due Friday June 4

work on Review Project and and Sound Sentences

due Wed. 6/2

Read 1517-1525 of A Doll's House

Work on Review Project

Work on sound-in-poetry project

due Tuesday June 1

Read A Doll's House up through 1525, Helmer's entrance

work on review project and sentences about sentence patterns

due Friday 5/28

Read pp. 1517-1525, up to s.d. Helmer comes in from the hall

Work on Review Project and/or sentences about sound

due Thursday 5/27

No new assignment. Continue to work on your sentences about sound patterns and your Review Project.

due Wed. 5/26

A Doll House, 1508-1517, up to s.d. "the front door bell rings"

BRP

due Tuesday 5/25

email me: what is worrying the playwright of The Real Inspector Hound?

grammar quiz on sentence structures

due Monday 5/24

finish reading The Real Inspector Hound

work on Big Review Project

work on sentences describing sound

due Friday 5/21

No new assignment; keep working on your Big Review Project: axes, with explanation; start locating the works we've read on the axes; finding the best possible quotation, one for each axis, to support its placement.

due Thursday 5/20

RIH 1068-1074 up to s.d. "Inspector Hound enters"

Short story test.

Big Review Project due June 7: send me your axes!

due Wed. 5/19

read The Real Inspector Hound 1063-1068, to "I think she's got her mouth open"

Short Story test on Thursday

you should have both of your axes, with brief explanations, into me by now. The final project is due June 7.

due Tuesday 5/18

Read The Real Inspector Hound, 1058-1063, up to the the stage direction "the phone rings" (it's the second time the phone rings.

Your second axis, including a brief explanation as to why you care about this axis.

Short story test on Thursday on

A Good Man is Hard to Find

She Unnames Them

Gorilla, My Love

The Yellow Wallpaper

due Friday 5/14

Read "Gorilla, My Love," p. 418

email me an answer to this question: what role does lying (not telling the truth) tell in this story?

due Thursday 5/13

Read "She Unnames Them" (462) and then email me an answer to the following:

how might this be a feminist story?

what else might the story be about besides feminism?

due Tuesday 5/11

Review A Streetcar Named Desire; in class tomorrow there will be a graded group-analysis.

If you want to revise your essay (on the text of your choice) you must meet with me by Thursday.

Due Friday 5/7 and Monday 5/10

No homework due Friday.

For Monday:

1. Be sure to have a hard-copy version of your phrases from A Streetcar Named Desire with you in class to work with.

2. Read "A Good Man in Hard to Find," pp. 364-375, AND then post a comment on this blog, answering this question:

What examples of possible foolishness (define this term however you want) and examples of possible attempts to be wise or good are there in the paragraphs assigned to you? Why do you think they are examples of foolishness or attempts to be wise and good?

Feel free to ask a question on the blog if you're confused about something in the story, or to respond to someone else's question. Feel free to question the others in your paragraph-group about what they've said. Here are your paragraph assignments:

paragraphs 1-9 (note that the paragraphs are numbered in your anthology): Heidi, Elizabeth, Katharine

paragraphs 10-21: David C, Chelsea, Torrie

paragraphs 22-33: Kelly, Adam, Steve

paragraphs 34-64: DeLaney, Cathy

paragraphs 65-95: Soo Jin, Emily, Michal

paragraphs 96-140: Drew, David, Megan

due Thursday 5/6

Finish reading a Streetcar Named Desire.

Keep bringing in your nouns about your partner and work on getting a hard copy of your phrases about Blanche, Stanley, and their relationship; these will be needed Friday.

due Wednesday 5/5

Essay and charts.

optional: start re-reading Streetcar, or act out a scene with a friend, by way of review.

due Tuesday 5/4

1. Copy out ten separate sentences (limit: one sentence each) or phrases (parts of a sentence) that capture something important about Blanche.

2. Copy out ten separate sentences (limit: one sentence each) or phrases (parts of a sentence) that capture something important about Stanley.

3. Copy out ten separate sentences (limit: one sentence each) or phrases (parts of a sentence) that concern the relationship between Stanley and Blanche. For example, "I wouldn't be expecting Mitch over tonight" (1184) or "I won't hang around until he throws me out" (1173).

Then E-MAIL your sentences to me by class-time.

due Friday 4/30

Body paragraphs three and four.

due Thursday 4/29

body paragraphs 1 and 2

due Wed. 4/28

Intro and summary of essay

If you want to get ahead, write your first body paragraph.

