Welcome to your online discussion of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings!
Together with members of your book group, you’ll be reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings over the next several weeks. Although you're not required to take notes while you read, it would be wise to keep track of important events and characters for your own clarification. You are, however, expected to participate regularly and thoughtfully in an online discussion of FOUR essential questions.
Here's how it works:
Divide your book into three roughly equal sections. You need to have read and blogged about these sections by the due dates below.
There are two kinds of posts in this discussion: responses and comments.
Responses = direct responses to the essential questions
- Post at least TWO responses for each section of your book (SIX overall).
- You must comment on all of the essential questions over the course of your reading.
- One of your six responses can be a “free-response" post.
Comments = comment on someone else’s posted response or comment
- Post at least THREE comments for each section of your book (NINE overall).
Due dates:
- Post your first set of responses and comments by Friday, April 1.
- Post your second set of responses and comments by Monday, April 11.
- Post your third set of responses and comments by Monday, April 25.
Essential Questions:
- How does the story (setting, characters, plot, etc.) illuminate aspects of African-American culture? Be specific! (Page references are helpful.)
- How does the story (setting, characters, plot, etc.) illuminate aspects of African-American history?
- In what ways does this book refute the notion of the “single story”?
- How does the story (setting, characters, plot, etc.) reflect or illuminate the current state of race relations in our country? Have we made any progress as a society?
** Free-response option: Address another issue/episode/or passage in the book that you find
significant for any reason.
Assessment: To earn maximum credit, post thoughtful responses that are at least a short paragraph in length—and carefully proofread! Do not misspell characters' or authors’ names! Also, be sure to include specific references to the text (either details or short quotations). Page numbers, too, are always helpful.
(Alex H.) Response 1: Frederick Starts off by telling mainly the cruelty he sees in the actions of masters and their kin. In pages 34 and 35 he tells about the murder of many slaves and how no one was taken to court for the deeds. One time an old man on sunday was searching for oysters, strayed off of his master’s property and was shot by another slaveholder. Or when the cousin of Douglass’s wife fell asleep when caring for a baby, and didn’t hear it cry, her mistress beat her to death with a piece of firewood. Neither was taken to a court for trial.
ReplyDelete(Alex H.) Response 2: Douglass tells about the songs the slaves sang when heading to get their monthly food allowance or yearly clothing allowance. He says many men thought it was because they were happy, but it was actually the opposite. They sang about their sorrows and all the misdeeds that had been done to them, their friends, or their family. How they’d been separated from their mothers, or had been whipped by a cruel master. Along with these songs and the songs they sang in the fields, this really started what we know as Jazz now.
ReplyDelete1. How does the story (setting, characters, plot, etc.) illuminate aspects of African-American culture? Be specific! (Page references are helpful.)
ReplyDeleteFrom page 26-27 Frederick Douglass explained how within the plantation farms the lives of the black slaves are depressing and horrid. By explaining that in the fields you could hear the songs of the slaves. They were singing about how black people are only meant to serve and it is the only songs they know. This brought great sadness to Frederick and he said that just by listening to the songs of the slaves would make him cry and feel only depression and sadness. The culture of African Americans is very dim because. They weren’t aloud to have a culture. They became outcasts of a culture formed by white men.
4. How does the story (setting, characters, plot, etc.) reflect or illuminate the current state of race relations in our country? Have we made any progress as a society?
YES, I believe we have made tremendous amount of progress but their still a long way to go. And sadly I think we are losing progress. Not just with black people. But with Asian, Muslim, and Latino people. We judge people with just a single story and believe that these people are poisoning our country by moving here and immigrating but we don’t seem to realize that this country was founded by immigrants! All Americans BORN in America had relatives or ancestors who were immigrants. For an example I AM an American citizen born in America but my father is from England. I also have relatives who were from Sweden, Poland and Italy. We all need to get a grip and realize that we are all descendants of immigrants from different races and should not discriminate other races who are from places that our relatives or ancestors may of been from.