Due Tuesday, after break, 2010.

(Someone doesn't have her calendar out.)

Please read all of Hamlet and be prepared for a comprehension reading quiz over this material. To help guide your notes, pay attention to:

- moments of internal conflict/inaction
- moments when Hamlet is bothered by something appearing to be something it is not.
- moments when there is a conflict between reason and emotion.

Have a great break!

Due 12/18

Read Oedipus (in your anthology).

You should read the background information provided in your anthology. (Hint: if you don't know while you're reading the play that Oedipus is really married to his mother, Jocasta, you've kind of missed the point.)

Take notes that gather specific plot references that provided evidence of:

-Oedipus' arrogance/pride
-Moments where Oedipus is a victim of fate (events that are beyond his control)
-Moments of dramatic irony

Due Monday, 12/14

You are writing a character analysis paper focusing on Charles Foster Kane. Again, it will be in formal voice, 2 pages, double-spaced, but no structure requirements. Consider discussing Kane's influences, motivations, desires, fears, relationships with others, etc. Do your best to use some quotations from the movie

Also, you must turn in your complete Short Story Notes.

Also, you must be prepared to write your first open ended essay--without using notes!

Due 12/10

Please write a 2 page minimum (typed, double-spaced) reflection paper on the use of a mimimum of 3 film techniques in Citizen Kane. Please describe the specific effect and analyze how its use contributes to the meaning of the film. There are no structural requirements for the paper.

Due 12/ 8

Work on short story notes. Yep-that's it. I'm too exhausted after 1st period today to think of an additional assignment.

Due 12/10?

I'd like you to add a chart of "plot references" to your notes for each of the short stories. A "plot reference" should be a list of specific details that you would use as evidence in an open ended essay. Even though you don't know the topic ahead of time, the plot references should be significant enough to work for any given topic. Also, you may include a brief analytical statement for your reference. For example, for Araby, I might list:

- eye imagery of street
- dynamic imagery of girl=>attraction
- light imagery surrounding girl=>religion
- Romantic imagery at market; chalice, praises, litanies
- Freudian imagery of fence
- religious imagery at Bazaar; cathedral
- flirtatious dialog; foreigness, lack of Romanticism
- disillusion at end; eyes burning

Please do not rewrite your entire notes, but instead focus on 'apt and specific references' that will make it sound like you know the story in great detail when you write an essay on it. I'd get started while you have a lull in English assignments, but if you have questions about the assignment, I'll answer them on Friday. (Note, the assignment is not DUE on Friday.)

Due 12/2

You should be familiar with the following concepts for next time: (Yes, most of this should be review)Make sure you could successfully comment or use any of these terms in an analysis.

Exposition
Conflict
Rising Action
Falling Action
Denouement
Antagonist
Protagonist
Direct/Indirect Characterization
Foreshadowing
Third person omniscient
Third person limited
First person
Setting
Stereotyping/Character types/archetypes

Additional terms that will be important for analyzing a prose passage:

Repetition
Selection of Detail
Missing information
Order of events

Due Monday, November 30th

"Araby" by James Joyce (65-69)
"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (362-366)

Focus Topic:

Stories often focus on characters' reactions as they encounter something that is new and or unexplained to them. What are some instances in these stories where characters interact with something new and/or something they do not understand, and how do these interactions illuminate the overall meaning of the story?

And, of course, GREGOR:

5 meaningful adjectives
3 significant quotations from the story
1 picture of symbolic importance
1 poem (minimum of 5 lines) honoring Gregor's spirit
1 philosophical, thought provoking question for us to ponder.

Due November 17th

Please read "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor.

Focus Topic: Characters sometimes go to unusual ends to create a sense of identity for themselves. Consider the various ways that Hulga seeks to define herself and create her self-identity.
Posted by Kathleen

You may also want to get a head start reading the "Metamorphosis" for Thursday, since this is a LONG story. (In fact, it's a novella--a little novel!)

Focus Topic: Often, the environment a character experiences has a significant impact on their sense of the world or even their own identity. Find instances in which Gregor's identity is influenced by his reactions to the changing environment around him and consider what this reveals about his character's development.

