Last week as we walked around Rockland Lake, a movie crew was cleaning up after some shooting. Since they were just popping the balloons anyway, we asked if K could have them. Of course, that did mean that we drove home to Massachusetts with balloons tucked under a blanket so they wouldn’t bob into Dan’s rear view mirror.
And Saturday, at the lovely wedding, the best man filled the getaway car with balloons, so K got even more. (I promise, this does get to Cervantes, and soon.)
So this morning when B told me all about Don Quixote, he grabbed a balloon, and tossed it to me. We kept it off the kitchen floor as he told me how funny the last section of the book was, how a character from the unauthorized sequel is included (and he keeps saying that Sancho and don Quixote are nothing like who he’s met before) and how Sancho started off as a stock character but developed as the book went along. M and K joined us for the balloon game.
Now he has to write about the book.
Oy.
I pulled out the Well Trained Mind, it’s been a few weeks since I have re-read the section on Great Book study for Rhetoric Stage Students, but the book fell open to the section automatically. I’ve been dreading this day since last Spring. I looked up the sorts of essay he can write: book report, book evaluation, argumentative essay proving one point of the book, or analysis of ideas. Book reports are covered in the bit of his Writing Strands text that we didn’t get to last year, I know how to do argumentative essays (though they are in the level of Writing Strands I haven’t bought yet.) I’m planning to listen again to “What is Literary Analysis and How do I Teach it?” during dish washing/ meal prep tonight. I was browsing the library listings for essay writing suggestions, mostly smarmy “HOW to write essays for College Entrance Exams!” titles came up in my queary, not exactly what something containing a concise definition of book evaluation or analysis of ideas essay. A collection of essays by Chesterton came up too, so I put that on reserve.
Meanwhile, B needs to keep talking about Don Quixote, balloon anyone?
What about the narration questions, “Pretend you’re doing a radio itnerview with one of the characters. Can you record it in character?”
and “Which character are you most (un)like and why?” and “Draw and cartoon of your favorite part of Don Quixote.”