Socratic Seminar Prep
By Drew Langa
Topic: Other
"Lost Boy, Lost Girl" By John Bul Dau and Martha Arual Akech
Lost Boys, and Lost Girls’ Journey.
Pinyudo Camp: The Gilo River that is talked about in the book.
Kakuma Camp up close.
School in the Kakuma Camp.
(Intro) Above are images of the camps that John and Martha stayed at while they were refugees. As you can see there are many differences between our way of life, and the Lost Boys, and Lost Girls way of life. For example, the school. Their school is on a dirt road, it could be called a “shack”, had sticks for support beams, and has no windows. It is the complete opposite as Barkalow Middle School because we have air conditioning, windows, busing, and doors. These are things we all take for granted.
2. (Passages) A passage from the text describing the Kakuma Camp is:
“... I was very excited to begin the first grade. I was eighteen years old when I had my first school lesson.” (103)
“We had no blackboard or chalk or desks or chairs or pencils or paper. All we had was an easel made out of sticks and nails, topped with a sheet of cardboard” (104)
3. (My Thinking) Here we can see how John described his school. He did describe it correctly, as we see in the picture, but was so satisfied and excited to get schooling. He was eighteen in the first grade. How we feel about school is the complete opposite. We dread waking up in the morning, and doing any type of schoolwork. But, we should be thankful for it because if you had the knowledge of a first grader at 18 years old in America, you wouldn’t do that good in life. That’s why we should be thankful because the differences between a life of a Lost Boys, and an average American kid is so drastic our lives were not the same at all.
4. Now can you find a passage that represents how different our lives are. Some examples are clothes, and religion. When you find a passage what image comes into your head of their life. (Like in the Picture of the school, and how John described it).
"Soldiers Heart" By Gary Paulson
Animal Killings in the American Civil War
Passages from the text:
“Soldiers Heart” that states, “...but most of the men held on the horses and not one animal came through unhit.” (79).
“... horses with heads blown up, horses with jaws shot away, horses with eyes shot out or with intestines tangling in their hooves…”(80).
(My Thinking) It makes me think about how brutal and cold-blooded war is not only to people, but to helpless animals. The image shows a horse that is dirty laying in the ground dead. The soldiers on the opposing side hit the animal on purpose because they were afraid of being killed. Not only do citizens feel that way, but soldier like Charley felt that way as well. Also, I think Gary Paulsen used killing horses in battle to get to the reader because everyone feels more affectionate over animals. This way Paulsen can use animals being killed to get the reader to see how brutal the American Civil War was.
2. Now, find an article where is shows the true brutal way of way in “Soldiers Heart”.