Due 10/12

I almost forgot to post your reading! What a near tragedy.

College Essay Due

Reading
“Rose for Emily” 56-62
“The Short Happy Life of Francis MacComber” 258-278

Focus Idea: Commonly in literature, characters feel dissatisfied with their current situation in life. For these two stories, analyze different examples of when characters feel dissatisfied and consider how these feelings contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole.

Read on, AP English. Read on.

Due Tuesday, November 10th

You will need to read the following stories AND take notes on the specified topics for each. Your notes should include page numbers and at times, some direct quotation from the text, as some thoughts about why this topic is important for the meaning of the story. Please have your notes for each story start on a SEPARATE sheet of paper. Your notes MAY be done in as a list.

"Young Goodman Brown" 93-102

Focus Idea: often times in stories, the impression characters have of other people or their behavior is shattered. Write down examples in the story of when Young Goodman Brown has his perceptions of other people destroyed. Make sure to include thoughts on why having this perception destroyed is important.

"Yellow Wallpaper" 153-164

Focus Idea: Frequently in literature, characters experience a loss of power. Write down examples from the story of how the female narrator lacks power. Make sure to include your thoughts on why her losing or lacking power is important to the meaning of the story.

Due 11/6

Read "Cub Wants to be a Pilot" (1598-1603) and "Once More to the Lake" (1605-1609)

Also, remember your college admissions essay assignment is due 11/13:

You must select a topic for either an admissions essay or a scholarship essay. Your prompt must allow for a topic that can produce an essay of at least 300-400 words. (Therefore, for many of you, short answer questions will not count.) Please do not include an essay that is significantly longer than 800 words.

If you need a prompt, go online to the Common Application site, or search for a possible scholarship topic.

You must retype the prompt at the top of the page. Then include the text of your essay and a word count. When you turn yours in, you can request comments if you're interested.

Due 11/4

"Living like Weasels" 1568-1570. (I also recommend reading the analysis following, but not required)

"The Battle of the Ants" (1558-1560)

Due Monday, 11/2

A Modest Proposal (1588-1593)(in your red book)

Also available here.

Due Thursday, October 29

Nothing.

Really.

This is not a typo.

However, some of you who were absent owe me make-up work.

Due 10/27

Your original poem should be a minimum of 14 lines and explore a topic/form of your choice. You can choose to read them in class, but you are not required to do so.

Additionally, please include a short paragraph that analyzes your poem by explaining the effect that the literary devices you used has on the interpretation. Enjoy referring to yourself in the third person.

Due 10/23

Be prepared for the BEAST!

Also, make sure to bring your 40-50 term poetry glossary.

If you didn't have a chance to read the Victorian and Modern readings, I recommend that you read them before the test as well.

Due 10/21

Final Copy of "Musee" Paper

Also, I know I'm late in posting these, but it would be great if you could read this poem's in preparation for tomorrow. If not, plan on having them read before the test on Friday.

Ulysses 649
Channel Firing 672
Windhover 675
To an Athlete 677
Leda and the Swan 684
Sailing to Byzantium 685
Fire and Ice 695
Acquainted with the Night 699
Danse Russe 707
Ars Poetica 729
Ars Poetica 730
Anyone live in a… 733

Due 10/19

608 Description of Morning
609 Essay on Man
614 Clod and Pebble
619 Lines
624 She Walks…
626 Ode to the West Wind
628 When I have fears…
632 Grecian Urn

If you didn't receive a copy of the poem for your second out of class essay, here it is:

Musee des Beaux Arts*

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

W.H. Auden

*Museum of fine arts

Due 10/12

Please read and think about the following poems for next time:

Renaissance/Metaphysical Readings:

584- "One Day I wrote"
589- "Since there's no hope"
590- "Let me not...“
590- "My Mistress' eyes"
593-"The Canonization"
595- "The Flea"
596- "Death be not proud"
599- "To the Virgins"
601- "Easter Wings"
602- "When I consider"
605- "Dialogue between the Soul..."

