Shakespeare, Chaucer, Austen & Co.

Chaucer paper instructions

2012-01-27T11:02:00.002-07:00

Select one of the following topics or propose one of your own for a paper of approximately 4 pages in length. Complete drafts are due in class, hard copy, Monday February 6 (class #13), with final copy due the following class. (Turnitin.com title "Chaucer 2012.")

Suggestions:

1. Apply the considerations we gave to the Miller’s Tale, regarding the precise relationship between the tale and its teller, to the Pardoner’s Tale. If you choose this topic, I highly recommend that you consult only the Tale, the Prologue to the Tale, and the portrait of the Pardoner in the General Prologue. Using outside sources is likely to cause confusion and create problems of attribution.

2. Write a brief research paper on a topic relating to 14^th century England, its religious practices, culture, or history. Make a clear connection between your topic and the Canterbury Tales. Be certain to incorporate scholarly sources along with popular internet sites.

3. Read a JStor article pertaining to Chaucer or the Tales. Write a critical summary of the article. What are its main points? How do they apply to the portions we read? How helpful are they in deepening your understanding of Chaucer?

4. Read The Nun’s Priest Tale, pp. 250-263 in our anthology. The editor suggests that “this simple beast fable [becomes] a delightful satire of learning and moralizing and . . . .pretentious rhetoric.” Referring to specific passages and aspects of the tale, show how this satiric tone is created. Like topic #1, this work is best and most safely done without reference to secondary sources.

3 Estates

2012-01-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

Please look at least briefly at the information linked here, as it pertains to our discussion of the social hierarchy of Chaucer's time.

Final paper 2011

2011-11-22T08:41:00.002-07:00

English IV & AP

Instructions for final paper

Fall 2011

For your final paper of the semester, go back to the questions I shared with you the first day of class. Develop a paper around one or more of the essential questions for this course. Your papers should be approximately five pages in length and are due Friday, December 9 at 9 AM (AP) or between 9 & 11 AM (English IV).

For English IV, incorporate references and ideas from TWO or THREE of the following: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Frankenstein, and Hamlet. You may add a character from a piece of literature of your choosing (my summer list, for example) as long as you do not repeat the choice you made for your comparison paper earlier. For AP, include two of the above plus John Gardner’s Grendel. For ease of reference, I list the original questions from the course syllabus below, plus a few new ones.

Why do stories contain heroes and monsters?

What purpose do characters with extraordinary powers or abilities serve?

Are there reasons why heroes and monsters “have to” exist?

Are all monsters inherently evil? Are some more sympathetic than others? Why?

What qualities other than exceptional powers make a character heroic? Can a character be heroic based on beliefs, codes of ethics, intelligence, or inner strength?

What qualities make a monster monstrous?

Is it always easy to tell the difference between the heroes and the monsters? Why?

What is honor?

What is integrity?

What is courage?

How do characters hold onto or lose their honor, courage, or integrity?

Is revenge moral or immoral? How do the beliefs of characters we have studied differ?

How important is loyalty? How do loyal characters choose who or what to be loyal to?

For the novel Grendel, consider the significance of Grendel’s idea (as I understand it) that the heroic ideal is a lie invented by poets to give the illusion of meaning and purpose to an otherwise brutish physical existence. Would the authors of the other texts agree or disagree? Why?

Spend some time thinking about an approach you can use to link multiple works from our reading list. Then begin to develop a series of paragraphs interpreting the works you choose in light of the question you are attempting to answer. Use whatever combination of comparison and contrast makes your ideas strongest. Your writing will be judged on the originality of your choice, your use of examples from the various texts, and the depth of your analysis. No research is required, or indeed recommended. Use examples from the readings to advance your position on the topic you choose.

For English IV, this paper replaces a final exam and is weighted 25% of the semester grade. For AP students, the paper is weighted 15% and the sit-down portion of the final 10%.

I-Search notes

2011-11-09T13:07:00.002-07:00

English IV & AP

I-Search Word History assignment

Notes on content and process

1. Questions to include in your introduction and first page:

· What does your selected word mean to you going into this assignment?

· What do you already know about your word?

· Why did you choose it?

· Is there a specific moment or incident or association you have with your word?

2. For the body of your paper:

· Look closely at the sources you have found, both print and online, for a deeper, fuller understanding of your word's ultimate meaning. Consider evidence of your word’s “age” in English, its original meaning, how its meanings have evolved over time, and how it is being used today.

· The next portions of your paper will include some or all of the following:

· an overall description of your search

· any difficulties you experienced

· any surprises you encountered

· specific insight into the information you find about your word

· interesting examples of your word’s historical significance or prominent uses

· In the body of the essay, you will combine an analysis or interpretation of what you learned (including direct citations from your sources), along with personal commentary and reflection on that information.

3. Ideas for the concluding section of the paper:

The last page (or so) of your paper will contain your final reflection on your search, focusing both on the process and on what you learned about your word from the various sources.

4. N.B. (that’s nota bene or “note well” in Latin):

· This is an I-search paper; therefore you will combine analysis of the information you uncover with personal reflection on your research and learning processes as you investigated your word.

· You will include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper, so be sure to keep records of the full bibliographic information for each source you consult.

· Keep track of your notes, printouts, and photocopies. Organize them in a logical manner with key information highlighted and/or annotated. These copies all go in your binder along with the peer-edit draft and final copies of your paper.

Word search online sources

2011-11-04T09:08:00.002-07:00

a page of links to several good online resources for gathering more information about your word.

Check the assignment itself for source requirements.

