Welcome to our class blog about Todd Strasser's The Wave. We will be reading the book in three sections and posting thoughts and ideas after each section.
Section I: Chapters 1 - 6
1. Read during class. Write one page about the section in your notebook. You may comment on certain quotes, ideas, make predictions, summarize to help make meaning, draw pictures. Fill the page.
2. Once home, write a 2 - 4 paragraph post about the section. Copy, proofread, then post to our class blog.
3. For full points, comment on at least one other person's post. Try to get a conversation going about the points you believe are important in the book.
To begin posting, simply click on Comments, add your post and publish. You can comment to another person's post by clicking Reply.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was that it was strange how moved Laurie was by the video of the Holocaust. I agree with David; Laurie seems to be over reacting.
DeleteIn addition I have a feeling that Robert will get overly involved. I think he might take this “experiment” a little too seriously, resulting in some dangerous issues further into the story.
To me the students seem rather ignorant. If a teacher were to try something similar to this in todays high school class room, the results may be completely different. I don’t think students would get this involved in a project like this. Especially having previous knowledge on the Holocaust, as well as power.
This book has kept my attention somewhat, so it must be pretty good. Some of the predictions that I made prior to getting deeper into the story are starting to come true.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that the class loser, Robert, is going to become a dominate figure later on. As the class starts the community called "The Wave", Robert takes everything to heart much more than anybody else in the class. As changes in his appearance and attitude take place, it seems that Robert could become a leader. Ultimately, he may become the "Hitler" of The Wave.
The reason why I'm drawing a parallel between Robert and Hitler is the fact that, like Robert, Hitler was a loser before he rose to power. After being wounded during WWI, and failing to make a career out of painting, Hitler rose to power with his radical ideology (after spending some time prison though.)
I feel like I can already see what's going to happen as a result of the simulation. The end result is going to be analogous to what happened with the Nazis in Europe during the 30's and 40's.
What comes to my attention in this post is that you belive that Robert, the "class loser" will ultimately become the "leader" of this experiment. I would have to say I agree with you ultimately because sometimes in novels the "shy guy" becomes the most powerful. I too belive that he will overcome the act of power and finally overtake this experiment a little too far causing a big controversy in the absolute end.
DeleteI think this take is very interesting. It makes a lot of sense because of the way history has shown this can happen.
DeleteI disagree, David seems more likely to rise to power. I feel as if he's the one getting the football team to join the wave and that he's the one that wants to see this type of unification and discipline. I think Robert will become an outcast and be deemed unfit for the community.
DeleteI would agree with britt that david will be the leader. but Robert will not be kicked out of the community he is the most interested in community and dicipline he wants to be a hero. based on the spiderman comic
DeleteThis really changed my whole view on the book. After that, it makes me wonder if Robert will rise to power and use that to get at the kids who have made fun of him all throughout school.
DeleteI did not think about this while reading the book. This does make a lot of sense as well because he was doing something that resembled what they were doing in the class. This is a good point of view.
DeleteBoth predictions are possible, we won't know for sure what would happen next. But I'm sort of leaning on the prediction that Robert will be the leader or at least a co-teacher.
DeleteIn the novel "The Wave" we learn about a teacher that starts a unit on teaching kids about WWII and the Holocaust. Ben, the teacher, tries to implement a new strategy to essentially straighten up the class and it ends up working really well with all of the students listening and taking part in this new exercise.
ReplyDeleteThen after class one of the students, David a foot ball player, says that he doesn't really know how to think about this. But then one day during a practice or before it he realizes that this can be used to win a game or two, especially the one against Clarkstown next week. He insists that they stop playing as one man armys and start playing as a full born team. this will hopefully allow them to win.
Who is this kid?
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DeleteI think that as soon as David implements the disciplines of The Wave, the results are going to be startling. Ultimately, the football team will see what kind of power they can harness, and things will start to "take-off."
DeleteThis is just a summary, step it up Luke, like step up revolution ON DVD NOW!
