In the email you asked us to reflect on why Twain did not make Jim's escape a straightforward escape. This reason is because nothing about being an African American in the south at that time was straight forward. Everything is complicated and the African Americans are always dealing with hardships and difficult situations. Nothing is easy or simple or common, therefore Jim's escape couldn't be either. The baking of the "witch pie" is also a reference to all of Jim's witch talk throughout the novel.

This entire book is about adventure, as the name implies. Between Huck's adventures and Jim's and Tom's, adventure spans throughout the book. What also spans through the book is lying and sneakiness. Therefore, Jim's escape without those things. It couldn't be a simple easy escape where they just go in and take him. Twain had to make it adventurous and sneaky and sly, because that is what the novel is all about. Therefore, that's how it had to conclude.

Teaching Huck Finn

As a teacher, I would teach Huck Finn as a novel about coming of age and maturing into teenage years. Throughout the novel we see this in Huck, and I believe it is a big part of the novel. As the teacher, I would have the students start with a free-write about their own experiences as a teenager growing up to whatever point they are (ex: they may only be sophomores in HS but I would have them write about their experiences up till that point). I would have them write about any experiences that they felt made them feel older or more mature. Are they at the point yet where they no longer feel like a child, but more like an adult? I would let them take the exercise in any direction they wanted as long as they kept it related to the task.

I would also ask my students to brainstorm how their personality and life would be different if they had different parents, lived in a different country, in a different time period, etc. This would get them thinking about the various paths that a person's life can take from childhood to adolescence to adulthood based on their surrounding environment. I feel this would be a great way to get the kids started on Huck Finn and thinking about it in terms of a coming of age book.

As we dove more into Huck Finn I would create different exercises, but that is how I would start the kids off with Huck Finn.

Huck Finn passage

In Chapter 16 of Huck Finn, there is a part where Jim tells Huck that he is Jim's only friend, and the only person who ever kept their promise to Jim. This comes after Huck had decided he was going to turn Jim in, so it ends up having a strong effect on Huck. The fact that Huck decides not turn Jim in shows his maturity and coming of age, which was my goggle lens. I found this interesting that Huck decided not to turn Jim in because Huck felt guilty about wronging Jim. Huck's actions were the exact opposite of what most people in Huck's time would have done. They all thought of Jim as a slave, a lesser person, and someone who didn't deserve any respect or care. However, Huck viewed Jim as more of a friend, and did not feel right turning him in. He cared about Jim's feelings and he cared about Jim being stuck in a terrible life. This shows Huck's uniqueness and maturity in the racist world he's living in.

Free Write Response Huck Finn

I thought it was a really good idea for us to partner up and for each of us to have a different lens to view the book through. It made reading the book unique and it made class discussion interesting. Listening to each person's views based on their "goggle lens" helped us see the book through different views, but we were still able to have our own position.

The lens that Dan and I had was a coming of age. I was glad to have this lens because when I read Huck Finn the first time, this was the theme that I found to be the largest and most important. Therefore, having to argue/support this theme in class was easy because it was what I believed. But, it was still helpful to see the different readings of the story through the various lenses. For example, I had never realized how superstition was a such a large part of this book until it was pointed out in class and we discussed the various examples of it. I thought the class discussion was very helpful and allowed everyone to gain more insight into the various aspects of this story.

Informal Huck Finn research response

In the article written by National Public Radio, it talks about how in the new versions of Huckleberry Finn, the "N" word is eliminated, and any negative references to Native Americans are also done away with. It goes on to give a few people's opinions on this action, and why the publishing companies are deciding to do this.

I found this aspect of the Huck Finn book to be a very interesting one. It's funny that I found this article too, because just the other day I was talking to one of my aunts (a former teacher) about how we're reading Huck Finn in class and her first question to me was..."are you reading the real version with the "n" word?...because that's how it was back then." Her comment at the time made me think about the disagreement that people have about whether or not children should be reading the version with the "n" word. Then, finding this article just made me think about it even more.

I am somewhat torn on the subject. Honestly, I think that using the word really adds to the legitimacy of the story, because it really does show how harsh and tough things were for African Americans back then. It is a strong reminder about the past of this country; one which we should never forget. On the other hand, however, I understand why people don't want kids reading it. First of all, we don't want kids thinking they can say it since it is written in their book. Also, for those who are African American, we don't want to offend them in any way. This is a very delicate subject, and one that has legitimate arguments for both sides. But now, at least having both versions allows the schools and teachers to determine which version they would like to teach.