Word Search List

2011-11-03T07:19:00.001-07:00

· Anger

· Atonement

· Beauty

· Belief

· Bliss

· Brave

· Burden

· Calm

· Chance

· Chaos

· Charity

· Charm

· Confusion

· Courage

· Courtesy

· Cruel

· Cunning

· Curious

· Curse

· Darkness

· Despair

· Destiny

· Doom

· Doubt

· Envy

· Evil

· Faith

· Fame

· Fate

· Fear

· Fortune

· Freedom

· Friend

· Generous

· Genius

· Glee

· Glory

· Glutton

· Good

· Grace

· Greatness

· Greed

· Guile

· Guilt

· Happiness

· Hatred

· Heart

· Holy

· Honor

· Hope

· Human

· Idea

· Ignorant

· Illusion

· Imagination

· Inspiration

· Jealousy

· Journey

· Joy

· Justice

· Kindness

· Knowledge

· Love

· Loyalty

· Luck

· Lust

· Mercy

· Mind

· Miracle

· Natural

· Normal

· Pain

· Passion

· Patriot

· Peace

· Pride

· Quest

· Rational

· Reality

· Reason

· Redemption

· Revenge

· Riches

· Righteous

· Romance

· Sacrifice

· Savage

· Serene

· Shame

· Sin

· Sorrow

· Soul

· Spirit

· Sublime

· Success

· Terror

· Trust

· Truth

· Valor

· Vanity

· Wealth

· Weird

· Wisdom

· Wonder

Word Search 2011

2011-11-03T07:16:00.002-07:00

English IV & AP November 2011 “I-Search a Word” assignment (paper #3)

Assignment: Write a paper of 6 to 8 pages containing an extended definition of a single word, a commonly used word, but one with an abstract or intangible quality to its meaning. In your paper you will make full reference to the sources you have consulted, but the style of the paper will be a first-person account of your search for the word’s ultimate meaning and an analysis of what you learn along the way.

Sources: Consult the following sources to include all the necessary information in your paper:

1. The Oxford English Dictionary in our library—what are the earliest uses and contexts for your word recorded in the English language. Does the OED mention the word occurring in either Sir Gawain or Beowulf? What meanings have evolved over time?

2. A good unabridged or international dictionary—what key definitions does the dictionary give for the word?

3. A print or online thesaurus—what are the most important synonyms for your word? Include a list from the thesaurus in the sources section of your folder.

4. A Concordance to Shakespeare—in which plays does the word occur? Copy the speeches containing the word and the plays in which they are found. Give an example of an interesting or original way in which Shakespeare uses the word.

5. A Concordance to the Bible—list the verses containing the word and copy these verses onto a page in your sources section. How do they help you understand the full significance of your word?

6. A statement of what the word means to you, both before and after you conduct your research.

7. For AP students, two of the following: a poem in which the word occurs, a citation from an online quotations list, a work of art or music, a book about words and language, a work of history, a newspaper article, cartoon, television show, or movie. (One such source is optional for English IV.)

Process: Gather your findings in a binder. The first thing in the binder you submit will be the final copy of your paper, then your draft, edited by two peers and one other person (optional--a third peer, a parent, a friend), and a section containing the printouts of all your research materials with sources clearly indicated in full MLA format.

Rationale: According to Edward Jenkinson and Donald Seybold, “it is extremely difficult for anyone to define a word that does not have objective [meaning]. Yet the ideas, feelings, and emotions that are most significant in our lives are conveyed [by such words]. . . .Everyone who uses such words as freedom, rich, or love has slightly different notions about what those words mean, [yet] we frequently act as if we are talking about the same thing when we use such words.” Thus, this assignment is to sift through our assumptions about one abstract word to find relevant historical information about its uses and meanings throughout the history of the English language.

Schedule:

· Have your word chosen and approved by me by the beginning of class 29 (November 4 & 7. (Everyone must have a different word.)

· We will spend parts of two classes in the library looking at the OED and other source material.

· Your blog for class 30 will include your previous understanding of the word along with a brief statement of why you chose the word. It may be incorporated in some fashion into your draft later.

· Class 35 (November 18 & 21), bring your drafts to class, five pages minimum to earn credit for this part of the assignment.

· Binders are due in my classroom by 3PM, Tuesday, November 22 for all sections.. Final drafts must also be submitted by that time to turnitin.com (assignment title: I-Search a Word).

Style: Write your paper as a first-person account of your search for the ultimate meaning of your word. Use your sources to make your analysis of the word credible, but connect those sources to your personal quest for the word’s meaning, your previous understanding of the word, and what you learned along the way, both about the word and the research process. You should both summarize and analyze the information you gather from your sources in the body of the paper. Information should be cited parenthetically, linked to a list of Works Cited at the end of your paper.

What word interests you sufficiently to spend two weeks researching and writing about its history and most important meanings? After we review this assignment during class 28, November 2 & 3, I will accept email requests for words beginning Thursday at 1:30 PM. By class 29 (November 4 & 7), everyone must have selected a word to work with.

Turnitin for paper #2

2011-10-03T13:38:00.001-07:00

Submit your papers this week to the assignment titled "Beowulf or Sir Gawain."

Submissions should be done before you turn in your assignment to me.

Thank you.

Book review on superheroes

2011-09-26T07:23:00.001-07:00

I found this book review on the website of Powells Book Store and thought it might be useful to some of you as you develop ideas for the upcoming paper assignment.
LCC

Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human
by Grant Morrison
A Review by Greg Baldino

Whether they be gods or angels, the idea of sentient beings beyond us mere mortals but recognizably similar has influenced human thought since the earliest days of tale-telling around the fire. In some tellings, they are of a state of grace from whence humans fell; in others they are a potential, something that might, by labor or virtue, be reached by all. In the 20th century, these tales were given new form with the advent, at the publishing of Superman's first adventure in Action Comics #1 , of the superhero. This sub-genre of a sub-genre, born of the highest mythologies and the lowest pulp denominators, rose up from a declasse and maligned artform to become the dominant mythology of the modern world, influencing philosophical discourses as much as box office receipts.

Grant Morrison is no stranger to these creatures. Long before he became one of the most acclaimed and popular comics writers of the last two decades, being trusted with the corporate treasures of Batman, Superman, and the X-Men, he was writing adventures of atypical ubermenschen, from suburban patriarch Animal Man, to outsider art vigilantes the Doom Patrol, to post-human popstar Zenith. With a somewhat holistic view of storytelling, Morrison is as well-versed in the writings of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola as he is in the secret origin of Spider-Man, and a full-length work by him on the superhero genre is a veritable literary occasion.

Following a chronological structure beginning with the Man of Steel's debut in 1938, Morrison looks at superhero comics as both diagnosing and predicting the psychological flow of the modern western world. The shifting nature of Superman as an icon is explored, touching on the socialist revolutionary tendencies of the early stories which were revised to project a strict patriot visage come the outbreak of war. Wonder Woman, like so many super characters, is revealed to be born of her creator's world view as well -- William Moulton Marston, in addition to being the creator of the polygraph test, lived in a polyamorous relationship with his wife and their girlfriend, a sexuality beyond radical for the time and that greatly influenced many of those early Wonder Woman stories.

