9th Grade Journals

Your journal is one place I get to have a good in-depth "conversation" with you about the issues and ideas that come up in class and in the readings. It's not a private diary; I give you assigned topics to write about. But you have freedom of expression when you write, and no worry that you will be graded on the form, spelling, or grammar of what you write. I am interested in what you think and what you have to say, always. The school day is a busy one, though, so the journal is the one place we'll both always have time to "listen" to each other.

I take your journal very seriously, and spend a lot of time on it--as you will discover. It's my favorite thing to grade, and it will become your favorite thing that I grade.

Journal Rules:

A journal response is complete if you write more than half of one page.
If you are absent when a journal is due, you should hand in the completed journal the day you return to class, or it will be late. You can always get the latest topic here online.
Once your journal is late, I'd rather good writing than quick writing. Late journals should be handed in as soon as possible, but with no deadline except the end of the quarter and that I want good, thoughtful writing; once it's late, it's late, one day or one week.
Late journal responses count only for half credit.
If you handed in your journal on time, and a topic comes back to you with an "incomplete" written on it, you don't have any credit for that journal...yet. You can add to or re-write that topic. If you write more than half a page, it will be given a check that counts as late.
DO express yourself in the way you want to. If you draw a picture, make a chart, or write a poem in response to my assignment, I'll find a way to count that in the "half page" requirement.
Except for Journal #1 and the final topic of the year, one of your topic choices is always to write whatever you want to write. You are not restricted to the topic(s) I give you, even though most people will write on the given topic.

The Topics (This list grows as the year goes on.)

#1: Introduce Yourself
You may remember, if you had me as a teacher in an earlier grade, my original first journal topic. It's the place to more formally introduce yourself to me. Tell me about your…

PAST: Your family, where you were born, where you've been, etc.
PRESENT: Describe yourself. What kind of person are you? What things do you like? What things do you dislike?
FUTURE: What are your plans for the future? Career plans? What would you like your life to be like in 10-15 years?

If you think you'll just be repeating yourself here, you can go ahead and write the alternative Journal #1: Tell me how you're different and how you're the same since the last time you were in my class. What's new? What will never change?

#2: Pick one or more to write on. (Related to Lord of the Flies.)

Are young people (ages 12-17) more or less violent than adults (over 30)? Are they more or less sensible? Are they more or less likely to panic in a hard situation? Are they more or less likely to survive on the island?
Are girls more or less violent than boys? Are they more or less sensible? Are they more or less likely to panic in a hard situation? Are they more or less likely to survive on the island?
If you were stranded on the island with a random group of strangers your age, would you...become a leader or a follower?...panic or remain calm?...have any special knowledge to contribute?...fight and argue or get along with others?...act differently without adults or society around?...survive well or poorly?

#3: Pick one or more to write on. (These are again related to Lord of the Flies.)

Do you believe in The Devil? Does The Devil take a form in this world? What does The Devil do and how and why?
The world is full of terrible things (murder, poverty, war, child abuse, etc., etc.). Is it because some people are evil? Or because all people are evil? Or most people are evil? What is evil, anyway?
What is the worst thing you've ever heard of that actually happened? Name more than one thing if you want to. Can you say why, out of all the terrible things in the world, this one is so terrible to you? Pick something from history, or the news, or your own life, but make sure it really did happen.

Journal #4 is to return your progress report, signed by your parent.

#5: Final Lord of the Flies topics:

Write your own deserted island adventure. Yours can be funny or serious; it can feature your classmates or anyone else you wish (but don't write anything that would hurt anyone's feelings, please); your characters can end up on the island for any reason you'd like and either get rescued or not. Just make it a good story!
There was a radio show called "Desert Island Discs," where famous people discussed which five music albums they'd like to have with them if they were stranded on an island. This journal topic is kind of "Desert Island Suitcase". If you had to be stranded on an island, and could save one suitcase from the plane, which songs, DVD's, foods, personal possessions, etc. would you definitely like to have with you, if you could? You may NOT list people or pets, or any communication devices. (Let's assume this magical island has electricity and you could plug something in.) But other than that, what would you like to have in your desert island suitcase? You should also describe why these things are so important to you.

#6: Someone You Admire (a first topic for To Kill a Mockingbird):
Describe a real-life person you admire (other than yourself). What qualities do you admire? What makes someone admirable? Can some qualities even make a person heroic?

#7: Two choices related to To Kill a Mockingbird:

Tell about a time you told a lie, and there were consequences. Or, a time someone told a lie about you, and there were consequences.
Write about a time you were treated unfairly.
Write about something you once did which you know now was wrong.

#8: Related to Mockingbird: This is a difficult topic, and one I'd like you take seriously. This novel is about learning to be a good person; Atticus is trying to teach his children values, and how to behave, in a world that is often cruel or not fair. For this journal, evaluate yourself, as a person. Compared to other people you know, or people you've heard of, or just on your own terms, describe yourself and your character: Are you good? Are you decent? Are you helpful and honest? Brave? By your own standards, are you a good person?

Journal #9 was to return a signed progress report for the second quarter.