Link to article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/04/132652272/new-edition-of-huckleberry-finn-will-eliminate-offensive-words

Anticipation of Huck Finn

I have actually read Huck Finn before, but it was in high school so I have forgotten many of the details. I still remember the main plot but some of the details are a bit fuzzy. However, this was one of the books that I liked the most in high school. Out of all the books I read in HS, Huck Finn was in my top 3. Therefore, I am pretty happy to be reading it again, and using it in class in a different way than I did in high school. I know we went over many of the themes of this book in class, and I think we covered most of the main ones that I could remember...child abuse, coming of age, racism, and Christianity. I think it will be interesting reading Huck Finn a second time and seeing how my interpretation may have changed, or just see how reading it a second time is different than it was the first time. I hope to get more out of it the 2nd time, and see how the work that we do with it will enhance my understanding of this novel.

Sonrisas Poem Analysis

After reading "Sonrisas" by Pat Mora the first time, my understanding was at a 5 or 6. I have done a lot with poetry - reading it, writing it, and analyzing it - so this was not a new experience for me. As I read it the first time, I automatically started thinking about the literary techniques (or lack thereof) that were used in the poem. These included, alliteration, repetition, lack of set rhythm or rhyme, etc. I took notes on these things that I noticed. When I first read it though, I wasn't completely sure what was being compared in the poem, or what doorway the speaker was in between.

However, as I read it slower the 2nd time, much more jumped out at me. I started breaking down each word and it's relation to other words to figure out the meanings behind them. The more I did this, the better my understanding got. I still wasn't sure exactly what the "clicks" from lines 3 and 4 meant, but I had an idea or two of what they could be. But, by the time I was done reading the poem through the 2nd time I felt my understanding was at about an 8.

After reading it the 3rd and final time, I think I have a very valid interpretation of what the poem means. I don't know if I am 100% correct, but that is the beauty of poems - they can be interpreted in many ways and you never really know if you got it right. However, I feel that I have an interpretation that could definitely be correct.

I interpret this poem as one that is comparing Mexican women to American women, possibly American business women specifically, but I don't think so. The first stanza is talking about the American women with their "cups of black coffee" (3-4) and the "click click" (4) of what I am interpreting to be the women walking in their high heels. The speaker is talking about American women in "crisp beige suits" (6-7), which is why I think it might be referring to women in the business world more than average American women. But many women do wear suits, not only business women, so this could still be referring to all American working women in general. Also, it says "tenure" and "curriculum" (5) which makes me think of teachers as well, not business women. The last 2 lines of the first stanza mention the women not smiling, meaning the speaker views American working women as serious women.

The second stanza of this poem turns attention to Mexican women, or "senoras" (10), who are wearing their dresses and stirring their sweet milk coffee. Right there we have two specific comparisons - the women in the first stanza were wearing suits and drank black coffee, whereas the women in the second stanza wore dresses and drank sweet milk coffee. Also, the women being referred to in the 2nd stanza are laughing and smiling (12, 16) when the women in the first are not. Another difference is that the women being referred to in the 2nd stanza seem to be less active than those in the 1st stanza. It seems to me that the speaker in this poem is caught between these 2 worlds of American women and Mexican women, who have completely different lifestyles and ways of doing things. The speaker can't decide which world she likes or belongs in more, and this poem is a way for her to compare the 2 different worlds she is caught between.

This was my interpretation of Pat Mora's poem and I feel that, with this interpretation, my understanding of the poem is at a 9. However, I look forward to seeing how my peers have interpreted this poem, and maybe get a discussion going in class about it!

Thoreau Sentence Reading/Re-reading

"Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half -witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third of their wit." - Thoreau

The Thoreau sentence above that we read and re-read in class was quite a confusing one. When I first read the sentence, I had no idea what it meant. It didn't seem to make any sense, and with all the dashes and spelled out numbers it took some slow reading and thinking to even try to grasp what it meant. When I read the sentence the first time, my understanding was at about a 3, out of 10. I thought the quote was somewhat funny and it made me think about math with all the numbers references.

When I read it the 2nd time, I tried to put the sentence into simpler terms. I decided that "class" meant "group together" and that "witted" referred to the person's intelligence. I turned the long, dashed, wordy numbers into actual numbers... 1.5 and .5 and .333. Doing all of that made the sentence seem shorter and less complicated. After reading it the 2nd time I felt that I had gained a better understanding of what the sentence meant, and my understanding was at a 5.

Reading it the third time didn't seem to gain me too much more understanding than the 2nd time, but did help me think about a few different meanings the sentence could have.

Collaboration with other students definitely helped me see this sentence in a few different ways that I had not thought of. Doing this exercise was very interesting because it truly made us think. You were trying to show us the types of exercises that teachers can do with their students by actually doing one with us. For us, we were really doing some serious thinking and analyzing of a sentence that was not very simple. It was a fun exercise and was a good example of what, as teachers, we can do with our students in our English classes.