As superhero adventures rose in popularity, the light struck from Krypton's last sun split in the prism of commerce, and soon they flew through the newsprint as thick as gnats. In the so-called silver age, when Marvel Comics created both a new breed of character and story, the stories became even more complex, with the emotional stresses of post-war America, youth culture, and the Vietnam War bleeding through from our world onto the page, and then back into the minds of impressionable youth everywhere. The icons shifted, seemingly without moving, ebbing and flowing between power fantasy manifestations to outcroppings of imagination -- Jimmy Olson gets a nod as a precursor to the identity-shifting art mechanics of David Bowie, Madonna, and Lady Gaga. The creators began to be recognized, no longer unknown draftsmen, and for some, such as artist-savant Jack Kirby, this acclaim brought with it enough power to begin to experiment not only with the form, but with the message.

It's in the midst of the silver age that Morrison's own storyline intrudes into the book. Born in Scotland to a World War II veteran turned anti-nuclear pacifist and a bohemian renaissance woman, he grew up against the backdrop of the second age of heroes, the rise and fall of flower power, and the height of cold war paranoia. "Before the bomb was a bomb, it was an idea," he writes in the introduction, but Superman was a better one.

Using his own life as an example, Morrison tries to drive home the concept of superheroes as altruistic ideas, archetypes of the transformation of tragedy into triumph. In Glasgow a depressed, lonely teenager has everything turned around by the magic (ritual and metaphorical) of strange clothes, fake names, and abilities far beyond those of mortal men; through the superhero, with its special name and costume, there is the concept of reinvention and the celebration of self. Beyond just wearing his heart on his sleeve, Superman bears his initial on the front of his shirt as a full realization of everything individual identity offers, proffering shades of Ayn Rand and Friedrich Nietzsche covered with day-glo glitter as a counter to nihilistic anti-life. It's the zenith of Morrison's exploration of what superheroes mean, and why this 20th-century genre took off as it did.

Unfortunately, it's also the point where the book unravels a bit. The autobiographical inclusions certainly add several new layers to the book. If you treat Supergods as one of Morrison's famously multi-layered pieces of imaginative writing, such as his acclaimed series The Invisibles, it's another facet to reflect the whole. But as a critical essay on the meaning and relevance of the superhero, the structure starts to go off the rails when Morrison diverts into autobiography.

As Supergods moves on to explore the last thirty years of the genre, the subject matter starts to resemble a situationist feedback loop. All of the unconscious emergences that shaped and defined the heroes of the golden and silver ages are now fully recognized and calculated by their modern creators. The histories and critiques are all well known, and the tropes have become so well-rehearsed and self-referential that the content becomes trapped in the context rather than enriched by it. Alan Moore's Watchmen may be the best example of this, as the book loses entire layers of relevance for the reader unfamiliar with the mystery men it deconstructs. Modern superhero comics, in a variety of ways, are shown to make more presumptions about their audience, obfuscating with elaborate liturgies or quantum continuities when they aren't stripping everything back to the most basic of archetypes. It's a completely alternate universe from the almost automatic writing of the seminal storytellers, one that probably merits a separate analysis altogether.

All of which is not to say that Supergods isn't interesting, well-written, and exceptionally dynamic. Morrison is the ideal Virgil to have at your side in the divine comedy of superhero comics, an epic journey still underway thanks to creators like him.

Notes on Medieval Romance

2011-09-23T08:06:00.001-07:00

Some of these notes I posted in 2010; part II was added in 2011.

Bookmarks

2011-08-31T07:37:00.001-07:00

BOOKMARKS

1. FORMAT: 3 x 5 index card, distributed at the end of class each day there is a reading assignment due for the next class meeting.

2. HEADING: Your name and the date on the top line; the title of the reading and the pages you read on the second line.

3. PURPOSE: to demonstrate to me your effort and engagement with the assigned readings; to encourage the practice of thinking for yourself about what is important, meaningful, or unclear in the readings; to generate discussion items within your team.

4. CONTENT: Each bookmark contains ONE of the three following items. In each case, the more specific your comments and the more responsive to the text, the better.

· a question you have about that day’s reading (not about the Spark Notes);

· one brief quotation from the reading and a short statement of why you chose it;

· one thought or reaction to the day’s reading.

5. REQUIREMENTS: each entry should be two-three sentences in length; fill one side of the card (2^nd side optional); bookmarks are turned in to me as you enter class, and I will read them while you do your daily check-in and write your “take five”; without a bookmark you may not participate in that day’s team discussion of the reading.

6. GRADING: Bookmarks will receive a check and be returned to you for team discussion. They receive no individual grade but count toward your response journal as evidence of close, thoughtful reading of assigned texts. Response journals receive grades as described in the syllabus.

Important Reminder about blogs

2011-08-26T08:56:00.001-07:00

Everyone—Please check two of your blog settings:

1. Settings Tab of your "dashboard"--Take my e-mail address out of the "email notifications" box;

2. Also in the settings tab (not the comments tab)--there is a comments menu under "settings"--go to "show word verification", click "NO"

Remember to SAVE SETTINGS EACH TIME before you leave your dashboard.

Book order

2011-08-23T13:04:00.002-07:00

Two additional titles:

For all students--Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Norton Critical edition, book # 0393964582, new $9 - $11.71, used from $4.89

For all AP students--Grendel, John Gardner, Vintage, # 0679723110, new $6.89

Prices given are this week's quoted prices on Amazon.

Assignments Spring 2012

2011-08-19T07:45:00.021-07:00

English AP

Schedule of assignments

Spring 2012

Class 10 (Jan 27 & 30): vocab 15-16. Read Pard Tale in both modern version and Middle English, pp. 235-249 in volume A.

Class 11 (Jan 31 & Feb 1): Oure Faire English Tung, chapter 4. Reintroduce bookmarks for daily readings. Score AP multiple choice exam 1999

Class 12: (Feb 2 & 3) Englische Tung, chapter 5; also Norton, volume A, pp. 971-973 & 979-985. Bookmark.

