Homework Due Tuesday, 5/3 or Saturday, 5/7

Create a brief narrative in which you tell a story using ONLY pictures.  Your narrative may be about anything you choose (a fictional story, something that happened to you, a historical event, your daily routine...).  You should use at least 5 pictures, but you are welcome to use as many as you need.  A picture may be a drawing, sketch, or photo.

You may NOT use any of the following to tell your story:

• words
• symbols (e.g. @, #, &, ->)
• numbers
• letters
• emoticons

Please be prepared to share your story with the class.

Animals in Translation: Reading Comprehension, Discussion Questions and Vocabulary

 Please define all vocabulary in the context of the book.

Chapter 1

1. What is an “autistic savant” (7)?  How are animals like autistic savants?
2. How do behaviorists view animals? 
3. Explain the difference between punishment and negative reinforcement.
4. Explain Grandin’s assertion that “autistic people think in pictures” (10) using your own words.
5. How do ethologists view animals?
6. What, according to Grandin, is the basic flaw that behaviorism and ethology share?
7. How has Grandin’s ability to think visually helped her to better understand animals?
8. What is Grandin’s larger “hope” for her book (26)?

savant (7)

behaviorism (9)

ethology (11)

anthropomorphize (14)

Chapter 2

1. What, according to Grandin, is the biggest problem with animal welfare regulation today?
2. How do “normal people” see the world? How do animals (and autistic people) see the world?
3. Explain how visual acuity, panoramic vision, and contrast differentiate animal and human vision.
4. Why would a cow “voluntarily explore a yellow raincoat hanging on a fence but dig in his heels if you try to force him to walk past one” (47)?  Do people have a similar fear of and curiosity toward new things and experiences?
5. Why are “intermittent sounds” so distracting to people and animals (49)?
6. Grandin claims that “normal human beings are blind to anything they’re not paying attention to” (51). Can you think of an experience you’ve had that confirms this claim?
7. Explain “three-brain theory” (54).
8. How is having a larger frontal lobe both an advantage and a disadvantage for non-autistic humans?
9. Why do autistic people and animals notice details that ordinary people don’t?

ideology (28)

intermittent (36)

balk (37)

acuity (40)

novelty (45)

sonar (61)

Chapter 3

1. What is selection pressure? Why is selective breeding (breeding animals for a particular physical trait) dangerous?
2.  Why are non-autistic people able to experience “mixed emotions” while animals and autistic people are not?
3. What is a “primary emotion” (90)? How is it different from a secondary emotion?
4. What are the four core emotions? What are the four primary social emotions?
5. Why do humans enjoy “any kind of hunt” (96)? Why do “children always want new toys no matter how many toys they have already” (97)?
6. Explain the effects of oxytocin, vasopressin and endorphins on the brain.
7. Why is social touching (hugging, hand-holding, etc.) important? Why are the positive effects of social touching minimized in autistic people?
8. Discuss some of the potential benefits of play (both “locomotor” and roughhousing) in young people and animals.
9. Why is friendship so important for people and animals?

succeeding (77)

albino (78)

cull (81)

notorious (84)

correlation (99)

Chapter 4

1. What is the main difference between predatory aggression and emotional aggression (rage)?
2. Why is it “fun to kill a groundhog” (138)?
3. How do animals manage or suppress predatory aggression? (In other words, why won’t a predator like a lion kill every zebra in its territory?)
4. What is animal violence? How is it different from animal aggression?
5. How do dogs, elephants and pigs learn to manage their aggression?
6. Why is it important to allow animals to socialize with other animals of their species? with people?
7. Given that dogs are essentially “predators wired to kill” (131), how is it possible that we have made them our docile, loyal pets?

innate (134)

erratic (141)

inhibit (142)

aberration (151)

aversive (166)

solicit (170)

Discussion questions for chapters 5 - 7 are taken from the publisher's website. 