DeleteThe Wave
ReplyDeleteWith having Ben Ross being the experimental teacher in this for-type of situation, Ben seems to be oddly suspicious into this topic of development. He studies this topic as if he is utterly intrigued. Ben “spies” on specific students to gain more knowledge in order to crucify his work and better off have a good understanding. Robert Billing, a little known student, acts as if he doesn’t give a hoot about school. He had an outstanding brother from all the rumors throughout the books and I feel like Ben is going to use this student as “Patient Zero” for his experiment.
David Collins, who apparently is a strong back-boned student, comes into Bens mind set as well. With having the idea about this student and his athletic and presuming strong nature, I really start to think that Ben will have these two kids be either the leaders or the guinea pigs in this experiment. With more along the lines of being the leaders of the group, Ben presumes that these kids are going to be the back bone of this whole experiment. With all my thoughts I believe that with all this coming into role play, things are going to get rather interesting, but yet things are most likely going to take a “bail” and things are going to hit the fan and cause a huge controversy.
What had happened in Nazi, Germany showed how powerful a minority could become. In Mr. Ross’s history class the minority of the class walked away possibly feeling upset for what had happened in WWII but the vast majority shook it off and said what’s past is the past it’ll never happen again.
ReplyDeleteMr. Ross proves that all it takes is one powerful man to repeat what some has already done. The Nazis weren’t the first ones to tortured people that they deemed unfit for the superior race. In fact the history has been constantly repeating itself for as long as anyone can remember.
What I’m most curious about in this book is what will happen if they take the wave to the field, what will happen to relationships between the wave members and non wave members. How will this affect the home life of the students? What will the other teachers think?
I predict that the whole school will become like a tiny Nazi Germany and that those in the first class will think that they are superior to others in the school. That the football teams will become like an army and that they will outcast anyone that they don’t deem fit to be apart of the wave.
I was skeptical of the actual standing of Nazis as a minority, and after little research I learned that members of the Nazi party accounted for 12% of the population (8.5 million of the 70 million Germans) at the dissolution of the party. Thought there were a lot more than that I must say and I was more than just a bit surprised.
DeleteAs for your prediction I couldn't agree more, and if the team wins using the wave, others may start to Idolize the wave and even empower those who already follow it. Its all strange pointless action... until it makes results.
I think everything that has happened so far in the book is very interesting. This is because of how the students act when they are being told what to do. They seem to actually enjoy the structure so much that they even use it outside of class. Even the students that aren’t so sure about the whole thing or don’t enjoy it as much, still seem to go along with it.
ReplyDeleteThis makes one wonder how far it will take them until they go too far. The teacher and the rest of the class seem to enjoy the discipline and community, which relates to Hitler’s method very well. The students that don’t even want to do some of the things will still do them, so it makes one question what the class will do even if maybe they don’t take pleasure in it.
To respond to how long it will take them before they go too far, I think it will be after some individual brings up a new idea to add to the wave that will lead them closer to a structure similar to that of the Nazi party.
DeleteThrough the first half-a-dozen chapters of “The Wave” the start of a theme unfolds. This theme begins to bring the students together in an interesting way. Rather than viewing Mr. Ross’ experiment as a new teaching style, they take it away from the class to try applying the wave to other activities, such as football, in hopes of further success. However, because Mr. Ross neglected to inform the class that the themes in the wave were some of the ideals utilized by the Nazi party, I believe when the students perfect the ideas their teacher has given them, Mr. Ross may just feel compelled to further his experiment. If this happens, the students, having grown on the idea already, will take the teacher’s little in-class experiment over the line.
ReplyDeleteThe magnitude with which the students go overboard could be subjective. However, given the fact that the wave wasn’t spoken of for three years, one would imagine that the consequences of the social experiment were quite sever and possibly violent. If the Nazi idea of removing those who don’t fit in introduced, it’s easily imaginable that Robert Billings will be quickly targeted by the other participants. Regardless the outcome, it is sure to be less than ideal for the students, and more of an answer than Mr. Ross was looking for.
