Distance Learning Week 1 

"Housekeeping Items" (please do this if you haven't yet)

1. Email me at craig.beckett@ucdsb.on.ca
2. Check out this website.
3. Let me know of any issues, questions, or concerns via email

Monday April 6	Tuesday April 7	Wednesday April 8	Thursday April 9	Friday April 10 (Good Friday)
Word of the Day	​Word of the Day	​Word of the Day	​Word of the Day	​
Literary Term of the Week	​Literary Term of the Week	​Literary Term of the Week	​Literary Term of the Week
Heart of Darkness Lesson 1: Are people essentially bad or good?	Heart of Darkness Lesson 2: Conrad as Impressionist	Heart of Darkness Lesson 3: Conrad, modern psychology and the nature of evil	Heart of Darkness Lesson 3: Racism and ​Heart of Darkness
For Fun: Lateral Thinking Question	​For Fun: Lateral Thinking Question	​For Fun: Lateral Thinking Question	​For Fun: Lateral Thinking Question
Keep Reading Life of Pi Optional Extra/Enrichriment: ​ Watch "Thug Notes" Heart of Darkness summary here (some naughty language)	Keep Reading Life of Pi ​ Optional Extra/Enrichriment: ​ ​Watch Schmoop Heart of Darkness summary here	Keep Reading Life of Pi Optional Extra/Enrichriment: Watch a lecture on  HOD and colonial/imperial discourse here	Keep Reading Life of Pi Optional  Extra/Enrichment In the past, classes have watched the excellent adaptation of Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now. It is a very heavy, dark, and graphic film. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. Common sense media  says 17 years see the full review here.	Keep Reading Life of Pi

Thursday April 9th, 2020

Lesson: Zimbardo and Conrad

While Zimbardo says anyone can be seduced into being evil, he also says anyone can be a hero.

Zimbardo's formula to be a hero: 

1. Admit your mistakes: I'm sorry, I apologize, forgive me
2. Be mindful: don't go through life on autopilot. Use critical thinking
3. Take responsibilty:  don't spread responsibility around a group
4. Respect just authority, rebel against unjust authority.
5.  Assert your unique identity: enourage personal self-worth in others
6. Value the group, but value your independance too: don't sacrifice your personal morality for the good of the team.
7. Be 'frame vigilant' beware of who is the messenger, watchout for slogans, sound bites, and propaganda
8. Balance your time perspective: how will you feel about your actions tomorrow? How will you feel about them in 5 years, 10 years?
9. Don't sacrifice your personal freedoms for the illusions security. Our basic freedoms are precious, the idea of security can be an illusion
10. Oppose unjust systems. 

1. What do you make of Zimbardo's list? 

2. Can you boil it down to one statement? 

Start a new thread on the forum with answering one of these questions. Respond to someone else's thread. 

​For Fun! 
Lateral Thinking Question of the Day:

Yesterday's answer: She lives on the North Pole!

In a local hardware shop, one costs 14c yet it costs 28c for 50 and 42c for 144. What is being bought?

​​The first person to email me the correct answer at craig.beckett@ucdsb.on.ca wins three points. Each subsequent correct answer gets one point.
​

Leaderboard

Juilia Cavanaugh 5 Points

Jasmine Freidrich-Yap 3 Points

​​​Andy He - 3 Points

​​Nik Hastings 1 Point​

​Abby Stewart 1 Point

Wednesday April 8, 2020

Word of the Day

canvas: (n.) a piece of cloth on which an artist paints (v.) to cover, inspect

Literary Term of the Week: Magic Realism

Magic Realism Features: 
​Authorial Reticence:
(that is, the writer or creator does not tell us what is real and what is not)
Readers and viewers can't tell is it:

• is it accurate?
• is it credible?
• can we believe our eyes?

“The narrator does not provide explanations about the credibility of events described in the text. Further, the narrator is indifferent; the story proceeds with ‘logical precision’ as if nothing extraordinary took place.”

Examples: Birdman, Life of Pi, Beloved, and many more.

Lesson: Modern Psychology of Evil

For today please read these two documents on modern social psychologists Stanley Milgram and Phillip Zimbardo. Tomorrow's lecture will tie this work with what we read in Heart of Darkness

Answer the following questions on the forum:

​1. Are you shocked by the results of these experiments? Why? or Why not?

2. In your opinion what is the biggest blind spot in Milgram and Zimbardo's 

milgram_markup.pdf
File Size:	5591 kb
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short video on Milgram's experiment here

zimbardo_markup.pdf
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short video on Zimbardo's experiment here

​For Fun! 
Lateral Thinking Question of the Day:

2. Answer: the crane was a bird.

3. Mr. Henderson wanted a house where the windows in all of the rooms faced south. How did he mangage this?

​The first person to email me the correct answer at craig.beckett@ucdsb.on.ca wins three points. Each subsequent correct answer gets one point.
​
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Tuesday April 7, 2020

Word of the Day

Ruse: trick

Literary Term of the Week: Magic Realism

Magic Realism Features; 
​
Characters
Ordinary, average, every-day Joe Schmoes (or Jane Schmanes). 
 
Setting
 A real place in the here and now or in some actual historical place in the real world

Style
​A realistic feeling and a matter of fact narrative style. Not too obtuse or surreal.

Lesson: Just how foggy is Heart of Darkness?

​The file below is a pdf version of the lesson

day_2.pdf
File Size:	1614 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Thinking Question (choose one)

I have installed a forum page on the site. Look to the top tab and click on forum. Answer one of the following questions on the forum. You will neet to sign up using your first name and initial. 

1. Do you like stories with ambiguous (mysterious or unresolved) endings. Why or Why not--use examples?
(I think of movies like Inception, Birdman, The Thing, and Shutter Island. Television shows like The Sopranos. Or books like Life of Pi, and Heart of Darkness.)

2. What other ways is the novel ambiguous and "foggy"? 

For Fun! 
Lateral Thinking Question of the Day:

Day one answer: Sally was walking!
Day two question: 
In 1987 a crane collapsed in a residential area of area of Kemptville at lunchtime, yet nobody saw or heard anything. Why not? 
​
​The first person to email me the correct answer at craig.beckett@ucdsb.on.ca wins three points. Each subsequent correct answer gets one point.

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Monday April 6, 2020

Word of the Day

Penurious: miserly, stingy 

Literary Term of the Week: Magic Realism

a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.

Essentially, magical realism is:
Real-world setting + fantastical elements = magical realism

Life of Pi is a story that features Magic Realism

Lesson: Are people essentially good or bad?

The file below is a pdf version of the lesson

day_1.pdf
File Size:	776 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Thinking Questions (choose one)

​1. With no one to watch over us are we likely to do good or bad?
​
2. Do institutions, school, government religion, laws, etc help or hinder people in being good?

​Note: Email me your responses to the thinking question at the end of the video

Toronto Star article on social solidarity during COVID-19. Link here

For Fun! 
Lateral Thinking Question of the Day:

After passing her driving test, Sally was on her way home, feeling very pleased with herself and not really concentrating on where she was going. She went straight over a cross walk and the wrong way up a one-way street. Her driving instructor and a passing policeman sat her but didn't bat an eyelid. Why?

The first person to email me the correct answer at craig.beckett@ucdsb.on.ca will be at the top of tomorrow's leaderboard.