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Fahrenheit 451 Team Activities

Team 1

Design and Identity 

 

Please remember to work as a team: watch the video together, share ideas about notes, ask each other questions, etc.

 

“As commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation under the Bloomberg administration, Janette Sadik-Khan was responsible for the smooth running of a New York that hides in plain sight ... the streets, highways, bridges, signs and lights” (TED.com). Your team will watch part of her TED Talk, then compare Sadik-Khan’s vision of New York City with the unnamed city we see in Fahrenheit 451.

 

Before you watch

Use web resources to define: urban, infrastructure, 

benchmark

 

Janette Sadik-Khan: New York's streets? Not so mean anymore

Watch up to minute 8:50, then answer these questions (bullet point notes are fine):

  1. Sadik-Khan says, “The design of a street can tell you everything about what’s expected on it.” What does the typical big city street “expect” will happen on it? Where will people be and how will they interact? 

  2. What about the streets in Fahrenheit 451--how are the houses and streets built and what is the expectation of what will happen on them? Look at the bottom half of page 27, the bottom paragraph on page 60 and elsewhere.

  3. What specific changes in “expectation” did Sadik-Khan have for what was to happen on many of the New York City streets? How would people behave differently?

  4. Describe the physical changes they created for the six month pilot program in Times Square and in other locations.

  5. Describe the results of these changes; how do you think the identity of the streets and of the people changed?

 

Create

Create a 3-part presentation. Each part should consist of one or two images and several bullet points. Your team will verbally explain the rest. The presentation should take less than 2 minutes. In it, you will (1) Explain who Janette Sadik-Khan is and what she did, (2) Compare the streets she redesigned to the streets in Fahrenheit 451, and (3) say how the design of something (a street system, a house, a shoe, a car, etc.) can affect peoples’ identities and relationships to each other.

Team 2

Firefighter, not "Fireman" 

Please remember to work as a team: watch the video together, share ideas about notes, ask each other questions, etc.

 

Before you watch

Use web resources to define:

Lex Luthor (a fictional character), vocation, avocation, hero

 

Watch Mark Bezos’ TED talk, “A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter”

  1. Bezos says, “Save the shoes” at the very end. What does he mean by that? What are some quotations he says earlier that relate to the “save the shoes” idea?

  2. Bezos jokingly says, “I’m no hero.” Does the definition of “hero” you found on the web agree with Bezos? Do you agree? Could you define “hero” in such a way that people who “save the shoes” are heros?

  3. Reread page 67; do you see any ideas here that connect to Bezos’ talk?

 

Mark Bezos: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

Create

Create a 3-part presentation. Each part should consist of one or two images and several bullet points or short quotations. Your team will verbally explain the rest. The presentation should take less than 2 minutes. In it, you will (1) Explain who Mark Bezos is and what he did, (2) Explain his concluding advice to “Save the shoes”, and (3) Say how our idea of what a hero is could be adjusted based on this talk.

Team 3

Fighting Monsters

Please remember to work as a team: watch the video together, share ideas about notes, ask each other questions, etc.

 

Before you watch

Use web resources to define: unwittingly, the establishment, inept, conform

 

Watch the video “An anti-hero of one’s own”

  1. Explain how a hero, an anti-hero, and a villain are different from each other.

  2. What are two characteristics of an anti-hero that you have seen in Montag so far?

  3. Make lists of about six movie characters and six book characters from works like The Folk Keeper and other summer reading, American Born Chinese and other school year reading, and Despicable Me, Brave, Legally Blonde, and other movies. Decide whether the characters are heros, anti-heros, or somewhere in-between. Explain briefly how their identities changed in the book or movie.

An anti-hero of one's own

Create

Create a 3-part presentation. Each part should consist of one or two images and several bullet points or short quotations. Your team will verbally explain the rest. The presentation should take less than 2 minutes. In it, you will (1) Explain some of the differences between a hero, anti-hero, and villain, (2) Tell how you think Montag has some characteristics of an anti-hero so far, and (3) Explain some or all of the movie and book examples of heros and anti-heros that you discussed.

Team 4

"Rule #3: Burn Everything"

Please remember to work as a team: watch the video together, share ideas about notes, ask each other questions, etc.

 

Before you watch

Use web resources to define: solace

 

Watch the first 4 minutes of David Hoffman’s TED talk, “How would you feel if you lost everything?”

  1. Hoffman loses most of his life’s work in his house fire, but he asks, “Was I my things?” He doesn’t actually answer the question, but what do you think his answer is? Explain.

  2. The woman who burns herself and her books on page 37 would rather die than lose her books, even though they are written by others. Why do you think she is so much more upset than Hoffman? Is it something about them as individuals? About their different societies? What allows him to move on while she is devastated?

 

 

 

David Hoffman: How would you feel if you lost everything? 

Create

Create a 3-part presentation. Each part should consist of one or two images and several bullet points or short quotations. Your team will verbally explain the rest. The presentation should take less than 2 minutes. In it, you will (1) Explain who David Hoffman is and what he lost in the fire, (2) Explain his response to losing his life’s work (be sure to give a quote or two), and (3) Explain your response to the second question above.

Team 5

The Joy of Books

What is a book?

Please remember to work as a team: watch the video together, share ideas about notes, ask each other questions, etc.

 

Before you watch

Reread the paragraph on page 79 in which Faber tells Montag about books. It begins, “Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality.” Read to “… Telling detail. Fresh detail.”

 

Watch “The Joy of Books”, then answer these questions:

  1. What do you think are some important quotations from what Faber says?

  2. How would you summarize Faber’s main point here?

  3. How about “The Joy of Books” video--what is its main idea?

  4. How does “The Joy of Books” visually communicate that idea?

  5. Compare and contrast what Faber is saying and what you think the movie is saying.

 

Create

Create a 3-part presentation. Each part should consist of one or two images and several bullet points. Your team will verbally explain the rest. The presentation should take less than 2 minutes. In it, you will (1) Explain the idea of the movie and what you think its message about books is, (2) Summarize Faber’s main idea and give a quotation or two, and (3) Explain to what extent you think Faber and “The Joy of Books” agree.

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