Monday, December 13, 2010

Born in Slavery

Go to this link.

Browse the slave narratives. Choose your favorite. Describe what your favorite says. Why is it your favorite?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Huck Finn and Jim


Skim through chapters 1-7 of Huckleberry Finn. How is Jim portrayed by Huck?

Watch two examples of film versions of the novel. How is Jim portrayed in the dvd version and the VHS version? How do you account for the differences in the portrayal of Jim?

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Satire in Shrek 2


Watch the clips from Skrek 2 and identify examples of the following characteristics:

Exaggeration-
Incongruity-
Reversal-
Parody-

Homework: Choose a fairy tale to satirize from these sites or from your own books. Bring in the fairy tale tomorrow on your computer or in book form.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Kindred Project Questions


Walk around the room and look at different projects. Answer these questions:

1. Post your favorite found poem. Why do you like it?
2. Which group had your favorite picture? Describe the picture.
3. Write down one quote from another group. Analyze the quote. What does it tell us about the story, the themes or the characters?
4. After looking at the descriptions about the three characters, what conflict do you think is going to develop among them?

Kindred Short Story

Go to this link. Read the information for the short story assignment. Take your homework from last night as a starting point. Start to brainstorm who your main character is going to be by filling out the worksheet Character Questionnaire.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Slavery and America Today

How did slavery change America? What are the effects of slavery that we see in today's society?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Satire

Look in your dictionary, define satire. Can you think of any examples of satire from The Simpsons, Family Guy, Jon Stewart, or the Colbert Report?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Note to a Critical Friend Template

Dear ______________,

I would like to persuade ___________________ to _____________________

The greatest obstacles to this happening seem to be ___________________________

I am also worried about _____________________

What do you think of ________________________?

Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,

_________________

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Thoreau's Walden


Listen to the NPR story about Thoreau and Walden. Answer these questions.

1. Why did Thoreau move to Walden?

2. What was his life like there?

3. What did Thoreau criticize in modern life?

4. Do you agree or disagree with his critique?

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Calvin and Hobbes/ Music


Go to google and find a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that shows a Transcendental idea. Post it in your blog.

Homework: Look at your favorite comic. Find an example that shows a Transcendental idea. Post the comic and explain how it expresses the idea.

Homework Part II: Find a song that shows the ideas of Transcendentalism. Post the lyrics. Bring in the song to play in the class.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Annotated Bibliography

Go to this link

Read the information about Annotated Bibliography. Today, decide on a topic for the Year Long Civil Disobedience Project with your group. Each person should find one source and do one annotation with the summary, assessment and reflection. Post it in the blog.

American Literary Periods

How is the Colonial Period different from the Romantic Period? What are some characteristics of Transcendentalism? How did the Historical Context affect these Literary Periods?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Glass Menagerie

Put the script from yesterday into a PDF file and email it to me.

Next, as a group answer the Pre-Show discussion questions. Post the answers in a blog with everybody's first name on the blog.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Civil Disobedience Project

Pick your group. Brainstorm three ideas. Post the three ideas. Link to one .edu or .gov article for each idea. Cite the article using MLA format.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Common Themes

Go to wordle.net

Copy and paste the essay by Thoreau, the speech by Martin Luther King Jr. and the song by Rage Against the Machine into wordle. The words that are the biggest are the most common words. What do you think this says about the themes of their writing? How do they all connect?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Teen Suicide

Why do so many teenagers commit suicide? Find a .gov or .edu site that has information about teenage suicide; make a link to it in your blog.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Crucible Poem

Read three poems. Post one comment on each.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Favorite Presentation Today

After watching the presentations today, which one was your favorite? Why?

How do you think your Crucible Project turned out? What could you improve on for next time?

Monday, September 27, 2010

Respond to Arthur Miller's Quote


"Most of us do not have the choices we think we have. We are responsible for our behavior, but men don't have limitless choices. Given our characters, maybe fewer choices than we think."
-Arthur Miller

Do you agree or disagree with this idea? Free write about it.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Reflection


Reflect on the class so far. What have you learned about American Literature? What do the books have in common? How are they different? What have you learned about writing? What are some of the things you would still like to learn?

Read the posts of three other students. Write three comments.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Graphic Novel Choice

Look at this information about the two choices.



Choose one.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

MLA Citations, Works Cited

Look at this link.

1. Take two quotes from your rough draft and use the correct format for in-text citations.

2. Start your Works Cited page by giving me two sources in the correct format.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Hazy Line Between Fact and Fiction

Listen to this excerpt or read it. Where should a writer draw the line between fact and fiction in a memoir? Does Tobias Wolff lie about who he really was? Does it matter?

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

This Boy's Life Vocabulary #1

Write a poem using three of the vocabulary words.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

This Boy's Life


Look at the two quotes that open the memoir. Do you agree with the quotes? How do people assume poses in high school? Why is corruption a part of life?

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Mo Money Mo Problems

What's the fastest way to make a lot of money? What's the best way to make a lot of money? What's the difference between New Money and Old Money?

Monday, March 22, 2010

Richard Dawkins vs. Ben Stein

Who wins this debate? Does either side use logical fallacies?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Intelligent Design

Read part of this article. What is Intelligent Design? What are some arguments against Evolution?

Take a look at Liberty University's Creation Studies Department. What could one study in this department?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Logical Fallacies in Oral Addresses


As we read Inherit the Wind, we will analyze the arguments on both sides. What are logical fallacies?
Define these terms: ad hominem, false causality, red herring, overgeneralization, and bandwagon effect.

Be on the lookout for these techniques in Brady and Drummond's arguments.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Huck's Tough Decision


Have you ever had to make a decision that went against your parents, your religion or the society? Explain why the decision was so tough. Do you think you made the right decision?

Friday, January 29, 2010

Satirical Cartoons

Post a link to a Satirical Cartoon. What is it satirizing? Is it using parody, exaggeration or non-congruity?

Friday, January 22, 2010

Satire

Look up satire in your dictionary.

Look at this link. Give five examples of satire from The Onion.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Norman Mailer's View of Women Writers


Here is a quote from the famous writer Norman Mailer:

“I have a terrible confession to make-- I have nothing to say about any of the talented women who write today. Out of what is no doubt a fault in me, I do not seem able to read them. Indeed I doubt if there will be a really exciting woman writer until the first whore becomes a call girl and tells her tale. At the risk of making a dozen devoted enemies for life, I can only say that the sniffs I get from the ink of the women are always fey, old-hat, Quaintsy Goysy, tiny, too dykily psychotic, crippled, creepish, fashionable, frigid, outer-Baroque, maquille in mannequin’s whimsy, or else bright and stillborn. Since I’ve never been able to read Virginia Woolf, and am sometimes willing to believe that it can conceivably be my fault, this verdict may be taken fairly as the twisted tongue of a souted tasted, at least by those readers who do not share with me the ground of departure-- that a good novelist can do without everything but the remnant of his balls.”

Look up the words you don't know. What is his view? What are his prejudices and stereotypes? Do you agree with any of his ideas? What ideas do you disagree with?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Yellow Wallpaper

What happened to the narrator of the story? List 10 concrete details the author uses to show what happened to the narrator.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Story of an Hour

Read this story

This is a story by Kate Chopin. Compare/contrast this story to Ethan Frome.