Essay due Wednesday, 5/5.

due Tuesday 4/27

Claim for your essay; 4th chart, on a passage picked because of its particular pertinence to your claim.

To get ahead: write a motivating introduction, or a ummary of your text (avoid plot summary; think literary terms).

due Friday 4/23

work on your essay text

due Monday: three charts

the essay itself will be due May 5.

due Thursday 4/22

Keep working through your text-essay.

If you want to get ahead, do a chart. Possible guiding question: What's a possible pattern? Feel free to make up your own guiding question, or don't use one--just start with the most intuitively interesting passage you've encountered. Note that you don't have to have finished your text to do a chart.

The essay itself is due May 5.

Bring your anthology to class.

due Monday 4/19

Sula 163-174 (until the end)

Start reading over your essay-text; try to be done by Friday.

Formulate a plan for sharing your chosen text with me.

Wednesday: Sula test.

Hand in your poem if you haven't done so before.

due Friday 4/16

Sula 150-162

choose a verbal text for your next essay

due Thursday 4/15

pp. 138-149 of Sula

revise your poem: Get rid of empty phrases; do you need more specific nouns?

due Monday 4/12

Sula 125-137

grammar quiz: identifying verbals, prepositional phrases, and verbs

due Friday 4/9

Sula 104-125

grammar quiz on Monday

due Thursday 4/8

Sula 89-104

grammar quiz Monday

due Wed. 4/7

Sula 79-85; also read "Point Shirley" (666) and "Dover Beach" (668)

due Tues. 4/6

read Sula 63-78

new reading exercise for Thursday

due Friday 4/2

essay

bring Sula and anthology

due Thursday 4/1

Bring something to read aloud.

No new reading in Sula but bring Sula to class, as well as your anthology.

Essay due Friday.

Due Wed. 41-48

Sula 31-48

integrating paragraph

due Thursday: something to elocute (read aloud)

due Friday: essay

due Tuesday 3/30

Sula pp. 30-41; body paragraph 5.

integrating paragraph/conclusion die Wednesday; essay itself due Friday.

due Monday 3/29

bosy paragraphs 3 and 4

Sula 17-29

due Thursday 3/25

Read pages 3-6 of Sula (bring Sula; anthology too)

Write your first body paragraph.

If you're having trouble with your claim or with your order of body paragraphs, please consider communicating with me.

due Wed. 3/24

Write a motivating introduction for an essay that will argue your claim about your chosen short story. (One paragraph)

Write a one-paragraph summary of the short story. Spend little time on plot. Write about characterization, setting, point of view, image patterns, style--any of these that seems helpful. Try to make your paragraph have an artful shape. Try to subtly bias what you say toward your claim.

Pick up Sula from the bookstore.

due Friday 3/5

chart #4 for short story

over break: think about your claim for your essay.

due Thursday 3/4

Read "How," 132-138

due Wed. 3/3

Short story test. You may use your anthology, but not your notes.

For Thursday: "How," pp. 132-138

due Tuesday 3/2

chart 3 for short story essay

if possible, refine your guiding question

do the denotation/connotation exercise

remember the short story test on Wednesday

the criteria are

1. your understanding of the story, measured in part by the quality of the example you raise/discuss

2. do you refine your (implied) claim? Are you successfully exploratory?

Within reason, grammar and spelling are not part of the criteria in this in-class exercise.

due Monday 3/1

1. Go back to your first chart for your short story. Choose the one word from your quotation that is most important to your exploration or guiding question.

a. Find the word at dictionary.com in the section that contains the American Heritage definitions. Which is the most helpful definition, given your thinking so far? Discuss why it's the most helpful in an extension of your first chart. (You're discussing denotation, the dictionary definition of the word.) Note: if you have access to the Oxford English Dictionary, use that, as it's the best dictionary, by far.

b. Now call upon your imagination. What are the connotations--the imaginative connotations--commonly held about your word? What are your own personal connotations? Discuss, as another extension of your first chart, how these connotations bear on your analysis in your chart so far.

2. Do a second chart, and include steps a and b as you do so. Don't forget that it's sometimes a good idea to change the guiding question at the top of your next chart, based on what you came up with in your previous chart.

