April 30

AGENDA:

1. Review Chapter 11 and 12
2. Science Presentations





HW: Read Chapter 13 tonight

April 29

AGENDA:

1. Discuss Chapter 10
2. Complete science presentations
3. Turn in edits on papers


HW: Vocab on Friday; Read Chapter 11 and 12 tonight

April 28

AGENDA:

1. Review Chapter 9
2. Science Presentations


HW: Vocab on Friday; Edits of papers due on Wednesday during or just after class; Read Chapter 10 tonight

April 27

AGENDA:

1. Science Presentations
2. Hand back papers and go over

HW: Vocab on Friday; Read Chapter 9 tonight

April 24

AGENDA:

1. Vocab Review Quiz
2. Frankenstein Quiz



HW: Science Presentations on Monday; Read Chapters 6-8 by Monday

April 23

AGENDA:

1. Mary Shelley Bio (period 2)
2. Anticipation Guide...overarching questions
3. Self and the Shadow / Doppleganger
4. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Stereotypes: Not literary. We avoid using this term to talk about classifying characters, settings, plot points, etc..
• Archetypes: The broad, all-encompassing norms of the stories humanity tells. The same archetypes can be found in all or nearly all cultures. Ex. Hero, orphan, monster.
• Tropes: Culturally-specific norms in storytelling. Tropes are cultural classifications of archetypes. There can be many tropes found under the umbrella of one archetype. Ex. Girl home alone at night with crazy man on loose, babies switched at birth, etc. Literary devices are not tropes (i.e. narrators, foreshadowing, flashbacks, etc.).
• Clichés: Overused and hackneyed phrases, characters, settings, plot points, etc.. Archetypes do not become clichéd. Tropes can become clichés if they are used too often and readers get bored of them. Clichés are defined by a loss of the meaning or as a distraction from the story.
• Stock Characters: stock characters are pretty flat. There’s not much development that goes into them except to inform the reader as to what kind of story to expect. If you have a damsel in distress, there’s probably going to be a dramatic rescue. If you have an underdog sports team, there’s likely going to be a fairly large upset.
  This does not make them bad, mind you; these stock characters can help set a story. However, just because you use a stock character doesn’t mean you have to use them in the way they’re usually used. A lot of parody films take stock characters and play with their roles, or make stock characters their main characters. Young Frankenstein is a great example, because it takes the stock characters of the mad scientist and the monster, and it twists them around and turns them into full-fledged protagonists.

HW: Vocab Review Friday; Read Chapters 1-5 by Friday; Science projects Monday

April 22

AGENDA:

1. JOURNAL WRITE: "To be a writer, an artist, to be human and understand the soul and each other means never averting the eyes." - Akira Kurosawa
   What does this mean? Do you agree? What is our responsibility as critical thinkers? As critical writers?

2. Framed Narrative/Epistolary Writing/Reliable and unreliable narrator
3. Literary Period and Genre
4. Background on Mary Shelley
5. Science Project .... 


Read Chapters 1-5 by Friday's class ; science project presentations Monday

April 21

AGENDA:

1. Graded Peer Review - Code Name Essays ONLY

1. Read the entire paper
2. Look specifically at the opening….is it focused? Could they tighten it? What is the argument? Is it clear? Underline the thesis. Is the thesis thought provoking? Strong? Clearly expressed? Is it making an argument or stating something that everyone would agree with?
3. Review the following paragraphs….is there evidence to support the thesis? Details? A path towards presenting the argument?
4. Estimate - what’s the ratio of summary vs analysis?
5. Are any of the paragraphs arbitrary? Not necessary
6. Check verbs - circle all the is/was/being/would/should/could/have/been/can/etc….. can you offer suggestions?
7. Conclusion - does thesis get restated somehow ? Does it answer the who cares? Why does it all matter anyway question? 
8. spelling errors? 
9. Motif? Can you identify it?

Put your name on this and give it a grade with your reason why? You are being graded on this peer editing and the WHY.

HW: HW: Vocab review on Friday; Read Letters 2-4 by tomorrow   

April 20

AGENDA:

1. Turn in two copies of your papers
2. Pick up Frankenstein from library - give me back "A Doll's House"
3. Go over group quiz 
4. Due tomorrow - do in class if time - a) Did you stick with your original thesis or did you change it along the way? b) What problems did you encounter during the process of creating this analysis? c) List two of the most important changes you made? Why did you make them? d) What part of your analysis are you most proud of? Why?


HW: Read Preface and Letter 1 tonight; Vocab review on Friday

April 17

AGENDA:

1. Vocabulary quiz
2. Turn in your character analysis today......complete it



HW: Analysis due Monday in class X2

April 16

AGENDA:

1. In class multiple choice test on the play


HW: Vocabulary tomorrow; Analysis on Monday, NOTE: I will be collecting your character analysis tomorrow

April 15

AGENDA:

1. Socratic Seminar on "A Doll's House"
2. If extra time, start working on your analysis.... spend your time wisely



HW: Vocab on Friday; Analysis on Monday in class 2X copies

April 14

AGENDA:

1. Group questions 

2. Consider - What makes this play a "classic" - first written in 1879

3. Analysis - 

      a. Review the poem's "Dusting" by Julia Alvarez; "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid; and "I'm Nobody" by Emily Dickinson. Pull the three poems and "A Doll's House" together with some common thread between them. What do these works of literature speak to or about? What is their relevance?

      b. In the play, Nora conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. Analyze how this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the work. 

      c. Identify a monologue by Helmer and one by Nora, and explain why each monologue is important in character revelation.


Whichever one you select for your analysis - take your motif and pull it through your paper. This will mean you must start your paper early and work to finesse the motif into the analysis. 


HW: Analysis due Monday in class - two copies (one with your name on it - the other with your code name on it); vocabulary on Friday; Socratic Seminar tomorrow - bring in 3 questions to discuss in class tomorrow



Dusting
by Julia Alvarez

Each morning I wrote my name
on the dusty cabinet, then crossed
the dining table in script, scrawled
in capitals on the backs of chairs
practicing signatures like scales
while Mother followed, squirting
linseed from a burping can
into a crumpled-up flannel.

She erased my fingerprints
from the bookshelf and rocker,
polished mirrors on the desk
scribbled with my alphabets. 
My name was swallowed in the towel
with which she jeweled the table tops.
The grain surfaced in the oak
and the pine grew luminous.
But I refused with every mark
to be like her, anonymous.


Girl
by Jamaica Kincaid

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf–rat boys, not even to give directions; don't eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a button–hole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease; this is how you iron your father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don't squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don't pick people's flowers—you might catch something; don't throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don't like, and that way something bad won't fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man; and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn't fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it's fresh; but what if the baker won't let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won't let near the bread?

I'm Nobody 
by Emily Dickinson

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –  
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –  
To an admiring Bog!

April 13

AGENDA:

1. Ending - Quiz
2. Motifs - make a list of motifs and words that are in the family (at least 10), for example, music, tunes, melody, ticking the ivories, humming, notes, clef, etc...
3. Complete your character analysis



HW: Vocabulary Friday; select one motif and expand on it tonight for class tomorrow; bring your character analysis up to date by tomorrow's class and be ready to work with it.