Monday 4/1

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:


“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.
To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with cries of hatred.” 
― Albert Camus, The Stranger


1.  Discuss:  How do you feel now that there are less than 3 months to go in your high school career.  

What concerns do you have about college?

2.  Discuss Journal

3.  Collect:  Final Test -  The Stranger.

4.  Senior Project - Oral Presentations:  Begin May 1st.

Tips:  Video:  Incorporate Research:  Personal Viewpoints/Connections:  **Answer Essential Question.

Activity:  With a partner:  Discuss -  Is Mersault a hero?  Worthy of Sympathy?  10 mins:  Share.

5.  Creative Writing Assignment:  Choose any abstract feeling associated with Existentialism.  **Give sensuality to it by utilizing sensory details.  

Examples:  Fear, confusion, indifference, hostility, loneliness....

What do they look like?  Smell?  Taste?  Feel like?  Sound like?  

1 pg....  Due Friday  April 5th.    *Feel free to include an illustration.  

Wednesday 3/20

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

"Then, I don't know why, but something inside me snapped.  I started yellling a the top of my lungs, and I insulted him and told him not to waste his prayers on me.  I was pouring out on him everything that was in my heart, cries of anger and cries of joy."   *Consider what Mersault is feeling here.

1.  Vocabulary:  Synonym review:  Ch. 8

indisputable evidence
banter of the morning talk show
claimed a crime was committed
an idea that permeates all aspects of society
the egregious corruption
crushed by the force of the wind
a listeless response
foreshadows dangers to come
tried to placate both sides
wore a very grotesque mask
will aggravate tensions between the rivals
the upper levels of power
slog through the seemingly endless files

2.  Discuss Journal

3.  Read pg. 121

Activity:  With a partner, consider significance of :

"dark wind rising from the future"
"EVERYBODY was priveleged"
"The others would all be condemned one day"
*10 mins:  Share

4.  Read end of novel.

Discuss:  Why does Mersault understands now why his mother had taken a fiance.  (pg 122)

5.  Freewrite:  Why does Mersault want people to greet him with "cries of hate" ?

Tuesday 3/19

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

"How had I not seen that there was nothing more important than an execution, and that when you come right down to it, it was the only thing a man could be truly interested in?"  Consider why Mersault feels this way.

1.  Vocabulary:  Choose any 7 words from your definitions sheet and use in a mature sentence with clear context clues. 

2.  Discuss Journal

3.  With a partner, examine the significance of Mersault's recollection of his father.  *5 mins:  Share

4.  Read pg. 113.  "Always find something to be happy about"...

**Consider the importance of "footsteps"  Explain.    5 mins:  Share.

5.  Read pgs 116 - 118.  Describe Mersault's encounter with the chaplain.  5 mins:  Share

6.  Continue reading Ch. 5

Monday. 3/18

Journal- Respond to the quote below:

“Nothing, nothing mattered, and I knew why. So did he. Throughout the whole absurd life I'd

lived, a dark wind had been rising toward me from somewhere deep in my future, across years that were still to come, and as it passed, this wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time, in years no more real than the ones I was living. What did other people's deaths or a mother's love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we're all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers? Couldn't he see, couldn't he see that? Everybody was privileged. There were only privileged people. The others would all be condemned one day. And he would be condemned, too.” 

― Albert Camus, The Stranger

1.  Vocab Review:  definitions

2.  Discuss Journal

3.  Activity:  Read beginning of Ch 5.   Describe Mersault's "disappointment" with  the nature of executions.      10 mins. : Share

4.   Explore significance of Mersault's reference to his father.    

5.   Task:  Summarize Mersault's recollection of his father.   Analyze the thematic implications of "executions"  

Friday 3/15

Respond to the quote below:

“What really counted was the possibility of escape, a leap of freedom, out of the implacable ritual, a wild run for it that would give whatever chance for hope there was. Of course, hope meant being cut down on some street corner, as you ran like mad, by a random bullet. But when I really thought it through, nothing was going to allow me such a luxury. Everything was against it; I would just be caught up in the machinery again.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger



1.  Discuss Journal

2.  With a partner, Evaluate Mersault's verdict. (5 mins:  Share)

List the main factors that led to this determination.  




3  Creative Writing:  Make a diary entry from Mersault.  Describe how he feels about this verdict.

4.  Read Ch. 5    With a partner, explain Mersault's dilemma regarding his death sentence.  Describe how he believes there should be a some sense of hope.  

Thursday 3/14

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

“I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world.” 
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

1.  Vocabulary:  Synonyms  Ch. 7

2.  Discuss Journal

3.  pg. 103   Mersault's response to the murder:  "Because of  the sun"....  Examine what Mersault is 
trying to convey about this crime... about himself... about the world.

Discuss w/ partner:  Share.  (10 mins)

4.  Read End of Ch. 4.  Evaluate Mersault's verdict.


Creative Writing:  Make a diary entry from Mersault.  Describe how he feels about this verdict.