After reading the first few chapters I ask myself “self are all people this easily manipulated?” yes they are. Why? Why are people so easy, is it that we want to be a disciplined people? Do we want to have a part in a strong rule? Does it make us weak? I don’t have the answers. I wish I did.
ReplyDeleteThen after I start to think it’s because we are taught to believe everything the teacher tells us. That can’t be right. We need to be taught to think for ourselves. We need to be able to think outside of the box to be creative. We can’t solve problems in real life if we are not taught how to think like people.
The most curious thing of this story is the fact that these students are extremely oblivious to obvious. Not a soul notices that they begin discipline training but a day after they were asking “how could someone do that?” Its a generally easy association for nearly anyone to make considering that the lessons were just a mere 24 hours apart. Yet within the minds of the high schoolers the two lessons are disjointed and bear no relevance to one another. Even if at least a single student had noticed, what reasoning would they have to stay silent as their class is taught the very discipline that had a hand in the murder of millions? So one must assume that either this was a clear plot hole within the novel, or young adults were much more naive 45 years ago. I personally would like to give a generation the benefit of the doubt and assume the former of the two options.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note I believe that the teacher’s understanding of the Nazi’s control over people is misplaced. I say it was by no means discipline through which the Nazi’s held the people, but only the military. A matter of fact this disciplinary treatment is rather common among nearly all militaries across history. Though it may be on a side note, the people were controlled by a combination of two emotions: fervor and fear. Fervor for what the Nazis promises, for what they stood for and for the very words of the fuhrer. Fear for the discovery that one opposed the Nazi party, that they would be sent to the front lines as cannon fodder, or worse...
Hi Nick with the impossibly long name,
DeleteI pulled one of your quotes for a comment: " I believe that the teacher’s understanding of the Nazi’s control over people is misplaced. I say it was by no means discipline through which the Nazi’s held the people, but only the military."
My next door neighbor growing up might disagree with you. As a child, he fell in quite easily and happily with Hitler Youth in Germany. When I grew up and asked him why he did it, he said it was the discipline of it all. He also mentioned fervor. Weird, huh, that people who are otherwise totally rational can be caught up in something so insidious.
All the things I have heard about this book have been negative. No body talked about this after it happen for years. They made it seem like every kid in that room was tortured or killed.
ReplyDeleteSo far from what I have read nothing has happened. At the end of chapter 4 it mentioned that Mr. Ross wanted to re-create what happened in the holocaust so his students could really understand what Hitler did. This made me think that he might try simulate a gas chamber, or make them do unthinkable things, and by doing this have something go horribly bad.
Now that I think about it, I feel like he is just taking advantage of his teaching power. He tried something new in class by almost making it a dictatorship. The students responded to this new way of teaching by listening and being more discipline. Since he got this reaction I think he will just use it to his advantage and manipulate his authority.
I agree, I believe that Mr. Ross will begin to take his authority to unthinkable distances and with eventually get in trouble for what he started. I predict that the students will begin to use their power from 'The Wave" to bully other kids.
DeleteThe things I’ve heard about the book, The Wave have not been good. It was a recall of the holocaust and all of the discipline of the concentration camps. Before reading this book it sounded like everyone in the classroom of Ben Ross was somewhat scared from what had happened.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I got from the book so far Ben Ross seems to like the power he is getting from his class. Once the students watched the movie that changed everyone’s lives there was much discuss on how people could do something like that. On page 28 Ben says “one of my students asked me a question today that I couldn’t answer.” Ben started the class the next day with discipline by making the kids sit up straight and being very proper with the teacher. He claims he “just tried to give his students a sampling, a taste of life in Nazi Germany might have been like. “This quote is the reason for Ben’s new teaching. When Ben went home he claimed to his wife that his class really showed improvement and more discipline. I think it is good that the wife reacts and says I hope you don’t continue with this new teaching tomorrow because it is a bit demanding. Also Ben had claimed that “once we had started I could feel them wanting more”
I think that Ben will be the so called Hitler because he is getting carried away with power that he has. By saying that he could feel them wanting more is only his opinion and expression to power so it will be interesting to see where the will go. I also think that some students will stand up to this and some students will follow along with his new teaching.