Class 13: (Feb 6) Paper drafts due (see separate instructions); read pp. 985-998 in Gulliver; bring vocab books for intro to lessons 17 & 18. Bookmark

Class 14: (Feb 7 & 8) papers due; read pp. 998-1016. Bookmark

Class 15: (Feb 9 & 10); vocab quiz 17-18. Read pp. 1016-1035. Bookmark

Class 16 (Feb 13 & 14) Finish Gulliver, voyage 2 (to p. 1056). Multiple choice quiz. Bookmark

Class 17 (Feb 15) Gulliver, part 4, to. p. 1090 (ch 1 – 6) Bookmark

Class 18 (Feb 16 & 21) Finish Gulliver, part 4, to p. 1113, Intro vocab 19-20. Bookmark

Class 19 (Feb 22 & 23) A Modest Proposal, pp. 1114-1119. Bookmark

Class 20 (Feb 24 & 27) Vocab 17-18; in-class test/essay/TBA on Gulliver

Starting a Blog

2011-08-18T16:10:00.003-07:00

Blog assignment #1

Go to www.blogger.com. You should be automatically directed to their start page. Follow the "three easy steps" :
--Create your account using a Gmail account and a password of your choice (if you don't have a Gmail account, it only takes a few minutes to set one up). Since your blog will only be read by me and by your classmates, please use your first and last name as your display name; that way I always know whose blog I'm reading and you get credit for having written it.
--Name your blog. Whatever you like, but it's a school assignment, so be appropriate, please. For your blog's url, use firstname-lastname so that we may find each other's blogs easily during the year.
--Select a template for your blog. Pick whichever one you like, with one condition. My eyes are getting older and I can't read text set against a black or dark blue background, so please don't choose one of those templates.

After you create your template, click "start posting" to go to the editing page of your blog. From there, you have one more crucial task. Click the Settings tab, then the e-mail tab. Type my e-mail address in the box marked "BlogSend": (lance.coon@pcds.org). After I have an RSS feed for your blog, I’ll ask you to turn this setting off. But to get started you need to include this step or you may not receive credit for your blog entries. (IMPORTANT: Be sure to click "Save Settings" before closing this tab.)

Finally, one crucial setting. Open the "comments" tab, scroll down, and click the "NO" button next to a setting called "show word verification for comments." This one is important to save me a great deal of time and bother when I write comments back to you about your blog posts. Again, click "save settings" before you leave this section of your settings.

When you have completed all these steps, click the "Posting" tab and create your first blog entry.

FIRST ENTRY: What book have you read lately (within the last 3 to 6 months, let's say)that contained an example of excellent storytelling. Your selection may come from the summer reading list or be a book of your choice. Copy a brief passage (one or two paragraphs?) from the book into your blog, one that illustrates why you find it to be excellent storytelling, and explain your reason for choosing it (in a paragraph).

Syllabus Fall 2011

2011-08-18T15:52:00.006-07:00

English IV & AP

Syllabus: Major British Authors I

Mr. Coon; Fall 2011

I. Goals

The goal of this course is to develop students’ ability to read, write, and create meanings from a series of related pieces of literature drawn from over 1000 years of British literary history. Our work will center around the following series of questions; all texts, assignments, projects, and discussions will help develop our answers to these questions.

1. What are the essential qualities of a good story? Are they different from the requirements for a great story? Why do some stories have a shelf life of 6 months while others last 1000 years?

2. What value do historical texts have for our lives today? Are “old” stories less meaningful or more boring just because they’re old? Or do they still contain relevant meanings for the 21^st centuruy?

3. Why do both old and new stories contain superheroes and monsters? What purpose do characters with super-powers serve? Are there reasons why they “have to” exist? Are all monsters inherently evil? Are modern comic books and ancient tales more alike or unalike?

4. What qualities other than super-powers make a character heroic? For instance, what is honor? What is integrity? What is courage? How do characters hold onto or lose their honor, courage, or integrity?

II. Materials and Course Requirements

This fall-semester course examines the origins of literature in English and traces the development of the English language from its Germanic roots to the eighteenth century. Readings include the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, John Gardner’s novel Grendel (AP only), excerpts from the literary epic Paradise Lost, and shorter pieces of poetry. A supplemental text develops a historical understanding of the growth and development of the English language.

Some students in the course have the AP designation attached to their enrollment. These students, chosen on the basis of their interest, prior achievements, and motivation level, supported by the department’s recommendation, are expected to meet slightly higher academic standards. AP students write one additional paper (examining the novel Grendel in light of the questions above), write slightly longer papers, and take occasional quizzes based on practice materials drawn from previous AP English Literature examinations. Also, students enrolled with AP designation are required to take the second half of the Major British Authors sequence in the spring semester and sit for the AP exam in English Literature and Composition in May.

III. Texts

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors, Eighth edition, Volume A

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Grendel, John Gardner (AP only)

IV. Additional texts

1. Vocabulary for Achievement, 6^th course

2. Oure Faire Englische Tung: A Brief History of the English Language

3. Selected novels for summer reading

V. The Daily Book

An essential part of the class is the regular use of your daily book. The daily book is a 7½ by 9 ¾ notebook in which you record all the writing you do during class sessions. The daily book, which never leaves the room except with my personal permission, will contain examples of the following kinds of written work:

· Daily check-ins (inside the front cover of your daily book), giving yourself credit for arriving in class on time, bringing your textbook and writing utensil, and doing the reading or other daily assignment.

· Take Fives (short 3-5 minute writings) done as you come in the door while I am taking attendance and organizing that day’s materials. A Take Five is a mental check-in, often beginning with a sentence like “Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about . . .” or “I’ve been wondering why. . .” and containing content which may or may not be directly related to the content of English class.

· Passages of the day—brief answers to questions about short passages of poetry or prose, first written in your daily books, then shared with the members of your team in round-robin style.

· Response journals—see instructions below—the alternative to pop quizzes as a means for you to show your level of engagement with the assigned reading and help yourself interact with that reading on a deeper level. RJ entries will be shared with teammates, used as discussion items, and form the basis for short critical essays posted to your blogs.

· Closers—2-3 minutes at the end of class, time for you to process and reflect upon what happened in that day’s class: what was the most interesting or important thing you learned today? What do you need to remember from today’s class? What left you feeling confused or with a sense of incompleteness? What should we be sure to do next time we meet?

Since your daily book never leaves the room, any notes you wish to take about our discussions or new material should be kept in a notebook of your own or on your laptop.

