Today, I handed out the outline for the Xmas exam.
Part 1: 30 multiple choice (sometimes more) Focus on title, author, themes, characters, conflicts, recognition of lines, tone, diction, literary terms.
Part 2: Sight poem: It will be medieval or Renaissance so study the forms: epic, elegy, lyric, sonnet, ballad, frame tale, metaphysical, cavalier. By knowing the form, you will have an immediate advantage as you can add in pertienent details. Also, knowing the era will help you explain the themes, and structures. You will write a paragraph on the poem and answer 7 multiple choice questions.
Part 3: Discuss a passage from The Canterbury Tales in a literary paragraph. Look for its satirical elements and explain how the passage fits into the story as a whole.
Part 4: Literary Essay: As you study, organize the poems into themes. What do the poems say about death? Heroism? Loyalty? Love? Time? etc. Make sure to memorize quotes and use quotes from the multiple choices sections in your essay. You'll need to know the authors and the titles, which must be cited properly.
Tonight: Read John Milton's Paradise Lost, an excerpt from this epic poem. Arrive to class being able to explain what is happening. With that knowledge, we can then understand the themes, the images, the use of terms and their effects, etc. There will be a number of vocabulary words that we'll need to learn as well. I'll give you the list in class. Post-it note the words you would like to learn.