Remember: short story test on Friday.

due Friday 2/26

1. From the following stories, choose a story to write an essay about:

"The Thing in the Forest"

"Roman Fever"

"A Rose for Emily"

"The Country Husband"

"Cathedral"

2. Ask yourself two warm-up questions: is this a happy story, an unhappy story, or something in-between, or both? Is the main character a good person, not a good person, in-between, or both? (or if you prefer, is the main character a likable person, etc.)

3. Choose a brief but meaningful phrase or sentence and quote it in the top left hand corner, and do your first chart. You may, if you like, use one of the following as a guiding question:

What does the characterization in this story (what the characters are like) tell us about the meaning of the story? or

What does the imagery in the story tell us about the meaning of the story?

due Thursday 2/25

Read "Cathedral," pp. 20-31, and blog, as before.

The short story test will be Wednesday, March 3.

due Wednesday 2/24 and Thursday 2/25

due Wednesday: analysis of photographs. Email it to me if you've had success emailing me things; otherwise bring in a hard copy. Hand in your charts as well, electronically if they're on your computer, in person if not.

due Thursday: "Cathedral," pp. 20-31. (Plan ahead!) Also, go to the class blog by clicking on "comments," below, and ask a helpful question about "Cathedral," or discuss someone else's question, as before.

due Tuesday 2/23

grammar quiz

work on analysis of Cartier-Bresson photos

due Monday 2/22

1. Read "The Country Husband," pp. 71-88. Then come to this blog and comment, doing one of two things:

A. Ask a question, the answer to which will help you and/or other students understand the story.

OR

B. Attempt to answer another student's question, even if you aren't sure of the answer (feel free to admit that you're not sure).

What if you think you understand everything about the story, and there are no questions to answer? Make up a helpful question anyway. If it's a "thought" question instead of a "fact" question--fine. Pretend you're an English teacher.

Please note that there will be a grammar quiz on Tuesday, and that the Cartier-Bresson analysis is due on Wednesday.

due Friday 2/19

Nothing is due for Friday, 2/19. Please bring with you, however, all your materials pertaining to your analysis of the Cartier-Bresson pictures, as well as your textbooks.

Note the following assignments coming up:

due Monday 2/22: all of "The Country Husband," 71-88.

due Tuesday 2/23: grammar quiz on prepositional phrases, nouns, and verbs.

due Wednesday 2/24: analysis of Cartier-Bresson photographs.

due Thursday 2/18

Read "A Rose for Emily," sections IV and V (to the end).

chart #3 for Cartier-Bresson pictures.

the analysis (claim and discussion) is due Wednesday, 2/24

due Wed. 2/17

1. Do a second chart for your analysis of the Cartier-Bresson photographs.

2. Read sections II-III, pp. 469-471, of "A Rose for Emily."

optional: if you have time and want to get ahead, do a third chart concerning the Cartier-Bresson photographs.

due Tuesday 2/16

1. Part I of "A Rose for Emily," pp. 467-469

2. one page of chart for the Cartier-Bresson pictures. Guiding quesiton: what unifies these pictures?

3. Email a discussion of "Cherrylog Road," p. 658.

due Friday 2/12

Write a sentence for each of the three Cartier-Bresson photographs in each of these categories:

composition (you've written at least one of these already)

value

scale

line

perspective

point of view

fore-, middle-, background

focus

A discussion of "Cherrylog Road,", p. 658, is due Monday.

due Wed. 2/10

Read the rest of "Roman Fever," pp. 113-119.

Due Thursday: discussion of "La Migra," p. 653.

due Tuesday 2/9

Read "Roman Fever," p. 110, part I, paragraphs 1-24.

Due Thursday: Read "La Migra," pp. 653-654. (Do notice that the poem goes on to p. 654. Use the usual format, choosing five individual words to discuss, then writing a discussion.

due Friday 2/5

Analysis of "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds."

Important: include your chart(s)!

due Thursday 2/4

1. Read paragraphs 1-39 (pp.35-top of 39) of "The Thing in the Forest."

2. Work on analysis of "The Behavior of Hawkweeds."

due Wed. 2/3

Re-read "A Conversations with My Father";

Write a discussion of "The Vacuum" and [Stop All the Clocks]

due Tuesday 2/2

1. Read "A Conversation with my Father," p. 31-34.

Come up with a claim concerning "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds."

2. Due Wednesday: write a discussion of "The Vacuum," p. 603, and [Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone], p. 609, as you did for the two previous poems, but think in terms of one discussion in which you compare the two poems, not two separate discussions.

