finish Chapter 3 of Animal Farm

Core 3:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Watch excerpts from the day the world took off.
  3. Do you believe that the industrial revolution created progress or merely more hardships for people?
  4. Extensions:
    • Write the answer to the following question in a paragraph: Do you believe that we are in the midst of a revolution like the industrial revolution? Why or why not?