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Tom Sawyer Scored Discussion PreparationEssential Questions:# 1 and # 2) WILL BE ANSWERED ORALLY by your group as you share your documents created Monday—NO MORE WRITING NEEDED! 1.How does Twain portray specific groups (African Americans, Native Americans, women and the poor)? What do his portrayals reveal about society’s views of these groups? 2.In Tom Sawyer, what roles do religion and superstition play in society, and what motivates peoples’ religious beliefs and superstitions?Select 3 of the 4 questions below to answer in writing, using the Scored Discussion Template3.Why are Tom and Becky attracted to one another?4.In what ways does Tom Sawyer resist and rely upon authority figures as he strives for independence?5.How and why do Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the juvenile pariah of the village, mature and succeed?6.In what ways do Twain’s characters realistically represent human nature at its best, worst and in-between? Your task is to find 4-5+ examples from the book and to provide your own analysis to support your thesis response to the question. (Hopefully, you were marking these in the text all along!) Calendar Due Dates:Tuesday, March 25th: in class and at home: complete the first of the three EQ’s you have decided to answer and use the template to complete it.Wednesday, March 26th: First EQ response due. At home: Work on second of the three EQ’s you have decided to answer and use the template to complete it.Thursday, March 27th: Second EQ response due. In class: Societal Perspectives work shared orally. At home: Work on third of the three EQ’s you have decided to answer and use the template to complete it.Friday, March 28th: Third EQ response due. Scored Discussions will begin Monday, March 31 and continue through the week, concluding Thursday, April 3rd.. MS. K’s SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHERS EXAMPLE:How does Twain portray educators? What do his portrayals reveal about society’s views of these groups? Claim/Thesis: (The first sentence in the paragraph that answers EQ by showing how or why) In the world of Tom Sawyer, teachers are portrayed as incompetent and unworthy of respect.TEXT EVIDENCE # 1: (Exact words or a paraphrase) Early in the book, Tom is held up as the boy who has memorized 2,000 Bible verses. Mr. Walters, the Sunday School Superintendent, says, “Two thousand verses are a great many—very, very great many. And you never can be sorry for the trouble you took to learn them; for knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world…” (Twain 38). TEXT ANALYSIS: (Shows how or why the text or paraphrase supports your claim/thesis) Here, as Tom is publicly praised for his Bible learning, the Superintendent uses the awards ritual as an opportunity to demonstrate to the children, adults and the reader, that there is great value in learning the stories of their faith tradition, implying that it is due to the great teaching he is receiving in Sunday school. TEXT EVIDENCE # 2: (Exact words or a paraphrase) Later, Tom is asked who the first disciples were and as he shouts out, “David and Goliath” the crowd bursts into laughter (39).TEXT ANALYSIS #2: (Shows how or why the text or paraphrase supports your thesis) It is now obvious that Tom has cheated, for everyone (except Tom) knows that David was a little guy and Goliath a giant whom David defeated by using his sling shot to hit him in the head with a rock that killed him. (The first disciples were Simon [called Peter] and his brother, Andrew). Although this definitely makes Tom look foolish, it also shames the Sunday school Superintendent and the Sunday school teacher for not knowing that what appeared to be amazing talent for learning Bible stories was actually academic furtiveness. That this deceit occurred over a Bible verse is even more ironic, leading the reader to wonder if Twain is calling into question the church’s ability to help young people develop disciplined study and honesty.TEXT EVIDENCE # 3: (Exact words or a paraphrase) After Tom arrives late at school, he recognizes that if he tells Master Dobbins he has been talking with Huckleberry Finn, he will be sent to sit with the girls and specifically, with Becky. He confesses and the Master says, "Thomas Sawyer, this is the most astounding confession I have ever listened to. No mere ferule will answer for this offence. Take off your jacket." The master's arm performed until it was tired and the stock of switches notably diminished. Then the order followed: "Now, sir, go and sit with the girls! And let this be a warning to you” (58). TEXT ANALYSIS #3: (Shows how or why the text or paraphrase supports your claim/thesis) Master Dobbins uses corporal punishment and shaming as his major means of discipline. Unbeknownst to the teacher, furtive Tom knew that Mr. Dobbins’ response would grant him his wish to sit by Becky and not shame him.TEXT EVIDENCE # 4: (Exact words AND a paraphrase) “The master, Mr. Dobbins, had reached middle age with an unsatisfied ambition. The darling of his desires was, to be a doctor, but poverty had decreed that he should be nothing higher than a village schoolmaster. Every day he took a mysterious book out of his desk and absorbed himself in it at times when no classes were reciting. He kept that book under lock and key. . . . One day Becky was passing by the desk, which stood near the door, she noticed that the key was in the lock! It was a precious moment. She glanced around; found herself alone, and the next instant she had the book in her hands. . . . She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored frontispiece -- a human figure, stark naked. Surprised by Tom’s discovery of her actions, she accidentally tears the page” ( ). An hour later, the master discovered the torn page and demanded to know who had done it. After interrogating many students, he comes to Becky and Tom confesses, taking Becky’s punishment, which is described as “the most merciless flaying he had ever delivered” (169). TEXT ANALYSIS #4: (Shows how or why the text or paraphrase supports your claim/ thesis) In this example, teaching is held up as a lowly career, one that is only chosen when one’s income does not allow for anything else. In addition to not using the time to instruct his students, Dobbins’ fascination with the book of human anatomy seems a bit risqué for the time period, causing the reader to question his morals, while the beating he administers shows his out of control fury. Clearly, there is little to respect in such a man. TEXT EVIDENCE # 5: (Exact words or a paraphrase)After weeks of unjust treatment and endless homework from a tyrannical teacher, the students are avenged by painting a dozing Dobbins’ bald head gold and then lowering a cat from the ceiling whose claws rip off his wig during the finale of the school’s year-end festivities, thus publicly humiliating him (177-178).TEXT ANALYSIS #5: (Shows how or why the text or paraphrase supports your claim/thesis) Twain exposes Master Dobbins’ many cruelties as justification for this treatment and the readers take note that there is no public outcry or consequence for the pranksters who sought such revenge. CONCLUSION (Wraps up your ideas, proving your claim/thesis) It is painfully clear that learning and teaching in St. Petersburg is not worthy of societal respect. Teachers are portrayed as ignorant and/or unmotivated, unprepared; therefore turn to fear and corporal punishment as the only means to gain student cooperation. The classroom teacher is first hated and then mocked, thereby justifying the boys’ prank, legitimating the students’ and society’s poor view of teachers. ................
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