Year 9EXT: The Wave, Chapters 8-12

How does Ben Ross enhance the appeal of The Wave to his students through telling them, "No one is more important or more popular than anyone else and no one is to be excluded from the group. Community means equality within the group."

• The repetition of "no one" implies there should be no social stratification of the group.

• The promise of social "equality" and its implicit egalitarianism will appeal to students who feel a need to compete and conform to the unpredictable, changing expectations of the high school setting.

• The contrasting lexical chains of "important" and "excluded" with "community" and "equality" appeals to the students' value of education and their desire to learn more about the world.

• Students are aware of how Robert Billings and realise he is the one being "excluded" from the group, and thus want to change their behaviour to overcome this injustice.

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3

Complete the following passage of analysis with the most appropriate vocabulary choices for an analytical response:
As this ​ (a)   "equality" changes the landscape of Gordon High, it’s not just ​ (b)   like Robert who are grateful for the change, but even students who are more popular, like David and Laurie, demonstrate ​ (c)   for the new social order and its ​ (d)   to give students a ​ (e)   .

• newfound
• outsiders
• potential
• "creeps"
• gratitude
• purpose
• life of meaning
• power
• happiness

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

What is significant about the speech verb 'ordered' in the excerpt from Chapter 6:
“Class, give the salute,” he ordered.
Select the most appropriate answer.

• The succint and severe verb "ordered" reflects Ross' growing paranoia that his students are straying from the principles of the experiment.

• The high-modality of "ordered" reflects the emergence of purpose and order in the students' lives.

• Speech verb choices can imply the speaker's dominance or assertiveness, and it also sets the tone for future interactions.

• The high-modality of "ordered" hints at Ross' growing sense of authority and command in this experiment.

What is the symbolic significance of The Wave as a logo/symbol of the movement? Select the most valid, sophisticated response to this question.

• Waves can be calming but also large and destructive. We see both these binary effects represented in the novel, as social anxieties are tranquilised for some while exacerbated for others.

• Waves take shape as they form and break, and pre-existing shapes were used by other totalitarian groups like the Nazis, who culturally appropriated the swastika and virtually corrupted its original meaning in essentially all nations except India.

• It symbolises how like the movement amongst the students, the wave starts small and then grows in size, gathering momentum as time progresses.

• The wave is symbolic of the brainwaves of Ben Ross had while trying to plan and implement this experiment for his students' learning experience.

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Reorder the following segments of novel commentary into a logical, cohesive structure.

• This placates temptations he had experienced earlier to terminate the experiment, and he instead becomes more engrossed in it, dreaming of the possibilities The Wave could create, even envisioning an article about himself in Time magazine lauding him for his advancements in education and discipline.

• As The Wave begins to spread beyond the walls of his history classroom, Ben Ross is unsure of what to make of his little experiment.

• Likewise, even though the students are doing their homework more often, their answers are short and rote, devoid of thoughtfulness or personality.

• Students from other classes are now joining The Wave and even sitting in on Ross’s history class—but despite the larger class size, the students are actually covering material quickly and efficiently.

• However, when Ross asks some of his students what they like most about

  The Wave, he is pleased to hear that the experiment has essentially erased social cliques and helped the students feel like they are “all equal.”

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.3

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.6.9

Identify the following excerpt for language features. Be careful! There are two incorrect options included.

c

d

e

f

Dramatic irony (second instance)

Metaphor

Foreshadowing

Noun group

Dramatic irony (first instance)

Evaluative adjectives

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.3

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.6.9

Complete the following passage of analysis by filling it in with the most appropriate words:
Ben Ross' own ​ (a)   to The Wave ​ (b)   the importance of people in leadership roles knowing how to wield power responsibly. Ross's increasing submission to his own experiment is ​ (c)   in his conduct when visiting Principal Owens' office for the first time. As he passes through the corridors, a "dozen students...give him The Wave salute", which he "return[s]" before continuing "quickly." The combination of the ​ (d)   "quickly" and the ​ (e)   of "return[ing]" the salute suggests an instinctiveness and lack of thought on Ross' behalf, as if he recognises the importance of keeping up appearances without considering the consequences this is having on the student psyche.

• susceptibility
• underscores
• exemplified
• adverb
• action
• hints at
• speech choice
• word choice
• most evident

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.1

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Categorise the following options into whether they are a symbol/motif, an issue, an idea or a theme.

Groups:

(a) Theme

,

(b) Idea

,

(c) Issue

,

(d) Symbol/motif

• The Wave salute

• Independence

• The importance of individual identity

• It is easy for impressionable people to get swept up in a popular movement

• 'Groupthink' and coercion

• Leaders being unable to accept defeat or admit fault

• Laurie chewing on the end of her pen

• People are susceptible to valuing unthinking uniformity over critical thinking

• Equality

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Complete the following passage of novel commentary using the most appropriate selection of vocabulary:
Just as Laurie is beginning to realise how dangerous The Wave might become, Ben Ross is concerned by the ​ (a)   character that aspects of student life have taking on. Ross wanted to teach his students about discipline, community, and action but, as ​ (b)   by his wife’s jokes about having created a “monster,” Ross is starting to realise that Christy’s fears about The Wave are becoming ​ (c)   .

• militaristic
• foreshadowed
• manifest
• hardy
• revealed
• clear to everyone

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.3

CCSS.RL.5.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.6.9

In Ch 12, when one of the writers for The Grapevine, Carl, remarks that his impression of the meeting was akin to stumbling "into Anne Frank's attic", what figurative language feature starting with 'a' is he using?

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4