Each of these poems is spoken by someone who is mourning the loss of someone he was close to. Take it from there. Don't forget the three words part.

3. Due Friday: a discussion of "The Behavior of Hawkweeds." Put your claim at the top; then discuss. Length: a page or two, typed, double-spaced.

criteria:

claim:

supportable

important

non-obvious

specific

discussion:

sense of a beginning, middle, and end

argues your claim, doesn't leave it behind

uses evidence and is specific

quality of evidence

patient, thoughtful

sense of discovery; you keep thinking throughout

proof-read

due Monday February 1

http://www.edinburghwebsites.com/website_analysis.html

Please write a chart about "The Behavior of Hawkweeds" or if you prefer "Rare Bird."

1. Place a question a-top the page.

--The question could come from your own thoughts about scientific pursuit and its relationship to emotion, OR

--you could use this as a question: what is the relationship between scientific pursuit and emotion?

--a third possibility would be to ask a question about one OR the other: "what are scientist like according to this story?" OR How do emotions make life more complex in this story?" Feel free to use these questions if you want to.

2. Write in a relaxed, thinking, enjoying-yourself way about how a quotation from the story helps you figure out an answer to the question at the top of the page. (Insert the quotation in the top left hand corner). Keep writing longer than you first feel like writing--you'll get somewhere good! Try writing about the denotation and/or connotation of an important word or two.

3. At the bottom of the page, sum up your thinking, or your most valuable discovery.

4. Go on and do the same thing for three other quotations. Stay relaxed.

Please remember to bring your grammar worksheet back with you.

due Friday 1/28

http://www.japaneseprints-london.com/paintings.htm

1. poetry discussion, "love poem" and "The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter": email it to me at sdurning@walnuthillarts.org.

2. If you don't have five examples (quotations) of your literary term yet, keep going until you have five. It's okay if they don't bear on the guiding question.

3. Start re-reading "Rare Bird" if you want to analyze it instead of "The Behavior of the Hawkweeds."

due Thursday 1/27

http://www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/ecs/invasive/technotes/InvasiveTN_16/index.html

Read or re-read "The Behavior of Hawkweeds," the first story in Ship Fever. It can be found at http://books.google.com.

due Friday: read "love poem," p. 597, and "The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter, p. 599, and write about it.

3 important words from each poem, with a sentence or two as to why you think it's important; then a paragraph in which you continue to explore. Don't feel constrained. Don't judge the worth of the poems.

An "A" level response:

paragraphs will have a sense of beginning, middle, and end

a sense that you are discovering things as you go along (thinking while writing)

sentences have few unnecessary words or are otherwise artful

you make reference to at least one of these things:

diction (word choice)

syntax (word order)

sound (rhyme, rhythm, other)

due Friday 1/22

no new assignment

due Wed. 1/20

Please read "What's That smell in the Kitchen?" p. 830, "Paper Matches," p. 831, and"The Silence of Women," p. 832, and then write an informal discussion of the question, "In what ways do these poems differ from each other?" Then email that discussion to me. Thank you!

due Tuesday 1/19

Reflections assignment. Remember that length is not the issue. Being specific is the issue.

due Friday 1/15

Finish reading Streetcar (1189-1203)

write haiku number three, a description of someone or something; stick to the five-seven-five syllable pattern; rhyme a word in the second line with the last word of the third.

Reflection assignment due Tuesday.

due Thursday 1/14

Read 1175-1189 of Streetcar

Write your haiku more about a place than a season; remember--present tense, strategic caesura (pause), imagery.

reflection assignment due Tuesday.

due Wed. 1/13

Read 1164-1175 in Streetcar

Remember your Reflections assignment due Tuesday.

due Tues. 1/12

Read 1148-1164 of A Streetcar Named Desire

Work on Reflection project (due Tues. 1/19)

due Mon. 1/11

1. Read A Streetcar Named Desire, 1140-1148 (until the s.d "the sound of men's voices"

2. Work on Reflection assignment

due Friday 1/8/10

Read the rest of "The Thing in the Forest," pp. 43-48.

Work on the Reflection assignment, previously emailed.

due Thursday 1/7/10

Read "The Thing in the Forest," pp. 35-43, up through paragraph 65.

Optional: work on reflection assignment.

due Wednesday 1/6

Read "A Conversation with My Father,"31-34.