Daily books will receive a “process” grade; this grade complements your work in your discussion teams as the “participation” component of your performance in the class. I will check your daily books approximately every seven days.

Daily book grades are based on both quantity and quality:

• Quantity: all entries are present (if you are absent from class it’s your responsibility to come in during a free and make up the Response Journal entry), and entries show the effort to answer the questions thoroughly (rather than writing a single sentence, saying “I’m done” and sitting there while others write).

•Quality: Content shows a sincere effort to take the questions seriously and write thoughtful answers which are responsive to the assigned readings.

Take Five starters:

Lately I’ve been thinking about . . .

I’ve been wondering why . . .

(Monday) The best/worst thing about this weekend was . . .

(Friday) I’m looking forward to/worried about this weekend because . . .

(Morning class) Today should be a really good/bad day because . . .

(Afternoon class) Today has been a really good/bad day because . . .

I’m looking forward to/dreading because . . .

The best movie I’ve seen lately was . . . .

Lately I’ve been really enjoying the time I spend . . .

So far I think the new longer periods are good/bad because . . .

My favorite thing to do outside of school is because . . .

I will read whatever you write, so don’t describe the fight you had with your mother/boyfriend/best friend last night unless that’s something you want me to know about. And of course my confidentiality is limited by law not to include anything you say that sounds dangerous, harmful to yourself or others, or illegal.

Response Journals

We often use reader response journals as in-class activities to accompany our study of literature. There are a number of different topics you can use in a reading response journal:

Copy down a quote from a character and tell why you think it’s meaningful.
Ask questions about things that confuse you or that you wonder about.
Describe your feelings about the events.
Describe your feelings about characters.
Copy down a brief passage and tell why you think it’s important.
Describe your favorite part.
Make a prediction about what will happen next.
Tell how you would react if you were one of the characters in the story.
Describe a part that surprised you.
Does the author use any strong imagery in the story (similes, metaphors, etc.)? Give examples.
Write down interesting vocabulary words, look them up, say how they add to the passage.
Talk to the author or a character (or one write of them a letter).
Draw pictures or create graphic organizers.

Below is a list of prompt starters:

General Observations

I noticed…
I was really surprised…
What I found interesting…
The author is saying…

Preference

I like the way…
I didn’t/don’t like…
My favorite part…

Element of the Text is Unclear

I didn’t understand…
A question I have…
I’m guessing that…
Something new I learned…
I felt _______ when…

Discuss Surprising Element

I couldn’t believe…
I never thought…

Hypothetical Thinking and Predictions

If I were [character]…
What I think will happen is…
What I thought would happen was…
I think _____ will become important because…
I began to think…
I predict…

Personal Connection to Past Experience

This reminds me of…
I began to think of…
I know the feeling…

Imagining

I can picture…
I can imagine…

Purposes and Rules

Response journals serve two important and related purposes. They allow you to experience the readings for yourself, ask your own questions, and search for your own meanings rather than attend classes where I tell you what the text means to me while you write it down. They also allow me to see the evidence that you are reading the assigned texts and thinking about what you read. Therefore, there are two very specific, non-negotiable rules for a response journal entry. 1. Entries must include specific references to pages, lines, numbers, and passages covering the whole text assigned. 2. Entries that contain only general comments or plot summary without specific questions, quotes, and references will be assumed to be the product of Spark-note thinking and are therefore not acceptable and will not receive passing grades. Finally, for safe-keeping, your response journals are part of your daily books and therefore never leave the classroom.

Uses

Reader response journals will be written for at least 5 minutes each day a reading assignment is due. They will be shared, round-robin fashion, with the other members of your class team. They may also be used to respond to passages I have chosen for the class to discuss. From there, RJ (response journal) entries can be used to generate Discussion Items (DI’s) for either your team or the class as a whole. Finally, RJ entries can become the basis of short individual critical essays on aspects of the literature. These essays (approximately 300-500 words depending on your level of ambition) are posted on your blogs and will receive specific written comments from your teammates and from me. Thus reading and writing become entwined as basic learning activities. You read, you write, you discuss, you choose a piece to refine, and you write further.

We will also use daily books to record our responses to the passage of the day or the question of the day, to record our thoughts about the meaning of a short poem, an example of a literary technique, or to think about poetic or prose style analysis. These brief responses will be shared in your teams.

(Thanks to Mr. Scott at Hughes Academy for his list of journal starters and to Dan Kirby and Tom Liner, authors of Inside Out and my mentors on the use of class journals.)

VI. Blogs

Aside from your daily book, the primary forum for sharing short critical essays and content for oral presentations is your blog. Instructions for starting your blog may be found on mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com and will be reviewed in class. I will occasionally ask you to select an entry from your Response Journal to be revised and expanded into a short critical essay (the equivalent of 1 to 2 typed pages). These revised journal entries will be read for content by members of your discussion teams and by me. We will look for ways to make your writing clearer, more specific, and more informative. Some of these blog posts will be further revised to be turned in as papers. Your ability to keep your blog current and thorough is another important component of your “process” grade.

In addition, you will each be asked to post the results of short research assignments on topics related to our literature study and the history of English. This information will be shared orally in class. Whether individually or with a partner, you will present two of these assignments each semester.

VII. Turnitin.com

In addition to submitting hard copies of your papers this year, you are required to submit electronic copies of all papers to turnitin.com. These instructions will help you submit your papers. Use your PCDS e-mail address and the same password for turnitin.com that you use for your account at blogger.com.

• On your web browser, go to turnitin.com. Register as a new user or login to the personal home page you created last year. You must give your PCDS e-mail address and a personal password which contains both letters and numbers to register. Click “student” as your user type. Give whatever other information may be necessary as you move through the required fields.

• When you reach your personal home page, click “join new class.” Then enter a class ID and a class enrollment password. For AP students, the class ID is 4223549 and the password “apeng” (case sensitive); for English IV students (non-AP) the class ID is 1875359 and the password is “engIV” (also case sensitive). Click “submit” when you finish. N.B: You only need to complete this step once.

• Then submit your paper. When you click on the class title, you will go to the class history page. Click on the word “submit” in the middle navigation bar. Enter the title of your paper and select the assignment with the correct date from the pull down menu. Assignments are listed by the title of the work and the date an assignment is due.