TWolf,
DeleteGood job pulling out quotes to support your response.
After reading chapters 1-6 in The Wave, I've determined that Mr. Ross is a power seeking man. His lectures and lesson all the way up to the one about Hitler were easygoing and his class respected him for the most part. After teaching about Hitler and the Nazi party, the students acted completely different. They were confused as to why a man could do such horrid things and when they asked Mr. Ross why he would do it, he couldn't answer. Mr. Ross wanted to experiment and see just how having so much power would be like.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading only 6 chapters it is hard to say or think what exactly will happen next but I have a feeling "the Wave will become to powerful and will end up ruining the school. I predict that David will begin to use the same order of discipline and community in his football and will eventually become a good team.
The Wave gave new opportunity for new thoughts and predictions of what happens after chapter six. Since David explained what the wave is to him, he thinks that the football team should think about the wave the same way he does. In that order I believe that their football team will win the game to the other school who has bigger and buffer player. And for preparation of the game they use “The strength through discipline, strength through community”. In addition to introducing The Wave to other people, I predict the whole entire school will know about it.
ReplyDeleteThe other prediction I have for The Wave is of the character Robert when he was also introduced to The Wave. I think in the next chapters Robert will be the number 1 participant and could possibly be the co-teacher for the teacher when the teacher is not around.
I agree with Joe. I believe that Robert is going to go above and beyond the other students. I think that Robert might even be the one to push it too far with Mr. Ross being too oblivious to notice, due to his excitement of this experiment.
DeleteChapters 1-6 in The Wave are the precursor to what actually happened with The Wave, right now all that has happened in Ben Ross has come up with this new idea to shed some insight on how people chose to just blindly following Hitler and letting the Nazi's do horrible things to many people. I predict The Wave will get out of hand relatively fast with students discriminating kids who are not part of the wave and bullying them to join.
ReplyDeleteI almost predict that Robert, the class loser will rise to the powerful spots in The Wave essentially becoming Ben Ross's right hand man. Most students will be caught up in The Wave but Laurie and David will see what is really going on and try and show everyone what is happening. The Football team will try and apply their knowledge of with unity comes power to their Football practice and I believe what will happen is it will fail and there faith in the wave will be shaken so the other student such as Robert must discipline them to believe in The Wave again.
“The Wave” is a good reflection of historical power and how it can repeat itself. Hitler used the underpinnings of his country being poor, separated, and without hope of ever being something again he had the perfect standings for a leader.
ReplyDeleteMr. Ross is doing this as an experiment to show his class how Hitler did so much with the broken people of Germany. What Hitler did uniting his people was amazing, but what he did to those who were not a part of his movement where “out casted”, or “segregated”. In the wave I felt Robert would be casted aside from the rest of the group, instead he was accepted and able to join the people in the wave. In this book I believe everything will change only to have a twist that won't be noticed until the end.
Imagine that you are part of a small village in the north Europe. In this village you are the only shoe maker. What is your purpose? Well, to make shoes, because if you stopped then what would happen. No one in your village you have shoes, but in are modern times the purpose of an individual. Even the idea of a signal person working on a product in isolation so redickouse. Most people do a small pieace of a larger task. This is what cause a lack of a sense of purpose. You want this sure, no you is deabating that but do you really know why you’re here.
ReplyDeleteIf you would hold that though in your head. Remember the student in wave, how they trudge into the classroom, how everyday felt like the one before. Now think about your own life and how high school felt or that job you hated. If only you could figure out how to get out of their, to become challenge and more importantly see the results of your labors.
The reason that I brought this up is that it is a concept is key to understanding why the wave work, or how hilter truly came to power. The Wave gain motion not form students who were content and stationary, but were pressurized with own potential. They all wanted to feel that had a purpose, Mr.Ross fulfilled that. Standing up before you talk or walking to your desks is small fees to pay to feel to self compete.