Wednesday, January 19, 2011

What is the nature of this life of ours?

Routine. I love it.  Though the holiday season of 2010 was wonderful, I am glad to be back into the routine of home, work, and school.  While sleep was a luxury and we enjoyed unscheduled hours, I thrive on the rituals of my days.  And, I admit, I enjoy my students so the days are pleasant for the most part.

That said, we're well into Animal Farm and corresponding work including speeches about leaders the kids know and preparations for midterm exams.  This is a fun book and the students quickly get into the story, voicing opinions about the pigs and how they are running things, drawing connections to historical and contemporary politics, and writing about leadership strategies and being followers.  All in all, it's pretty good.  And we'll be building models of animal farms as well.  More hot glue!

So, students, consider this and post your comments:
  • What are your initial impressions of this story?
  • What political and historical connections can you make?
  • Are the pigs good leaders, regardless of what you think of their style?
  • Which of the farm animals can you identify with and why?
And the midterm information is here:  Midterm Preparation January 2011

23 comments:

  1. I think the story could use a tractor or two.

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  2. Well the pigs can be considered good leaders since they were able to get all the animals to follow them. However, they have very harsh leader skills that are very similiar to a communist government. To see what happens in this book will be intresting, because there are so many questions that you can ask.

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  3. The pigs seem to be pretty good leaders. They're running the farm pretty smoothly. The farm life is pretty good. The farm is also being maintained, so the other animals never know what is going on behind the scenes to get the work done.

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  4. I think that the pigs are good leaders in how they do get everyone to get the work done on the farm completed on time. If they didn't step up, the work on the farm wouldn't get finnished on time and the farm wouldn't be runnning as efficiently as it is now.

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  5. In Animal Farm, the pigs are actually somewhat good leaders. They take charge and make sure things get done. They have differing opinions that cause some problems but they find ways to work them out. I do not believe there would be much of a story without the pigs.

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  6. I think that this book is interesting, it keeps your attention and never seems to have a dull moment. It is weird thinking about animals talking, and writing let alone running a farm expecially since I showed steers in 4-H when I was younger. But this book presents a point of view that I have never thought of before, which I enjoy. I can't wait to see what else is going to happen in the rest of this book

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  7. My impression of this book is that it's crazy! Who would ever come up with the connection between farm animals and politics! So far Animal Farm is intresting in the way the animals portray different political figures throughout the story, and im excited to find out how this book plays out.

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  8. The pigs I guess are decent leaders, they take care of the farm how it should be.They make sure everyone is fed and healthy. Then again I think that they need to work together more. They also don't really think about what the other animals would like to do, if they have any suggestions. What was Napoleon's problem with buliding the wind mill, why not just let him?

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  9. i think ths is a good book. its interresting, and strangly funny at times.

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  10. I think that the pigs are bad leaders they are the same as Mr.Jones especially Napolean he ran Snowball out of the farm beacause he didnt like his views. He is just like Mr. Jones was in the farm except Napolean is a stronger more controling leader and a comerade and Mr.Jones was not.

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  11. I personally do not agree with the pig’s style of leadership. They partake in a lot of activities, that I find to be wrong as leaders of the group (such as taking away the little puppies and raising them how they so choose). Although they do keep everyone in line and through their leadership all the tasks that need to get done are completed. Therefore some aspects of their leadership are good, I just feel that they are contradicting what they said in the first place, that all animals are equal.

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  12. I don't think that the pigs are good leaders at all. They only make decisions that benefit themselves and when someone opposes one of their decisions, they get rid of them. That is not how good leaders act.

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  13. Regardless of what I thing of the pigs style of leadership, I believe the pigs are good leaders.
    They helped liberate the animals from the humans, they help protect them, and they have established fair laws among all the animals.These are all the qualities good leaders need to possess. Overall, I believe the pigs are good leaders.

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  14. I feel that the pigs are good leaders because they can get the other animals to follow them. They have good leadership skills although, I fear that the pigs will become power hungry. I think they will do what is best for them as opposed to what's best for the farm.

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  15. I don't think the pigs are very good leaders because they use their intelligence to help the animals but they hide things from the other animals and are sly about it. Also they have lied to the other animals and its easy to decieve them because they are less intelligent than the pigs.

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  16. I think the pigs are not good leaders. They are power hungry animals.

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  17. Although the pigs a not honest and always fair towards the other animals, they are good leaders. The pigs have gathered all the animals to work together and be on their side.They succesfully led the revolt against the humans and established laws for them all to abide by, all things a good leader does.

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  18. I think that the pigs are terrible leaders. They lack many of the traits of a good leader like honesty, trustworthiness, courage, and fair-mindedness, and integrity. Although the pigs are fairly intelligent, they are only looking out for themselves. Most of the other animals on the farm aren't as smart as the pigs which is why they probably think it's easier just to follow the orders of the pigs. The pigs are good at manipulating the other animals for their power, but on their own they are not good leaders.

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  19. I think the pigs are bad leaders. They do not make decisions based on the interests of all of the animals as a whole. Instead, they are only concerned with themselves and have become very manipulative as the book progresses. The pigs have caused the animals to turn against each other which is not a quality a good leader has. Their new found independence was supposed to bring the farm animals closer together, but it seems as though they are drifting apart.

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  20. I have to say that I love this book. I read it on my own in 10th grade and I loved it then. I new that the story was symbolic of a government, but I did not know about the direct comparisons to the Russian Revolution. It has been interesting seeing how Orwell drew the parallels between the characters in the book and the people from history.

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  21. My intial impresion of this story was over all good. Though i was upset with the way the animals acted when Napoleon took over. The animals were so blind, to busy being followers to see what Napolron was actually doing to them. Animal farm was a book i would read again dispite the aspects of the book i dislike.

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  22. The story was phenomenal! I didnt understand at first why it was to be read but in the long run it's just another form of literature. Loved it!

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  23. I thought animal farm was a good book, and it did open up a bunch of topics for the class to talk about but it made me hungry!!!

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