Chapter 5

1. Why do animals often hide their pain?
2. When it comes to animals feeling (and dealing with) pain, Grandin notes: “Prey animals can be incredibly uncomplaining” but that “predator animals can be big babies.” This seems to be the opposite of what we might expect; why is this the case? Also, why is it that vets tend to worry about animals experiencing “too little pain instead of too much”?
3. Do fish feel pain? Paraphrase both the affirmative and negative answers Grandin gives for this query.
4. How is the duality of pain and suffering (in all animals and people) related to the brain’s frontal lobe? Are pain and suffering one and the same? If not, why not—and when and how are they not? Explain. Why does Grandin say animals “probably aren’t as upset about pain as a human being would be in the same situation”? Finally, how does Grandin’s thinking on this subject pertain to people with autism?
5. “Fear is so bad for animals I think it’s worse than pain.” What is the author’s reasoning for this claim— and how does her reasoning stem from the fact that fear and pain are (in terms of the brain) opposites?
6. Clarify the difference between fear and anxiety, pointing out which parts of the brain deal with each emotion. Also explain how these phenomena correspond with the fight-or-flight impulse and orienting response emotion in animals. Why is vigilance linked with the orienting response? And how did the author’s experience with taking antidepressants influence her thinking on these matters?
7. Why does Grandin suggest that the “feral children” of centuries past could have actually been children with autism?
8. “When it comes to managing their fear,” writes Grandin, “animals and autistic people are at a big disadvantage because they have to rely on pictures.” Illuminate the point she is making here. How is the brain’s frontal lobe involved?
9. What is the purpose of fear? Summarize the study of the fearful guppies in explaining this purpose.
10. The author asserts that “people and animals use their emotions to predict the future.” How do emotions make such predictions happen—and what ultimate purpose(s) might these predictions serve? Provide a few examples, if you can, and in doing so address what Grandin calls the “basic principle [of] close-up = fear [and] distant = calm.”
11. “Most researchers have concluded that fear of snakes is semi-innate,” Grandin notes. Define “semi-innate.”
12. What are evolutionary fears, and how do they reflect Grandin’s assertion that “evolution [sometimes gives] animals and people an ability to ward off trouble before it happens?”
13. Define “extinction” as used by behaviorists, and explain how the term differs from forgetting.
14. What are slow fears and fast fears, and how do they each relate to the amygdala? Also, explain the difference between learned facts and learned fears—which sort of learning lasts longer and goes deeper, and why?
15. Why does Grandin employ the term “hyper-specific”—a word that comes from the study of autism—to denote animal fears?

16. “The more fearful the animal, the more likely he is to investigate.” Explain this apparent paradox.
17. Give a few examples of overgeneralized fears that an animal or person might experience. Why do a person’s fears in this case tend to be conceptual, while an animal’s tend to be physical?
18. Toward the end of this chapter, Grandin gives a detailed account of how “animals can be inoculated against fears by other animals.” How does she use Seabiscuit, the famous racehorse, to make this point?

CHAPTER 6: HOW ANIMALS THINK

1. What is “true cognition” (according to the Oxford researcher Marion Stamp Dawkins)? Do animals exhibit this trait? If so, which animals and how?

2. Explain why Dr. Irene Pepperberg found phenomenal success in her experiments with Alex (her amazingly smart parrot) by switching from operant conditioning to social modeling theory.

3. Who is Ildefonso? What is his background and why do we know about him to begin with? Sum up what Grandin thinks we might be able to learn about animals and cognition from Ildefonso—and from other language-less people. At one point Grandin supposes: “Do some animals have religious feelings and perceptions? Do animals believe in magic? I don’t think anyone can rule it out.” Is Grandin reaching too far here, in your view? Explain why you do or don’t think so.

4. Must there always be language in a creature in order for consciousness to also exist in that creature? Explain how the author’s negative take on this query stems from her own autism. Also, describe how the “dreaming mice” experiment at MIT at least suggests that animals (even if they lack language per se) are conscious beings.

5. Review Grandin’s five-point checklist for inspectors aiming to make sure that animals receive humane treatment at meatpacking plants. Explain how this checklist both critiques and corrects “language-based thinkers” such as “people in academia and often in government” while also covering all conceivable details great and small. Also, given the fastidiousness and proven success of this checklist, describe how Grandin brings a unique—and uniquely animal-savvy—perspective to such endeavors.

6. Did the prairie dogs outside Flagstaff, Arizona, really create a language? And do they now “speak” and “understand” it? Review the author’s detailed account of these animals when formulating your answers.

7. “Animals are the originators of music and the true instructors.” Why does Grandin make this claim? What’s her logic? Further, how can she confidently assert that birdsong is “a good candidate for being a true animal language”?

8. Returning to Dr. Pepperberg and Alex, how did this incredible parrot come to actually spell the word “nut”? And why, in spite of this remarkable breakthrough, does Dr. Pepperberg refrain from claiming that Alex has language?

CHAPTER 7: ANIMAL GENIUS: EXTREME TALENTS

1. Near the outset of this chapter, Grandin says that “most animals have ‘superhuman’ skills [in that] animals have animal genius.” Give examples of such genius, from chapter 7 and from throughout Animals in Translation.

2. Who was Clever Hans? Explain why the author is so impressed with Hans even though his famed “counting” ability was finally disproved.

3. Account for why Grandin flatly rejects the “if-animals-were-smart-they-wouldn’t-still-be-pooping-in-the-woods theory of animal cognition.” What does this theory maintain? In describing Grandin’s rejection, explain why any given culture—and the knowledge existing within that culture—must evolve.

4. What is the “hidden figures talent”—and why do autistic people seem to be so good at it? Describe a few of the practical, immediate employment opportunities Grandin sees for autistic people in relation to this talent. Moreover, flesh out what the author means by the following declaration: “Normal people don’t draw a dog, they draw a concept of a dog. Autistic people draw the dog.”

5. Revisit the “ant navigation” story that Grandin relates, which concerns how ants in an obstacle course will invariably, on passing a gray pebble while going one way, “look for that same gray pebble [when] coming back” the other way. Why does Grandin add: “I do the same thing ants do”? What point is she making here about the way in which animals and people with autism see the world?

