MC Test

Okay, I know today was kind of painful but on the good side you only have two practices left!
I really don't have anything else to report so I hope you are all enjoying Native Son.

Upcoming: Finish Fear, read some famous American speeches, make a snow angel.

Poerty Returns

We started off the hour with some work time on the speeches. Remember to read the other speeches for your groups and summarize by Wednesday (read the assignment sheet).
Then we looked at one of the poetry essays for the lit. test. I know poetry is sometimes intimidating especially weird ones about hawks, Plato, and leaky pipes. Some hints for poetry:

• look for some type of contrasts, shifts, etc.
• look for repetition
• look at types of images created (positive/negative)
• look for anything that stands out or doesn't seem to fit
• Finally when in doubt look for something to do with nature, death, love, loss of innocence

Upcoming: MC tomorrow, Speeches for Wednesday, Fear for Monday

Reminders: Get your registration forms signed and please bring Eyes Were Watching God on Friday since I forgot to collect them today.

A.P.

Today we played with mini whiteboards. We looked at some past AP essay questions from the Lang. test and worked on only correctly answering the question. It was a day a BSing and some of you maybe enjoyed it a little too much.
You also had some work time with your partners on the speech assignment. Tomorrow will be basically the same structure.
Upcoming: Lit. Review tomorrow; MC Thursday (sorry)

What does the title of this post refer to?

The Death of Quack

Okay, we did several things today, starting with a new set of vocab. I know it's hard to believe but we are nearing the end of our list of words. My apologies to per. 9 that the video was killed by Hannah in 4/5 so it is now resting in peace (in the trash can). On the plus side per. 9 gets to hear some of weird stories so it all balances out.
After the vocab the Gatsby papers were returned (passive)! Main things I saw with these papers: 1 you have to have strong and specific claim. 2. you have to make sure you develop your one claim throughout the whole paper. 3. you have to have evidence that supports your claim and hopefully it fits in smoothly. 4. you have to avoid meaningless phrases and redundancy 5. you have to sprinkle your paper with cologne (it makes me happy and I grade easier :o)
We also started our next novel/dictionary today. Yes it is rather fat but size is no way to judge. The pace is still 20 pages a day so everyone should be able to survive. If you have questions while reading just ask me but please don't spoil things (Stefan) for other students.
Finally, you all paired up and picked a speech to rip apart and discuss.
Upcoming: Lit. Review Wednesday; Fear for Monday.

Sorry one more thing: Registration is next Wednesday or Thursday so make sure you get your forms filled out and signed and you will of course all miss me next year so the best way to handle the withdrawal process is to join yearbook!

Teacake--What's up with him?!

Okay, I'm doing my best but it is hard for me to hold back on this book (especially for four discussions). After the vocab test be prepared for me to just burst. Today we had our third discussion and it was a little difficult to avoid talking about later stuff which is fine but I think tomorrow's discussion will be much more satisfying. In the mean time I'd like you to think about how readers are supposed to react to Teacake. Why does Janie like him? Why do readers like him and are we supposed to?
I promise that tomorrow you will finally get your essays back.
Upcoming: Vocab Test Friday; Quotes Monday; Lit Review Wednesday.

Lit. Review

Ah, much easier to write than it was to talk today. Today the Gatsby papers were taken off your hands by me. (what's wrong with that sentence?) I also took back the books, so if you didn't have them with you today please bring them tomorrow. You also got a new assignment today. The good news is that you won't be writing a formal paper for Their Eyes Were Watching God but instead looking at other people's papers. I gave you some class time today to get started on finding your articles, but I quickly realized why I don't like to give work time. Remember your articles should be analyzing the text not just summarizing or reviewing it. The easiest way to tell if it is the right thing is to look at the title--if it's long and pretty specific then it is probably correct.
Upcoming: Finish the novel by tomorrow (that means you should be reading right now!)
Quotes due Thursday and vocab test Friday.

Extra Credit: Reminder that the extra credit for this quarter is to write an essay for the bestprep contest. For more info. go to http://www.bestprep.org/essay.html
Extra Credit will be due 3/16

Hurston Essay

Today was a slightly painful in-class essay. Hopefully you were able to determine that this was an analysis one and follow the prompt directly since this one was specific. My goal is to have them back to you by Monday but no promises as I don't know what the weekend will hold.
I just want to make a few more comments on the novel after yesterday's discussion.
First, Chris I hope you sincerely apologized to Hannah.
I was glad to see that both classes talked about the buzzard scene. Hurston incorporates a lot of folktale into her work and I think this scene is influenced by that. I think the key idea is the analogy that people made with this scene to Jody and the town. It's also important to remember that they are picking apart the mule and what two groups have been called mules so far?
I'm curious about what people think of Janie's love life. Is she ever going to be satisfied or is she just too picky? Also, does anyone find it interesting that her marriages just magically end for her without any real consequences? Very unusual for the time.
Some things to think about for the second half: what is Hurston saying about race? It comes up a lot but in a rather subtle way.
Finally, could this be satire???
Upcoming: Papers due Tuesday. Finish the novel for Wednesday. We will have discussion Wednesday and Thursday.

