Chapter Discussions by Student Groups

Into the Wild


Student Chapter Discussions



As a way to get students talking to other students about the novel, you and a partner will take one or two chapters of the novel and hold a meaningful and interesting discussion on those chapters with your class mates. The criteria for your student discussion include the following points:



• A brief summary of any new developments in Christopher’s journey. This might include new places, new people, new hardships, etc., that Christopher encounters in that part of the book.

• A discussion of some of the most important reading questions and vocabulary from the assigned homework.

• A sharing of something in the chapter that is really interesting to you and your partner that we might not have thought about while reading.

• Some visual image that fits the events or themes of your chapter(s).



Your discussion needs to be organized, rehearsed, and include a powerpoint slide(s) for Mrs. Z. to display while you hold your discussion. The discussion should take at least 1 mod.



Grade point value is 100 points.







Chapter Assignments ( 2 people per assignment)

• Chapters 1-3 We will work on as a whole class

• Chapter 4

• Chapter 5

• Chapter 6

• Chapter 7

• Chapter 8

• Chapters 9-11

• Chapters 12-13

• Chapters 14-15

• Chapters 16-17

• Mrs. Zurkowski will wrap up with chapters 18 to the end.

Free Write About Escaping Society

Chapter 9 Meditation and Free Write

Blog Directions

 

          Do a free write about your reactions to this idea of escaping civilization to attain a higher degree of spiritual enlightenment.  Given the high physical and emotional price paid by Chris, Everett, and the others mentioned so far in the book, do you think their adventures were worth it?  Would you like to try a “wilderness retreat” from civilization similar to what these men did?  Respond to these questions in your free writing, and add anything else that is on your mind at this point of the story.  Some things to thing about in your free write blog is to describe all of the things that you might be “escaping” if you were to go “into the wild” for a period of time.  What would you miss or not miss about your day-to-day life? 

 

Please type directly into your Blog post.  Give it a creative title too.  Be ready to share voluntarily.  

 

 

What Symbolic Designs Would be on Your Belt?

In Chapter 6, Jon Krakauer describes the leather belt that Chris carved with Ron Franz.  Krakauer writes:  For his first project McCandless produced a tooled leather belt, on which he created an artful pictorial record of his wanderings.  ALEX inscribed at the belt's left end; then the intials C.J.M. (for Christopher Johnson McCandless) frame a skull and crossbones.  Across the strip of cowhide one sees a rendering of a two-lane blacktop, a NO U-TURN sign, a thunderstorm producing a flash flood that engulfs a car, a hitchhiker's thumb, an eagle, the Sierra Nevada, salmon cavorting in the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Coast Highway from Oregon to Washington, the Rocky Mountains, Montana wheat fields, a South Dakota rattlesnake, Westerberg's house in Carthage, the Colorado River, a gale in the Gulf of California, a canoe beached beside a tent, Las Vegas, the initials T.C.D., Morro Bay, Astoria, and at the buckle end, finally, the letter N (presumably representing north). 


Now if you were going to design your own leather belt or some other creative object and carve or paint symbols on it about your life journey so far and in the near future, what eight symbols would best represent your journey and personality?  Describe your object and the symbols as they connect to you in one creative paragraph.  Add an appropriate image, if you can.  

Follow Chris McCandless on the Google Earth Trip

As a way to visually get a feel for the two-year journey that Christopher McCandless, a.k.a. Alex Supertramp, took across and around the United States until he reached his final destination in Alaska, you experienced an online Google Earth trip created by another high school student as a project.  As a way to spread the word about this cool tool online, post the website link for the Into the Wild Google Earth Trip and post your reflection about the experience as it relates to your reading of the novel.  Finally, as always, add an interesting image that has to do with a trip across the United States.  The image might be a map, scenery, etc.  Post the link of the image at the bottom of the blog post.

Your Final Impression of Chris McCandless

Print to OneNote and then read the highlighted areas of the article "The Cult of Chris McCandless" in class handouts under Into the Wild.  Answer the questions with each highlighted area as notes on the article.  Then as your blog, write a paragraph with your own final impression of Chris McCandless.  You may want to add some specific examples/quotations from the novel that support your opinion of Chris.  Are you one of his critics or admirers? Your next in-class assignment will be to expand your opinion of Chris McCandless into an editorial essay.

Getting to Know Chris McCandless through Direct and Indirect Characterization

Now that you have started reading the book and you are getting to know Christopher McCandless more and more, create a post in which you do the following for other readers:

1.  Define "Direct" and "Indirect Characterization."  Post it here for fellow readers.

2.  Then, type a list of 10 direct characterization examples with page numbers and 10 indirect characterization examples with page numbers.

3. At the end of the list write a few sentences, describe the impression that you are getting about Christopher based on these traits so far.

4. Add an appropriate image for visual appeal.