Today, we worked for the entire period to create a strong introduction and a first body paragraph.
Please complete the two paragraphs for Monday.
Intro: Follow the criteria for the Mockingbird essay. Re-read your corrected essay so that you can make NEW mistakes as you take NEW risks this time in your style, insight, and structure.
Body 1: Make sure your topic sentence is specific, yet broad enough to include all of the points you wish to discuss. For example, do not say in your topic sentence that this para. will be about the features of a yellow umbrella and then start talking about rubber boots in the paragraph. RIGHT?
Also. Please review the elements of a body paragraph and use your checklist to ensure your paragraph meets all criteria!!
Here is the schedule for next week:
Friday, Dec. 6: Colour code the quotation log and create an introduction
Sat / Sun Dec. 7-8 Write the first body paragraph
Monday Dec. 9 Write body paragraphs 2 and 3 during class
Monday night: Write the conclusion
Tuesday: Bring a typed, edited draft to class for peer editing.
Wed/ Thurs night: Edit and edit and revise the draft and print a good copy. Edit the good copy. Print a final copy.
Due Friday, Dec. 12: Final copy plus cover page. The quotation log. The peer edited draft. The self-edited good copy.
YOU KNOW THESE STEPS WELL BECAUSE THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE STEPS YOU WALKED DURING OUR NOVEL UNIT.
Your job this time is to improve.
Where will you focus?
Literary must-haves?
Style?
Insight?
Quoting?
Citing?
Sentence variety.
Diction (word choice)
Proving your thesis.
Enjoying the editing?
Friday, December 6, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Writing 12: Preparing for your poetry recitations . . .
Be prepared to read your poem to class tomorrow.
Marks awarded for
Marks awarded for
- volume
- appropriate pauses, facial expressions, body language
- no distracting movements
- an introduction which offers a clear reason to listen to your poem
- eye contact
- slow, clear, enthusiastic reading
English 10: Finish the quotation log tonight . . .
You worked so well today. Great job.
Here is the schedule for next week:
Friday, Dec. 6: Colour code the quotation log and create an introduction
Sat / Sun Dec. 7-8 Write the first body paragraph
Monday Dec. 9 Write body paragraphs 2 and 3 during class
Monday night: Write the conclusion
Tuesday: Bring a typed, edited draft to class for peer editing.
Wed/ Thurs night: Edit and edit and revise the draft and print a good copy. Edit the good copy. Print a final copy.
Due Friday, Dec. 12: Final copy plus cover page. The quotation log. The peer edited draft. The self-edited good copy.
YOU KNOW THESE STEPS WELL BECAUSE THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE STEPS YOU WALKED DURING OUR NOVEL UNIT.
Your job this time is to improve.
Where will you focus?
Literary must-haves?
Style?
Insight?
Quoting?
Citing?
Sentence variety.
Diction (word choice)
Proving your thesis.
Enjoying the editing?
Here is the schedule for next week:
Friday, Dec. 6: Colour code the quotation log and create an introduction
Sat / Sun Dec. 7-8 Write the first body paragraph
Monday Dec. 9 Write body paragraphs 2 and 3 during class
Monday night: Write the conclusion
Tuesday: Bring a typed, edited draft to class for peer editing.
Wed/ Thurs night: Edit and edit and revise the draft and print a good copy. Edit the good copy. Print a final copy.
Due Friday, Dec. 12: Final copy plus cover page. The quotation log. The peer edited draft. The self-edited good copy.
YOU KNOW THESE STEPS WELL BECAUSE THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE STEPS YOU WALKED DURING OUR NOVEL UNIT.
Your job this time is to improve.
Where will you focus?
Literary must-haves?
Style?
Insight?
Quoting?
Citing?
Sentence variety.
Diction (word choice)
Proving your thesis.
Enjoying the editing?
English 12: Chapter 20 . . .
This chapter is really significant as all the final chapters are.
Read chapters 20 to 25 closely.
Today, we reviewed the keys to effective literary paragraphs. I returned the chapter 17 paragraphs and we read one another's paragraphs and took notes regarding style, structure and insight. If you are not getting the marks you would like, focus on doing something new. Is it a structural problem? Insight? Where could you improve style?
Next, we read chapter 20 aloud in groups of two, stopping to make inferences and post-it note key quotes. If you were absent, read the chapter, post-it note the quotes below and write inferences for each one.
"I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sonuvabitch" (150).
It's almost one in the morning and he is still in the bar and he calls Sally. He's completely drunk.