• After entering your title and selecting the correct assignment, paste your essay into the box marked “main text.” (In my experience, the copy and paste method works better than the upload method. You may, of course, find otherwise). You may ignore the boxes marked abstract and bibliography unless otherwise instructed. When your paper has been pasted into the “main text” box, click “submit.”

• Remember to put your digital receipt number on the assignment before you give it to me. Otherwise your assignment will be marked late and penalized accordingly.

VIII. Participation and attendance

• Class participation is a crucial part of the course. Therefore, it is imperative that we all treat one another with respect and behave in such a way as to contribute to, not disrupt, an atmosphere conducive to maximum learning.

• Participation in class is mandatory. I understand that the introverts have difficulty speaking in front of your peers and me; nevertheless, I expect you to contribute meaningfully to class activities and discussions. Often, these contributions take forms other than speaking in front of the entire class. For example, the entries in your daily book are one important way for you to show your engagement with the material and willingness to exert yourself. Another important factor is the quality of your contributions to your team activities. In these ways and through your oral presentations, you show that you have come to class having done the reading assigned and are prepared to discuss the material, answer questions, venture informed opinions, and articulate personal responses.

• Participation grades are assigned as follows and account for 20% of your grade in the class: "A" students are fully engaged, on time for class with the necessary books and supplies. They display obvious enthusiasm for the tasks of the class: reading, talking, listening, working in a group, thinking about a problem. Their daily books are thorough, thoughtful, and always kept up to date. They participate in all team activities and remain on task throughout class. "B" students' engagement varies slightly, sometimes at "A" level, sometimes not. "C" students are generally involved but with noticeable lapses. They may arrive late to class or frequently forget materials. They spend time on things other than the work at hand: chatting with friends, doing homework for another class, catching up on sleep, or staring off in space. "D" students exhibit these behaviors to an even greater degree, becoming a distraction to the work of the class, having a negative impact on the group's ability to get its work done, regularly coming to class unprepared.

• Absences and lateness will have detrimental effects on performance and grades. With longer breaks between classes, I expect you to tend to personal business—going to the bathroom, finding your backpack, picking up a paper from the printer in the lab, and so on—on your own time. Be in class at the beginning of the block and don’t leave. Lateness will also be reported to the Dean of Students for detention.

IX. Vocabulary

• Two new lessons in the vocabulary book are assigned for quizzing every fifth class (5, 10, 15, etc). We will look briefly at the new words two classes prior to the quiz (#s 3, 8, 13, and so on), so please bring your books to that session. Quizzes will take place the first 10 minutes of class after “check-in” on sessions which are multiples of 5 unless otherwise notified.

• For first semester, we will cover lessons 1-14; for the second, lessons 15-30. Quizzes will contain all 20 words from the two lessons. There may be occasional cumulative quizzes as well containing selected words from a larger number of lessons.

• Missed vocabulary quizzes must be made up at your earliest possible convenience. After three class days, barring extraordinary circumstances, missing scores will be entered as zeroes.

X. Grading policy

• Grades are determined on a point system in which each assignment is weighted by the number of points it contains. Points will be totaled at the end of each quarter and semester and grades determined in accordance with the percentages contained in your student handbook.

• Grades from individual assignments fall into categories weighted approximately as follows: daily books and blogs (30%), papers and projects (40%), vocabulary and quizzes (20%), participation and attendance (10%).

• Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Written work turned in during or after class is considered late and will be penalized. Late work is eligible for a score no higher than 75%, depending on the quality of the assignment and the degree of lateness. If you are absent the day an assignment is due, either have a classmate turn it in or fax the assignment to the Upper School office (602-224-6177).

• Students who miss quizzes or tests because of excused absence must make arrangements for make-up immediately upon returning to school. Missing work (quizzes or assignments never turned in or made up) will result in an incomplete grade for the quarter or semester.

• Any student who establishes a clear pattern of failing to complete the assigned reading according to the prescribed schedule will receive a semester grade of D or F, regardless of that student’s scores on other assignments. Repeated missing or poor written work, response journal entries which cannot be distinguished from SparkNotes summaries, or the inability to respond to basic factual information in class will be taken as signs of not reading.

• All assignments must be completed in accordance with the school’s honesty policy. See your handbook for details and be certain you know the difference between plagiarism and acceptable use of source material.

XI. Contact information

• In person—room 311. Stop by to talk or ask a question anytime I’m free. My schedule is posted on the door of my classroom. To make up a quiz, go over an assignment, a speech draft, or a college essay, please make an appointment first.

• By voice-mail—602-956-0253 x4296

• By fax—602-224-6177

• By e-mail—Lance.Coon@pcds.org

Important Reminder

2011-04-19T09:58:00.001-07:00

All sections:

Remember to give me both a hard copy of your poetry papers (and your novel papers next week),
and to submit an electronic copy to turnitin.com. Both assignments are now listed for English IV & for AP.

Thank you.

Schedule April 7-29

2011-04-06T13:42:00.006-07:00

Section 1:
Friday, April 8--Read Ozymandias, p. 1741 (Matt P)
Monday April 11--read La Belle Dame Sans Merci, p. 1840 (Ivaylo); also read "My Last Duchess" p. 2058
Tuesday April 12-- also 3-sentence written exercise due
Wednesday April 13--Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, p. 2610 (Ian)
Friday April 15--Read When You Are Old p. 2392 (Ryan D); Read The Unknown Citizen, p. 2696 (Matt B); also vocab quiz 23-24
Monday, April 18--Read Do Not Go Gentle, p. 2710 (Annie)
Tuesday, April 19--I wandered lonely as a cloud, p. 1537 (morgan)
Wed, April 20--Sonnet 43, p. 1927 (Zahid)
Fri, April 22--Crossing the Bar p. 2035 (Alex B)
Mon April 25--Class starts at 7:40--multiple choice test--60 minutes
Tues April 26--bring drafts of papers for editing
Wed April 27--papers due
Fri April 29--vocab 25,26; review information for exam
Mon May 2, Tues May 3, Wed May 4--review packets; independent review of novels and plays
Thurs May 5--AP English Literature and Composition Exam, 7:45 AM, Dorrance
Friday May 6--Equation Analysis finals--contestants to be announced

