Chrysanthemum

Here is another student example of Digital Storytelling using the picture book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. This podcast was created by Roberta Camacho and Denia Luna. Enjoy!

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

This is one of many podcasts students in 8th grade Language Arts completed over the last week. This digital adaption is read aloud by Marianna Harb and Cristy Maldonado.

What is Theme?

Next week we´ll start delving into the mysterious and illusive definition of theme, especially when it comes to literature.

How do you identify theme in a work of literature?

Is one person´s understanding of theme the same as everyone else´s, or do people interpret the central idea of a story differently, depending on their unique understanding?

Also, is theme the same as the message or moral of a story? Can theme be thought of the same as genre?

These are the many questions we face over the next week, as begin to grapple with identifying the them in a variety of literary texts. This is gonna be interesting!

ps. If you want extra credit, try posting a comment under this post ;)

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Trying to get through a tough novel. Ever since reading the Hunger Games trilogy, I´ve been on a dystopian crave. Although the idea and basic premise of BNW is extremely interesting in terms of predetermined success and failure, I can´t help while reading but think how outdated it feels. BNW was only published a decade before 1984, even still the writing, though most definitely as prophetic as 1984, doesn´t feel as connected to the real world I live in today.

Hopefully Brave New World will hook me in the next chapter or two, because this is a book I don´t want to abandon, and will most likely read till the bitter end!