Discuss the phone motif in the novel.
" ' No home to go to . . . ' " (152).
"When they're done combing their hair, they beat it on you" (153).
Read page 153 closely. The coat check girl ensures he puts on his red hunting hat. Significance?
Bottom of 153, he decides to go to the duck pond in Central Park.
He drops Phoebe's record, "Little Shirley Beans" and he breaks it. Discuss.
He keeps the pieces of the broken record in his pocket.
He can't find any ducks. The pond is partially frozen. page 154
He imagines he will get pneumonia and die. 154
"I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all" (154).
"Who wants flowers when you are dead? Nobody" (155).
He doesn't want to be buried in a cemetery surrounded by "dead guys". He wants to be thrown in a river. So, even in death, he wants to be alone. Why?
"It rained on [Allie's] tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. . . . I couldn't stand it. I just wish her wasn't there" 155-156).
He hates leaving Allie in the cemetery all alone.
He starts skipping the few coins he has left across the pond. (156).
He decides to sneak home to see Phoebe. 156
Read chapters 21 and 22 tonight.
Play close attention to his interactions with Phoebe. Chapter 21 is quite short.
Phoebe makes him tell her what he actually enjoys.
Post-it note what Holden needs in order to be content.
Come to class prepared to discuss his dream of becoming a catcher in the rye.
Friday: We'll discuss chapter 22 and I'll put on the board the passages to read and analyze.
This weekend: Choose a topic for your essay. Post-it note 10 to 15 passages that you think will support your topic.
CHOOSING A TOPIC:
Read chapters 20 to 25 closely.
Today, we reviewed the keys to effective literary paragraphs. I returned the chapter 17 paragraphs and we read one another's paragraphs and took notes regarding style, structure and insight. If you are not getting the marks you would like, focus on doing something new. Is it a structural problem? Insight? Where could you improve style?
Next, we read chapter 20 aloud in groups of two, stopping to make inferences and post-it note key quotes. If you were absent, read the chapter, post-it note the quotes below and write inferences for each one.
"I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sonuvabitch" (150).
It's almost one in the morning and he is still in the bar and he calls Sally. He's completely drunk.
Discuss the phone motif in the novel.
" ' No home to go to . . . ' " (152).
"When they're done combing their hair, they beat it on you" (153).
Read page 153 closely. The coat check girl ensures he puts on his red hunting hat. Significance?
Bottom of 153, he decides to go to the duck pond in Central Park.
He drops Phoebe's record, "Little Shirley Beans" and he breaks it. Discuss.
He keeps the pieces of the broken record in his pocket.
He can't find any ducks. The pond is partially frozen. page 154
He imagines he will get pneumonia and die. 154
"I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all" (154).
"Who wants flowers when you are dead? Nobody" (155).
He doesn't want to be buried in a cemetery surrounded by "dead guys". He wants to be thrown in a river. So, even in death, he wants to be alone. Why?
"It rained on [Allie's] tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. . . . I couldn't stand it. I just wish her wasn't there" 155-156).
He hates leaving Allie in the cemetery all alone.
He starts skipping the few coins he has left across the pond. (156).
He decides to sneak home to see Phoebe. 156
Read chapters 21 and 22 tonight.
Play close attention to his interactions with Phoebe. Chapter 21 is quite short.
Phoebe makes him tell her what he actually enjoys.
Post-it note what Holden needs in order to be content.
Come to class prepared to discuss his dream of becoming a catcher in the rye.
Friday: We'll discuss chapter 22 and I'll put on the board the passages to read and analyze.
This weekend: Choose a topic for your essay. Post-it note 10 to 15 passages that you think will support your topic.
CHOOSING A TOPIC:
- I am interested in your interpretations of key scenes.
- Choose a topic based on a few memorable scenes. What were your favourite parts? The museum? The scene with the prostitue? The fight with Stradlater? The opening on Thomsen Hill? The scene with the nuns? The scene in chapter 17 when he yells at Sally? The scene with Phoebe on the carousel? The scenes in the park or in the cab or bar or hotel? The scenes with the catcher in the rye? The scene with Mr. Antolini? Mr. Spencer? Sally?
- Once you start re-visiting two or three key scenes, you'll notice themes arise. Choose a topic based on a theme (what the novel makes you ponder) (what the novel makes you think about)
- Holden's alienation.
- Holden's empathy and compassion
- The role of the adults in the novel.
- The role of children in the novel.