Section 2:
Friday April 8--Read When We Two Parted p. 1678 (Sara) & It is a beauteous evening 1549 (Nithin)
Monday April 11--The World is too much with us 1550 (Kirea) & My Last Duchess 2058
Tuesday April 12--Read She Walks in Beauty 1676 (Latina); 3 sentence exercise due
Wed April 13--Read The Unknown Citizen 2696 (Cindy) & Hap 2318
Friday April 15--Read God's Grandeur 2160 (Pallavi); vocab quiz 23-24
Mon April 18--Ozymandias p. 1741 (Alex K)
Tues April 19--Kubla Khan p. 1632 (John); exercise due
Wed April 20--When You Are Old p. 2392 (Dylan)
Fri April 22--Do Not Go Gentle p. 2710 (Nick); also To His Coy Mistress p. 677 (Jacques)
Mon April 25--Multiple choice test 60 minutes
Tues April 26--bring drafts of papers for editing; also The Poison Tree 1424 (Keshav)
Wed April 27--papers due; I wandered lonely p 1537 (Sybil) & Homage p. 2715 (Conor)
Fri April 29--vocab 25,26; review information for exam
Mon May 2, Tues May 3, Wed May 4--review packets; independent review of novels and plays
Thurs May 5--AP English Literature and Composition Exam, 7:45 AM, Dorrance
Friday May 6--Equation Analysis finals--contestants to be announced

Section 3:
Friday 4/8--Read It is a beauteous evening 1549 (Majik)
Mond 4/11--Read Ozymandias 1741 (Keenan) & My Last Duchess 2058
Tues 4/12--My Last Duchess; 3 sentence exercise due
Th 4/14-- Crossing the Bar p 2035 (Neha) & To His Coy Mistress p. 677 (Sophie)
Fri 4/15--Read The world is too much with us 1550 (Ryan M); vocab quiz 23-24
Mon 4/18--When we two parted 1678 (Lindsay) & When You Are Old p. 2392 (Ashley B)
Tues 4/19--Do Not Go Gentle 2710 (Mike K)
Thurs 4/21--The Poison Tree 1424 (Nikita)
Fri 4/22--I wandered lonely 1537 (Gordon)
Mon April 25--Multiple choice test 60 minutes--don't go off for lunch unless you are free block 4--class begins at 12:05
Tues April 26--bring drafts of papers for editing;
Wed April 27--papers due (no class)
Thurs April 28--Sonnet 43 p. 1927 (Christine) & Piano p. 2605 (Michael Y)
Fri April 29--vocab 25,26; review information for exam
Mon May 2, Tues May 3, Wed May 4--review packets; independent review of novels and plays
Thurs May 5--AP English Literature and Composition Exam, 7:45 AM, Dorrance
Friday May 6--Equation Analysis finals--contestants to be announced

Section 4:
Friday 4/8--Read Sonnet 14 p. 624 in vol A (Liz)
Tues 4/12--Read It is a beauteous evening 1549 (Rachel E) & My Last Duchess 2058
Wed 4/13--Read La Belle Dame Sans Merci 1840 (Shannon); 3 sentence exercise due
Th 4/14--Read Kubla Khan 1632 (Nabeer) & Hap 2318
Fr 4/15--When we two parted 1678 (Jeremy); vocab 23-24
Tues 4/19--Ozymandias p. 1741 (Adelar) & The world is too much with us p. 1550 (Ryan P)
Wed 4/20--Dover Beach 2105 (Allison)
Th 4/21--The Unknown citizen p. 2696 (Kathie)
Fri 4/22--I wandered lonely p. 1537 (Ashley S)
Tues 4/26--Bring paper drafts to class for editing
Wed 4/27--papers due; Multiple choice exam--60 minutes
Thurs 4/28--Sonnet 43 p. 1927 (Rachel C) & The Poison Tree p. 1424 (Tom)
Fri 4/29 vocab quiz 25,26 and review information for exam
Mon May 2, Tues May 3, Wed May 4--review packets; independent review of novels and plays
Thurs May 5--AP English Literature and Composition Exam, 7:45 AM, Dorrance
Friday May 6--Equation Analysis finals--contestants to be announced

Importance of Being Earnest Performances

2011-03-18T09:53:00.001-07:00

Who: Southwest Shakespeare Company
Where: Mesa Arts Center, corner of E. Main and Center St (1 E. Main) downtown Mesa
When: Friday, March 18, 7:30 (possibly sold out?)
Saturday, March 19, 2PM and 7:30 PM
Thursday, March 24, 7:30 PM--I plan to attend this performance
Friday, March 25, 7:30 PM
Saturday, March 26, times???

Box office 480-644-6500
Link to web site with further information

What does the Magistrate learn?

2011-03-11T13:50:00.001-07:00

My answer to today's question.

Two links about the "special forces" in South Africa

2011-03-07T08:26:00.003-07:00

First, the infamous 90 day detention act, later replaced by the 180 day detention act:

Journalist Ruth First was the first white person imprisoned under the provisions of this act. The film A World Apart, from a memoir written by First's daughter, tells the story of her imprisonment, from her daughter's point of view. This is the trailer for that 1988 film:

Textbook order

2011-02-25T08:49:00.002-07:00

The next book IS listed on the order for English IV, spring semester, but the problem is that there is NO list for AP, second semester. But if you received Pride and Prejudice with your order, you should also have received Waiting for the Barbarians.

Still, if you don't have this book, here is the information:

Waiting for the Barbarians-Great Books of the 20th Century Edition
Edition: 1980 • Coetzee, J. M. (author)
ISBN: 9780140283358, Penguin Books
List Price: $14.00

We will need it very soon; please acquire it post-haste. It is the only available print edition, since the author is still alive and the book protected by copyright law.

Final paper for April 2011

2011-02-21T13:38:00.005-07:00

English IV and AP
Final paper 2011
Reading List

AP students: Select a novel from the list below for independent reading during the month of April. With approval, you may also consider a novel from the second list below. Also, locate three critical analyses of the novel (Mr. Thommen has some excellent sources). Write a paper of 1500-2000 words (5-7 pages) developing in some depth one key aspect of the novel’s meaning, using both direct quotations from the novel and your 3 outside sources. You must bring five typed pages to class Monday, April 25. Papers are due Wednesday, April 27, both hard copy and turnitin.com.