Remember, part 2 prospectuses are due on the 14th. (Wednesday)

10/1

Reading on Sound Devices and Scansion (quiz on rhythm and meter.)

Due 9/29

Poetry Paper!

Also, as per a conversation that took place in 2nd period, I traditionally move the due date of one (and only one) assignment during the poetry unit. With the magic of technology, I can get your opinion on which assignment should be moved. Consider your options carefully, because all other unit due dates remain fixed.


Your vote is "input" which I will take under careful consideration. Please see the poll to the right.

Due 9/25

DiYanni reading on Symbolism and Allegory.

Due 9/21

DiYanni Diction (436-444) and Voice (427-436) Due Day #5
Rough Draft of 1st Poetry Paper Due Day #6 (9/23)

Begin Prospectus Assignment!

First poetry paper poem:

when serpents bargain for the right to squirm
and the sun strikes to gain a living wage-
when thorns regard their roses with alarm
and rainbows are insured against old age

when every thrush may sing no new moon in
if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice
-and any wave signs on the dotted line
or else an ocean is compelled to close

when the oak begs permission of the birch
to make an acorn-valleys accuse their
mountains of having altitude-and march
denounces april as a saboteur

then we'll believe in that incredible
unanimal mankind(and not until)

e.e. cummings

Due 9/17

Part 2 of Manifesto due.

Make sure you print a copy of the poetry syllabus, as that will be more reliable to follow than my posting.

Consider working on your prospectus assignments, if you really want to get off to a good start.

Due 9/15

Please read part 1 of the Manifesto. Additionally, read the sections on Imagery and Figures of Speech in your anthology. Make sure you have accessed the Poetry 1009-2010 syllabus, so you know page numbers and upcoming assignments.

Due 9/11

Frost Diagnostic

Read and think about the poem "Design" by Robert Frost. Then, time between 40-50 minutes during which you will write as much as you can analyzing the poem. The prompt you are using for your essay is:

Explain how Frost uses literary devices such as figurative language, imagery, and structure to convey the meaning of the poem, "Design."

You may type the essay if you wish, but DO NOT consult outside sources.

THIS IS A COMPLETION POINTS ASSIGNMENT!!! As long as you produce a reasonable product in 40 minutes, you will receive full credit.

Text of Poem:

Design


I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all*, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth --
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth --
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.

* A type of flower that is typically blue, but in this case, white.

Alumni Blog!

Up and running... (kind of)

Click here.

Due Wednesday, Thursday

Finish Cat's Cradle Reading.

Turn in new "back of book" promo for Cat's Cradle, if not completed during class time.

Reading and Final Essay Assignment

For Friday/Monday: Read through 79 of Cat's Cradle.

Begin work on:

Final Essay Assignment Due June 2/3

Study suggestions

Here are some review topics to discuss.

Here is are the review slips from the cauldron.

Due 4/10 or 4/10

Portrait Chapter 4

Due 4/8 or 4/9

PAY FOR YOUR AP TESTS!!!!

And read Portrait Chapter 3 for today. (Chapter 3 Notes)

Due 4/6 or 4/7

MAKE SURE TO PAY FOR YOUR AP TEST!!!!

Also, make sure you've read Portrait Chapter 2. (chapter 2 notes)

Due 4/2 or 4/3

Portrait Chapter 1. (Chapter 1 Notes)

3/31 or 4/1

Read the introduction by Hugh Kenner on Portrait. (Handout)

Complete the Wuthering Heights essay assignment (explained below).

Due Wednesday 3/18 or Thursday, 3/19

Finish Wuthering Heights.

Due Mon/Tues

Wuthering Heights through Chapter 24.