- Holden's refusal to grow up.
- Walden and Thoreau and the yearning for a simpler, more heroic life
- New York in the 50s.
- Criticisms of privilege and economic status
- Attitudes toward women and intimacy
- The use of stream of consciousness
- Holden as typical or atypical teen
- Lack of emotional availability (No one discusses feelings)
- Loneliness in the novel
- Loss of innocence
- The nature of childhood
- Search for perfection and redemption
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
English 10: Day Two, Notes on Presentations
Reaction to killing Paris:
Tone: accusatory, blaming others, ambivalent--he is conflicted, and critical, He is also blaming himself.
Imagery: dark, gloomy, at the door of the tomb, They are fighting over love in the dark.
Romeo is crazy! He is desperate. He did not want this to happen but THIS is his fault. He is annoyed. He is confusing love and hate.
Connection: Very similar to the Tybalt scene. He gets in the way of the sword and his anger. He kills Paris without knowing who he is.
Romeo is like an animal.
He takes the light to look at the victim's face and realizes that it is Paris and then he feels remorse.
He says that love has slaughtered Paris and Romeo and that love is their grave.
"I'll bury thee in a triumhant grave (5.3.83).
Romeo's final speech (88-119)
Tone: sad and depressing
Imagery: line 95 crimson lips are now black
She doesn't look dead. She is still beautiful. Dramatic irony. We know she is not dead.
Ideas about hate: Romeo cannot live without her. LIne 101 He looks at Tybalt and feels ashamed and compassion for him. Forshadows the end of the feud.
He can't imagine Juliet without him.
He is happy to be dying.
Connection: the balcony scene He says he would rather die than live without her love.
He is so rash and irrational that the scene evokes pity.
Friar trying to lure Juliet to a nunnery . . .
The tone changes because the Friar is afraid and does not understand what is going on. Plus, he does not understand love. He is responsible, in a way, for killing Romeo and Juliet.
A greater power than we can contradict has thwarted our intents
He says: COME, I'LL DISPOSE OF THEE . . .
He refers to her as garbage, baggage, a body, something that is already dead. Yikes.
What would her life be like in a convent.
Connections: The scene with the nurse who "advised" Juliet to forget about Romeo and marry Paris.
Connections: The scene where he married them. He married them to try and stop the feud and didn't take into account how young they were.
He wants to dispose of Juliet to hide his sins which is ironic because he's a priest. This entire society is corrupt. Reveals a negative attitude toward the church.
When the Friar tells Romeo to be a man and face the consequences, yet he can't face his problems.
He wants to cover his tracks.
The characters blame their problems on fate.
Juliet's final speech
Tone: Love and sadness, She called him kind names after he is dead
no "friendly drop" for poison
Imagery: She still loves him even though all the problems they have faced sprung from his mistakes--killing Tybalt, for example.
Importance: Juliet is representing her ability to be responsible for her own actions. We could blame the Friar and the Nurse but it is her actions she must account. She doesn't want to give up. She is dedicated to Romeo. She is fearless.
Connections: Romeo risked his life many times. Juliet was the practical one, aware of consequences. Romeo is responsibe for these deaths. He is impatient, too emotional.
Lord Montague's speech, Lady Montague is dead
Tone: Shocked that his son has died before he has
Setting: The tomb. His wife has just died due to her mourning over Romeo's
banishment.
Not a lot of imagery here. These deaths of the three young people has brought silence to all. They must see the errors in their ways and face real emotion.
The Friar recalls the entire story. He uses oxymorons
greatest able to do least
He feels he is to blame but he is a man of God so they will forgive him.
The prince is indifferent to Lord Montague's pain and does not offer consolation. He says to stop the mouth of outrage until we clear these ambiguities, let's figure out what has happened and stop being rash
Actions without thinking.
In reality, these are three teenagers all lying in this tomb (creepy) Two suicides, one death. This is a traumatic scene!! All are guilty. All must look closely at this tragedy and weigh its tragedy and learn from it.
The feud has caused it all.
Prince's final speech:
He confirms the Friar's story. Points out that hatred has caused the death of love!!
Love for hate is resolved by death. He has a haughty tone I told you so but he also feels responisible for letting the feud go on for so long. You can't ignore ignorance.
Connection: Romeo's love caused the death of Tybalt and Paris. That is so ironic.
Tone: pragmatic, regretful, sad, reflective,
Final last three speeches
End of the feud. They work out their problems.
