Mr.+T's+Suggestions

"I am alone" - Team Alex has gotten this page off to a good start but we need more. We are getting closer to the deeper meaning of the quote when Team Alex stated "This quote has a real meaning. In real life Max really feels alone. His sister doesn't care for him and his mom and dad are divorced. Although, he lives with his mom his mom doesn't give him attention." Team Ira also followed up with a similar statement. However, neither team has taken it as far as it needs to go. One of our teams (or many of our teams) really needs to explore Max's feelings of loneliness and not fitting in with the world around him. Things to consider adding: Max's story, the snow ball stuff, school, his family, the games he plays, etc. See what you can come up with. Any good pictures we could add here? Always think about formatting...
 * Discussion Topics**

Max's father - Some really good points have been made by Team Alex, Katherine, and Ira. These teams need to go back and make a few corrections on their postings (mostly weird spacing issues). Also, Team Ira - always write in present tense "Max really believed" should read "Max really believes" - go through and make this correction. To everyone - I challenge you to read my comments on this page and to keep the conversation going. Make sure to start your postings with topic sentences (introducing your ideas) instead of just jumping in and answering my questions.

Max's world - Teams Judith, Katherine, Ira, and Alex - good start. I like the picture and the use of color. The layout is getting there. Everyone's thoughts on this subject are really great. I did notice some misspellings, weird spacing issues, capitalization mistakes, and the some missing " ' " - so let's get that fixed. Also, in the first paragraph one of the team's mentions the story relating to the school lesson Max was taught - I think that needs a bit more explanation - you just brushed over it really quickly. Great work thus far.

Why so different? - "The movie is so different from the books because the different people who wrote each thing had different thoughts." Remember, we have three different versions of the same story here: the novel, the film, and the original picture book. Even though each one tries to tell the same story - each is very different. So far, we have a good blanket statement about this (overall opinions why stories are different) but what we need are so many thoughts and speculations as to why OUR STORIES are different. In other words, why did they did Dave Eggers spend 100 pages writing about Max's life and Spike Jonze only used 15 pages/minutes in the script / movie? On top of that Maurice Sendak's original book didn't really spend any time discussing Max's life. So, for this topic lets try and reference The Wild Things more.

In general - This page needs lots of work. The images are good but the layout is bad. So, let's keep working on this. This page is for any "ah-ha! momenets" you might have as you read the book. In this space you can right now anything that you think might be important, anything that might be foreshadowing something to come, important/meaningful quotes, questions you might have, random thoughts and observations... anything. However, when you post something make sure to including page numbers (or at least the chapter number). Lastly, these posts do not need to be paragraphs but they need to be written in a way that anyone reading it can understand what you are talking about. All teams need to post things here.
 * Ah-ha! Moments**

Poor Gary - Ok. This page has really good quotes and good images, all that it is missing is some explanation. We have these quotes from the book, now what do they mean. Give your thoughts on how words are used to communication Max's feelings about Gary. Also, Team Douglas - it your choices have made the page a bit harder to read. I'm all for color, however, it should add to the appeal of the page, not make it harder to read. Also, all teams, there are more examples of negative word choice of Gary in the book besides that one chapter. Find them and post them!

Max - I like the post from Max's point of view. It really does a good job communicating Max's feelings. I would just go back and make a few corrections - try to edit it to make it read a bit better. For example: "being with my mom, and I used to like being with my mom." that part is a little weird and confusing (great work Team Carol). The second paragraph is good too, however there are some grammar issues there too, so fix them.. Also, the page needs more. We need the complete picture of Max. We are doing well describing his feelings but what else is there? What about physical characteristics? What about hobbies? All teams need to work together to try and paint the complete picture of Max.
 * Characters**

Claire - There is some good stuff here. What else do you think we could do to improve this page? What about layout issues? Also, let's fix the capitalization issues.

Mom, Gary, Dad - All three of these pages have some good stuff but they are still lacking. I'll comment more when we flush these character profiles out more. Keep working and keep thinking about layout issues.

Mr. Beckmann - I'm liking how this page is developing but I think we can do better. Mr. Beckmann really is like a father figure (or grandfather figure) to Max. So, why do you think Max finds it so easy to talk with Mr. Beckmann? What about the idea that Mr. Beckmann kind of, sort of, in a way is the old man version of Max? Why does Dave Eggers use a chapter to introduce us to Mr. Beckmann when we will probably never see him again in the book? Would the story be any different if he was left out? Is it important for Max to have someone like this in his life? Yet, why is the only person Max can relate with a 90 year old man? I have some many more questions about Mr. Beckmann... so keep writing about him. (also, fix the capitalization issues - thanks).

Good start everyone but there is a lot more to learn about these characters - start looking for character descriptions (physical and emotional) beyond the initial descriptions we were given. All of these pages needs more.
 * The Wild Things**

Minor characters - This page needs to be a list of ALL the characters mentioned in the book (outside of our major ones). Then, we need to describe these characters using whatever information they give us. Sometimes it is a lot, other times they give us very little. Whichever team tackles this page first, think about a way to layout this page (a table maybe, or some sort of graphic organizer).

The Never Ending List of Words We Don't Know - I know there are more words out there. Let's make sure all teams are adding theirs and don't forget to add new words as you continue to make your way through the book.