Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Transactional Journals

Today we discussed the transactional journal assignment for Colubmine, read Molly Ivins' "Get a Dog, Get a Knife, but Get Rid of Guns" in the Norton Reader and began watching Michael Moore's documentary film about gun violence, "Bowling for Columbine."

Transactional Journal Assignments:
The writing you will do for this text is of a personal nature. You are to create ten well-crafted and polished journal entries in response to the work. Each entry should be typed(10 – 12 point font). The following is a list of possibilities and suggestions, but by no means is it exhaustive; feel free to use your imagination.

The journal entries must cover the entire book; they should be spread evenly in relation to the beginning, middle and end of the work. They should also reflect a variety of the choices listed below. TWO ENTRIES MUST be based on writer’s craft (the first bulleted item), and THREE ENTRIES MUST come from the “research questions” at the end. The remaining five choices are up to you. Please include a table of contents and cover page for your journal. Journals should be in a folder with brads.

DUE DATE: MONDAY, MARCH 28TH.

• Fully examine and explain the effectiveness of a particular piece of the writer’s craft; style of writing, use of rhetoric, appeals to ethos/pathos/logos, portrayal of the killers, use of parallels, juxtaposition, etc. This analysis should include the effect of the chosen craft on the audience. (TWO ENTRIES REQURIED)

• Create a piece of writing that describes and explains your personal reaction to a character, place or event in the text.

• Compare and contrast Dave Cullen’s style of writing to Truman Capote’s style of writing in In Cold Blood.

• Write a fictional letter to one or more of the characters or create a letter written from one character in the novel to another that expresses some unspoken feelings or thoughts.

• React, respond and explicate a “five star quote” of your choice. A “five star quote” is a quote that “jumps off the page” at you for any number of reasons. It may be aphoristic, profound, humorous, universal, or any reason you choose. For clarity, you must include the entire quote somewhere in the entry.

• Create an original piece of writing that is inspired by the book; it may be a poem, short story, short drama or section of dialogue, advertisement, review, etc. (only one of this type of entry is allowed)

• Create an ethical question that the novel has raised for you and then answer that question in your journal entry. Write a justification and possible answer after completion of your reading.

• Create an original piece of art for one of your entries. Some possibilities could include: a drawing, a painting, an editorial cartoon, a collage, etc. (only one of this type of entry is allowed)

• Create a correspondence between either Dylan or Eric and either Dick or Perry from In Cold Blood.

• Create a collection of artifacts (in a box) for one of the characters in the book; attach a written rationale for your choice to each item. (The total of the written rationales should be roughly equivalent to the two-page minimum.)

• Create 10 AP style multiple choice questions for a passage from the book. Include the passage in your journal. Each question must include five answer choices and an answer key justifying the correct answer. These questions should be analysis style questions.

•Create a short list of enduring understandings that emerge as you read. Use evidence from the book to support your claims about the enduring understandings you take away from the book. How will these understandings shape decisions you will make in the future? How should these understandings shape our society?

• Write an editorial piece addressing ONE of the issues raised in the book.

RESEARCH RESPONSES (THREE REQUIRED:

• Read and analyze one of the Government Reports on Columbine and School Shooters (The information for these reports is listed on p. 409 and of Columbine), or The Killers: Profiles and Childhood History (p. 411) comparing the findings with research from Cullen’s book.

• Research one of the seven “Columbine Myths” (bullying, Goth culture, jocks, outcasts, gays, third shooter, Trench Cjoat Mafia, Christian martyr) and write a cause-effect entry analyzing how the myth began and what effect it had on the investigation, public perception, and aftermath of the shootings.
Suggested readings from the book: CH 2 “Rebels” (6-12); CH 4 “Rock ‘n’Bowl” (16-18); CH 5 “Two Columbines” (19-25); CH 6 “His Future,” (26-28); CH 8 “Maximum Human Density” (32-36); CH 10 “Judgment,” (40-44), plus Columbine myths: (149-52, 155-59); Eric Harris as a psychopath (239-148).

• Analyze the media coverage of the event and compare it with text from the book.
Suggested reading from the book: CH 2 “Rebels” (6-12); CH 4 “Rock ‘n’Bowl” (16-18); CH 5 “Two Columbines” (19-25); CH 6 “His Future,” (26-28); CH 8 “Maximum Human Density” (32-36); CH 10 “Judgment,” (40-44), television coverage (52-3,56-7,64-7,140-42, 149-53,155-57).
Suggested media coverage: (You can access all of these articles online)
 “The Columbine Killers” – David Brooks, New York Times
 “Fatal Friendship: How Two Suburban Boys Traded Baseball and Bowling for Murder and Madness” – Lynn Bartells and Carla Crowder, Rocky Mountain News
 “The Gunmen: A Portrait of Two Killers at War with Themselves” – Dirk Johnson and Jodi Wilgoren, The New York Times.

• Compare Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine with Cullen’s book regarding what happened and who was involved.
o Suggested readings from the book: CH 2 “Rebels” (6-12); CH 4 “Rock ‘n’Bowl” (16-18); CH 5 “Two Columbines” (19-25); CH 6 “His Future,” (26-28); CH 8 “Maximum Human Density” (32-36); CH 10 “Judgment,” (40-44), plus Columbine myths: (149-52, 155-59); Eric Harris as a psychopath (239-148).

• Compare the point of view toward gun violence expressed in Cullen’s book and compare/contrast it with at least two of the articles listed below, all of which we read in class:
o “Guns and Grief” by Lillian B. Rubin (Patterns for College Writing, p. 350).
o “A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun” by Linda M. Hasselstrom (Patterns for College Writing, p. 357).
o “Who Shot Johnny?” by Debra Dickerson (Norton Reader, p. 383)
o “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, But Get Rid of Guns” by Molly Ivins (Norton Reader, p. 389)

• Investigate one controversial aspect of the event and propose how one of the issues related to Columbine could be resolved.(Reading topics below can be referenced in the index of Columbine).
• Perimeter, police response, SWAT team action & reaction time
• Eric Harris as psychopath and why no one “knew”
• Gun laws and minors
Suggested readings from the book: CH 2 “Rebels” (6-12); CH 4 “Rock ‘n’Bowl” (16-18); CH 5 “Two Columbines” (19-25); CH 6 “His Future,” (26-28); CH 8 “Maximum Human Density” (32-36); CH 10 “Judgment,” (40-44)