Tone: joy, peaceful, that the feud is over. They feel fate has brought them together.
Imagery: I will raise their statues in pure gold. Gold is real so their love was genuine.
There never was a story of more woe.
The greatest love in all of history.
This love was fate. The chances of a Capulet and a Montague meeting was rare.
Some shall be pardoned and some shall be punished.
The love and hate: the families are only equal when two people die
Connections: Mercutio and Tybalt died, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
Tone: accusatory, blaming others, ambivalent--he is conflicted, and critical, He is also blaming himself.
Imagery: dark, gloomy, at the door of the tomb, They are fighting over love in the dark.
Romeo is crazy! He is desperate. He did not want this to happen but THIS is his fault. He is annoyed. He is confusing love and hate.
Connection: Very similar to the Tybalt scene. He gets in the way of the sword and his anger. He kills Paris without knowing who he is.
Romeo is like an animal.
He takes the light to look at the victim's face and realizes that it is Paris and then he feels remorse.
He says that love has slaughtered Paris and Romeo and that love is their grave.
"I'll bury thee in a triumhant grave (5.3.83).
Romeo's final speech (88-119)
Tone: sad and depressing
Imagery: line 95 crimson lips are now black
She doesn't look dead. She is still beautiful. Dramatic irony. We know she is not dead.
Ideas about hate: Romeo cannot live without her. LIne 101 He looks at Tybalt and feels ashamed and compassion for him. Forshadows the end of the feud.
He can't imagine Juliet without him.
He is happy to be dying.
Connection: the balcony scene He says he would rather die than live without her love.
He is so rash and irrational that the scene evokes pity.
Friar trying to lure Juliet to a nunnery . . .
The tone changes because the Friar is afraid and does not understand what is going on. Plus, he does not understand love. He is responsible, in a way, for killing Romeo and Juliet.
A greater power than we can contradict has thwarted our intents
He says: COME, I'LL DISPOSE OF THEE . . .
He refers to her as garbage, baggage, a body, something that is already dead. Yikes.
What would her life be like in a convent.
Connections: The scene with the nurse who "advised" Juliet to forget about Romeo and marry Paris.
Connections: The scene where he married them. He married them to try and stop the feud and didn't take into account how young they were.
He wants to dispose of Juliet to hide his sins which is ironic because he's a priest. This entire society is corrupt. Reveals a negative attitude toward the church.
When the Friar tells Romeo to be a man and face the consequences, yet he can't face his problems.
He wants to cover his tracks.
The characters blame their problems on fate.
Juliet's final speech
Tone: Love and sadness, She called him kind names after he is dead
no "friendly drop" for poison
Imagery: She still loves him even though all the problems they have faced sprung from his mistakes--killing Tybalt, for example.
Importance: Juliet is representing her ability to be responsible for her own actions. We could blame the Friar and the Nurse but it is her actions she must account. She doesn't want to give up. She is dedicated to Romeo. She is fearless.
Connections: Romeo risked his life many times. Juliet was the practical one, aware of consequences. Romeo is responsibe for these deaths. He is impatient, too emotional.
Lord Montague's speech, Lady Montague is dead
Tone: Shocked that his son has died before he has
Setting: The tomb. His wife has just died due to her mourning over Romeo's
banishment.
Not a lot of imagery here. These deaths of the three young people has brought silence to all. They must see the errors in their ways and face real emotion.
The Friar recalls the entire story. He uses oxymorons
greatest able to do least
He feels he is to blame but he is a man of God so they will forgive him.
The prince is indifferent to Lord Montague's pain and does not offer consolation. He says to stop the mouth of outrage until we clear these ambiguities, let's figure out what has happened and stop being rash
Actions without thinking.
In reality, these are three teenagers all lying in this tomb (creepy) Two suicides, one death. This is a traumatic scene!! All are guilty. All must look closely at this tragedy and weigh its tragedy and learn from it.
The feud has caused it all.
Prince's final speech:
He confirms the Friar's story. Points out that hatred has caused the death of love!!
Love for hate is resolved by death. He has a haughty tone I told you so but he also feels responisible for letting the feud go on for so long. You can't ignore ignorance.
Connection: Romeo's love caused the death of Tybalt and Paris. That is so ironic.
Tone: pragmatic, regretful, sad, reflective,
Final last three speeches
End of the feud. They work out their problems.
Tone: joy, peaceful, that the feud is over. They feel fate has brought them together.
Imagery: I will raise their statues in pure gold. Gold is real so their love was genuine.
