Overview of the last week (10.02. - 14.02.)

This week its my (Plüschi) turn again to do the overview of the past week in our english lk.

Last week we gave our breathtaking presentations on Couchsurfing, Facebook and Modern language, but we also discussed "Mockingjay" we had to read over the holidays.
But lets start with the presentations.

The first presentation was from my group and had the title: "The-oh-my-god-I-think-I-have-to-cry-because-this-is-going-to-be-the-absolute-best-most-breathtaking-presentation-about-facebook-that-I-will-ever-see-in-my-entire-life-and-this-title-is-so-awesome-that-the-group-has-to-get-a-great-grade-for-their-presentation-project-week". As you know our main topic was facebook and we subdevided it in Media literacy on facebook, Cyber-bullying and Shitstorms. The most important points to remember from our presentation are:

1. if you join a social network (no matter which one!) you should be clear on the consequences that it can have so use it wisely - do not post everything!
2. to avoid becoming a victim of cyber-bullying you shoul keep your privacy settings on your profile up-to-date and only connect with your real friends.
3. shitstorms can happen to everyone - no matter if celebrity or "normal" person.

The second presentation was on the topic of "Couchsurfing". The most important facts to remember from this presentation are:

1. it is free to create an account, but you need to give a lot of private information 
2. sometimes people use it as a dating site

And last but certainly not least was the presentation on the topic of "Modern language". You should remember that:

1. expanding the language
2. it uses a ot of emoticons and abbreviations/acronyms
3. its informal

On Monday we started to discuss the novel "Mockingjay". Since some of you couldn't come to class because you had to write your geography exams (that hopefully went well :) ) i'll repeat our results. We started off by discussing the four aspects of "Mockingjay" and which ones we didn't like. This obviously was everyones own opinion so you have to think about that for yourself ;) . After that we continued to talk about the term Mockingjay and created a mind map for that. 

In the end we seperated in two groups and were supposed to devide the novel into substories and give those titles. Since we wern't able to compare those we all got it as a homework for next monday.

On Thursday we Continued again with the novel. Our first task was to analyze the development of the Mockingjay from the first to the last part of the series. 

1. We found out that there was something like a "Pre-Mockingjay-Phase" since they are only a crossbreed between Mockingbirds and the Jabberjays. This was the Phase in which the Jabberjays were sent into the wilderness to die off because they didn't do their "job" to spy on the rebels in the districts. The only Porblem was that "they hadn't anticipated its will to live" which is why the new species was created.
2. In the first novel the Mockingjay was a symbol for Katniss dead father. For her the Mockingjays was something devine since for her "[i]t's like having a piece of [her] father with [her], protecting [her]."
3. In the end of the first and beginning of the second novel, the mockingjay grew into a symbol of failure and weakness (for the Capitols point of view!!!), because a) it's "a creature the Capitol never intended to exist" and b) since Katniss wore a pin with it in the arena and tricked the Capitol to save hers and Peetas lives. Now in the second novel, in Katniss point of view it grew into a symbol for Rue (WOW she seems to have a thing with dead people.... :P ). But for all the Districts it became a symbol for rebellion (Katniss in the arena, Cinnas dress...). 
4. In the third novel it obviously gew into a symbol for the revolution in Panem. What is more interesting is that it becomes clear that Katniss doesn't see them as something devine anymore. Since she had to "become the Mockingjay" she outgrew her role. When she started to sing herself she described that they fell silent for her as well.  Now she has the bigger role than the Mockingjays had for her in the first part.

Last but not least we talked about propaganda in the novel. A propaganda is the systematic dissemination of  political opinions done to influence the public opinion on certain topics. In the novel we have to remember to seperate the Capitols Propaganda (Peetas interview...) from the rebels propaganda (all propos)!

As you all know - on tuesday we have to write our exam. One of the possible tasks could be to write an article. Since some of us didn't get their articles back already I'm going to post mine for now to give you an example until you get yours back!! I hope it helps you to study! :) 

Also remember that we have a 99.9999 chance to have to write an analysis of a cartoon so have a look at how to write those again as well! Other than that maybe have a look at the other possible creative tasks for the exam (speech, comment, discussion, letter to the editor....) :).

So this is all for now (finally!). I wish you all a nice relaxing weekend. See you on Monday
-Plüschi :)