11.04 - Fairness and Equality

We started today's class by reviewing the unit 1 roots and prefixes. I handed out a list of the roots and prefixes and everyone identified as many as they could from memory. We then went back through and checked our responses (complete list below).

(click image to enlarge)

 (click image to enlarge)

We then transitioned back to working with Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" with everyone responding to the following prompt in their writer's journal:

The phrase, "Fair isn't equal and equal isn't fair" is often invoked when people talk about some circumstance or situation being "fair." 

What do you think this phrase means?

In your response, give an example that helps show what this means.

Do you agree with this phrase.

After everyone had a chance to respond to this prompt, we discussed students' answers. Our discussion identified that "equal" here means having exactly what someone else has while "fair" refers to a level playing field. We talked about how this could be like having two people who are thirsty and giving each person half a glass of water when one person has just been sitting around and one person just ran ten miles. Half a glass of water is equal, but it isn't fair (the person who just finished running should probably have more water as they should be more dehydrated). 

We then returned to the "Harrison Bergeron" story and "Harrison Bergeron" Plot and Theme Outline sheet with everyone looking at the story and identifying plot elements within the story. This is the work that we started last class. After everyone had a chance to revisit the story and identify these elements we reviewed the story and then talked about what message it appears to be sending (we also looked at the character descriptions to help us with this).

We began filling out what the themes for this short story could be. Everyone should finish doing this for homework.

Homework:

Study the unit 1 roots and prefixes from today's class.

Identify what message/theme "Harrison Bergeron" is communicating about equality, government, and an individual (as indicated on the "Harrison Bergeron" Plot and Theme Outline sheet).