There never was a story of more woe.
The greatest love in all of history.
This love was fate. The chances of a Capulet and a Montague meeting was rare.
Some shall be pardoned and some shall be punished.
The love and hate: the families are only equal when two people die
Connections: Mercutio and Tybalt died, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
English 12: YOU ARE AMAZING
AND NOT JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE READING THIS BLOG.
I recognize your sincere attempts to improve and I appreciate that.
I can see the improvement, too.
If you found today's question hard to understand, know that Holden's rant was truly anti-American dream and pro-Walden and Rousseau. Who are Walden and Rousseau? I'm glad you asked.
Here is a link:
Chop wood and carry water. Sell the car.
Tonight, please read chapters, 18 and 19. They are not THAT significant so a quick read is fine. If you do find something pertinent, that I may have overlooked, post-it note it, and share it with the class tomorrow.
We will read chapter 20 closely tomorrow during class and then we only have four chapters to go.
We will finish those on Friday. This weekend, you will choose your essay topic, and pick 12 to 15 quotations to support that topic and next week, we will be writing until your wrists ache. Get in shape now!!
Our next unit is personal essays, one of my favourite units of the year.
Our final unit is the novel, The Outsider (The Stranger) by Albert Camus, translated from the French and set in North Africa during the 40s. It has been called the best book of the 20th century. It is short but compelling.
It involves making peace with the world from a jail cell.
How is that possible?
It asks us to ponder the meaning of life.
Camus has been called an absurdist. A philosophy that says that since we cannot prove the existence of God, there must be another way to understand the human predicament (that we are born as mortals who know they will die). What motive do we have to rise out of bed? To feed ourselves? To go to work?
The fact that there is no KNOWN purpose in the world, an absurdist would argue, means that we cannot FORCE meaning onto the world.
For example, you might say, well, I go to work to feed my family and to help students learn to read.
No! the absurdist yells.
Work has no meaning.
You go to work because you go to work.
HMMM. Think about that!!
Camus believed that going to work for the sake of going to work or living for the sake of living was heroic and that attempting to force meaning onto situations was unheroic.
A lot to discuss and a great way to end your high school English career.
I think you will (if you haven't already) realize that you need to keep reading and reading and reading and reading to examine the imaginations of great and not-so-great writers and thinkers so you have something to which you can compare your own ideas.
You are never alone in the universe with a good book.
The universe does not care about you, the absurdist says.
I recognize your sincere attempts to improve and I appreciate that.
I can see the improvement, too.
If you found today's question hard to understand, know that Holden's rant was truly anti-American dream and pro-Walden and Rousseau. Who are Walden and Rousseau? I'm glad you asked.
Here is a link:
Chop wood and carry water. Sell the car.
Tonight, please read chapters, 18 and 19. They are not THAT significant so a quick read is fine. If you do find something pertinent, that I may have overlooked, post-it note it, and share it with the class tomorrow.
We will read chapter 20 closely tomorrow during class and then we only have four chapters to go.
We will finish those on Friday. This weekend, you will choose your essay topic, and pick 12 to 15 quotations to support that topic and next week, we will be writing until your wrists ache. Get in shape now!!
Our next unit is personal essays, one of my favourite units of the year.
Our final unit is the novel, The Outsider (The Stranger) by Albert Camus, translated from the French and set in North Africa during the 40s. It has been called the best book of the 20th century. It is short but compelling.
It involves making peace with the world from a jail cell.
How is that possible?
It asks us to ponder the meaning of life.
Camus has been called an absurdist. A philosophy that says that since we cannot prove the existence of God, there must be another way to understand the human predicament (that we are born as mortals who know they will die). What motive do we have to rise out of bed? To feed ourselves? To go to work?
The fact that there is no KNOWN purpose in the world, an absurdist would argue, means that we cannot FORCE meaning onto the world.
For example, you might say, well, I go to work to feed my family and to help students learn to read.
No! the absurdist yells.
Work has no meaning.
You go to work because you go to work.
HMMM. Think about that!!
Camus believed that going to work for the sake of going to work or living for the sake of living was heroic and that attempting to force meaning onto situations was unheroic.
A lot to discuss and a great way to end your high school English career.
I think you will (if you haven't already) realize that you need to keep reading and reading and reading and reading to examine the imaginations of great and not-so-great writers and thinkers so you have something to which you can compare your own ideas.
You are never alone in the universe with a good book.
The universe does not care about you, the absurdist says.
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