BBK (Building Background Knowledge)

Now that you have viewed the material, I would like you to answer some questions about what you have learned. Try to use specific information from the articles and websites. Put your first name in your comment so that I know that you have responded. Good luck!

What are 3 things that you learned about the Tlingit culture?

What is unique about the spirit bear?

What are 3 differences between circle justice and standard punishments for juvenile delinquents?

Touching Spirit Bear Blog: Directions

Welcome to the Touching Spirit Bear blog!
Throughout our study of Touching Spirit Bear, you will need to respond to a few posts on this blog. In your responses, please use evidence from the text to support your answers/ideas. Please also remember to put your INITIALS after your post/comment so that I can give you credit for your answer. Remember that your comments and posts are PUBLIC, so please only put your BEST writing on this blog.

Chapters 1-5

Circle Justice is explained in these chapters. Pairing your prior or background knowledge of Circle Justice along with the information from the book, respond to the following:
Do you think that Circle Justice is effective in punishing/helping criminals? Why/why not? Be sure to thoroughly explain your answer and use specific examples from the text to support your opinion.

Chapters 6-12

We learn a lot of information about Cole Matthews in these chapters. What are his character traits? How do you know that he has these traits? Think about Cole’s statements, his behavior, his fears, his thoughts, his appearance, and how others see him.

Chapters 13-18

The conflict of a story is the struggle between two people or two forces. We’ve discussed internal and external conflict in class. Now, we are going to consider four categories of conflict: person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. society, and person vs. self. Choose one of these categories of conflict and give a specific example from the novel. Then, explain how the conflict was resolved. If the conflict wasn’t resolved (or hasn’t been resolved yet), make a prediction of your own. Was the conflict internal or external?

Chapters 19-21

Cole has some anger management issues throughout the book. He also has to deal with some consequences because of his actions. Write about a time when you were angry. Why were you angry? What did you do? Were there any consequences because of your actions?

Chapters 22-25

Write a short letter from Cole to Peter showing his true feelings and thoughts after reading the previous chapters. Use your knowledge and evidence from the book to support your answer.

Chapters 26-28

Write a well-developed paragraph with your thoughts about the following question and Cole’s progress with his own thoughts about Peter. How would the novel have changed if Peter had succeeded in his suicide attempt? Would Cole have ever found peace? Use evidence from the book to support your answer.

End of Novel

What impact does the setting have on the story?