Essay assignment over spring break:

Wuthering Heights Critical Essay Assignment

 You must find and read 2 critical essays written about Wuthering Heights. Your essays can come from the internet (please include the website address), a literary journal, the back of a copy the novel (if included) or the introduction to the novel if long enough.
 If you choose to use an essay from the internet, it must be from a reputable, academic source. This excludes essays from Sparknotes, Echeats, Purple monkey, Debbie’s Book Report Grade 8, etc.
 Then you must write a 2 page evaluation of each essay. Your evaluation should include a summary of the thesis/argument of the essay you read (use quotations to refer to this) as well as your personal opinion on the validity of these points. You will also want to make sure you support your opinion with quotations from WH.
 Pay special attention to the language used by the authors of the critical essay—this is a chance for you to experience the language of literary analysis and learn from it stylistically

Due 3/5 or 3/9

Chapters 1-8 of Wuthering Heights. If you did not purchase your book, the library has then available for checkout. Also, if your desperate, there is an annotated online copy available here.

EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT

For your extra credit assignmnet, you will be writing a practice open ended essay. You will be placed on the honor system, so time 40 minutes, and do not use any notes, books, or friends. Please include a signature from a reliable source that will vouch for you in regards to these guidelines. Here is your topic:

In Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899) the protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess "that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions." In a novel or play that you have studied, identify a character who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid mere plot summary.

You must select from one of the plays we have read in class.

This assignment is due no later than 3:30 on Thursday, March 5th.

Due 3/3 or 3/4-Drama Test!

Here is a guideline for studying:

Drama Test Study Guide


Works covered: Oedipus, Hamlet, Tartuffe, A Doll’s House, Death of a Salesman, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

 Authors of all of the plays
 All character names (correct spelling preferred—or at least close)

 Drama Terms
o aside, soliloquy, monologue, dramatic irony

 Greek Drama Terms, development of, and general knowledge
o Hubris, harmartia, peripeteia, epiphany, catharsis, stichomythia
o Aristotle and Aristotelian Unities (Time, location, plot)
o Thespis, Aeschylus, Sophocles

 Shakespearean Drama Terms and general knowledge
o Groundlings foil

Test format:

90 Questions (Mostly fill in the blank)

 20 True/False Questions
 5 even timeline questions for each play
 Quotations identification
 Term identification

Due 2/23 or 2/24

Open ended essay today, so prepare by reviewing character names and MOWAAW's.

Also, please read the short essay "Tragedy and the Common man" immediately after Death of a Salesman. Yes, I did forget to assign this to 4th period.

Due Thusday, 2/19 or Friday, 2/20

Finish reading Death of a Salesman.

Due 2/17 or 2/18

Read Act I of Death of a Salesman. (In textbook)

Due 2/12 or 2/13

Finish reading a Doll's House.

Then, choose from Nora, Helmer, Rank, Krogstand, or Kristine and write a 1 1/2 to 2 page character analysis. Consider internal conflicts, motivations, desires, psychoanalysis...

Make sure to use direct quotations from the text to support your ideas.

Due 2/10 or 2/11

Read Acts I and II of A Doll's House.

Due Friday 2/6 or Monday 2/9

Finish reading Tartuffe. Consider the importance of our late introduction to Tartuffe's character.

Due Wednesday/Thursday

Read Acts I and II of Tartuffe paying careful attention to satire.

Final Exam Information

Your final will consist of an objective fill in the blank section (Beast style) and a passage analysis essay. Here is a study guide for the objective portion:

Semester 1: Review Sheet

Note: Topics in bold are emphasized more on the test
 Poetry Terms
 Poetry Time Periods
 Names of Poets of major poems studied in this course (Think papers and discussions)
 Drama Terms
o aside, soliloquy, monologue, dramatic irony

 Greek Drama Terms, development of, and general knowledge
 Shakespearean Drama Terms and general knowledge
 Literary Criticism
o New Criticism
o Psychoanalytic Criticism
 Freud’s theories of development
 Short Story Titles
o Quote Identification
 Short Story Authors Short Story and Drama Characters
o Quote Identification
 Short Story Terms
o Point of View, (1st, 3rd lim, 3rd omnisc.) Direct/Indirect Characterization, Internal/External Conflict, foreshadowing,
 Existentialism
o Basic Principles and important Writers of…
 Sentence Structures