#10: Write on one or both of these Romeo & Juliet topics:

Tell about your relationship with your parents--Are you close like best friends? Is there a lot of conflict? Describe the relationship.
What is true love? Can true love happen at first sight, or does it take time? Is true love always forever, or can it fade? Is true love possible when you're young (around 14 years old), or does it take maturity?

#11: Romeo & Juliet
The topic choices for this journal can be found on page 46 of your Romeo & Juliet book. If you choose the first topic, the drawing, it should be in color and detailed. If the topic says to "perform" the result, just write it in your journal, not for performance.

#12: Romeo & Juliet topics:

Youth vs. Adulthood: Which is better? Are young people stuck in the rules of adults, without freedom, while older people are more free? Or are young people the free ones, and the adults stuck and unfree? Are older people wiser? Young people more foolish? Or more romantic? Are older people more sensible? Or more boring? Evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of being older, and being younger. Then, tell what's the best age to be.
Re-write any scene you've read so far in your own, modern, updated English. Be creative and have fun. What would Gregory and Samson say today on the street to start a fight? How would two teenagers at a party this weekend, meeting for the first time, talk to each other?

Journal #13 is to hand in a signed progress report.

#14: Romeo & Juliet topics; pick one or more to write about:

Pretend you are a character (Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, the parents, Benvolio...) and write a letter to an advice columnist in the newspaper, describing a problem your character has in the play. Then write the advice expert's advice in return. [For example: "Dear Abby: My cousin and best friend has fallen head over heels with a girl, and she doesn't love him back. He's miserable. He walks alone all night, and shuts himself up in his room during the day. What can I do to cheer him up? Signed, Helpless In Verona" "Dear Helpless: You need to take your cousin out and show him a good time! Introduce him to some other girls. They say there are plenty of fish in the sea, and your cousin needs to go fishing! Take him out to a party, or a night on the town. He'll realize soon enough that other girls are beautiful, too."]
Romeo trusts Friar Lawrence; Juliet trusts the Nurse. Both turn out to be bad choices. Whom do you trust the most? Which person in your life--not including your parents or family members--do you trust the most? Why? Why is trust so important to a friendship or relationship?
Write the diary entry (or entries) of a young girl (14-15 years old) who has met a boy she likes. Then tell the boy's side of the same relationship--in his diary or in telling about the girl to his friends.

#15: These Night topics are closely related; write on one or both of them:

Does God act in the world? For example, can prayer help a situation? Or did God just start the world in motion, and now it's "hands off"? Does faith have any effect at all on life? Or are things just kind of randomly good or bad?
Why do bad things happen to good people? (There's a whole book written about this question.) Why, for example, does a little newborn baby have blood cancer? Or a sweet 90-year-old grandmother get attacked in her home? Why would something like the Holocaust happen to so many innocent people?

#16: Night choices:

A large part of this book, and genocides in general, is the concept we have of identity, in particular group identity. In the case of the Holocaust, some important identities were: Jewish, gypsy, homosexual, Communist, Christian, German, Socialist, the list goes on. For this journal, examine yourself in terms of your many identities-groups that you belong to. Think of your family, your physical traits, your religion, gender, musical preferences, nationality, political views, left- or right-handed, all the many ways a person could identify you as part of a group. Which identities are important to you? Which ones are unimportant? Then think of ways you are entirely unique; what identity do you have that no one else has?
Another important aspect of this book and this unit is summed up in a common "slogan" connected to the Holocaust: Never Again. The idea is that if we remember, if we don't forget the victims or the system that created the Holocaust, we will not only honor those victims, but also possibly prevent future genocides. Yet, Elie Wiesel has said his greatest disappointment in life is that "those of us who went through the war and tried to write about it, about their experience, became messengers. We have given the message, and nothing changed. Human nature remained what it was. Society remained what it was. Too much indifference in the world, to the Other, his pain, and anguish, and hope. That is my greatest sorrow, my great disappointment." I've asked this question before in other ways: Do you think the world is getting any better? Are we learning the lessons of history? Or is the world just as horrible--is human nature too strong--do we not learn the lessons we need to learn to improve as a species?

#17: Final Night topics--They all go together, but as usual, you can answer one or more:

In a sense, this book (and this unit) is asking you one continuous question: What would I have done? First, put yourself in the role of a Jewish student, your own age, in some country that has been occupied by the Nazi government just as World War II is starting. Using what you've learned in this unit, and your own knowledge of yourself, what do you think you would have done, as the Holocaust came closer and closer to you and your family?
Now, put yourself in the place of a young Nazi soldier (or, as a female soldier is unlikely, a female guard in a camp containing women and children prisoners), assigned to duty at Auschwitz. Your duty involves humiliating and brutalizing Jewish and other prisoners. Would you have carried out those duties? If not, what would you have done? (Remember the consequences for soldiers who don't carry out their orders.)
Lastly, think of yourself as a non-Jewish citizen in Nazi Germany or Nazi-occupied territory during this period. (Or, to use an example from Sometimes in April, a Hutu in the Rwandan genocide, with a nice, safe Hutu identity card.) You've seen your Jewish neighbors rounded up during the day; they stand scared and frightened waiting to board a train. You know this is unjustified and unfair. But look at all of those soldiers around them, with guns. What would you have done?

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