Begin Antonyms:  Ch. 7

5.  Read conclusion of the novel.  

Wednesday 3/13

Journal:  Respond to the following quote:

“Maman used to say that you can always find something to be happy about. In my prison, when the sky turned red and a new day slipped into my cell, I found out that she was right.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger 

1.  Vocabulary:  Work w/ partner:  Do 11-20  Completing The Sentence

2.  Discuss Journal

3.  Re-read end of Ch. 3.  Mersault claims he has something to say:  Creative Write:  Profess his thoughts!  As Mersault, address the court.  5 mins:  Share

4.  pg. 101   The prosecutor says he "peered into Mersaul's soul" and found none.  Is this possible?  Discuss.

5.  pg. 103   Mersault's response to the murder:  "Because of  the sun"....  Examine what Mersault is 
trying to convey about this crime... about himself... about the world.

Discuss w/ partner:  Share.  

6.  Read End of Ch. 4.  Evaluate Mersault's verdict.    

Tuesday 3/12

Journal:

At the end of Part 2, Ch. 3, Mersualt realizes his trial is not going well and reflects:

"...Yes, this was the time of day when, long ago, I used to feel happy. What always awaited me then was a night of easy, dreamless sleep. And yet something had changed, for with the prospect of the coming day, it was to my cell that I returned. As if a familiar journey under a summer sky could as easily end in prison as in innocent sleep.” 
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

1.  Vocabulary:  Ch. 7  Completing the Sentence  *10 mins  Work w/ partner  #'s 1-10  Share.

2. Discuss Journal

3.  Activity:  Assume the point of view of Maman (Of course, before she died...)  Describe a time that your son, Mersualt really surprised you.    *10 mins:  Share.  

4.  Begin reading/analyzing Ch. 4  

H.W.  *Completing the Sentence - Do 11-20 and Synonyms.  

Monday 3/11

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

“Have you no hope at all? And do you really live with the thought that when you die, you die, and nothing remains?" "Yes," I said.” 
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Existential Powerpoints...

3.  Review end of Ch. 2:  -- Self Recognition    -- Sound of his own voice

4.  Prezi:  "Presentations"

5.  Begin reading Ch. 3.  

Friday 3/8

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

After relating the story of the Czechoslovakian who was killed by his mother and sister after he tried to "surprise" them after 25 years, Mersualt contemplates that: "On the one hand it wasn't very likely.  On the other, it was perfectly natural".   **Analyze how Mersauult could feel that this bizarre narrative could be "perfectly natural."

1.  Discuss Journal.

2.  pg. 81  In prison, Mersault sees his own reflection in a tin plate and realizes:  "... for the first time in months, I distinctly heard the sound of my own voice..."

Activity:  With a partner, imagine that your are Mersault.  Describe what you see in your reflection.  Consider what you hear your voice telling you.  10 mins:  Share.

3.  Existential Powerpoint presentations.

4.  Begin reading Ch. 3

Thursday 3/7

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

"... the main problem was killing time.  Eventually, once I learned how to remember things, I wasn't bored at all."  Consider how memory alleviates Mersault's boredom.

1.  Discuss journal


2.    Pg.  79  "I would remember every piece of furniture; and on every piece of furniture, every object; and of every object, all the details; and of the details themselves - a flake, a crack, or a chipped edge-the color and texture."  (Ch. 2)

*With a partner, consider the significance of this passage.  What might this "practice" illuminate about the existential world.  10 mins:  Share.

3.  Complete reading Ch. 2

**Reminder:  Journals are being collected Friday 

Wednesday 3/6

Journal:  Respond to the quote below:

"... I often thought that if I had had to live in the trunk of a dead tree, with nothing to do but look up at the sky flowering overhead, little by little I would have gotten used to it."

1.  Discuss Journal.  Do you agree with Mersault?

2.  Activity:  With a partner, craft a defense for Mersault.  Be specific about your rationale.  (10 mins - Share)

3.  Read Ch. 2

4.  Discuss:

Marie's determination to get married:  Why?
Mersault's relcutance to get married.
Maman's idea that "people can get used to anything".

5.  Pg.  79  "I would remember every piece of furniture; and on every piece of furniture, every object; and of every object, all the details; and of the details themselves - a flake, a crack, or a chipped edge-the color and texture." 

*With a partner, consider the significance of this passage.  What might this "practice" illuminate about the existential world.  10 mins:  Share. 

Tuesday. 3/5

Journal:  Respond to the following quote:

“I had been right I was still right I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well lived it another. I had done this and I hadn t done that. I hadn t done this thing and I had done another. And so? ” 

― Albert Camus, The Stranger

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Read: Part 2. Ch. 1.     10 min write: Consider Mersault's case.  Is he guilty?  Sympathy?   Share.  

3. Activity:  with a partner, craft a defense for Mersault.   10 mins.  *Share

4.  Meet w/ partner:  Discuss ideas for PowerPoint. 

Monday 3/4

Journal:  Respond to Mersault's insight below:

“I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored” 
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Review Extra Credit Power Point:  Existentialism

3.  Quiz  Part 1  Ch. 4-6

4.  Activity:  With a partner, create a defense for Mersault  (1 pg)  10 mins:  Share

5.  Begin reading Part 2.  Ch. 1

***Reminder:  Journals for this week will be collected Friday 3/8.  For E.C., students can turn in the 5 journals for last week as well.