Virtual book club

Book Battle

Lots of students all over the state are reading the same books as you are, from the Sunshine State Young Readers and Florida Teens Read lists. Join in the conversation about these books at http://blogs.tampabay.com/bookbattle. Choose the book from grade level lists, check out the discussion questions and blogging prompts. Blog your heart out, then come back and see what other students have to say. 

Most of the books on the Sunshine State Young Readers and Florida Teens Read lists have a conflict. Look for an article in the St. Petersburg Times that focuses on a conflict. Click on the link below to share your thoughts about the conlfict and how the conflict can be resolved.

Hip hip, HooRAYS!

Even if you're not a baseball fan, no doubt you know our Tampa Bay Rays are doing better than ever! Securing a spot in the playoffs on Saturday night, the Rays are heading to the post season. Just dream a little here and tell us what it would mean to you if our hometown team were to be in the playoffs as the AL East Division champs or (dream bigger!) playing in the World Series.

Digital technology

Digitial technology is every where. You can watch the presidential candidates debate on You Tube, watch a video on your iPod or download a book on your Kindle. You even can read the entire St. Petersburg Times from the comfort of your own PC or laptop.

College campuses around the nation are making textbooks available electronically for students. Are high schools students next to be reading about history, mathematics and grammar on a laptop instead of in a traditional textbook? How do you feel about this new technology? Do you think schools should replace textbooks with laptops for each student? If so, why? If not, why not? Look for an article in the St. Petersburg Times electronic edition that helps support your perspective. Share your thoughts by clicking on the link below.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month

Time for a fiesta!

The United States observes Hispanic Heritage Month starting today, through Oct. 15, to celebrate the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. What influences of these traditions do you see in the Tampa Bay area? Click below to share your thoughts.

Politics: Take two

Talkin' politics, again

  Get used to it; with the general election only weeks away, 'tis the season for lots of political pontificating! In that spirit, pretend presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has chosen you to be his running mate, as he did with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. What is the first thing you would tell voters about yourself? Click on the link below to share your thoughts.

Topic 1: Life and culture

Southern folkore

The author’s life can inform and expand the reader’s understanding of a novel. For example, authors often integrate their expertise into the story. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston infuses the setting, characters and dialogue of the novel with Southern folklore and anthropological research. Also, events in the novel mirror some circumstances and events in her life. What events in the story seem to come from Hurston’s life? Do these events add realism to the story? Click on the link below to begin blogging.

Topic 2: Sharing your life

Sharing experiences

Janie tells her story to her best friend in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. If you could tell your life story to only one person, who would it be? Where would you begin? Begin with a significant event or moment that changed your view of the world. Describe your experience through images or word pictures. Click on the link below to write a journal excerpt about this moment.

Topic 3: Everyday influences

Everyday events

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston infuses the setting, characters and dialogue of the novel with Southern folklore and anthropological research. Societal events affect our lives every day. What events have influenced your life? Look in the St. Petersburg Times for examples of everyday events that influence your life. Do these events influence your life in a positive or negative way? Click on the link below to share your thoughts on the NIE Blogging Zone.

Topic 4: Linking history and music

Culture and music

During the big band era (1935 to 1945), jazz music was at the very forefront of popular culture in the United States. Research what was going on in the United States during that decade. Look for articles in the St. Petersburg Times, online or in print, focusing on current popular music and culture. Is our culture represented in music? Is our culture influenced by music? Share your thoughts at the NIE Blogging Zone.

Topic 5: Dialect and oral tradition

The beauty of language

A great writer’s work often reflects the arts and culture of the era. The Jazz Age of the 1920s and the Harlem Renaissance marked the artistic, political and cultural birth of the “New Negro” in literature and art. This renaissance relied upon its deep roots, including the oral traditions of storytelling and folktales. These traditions corresponded to a variety of musical styles: Negro spirituals, blues and jazz. In Hurston’s prose, the old and new converged into the dynamic, vibrant language of Janie, Pheoby and the Eatonville townspeople. Click on the link below to discuss why Hurston would use Southern black idiom to tell her story?

Topic 6: Connecting the past and the present

Learning from history

Jim Crow laws in America marked a negative time in our nation’s history. Author George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” What does this phrase mean? What types of connections from the past to the present can you find in the St. Petersburg Times? Click on the link below to begin blogging.

Topic 7: Separate ≠ equal

The Jim Crow era

When Hurston was a child in the 1890s, a system of laws and regulations commonly referred to as “Jim Crow” emerged. Most of the laws separated such public facilities as parks, schools, hotels, transportation, water fountains and restrooms into “Whites Only” and “Colored.” Throughout her life, Hurston was often the object of discrimination. Discuss the issue of discrimination in current society. How have things changed over the years? Click on the link below to begin sharing your thoughts.

Topic 8: Character development

Character motivation

A great writer develops characters who continue to fascinate readers throughout the years. We become enchanted by their personalities, their trials and their growth. We follow the main figure, the protagonist, through a challenging series of events. The protagonist’s journey is made more dramatic by the challenges presented by characters who often embody different beliefs. These supporting characters can be antagonists or foils.  The men in Janie’s life help develop her character. How do Logan and Joe reveal different sides of Janie? What are their motivations? To what extent does Janie acquire her own voice and the ability to shape her own life? How are the two attributes related? Click on the link to share your ideas.

