Post your Ode!

Don't forget to post your ode.

Ender's Game Assessment: "Revisiting the Anticipation Guide"

After you have finished reading Ender's Game, go back and re-read your anticipation guide response and reflect on how your opinions have changed or stayed the same in regards the themes in the book.  As you write your new response, be sure to use examples from the book that support ideas about the themes.  You will have two weeks to complete this, so please use lots of supporting detail and thoughtful commentary!

Orson Scott Card Article Response

After re-reading the article, 'Ender's Game' Author's Anti-Gay Views Pose Risks for Film write a one page blog response that includes the questions and arguments we discussed in class such as:  How does Card's views on gay marriage affect your opinion of his book?  Should Mr. Vack remove this book from his class's reading curriculum?  What do you think about the movie company trying to keep Card "out of the limelight?" Do you think this movie should be boycotted?

Ender's Game Questions Chapters 12 - 15

Chapter 12 – Bonzo
1. How did Ender provoke Bonzo?  How did Bonzo respond?
2. Who was Stilson? Why was Ender thinking of him?
3. Why does Ender still expect help from the teachers?
4. Did you know Stilson and Bonzo were dead? Find the specific clues in this chapter about the deaths.
5. Was Ender justified? Why did they not tell him of the deaths?

Chapter 13 – Valentine
1. “Perhaps it is impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.” Explain what this quote means. State an example of this idea.
2. Is it a natural, “good” instinct for humans to be killers? (survival of the fittest)
3. Discuss the conversation between Ender and Valentine on the raft. What does Ender reveal about himself and his enemies?
4. Discuss Valentine’s conflicting thoughts about her brothers. How have Peter and Ender’s roles shifted? How does Valentine feel about each?
5. Discuss Graff’s statements about why the war with the Buggers was inevitable.

Chapter 14 – Ender’s Teacher
1. What disturbs Ender about Eros? How does Ender figure out the truth about Eros?
2. Describe how Mazer is going to be the only teacher Ender has ever had?
3. Why had Mazer been dishonest with Ender? Do you think Ender could have
handled the truth?
4. Have they pushed the children too far? Was it worth it?
5. Is genocide, or in the case of Ender's Game where an entire alien race is
annihilated, xenocide, ever justified? Was the xenocide of the Buggers inevitable? Why?

Chapter 15 – Speaker for the Dead
1. Valentine said, “Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given to you by good people, by people who love you.” After what has happened in Ender’s life, what would he think of this statement?
2. Ender listens to the evidence about the deaths of Stilson and Bonzo. What is Ender’s opinion about the deaths?
3. Why did Valentine make sure that Ender could never return to earth?
4. What is ironic about Valentine’s statement about Peter saving millions of lives?
5. What knowledge did Ender gain the enabled him to write The Hive-Queen? Give specific details.
6. Why does Ender publish the book using the pseudonym “Speaker for the Dead” and not his own name?

Practice Those Phrases!

Use grammar blast to quiz yourself and practice for the verbals and phrases test on Thursday.  Go to the 8th section and click on "phrases."

Responding to Drones

Post a one page response about drones.  You can make connections to Ender's Game, write about the pros and cons, make up a fictional story, or write a poem.  For more info watch this video.

Ender's Game Questions Chapters 9 - 11

Chapter 9 – Locke and Demosthenes
1. There is a real battle, internally and unspoken, between Peter and Valentine. Who is manipulating whom?  Who really has the power?
2.  Look up the names Locke and Demothenes, how do these philosophers relate to the personas of Peter and Valentine?
3. Why is Ender still angry?

Chapter 10 – Dragon
1. What kind of leader was Ender?  Why was he this kind of leader?
2. What did Ender do to Bean, and why?
3. What does the word Salaam mean?  What could this tell you about the power of religious identity?
4. What is important about the end of this chapter?  Was Ender’s reaction a mistake by the Battle School teachers, or was it the reaction they wanted?

Chapter 11 – Veni Vidi Vici
1. How does the computer know Ender so well?  Does it really?
2. Explain this quote: “Yes. That’s the worst that could happen. I can’t lose any games. Because if I lose any--” (page 198)
3. Why are the teachers pushing Ender so hard?
4. Discuss the importance of the last two sentences of the chapter.
5. “Veni vidi vici” means, “I came; I saw; I conquered.”  Why is this an appropriate chapter title?

Video Game Free Response

Use these idea prompts as you write about video games:

Describe a connection you have with a certain video game:  Think about my Zelda story.

Or you could write about designing a new video game.  What story line would it have?  What kinds of characters.

If you don't play video games or don't like them then write about why that is or observations you have of others around playing them.  

Be sure to post your response to your blog too.