6. If we are to believe one key study, as Grandin notes: “Wolves and people were together at the point when homo sapiens had just barely evolved from homo erectus . . . they were on a lot more equal footing than dogs and people are today.” What did humans “learn” from evolving alongside wolves? What did we get from them in terms of thought and behavior, action and skill, strength and talent?

7. Revisit the last two sentences of this chapter: “People were animals, too, once, and when we turned into human beings we gave something up. Being close to animals brings some of it back.” What’s the “it” that Grandin is referring to here?

Homework Due Thursday, 4/28

Write a 3-5 paragraph essay answering the following prompt:

Is food a marker of civilization?

Your essay should include:

• An introduction, body, and conclusion (Remember to define "civilization", and possibly "food" in your introduction.)
• A clear thesis
• At least ONE piece of evidence to support your thesis (Your evidence may come from Catching Fire, another novel, history, and/or personal experience.)

Please type your essay.

To help you get started, I've included the passage we discussed in class on Tuesday (below), as well as links to some of the slides we looked at.

Food is not just what we eat. It charts the ebbs and flows of economies, reflects the changing patterns of trade and geopolitical alliances, and defines our values, status and health—for better and worse. The famous dictum of the early 19th century French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are," should be expanded. Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are, where you live, where you stand on political issues, who your neighbors are, how your economy functions, your country's history and foreign relations, and the state of the environment. By looking at food, the age we live in is better understood.

--Mark Kurlansky, “The Food Chains That Link Us All,” Time Magazine, June, 2007

Link to "What the World Eats" photo slideshow

Link to "A Worldwide Day's Worth of Food"photo slideshow

Link to Mark Kurlansky's article, "The Food Chains That Link Us All"

Homework Due Tuesday, 4/26 or Saturday, 4/30

Write a letter (2-3 paragraphs) to Katniss from your character in which you advise Katniss on whether or not she should trust Finnick.  In your letter, keep in mind your character's possible biases and motives, and feel free to be creative!

Homework Due Saturday, 4/16

Write one journal entry (two paragraphs) expressing your character's views on the current political situation in Panem.  This entry should reflect your knowledge of the events that have taken place both in The Hunger Games and in chapters 1-14 of Catching Fire and must incorporate your character's perspective.

Homework Due Tuesday, 4/12

Continue writing in your character's journal.  Write one entry (one paragraph) per chapter.

Homework Due Thursday, 4/7

This is a two-part homework assignment.

PART ONE

If necessary, finish the rough draft of your political cartoon.  Your cartoon should express an opinion about some aspect of Panem's current political situation.  You may critique the Capitol, praise the Capitol, critique or praise the Districts' attempts at rebellion, satirize or lionize a public figure (like Katniss or President Snow), or express another sentiment that you find relevant.  Bring your completed rough draft with you to class on Thursday; I will provide materials for you to complete a final draft in class.

PART TWO

Write one journal entry (one paragraph) expressing your character's views on the current political situation in Panem.  This entry should reflect your knowledge of the events that have taken place both in The Hunger Games and in chapters 1-9 of Catching Fire and must incorporate your character's perspective.

Homework due Tuesday, 4/5 or Saturday, 4/9

This is a two-part homework assignment that initiates two ongoing assignments, so please be extra attentive and thoughtful as you complete it!

PART ONE

Finish filling out the "game card" that you received in class on Thursday.  The sections should be completed as follows:

• Character Name: Think of a name for your character and write it here.  (Note: This should NOT be an actual character from the book; rather, you should create a character from your chosen district based on your knowledge of what life is like in that district.)  Your character's name should reflect the values and naming standards of your district (e.g. "Willow" for district 12, or "Shimmer" for district 1).
• Your Name: Write your real name here.
• District #: You may choose from districts 12, 11, 8, and 1.  Or, you may choose the Capitol.
• In the square on the left, draw a symbol for your character.  The symbol should represent something meaningful about your character -- perhaps something about your character's strengths as a person and tribute -- as does the mockingjay pin for Katniss.
• Bio: Write a brief description of your character, including some of the following details: what kind of person he/she is, how he/she feels about the games and/or the capitol, what strengths he/she has as a person and a tribute.  You may also use this space to explain the significance of your symbol.

Don't worry about the rest of the card; we'll fill in those portions together once the games begin...

PART TWO


Begin keeping a journal of the events of Catching Fire from your character's perspective.  You (or, more accurately, your character) should write one entry for every chapter that we read, and each entry should be 1 paragraph long.  In your entries, keep in mind that your character's personality, actions and values are based in the value system of his or her district.  If, for example, your character is a 15-year-old girl living in district 11, imagine how she might be affected by the events of chapter 4.  How might she feel after witnessing the chaos that erupts after Katniss's speech?  What might she have done that day?  Was she part of the crowd?  If so,  did she join in the mass gesture of thanks that was given to Katniss?  What did she do, or what happened to her after the event?  Because you are writing your entries from the perspective of your character, you should be using first person pronouns ("I", "me", "my", "we", "our", etc.).

Your journal does not need to be typed.