Eyes 1

Yesterday we did a paper workshop so hopefully everyone got some constructive feedback. Remember some things to check yourself would be: quote support, clear and specific thesis, stays on topic, smooth writing style.
Today we had a quiz on the first half of the novel and then had discussion number one. I know it's a little tricky to stick with discussing a smaller section of a novel but it might help to look at some specific passages. It would also be nice for the leaders to try and get some of the more reticent people involved.
Upcoming: Paper Final Draft 2/17
Finish Eyes 2/18

Here are some of my notes from the first half of the novel.
Hurston's language use--What is going on here? Is the slang overdone or realistic? If the author was white would this still be considered a classic or a racist manifesto?
What is the opening scene talking about?
Look at how Jody is described, especially in comparison to the other characters. Is he the symbolic white master? Notice he owns most of the land, runs the town, has the big white house, etc.
Views of marriage--is Nanny right for being so logical or is she tainting Janie?
Pear Tree symbol--it's obviously Janie's identification with love but why a Pear tree? What are the implications here? What does this image convey?
Fluid P.O.V--the point-of-view for this novel switches between 1st and 3rd omniscient often without readers even noticing. What are the differences between the voices? Are there certain parts where one voice is stronger and why?
Pretty hard to ignore race in this book but even harder to figure out exactly what is going on. Remember Janie only has one black parent and one black grandparent and didn't even realize she was black until she was 6. Why is her hair (white style) he most attractive feature?
The Dozens--ok probably the best part of the book is at the end of chapter 7 when Janie verbally castrates Jody. If you don't know what the dozens are someone remind me to talk about it in class.
Debate question: Is this a feminist novel? Is Janie a strong female character?
Finally--why is there no mention of babies? Natural part of marriage before birth control and it would be a high expectation for Janie and most likely seen as a weakness if she didn't produce, so what's going on there?

Quack!

Today we had another fabulous Quack video with your new set of vocab words. If you were gone today they are posted online or you can get them from a friend. We also got an intro. to active and passive voice and those sheets should be online as well under the grammar section. There were multiple things passed back including the synthesis essays and we briefly went over those. The main thing to keep in mind is to read the prompt carefully.
Upcoming: Gatsby papers due tomorrow and Zora for Wednesday.

Jeopardy

Today we went over the sentence types sheet and hopefully it is starting to make sense. The main thing is to always look for the subject-verb combos. We then played Jeopardy to review for the test on Friday.
I'm hoping papers are being worked on. A few people have come in to see me but more are always welcomed. Tomorrow someone should remind me about the extra credit for this quarter.
Upcoming: Vocab Test Friday, Gatsby papers Tuesday. Our next novel begins Friday...

Timed Essay

Just a sneaky timed essay today. Although I'm sure most of you had an inkling that it was coming when I passed out the prompt the day before.
Upcoming: Vocab test Friday, Gatsby papers due Tuesday. You will be getting your next novel on Friday so I hope you have started your paper already.
Wednesday we have a surprise guest coming in!

Gatsby Discussion

Today we finished up our discussion of Gatsby. Some great points were brought up some I'm just going to ramble off some other things to think about that may help people with paper topics.
The idea of change was brought up in one of the hours and that is something that could be investigated further. Who does change and who doesn't? What causes the change or allows them to remain the same?
What view of marriage do we get? Are there any stable/happy relationships portrayed?
Is Myrtle a one time thing for Tom? If you said yes think about where he was the night of his daughter's birth (p. 17) and who he got in a car accident with (p. 78).
Weather was touched on briefly but I think the contrast of settings is also interesting. Look at the opening scene of the novel. Nick walks into the Buchannan's house with women dressed in loose white clothing while the warm wind blows through. In contrast to Myrtle and Tom's apartment with a "small living room, a small dinning-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors..." (29). What's going on here? Also compare it to the scene in the hotel.
Why is Nick so depressed about turning 30? page 136 He says they "drove on toward death." What a downer!
Finally, three pages that need to be looked at p. 69 weird inversion scene
Duality idea page 36 and the entire last page--what is Nick talking about?

Bonus: On page 115 there is a weird scene on the subway that I still can't figure out. Any takers on explaining it to me?

Upcoming: Paper due next Tuesday with 2 copies and Vocab test this Friday. Don't forget to glance at the sources tonight.