Topic 9: Figurative language

Descriptive language

Hurston’s writing is thick with language that draws us beyond the literal descriptions of people, places and events. Identify the novel’s figurative language and expand the meaning of the novel. For example, what does Janie mean when she says that her “life is like a great tree in leaf”? Discuss some notable examples of figurative language in the book.  Pay special attention to the novel’s first page. How are these descriptions used figuratively: the road, ships, trees, the sun, eyes, time, God, dreams, judgment, speech, silence or mules? Click on the link below to share your thoughts.

Topic 10: The role of the narrator

Third person narration

Their Eyes Were Watching God opens with an unidentified third-person narrator who remains outside the story. However, the narration changes when Janie tells her story to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. How can an omniscient narrator tell the story at the same time that the novel’s heroine, Janie, also tells her story? Do these voices reflect different parts of Janie, or does the omniscient narrator reveal another force in Janie’s universe? Click on the link below to begin sharing your thoughts.

Topic 11: Gossip and judgment

Judging Janie

Their Eyes Were Watching God begins with the reader’s eyes fixed on a woman who returns from burying the dead. Janie is watched and judged throughout the novel. In the first chapter, who judges her, and why? How does Janie respond? Why does Janie choose to tell her story only to her best friend, Pheoby? How does our own audience (especially friends) affect what we reveal or conceal? Click on the link below to begin sharing your thoughts.

Topic 12: Politics and life

Politics

Hurston’s father was the mayor of Eatonville. This experience is represented in Their Eyes Were Watching God with Janie’s husband, Joe Starks, being the mayor. Politics affected Hurston’s life and often affects everyone’s life in one way or another. Do you know who is running the world – locally, nationally and internationally? This is an important election year. Who are the candidates running for election? How will these leaders effect your life and the lives of the people in your community? Click on the link below to share your ideas.

Topic 13: The great American novel

Reviewing the novel

Read the book reviews in the St. Petersburg Times. Identify the key elements in the reviews that identify the characteristics of the books. What elevates a novel to greatness? Do you agree that Hurston’s book is a great work of literature? Share your thoughts about the qualities that make this book great.

Topic 14: Shattering stereotypes

Women stereotypes

After years of polite submission to her male counterparts, Janie gains her voice in Chapters 7 and 8. Prior to her defiance of Joe, Janie observes the way Daisy, Mrs. Bogle and Mrs. Robbins are treated by the men. These three Eatonville women provide caricatures – quick, stereotyped sketches – of what it means to be a black woman in this small Florida town. In what ways do these caricatures highlight a larger disrespect toward women? Have you found any articles in the St. Petersburg Times that highlight or represent a stereotype, discrimination or prejudice? Share the article and your views here.

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussions 1

The importance of speech

The use of dialect in Hurston's narrative plays a large role in the character development. Her narrative technique also contributes to character development, as well as setting and plot. Discuss the effect of Hurston’s narrative technique of alternating between highly figurative narration and colloquial dialogue.

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 2

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Discuss the significance of the book’s title and how it relates to Janie’s quest and the rest of the book.

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 3

Richard Wright's view

In 1937, Richard Wright reviewed Their Eyes Were Watching God and wrote: “The sensory sweep of her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy.” In particular, Wright objected to the novel’s discussion of race and use of black dialect. Why might Wright have objected to Their Eyes Were Watching God? Do you agree or disagree with Wright’s interpretation of the novel?

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 4

Critics and Hurston

While Wright claimed that Hurston pandered to whites, Alain Locke said she oversimplified Southern black experience under the segregationist system known as Jim Crow. In January 1938, Locke’s infamous review publicly asked Hurston when she would begin to write “social document fiction.” This response so wounded her that she later regretted writing the novel at all. But critics who felt that Hurston’s fiction undermined their attempts to combat racism misunderstood her aesthetic. As she once wrote in a letter, “I tried...not to pander to the folks who expect a clown and a villain in every Negro. Neither did I want to pander to those ‘race’ people among us who see nothing but perfection in all of us.” Holding to this vision would cost her, financially and otherwise, right up until her death in 1960. What are your thoughts about Hurston’s statement and Locke’s comment?

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 5

Janie and marriage

Discuss Janie’s three marriages. What initially pulls her to each of the three men? How do they differ from one another? What does she learn from each experience?

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 6

Silence is golden

Their Eyes Were Watching God is concerned with issues of speech and how speech is both a mechanism of control and a vehicle of liberation. Yet Janie remains silent during key moments in her life. Discuss the role of silence in the book and how that role changes throughout the novel.

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 7

Symbolism and figurative language

Complex images do more than simply map the inner landscape: They become symbols. As a form of figurative language, symbols can maintain our fascination by hinting beyond the literal, drawing us back to explore what the author may mean. Discuss the development of three major symbols in the novel: the pear tree, the street lamp and the mule.

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 8

Coming of age

Many readers consider this novel a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, as Janie’s external journey takes her through southern Florida and her three marriages. Janie finds her voice and learns to use it. In order to trace the development of Janie’s character, use this discussion to explore Janie’s transformation at two major turning points: her confrontation with Joe Starks (Chapters 7-8) and her meeting of Tea Cake (Chapter 10).

Teen Blogging Zone: Discussion 9

The Voice of a generation

A great writer can be the voice of a generation. What kind of voice does Hurston employ and why would she use a novel to express this voice? What does her voice reveal about her generation? Is it still relevant? If you were the voice of your generation, what would be your most important message? Why might you choose to convey this in a fictional novel rather than a speech or essay?

Talkin' politics

My Fellow Americans ...

History was made last week when Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accepted the Democrat Party's nomination to be its candidate for president. If you could have made a speech at the convention, what issues would you have included in your speech? Click on the comment button below to tell us about your experiences.