Handmaid’s Tale or Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
Emma, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevski

Middlemarch, George Eliot

Joseph Andrews, Henry Fielding
A Passage to India, E.M. Forster

The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
Obasan, Joy Kogawa
Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence

Cry the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Mrs. Dalloway or Orlando, Virginia Woolf

English IV students: Select EITHER one of the novels from the list above, or one from the suggested reading list from last summer (reprinted below, with a few overlaps to the list above). Your assignment is to write a paper of 3-4 pages, with the same due dates as the assignment above, but without the required research component.

Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) (F)

Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) (H)

Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (1962) (F)

A.S. Byatt, Possession (1990)

Peter Carey, The True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) (H)

Roddy Doyle, The Van (1991)

Nadine Gordimer, July’s People (1981)

Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955)

George Hagen, Tom Bedlam (2007) (H)

Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (1995)

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932) (F)

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (1989) (H)

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942)

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009) (H)

Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2002)

Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001) (H)

Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (1995) (H)

Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander (1969) (H)

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (1992) (H)

George Orwell, 1984 (1949) (F)

Graham Swift, Waterland (1983)

Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (1992) (H) or Morality Play (1995) (H)

Pride and Prejudice essay

2011-02-09T08:08:00.003-07:00

AP English/ English IV
Mr. Coon
Pride and Prejudice essay
Write an essay of approximately 600-750 words (2-3 typed, double-spaced pages), in which you discuss in as much detail as space permits the significance of the following passage to the work as a whole. In your discussion you may focus on an appropriate combination of the following elements:

How does the passage characterize its participants and demonstrate Austen’s methods of characterization?
What is the relationship of this scene to the “action” of the novel? Does it contribute to either the complication of the action or to its resolution?
How does it embody or advance themes important to the novel?
In what sense is the scene “comic”?
How does it most significantly illustrate Jane Austen’s style?

Essays are due Tuesday, February 15 both hard copy and electronically to turnitin.com (Pride and Prejudice 2011). Consult NO outside, internet, or spark sources in preparing this assignment, and do not discuss it with classmates. Here is the link to remind you of formatting requirements for papers in this class.

Passage:

“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”

Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation, “I am not.”

Lady Catherine seemed pleased.

“And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?”

“I will make no promise of the kind.”

“Miss Bennet, I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away, till you have given me the assurance I require.”

“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise, make their marriage at all more probable?” . . . .

Her ladyship was highly incensed.

“You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?”

“Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say. You know my sentiments.”

“You are resolved then to have him?”

“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”

“It is well. You refuse, then, to oblige me. You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honor, and gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of his friends, and make him the contempt of the world.”

“Neither duty, nor honour, not gratitude,” replied Elizabeth, “have any possible claim on me, in the present instance. . . .”

“I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliment to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased.”

Pride & Prejudice presentations

2011-02-09T07:48:00.001-07:00

Assignment: a brief blog entry in a series of bullet points, accompanied by a short oral presentation (3 minutes), due in class February 14 (Tuesday for section 4), covering the following information:

1. What is the writer's thesis?
2. What are one or two key points the writer makes in support of the thesis?
3. Were you persuaded? Do you agree with the writer's thesis? Why?
4. In what way(s) does this information give you new or increased understanding of the novel or of Jane Austen as a writer?

Readings (Criticism)
Whately and Oliphant, pp. 289-293
Simpson & Harding, pp. 293-299
Van Ghent, 299-306 ***
Duckworth, p. 306
Tave, p. 315
Butler, 319
Auerbach, 326
Johnson, 348
Kaplan, 368
Wallace, 376
Birtwhistle, Conklin, and Nixon, 384-392
Spring, 392
Ahearn & Gray, 399-406
Morgan, 338

(Biography)
Austen, Austen-Leigh, and Tomalin 257-264
Nokes & Honan, 264-269

Letters, p. 270

Schedule--February 1 - March 4

2011-02-01T10:11:00.009-07:00

Week 5: January 31 - February 4
Day 1: Pride & Prejudice, finish volume 1, chapters 18-23; quiz
Day 2: Begin volume 2, chapters 1-6
Day 3: Volume 2, chapters 7-12
Day 4: Finish volume 2, chapters 13-19; Multiple-choice scoring exercise

Week 6: February 7 - 11
Day 1: Volume 3, chapters 1-4
Day 2: chapters 5-8
Day 3: chapters 9-13
Day 4: chapters 14-18, vocab quiz (vocal quiz) lessons 17-18

Week 7: February 14-17
Day 1: Oral reports due
Day 2: Papers due, continue oral reports
Day 3: Begin Heart of Darkness, Norton, volume B, 2326-2341
No school Friday February 18, President's Weekend break

Week 8: February 22 - 25
Monday: No school, Presidents' Weekend break
Tuesday: Heart of Darkness, Norton volume B, pp. 2341-2350
Wed/Thurs: pp. 2350-2368 (chapter 2)
Fri: pp. 2368-2387 (chapter 3); vocabulary lessons 19 & 20
Note: these are very unequal divisions, so I strongly recommend that you use a bit of time over Presidents' Weekend to read ahead; that way you'll have less difficulty staying caught up.

Week 9: February 28 - March 4 (only day that's a command!)
Day 1: No assignment, continue Heart of Darkness discussion
Day 2: Read Waiting for the Barbarians, chapter 1
Day 3: WFB, chapter 2
Day 4: WFB, chapter 3 + Practice AP multiple-choice quiz

THIS WEEK IN VARSITY ENGLISH
WEEK 10: MARCH 7 - 11
Monday: Mini-research day: "emergency powers;" South African law 1960's & 70s; "political prisoners;" Argentina in the 70's; use of torture; Ruth First (Diana Roth); martial law; apartheid; etc. Post link (beyond Wiki), photograph, and 3-sentence summary on your blog
Tuesday: WFB, chapter 4 (p. 119 or 139 depending on edition)
Wed/Th: WFB chapter 5 (p. 140 or 165); ABODA jazz festival Wednesday
Friday: Finish WFB, vocab quiz lessons 21 & 22; 7th grade courage retreat

WEEK 11: March 14 - 18

Day 1: Blog "What are the two most significant or important lessons the magistrate learns during the year in which the novel takes place?" Don't waste words on openings closings, or vague generalities; get to the meat from the first sentence and stay there. Two paragraphs will suffice.
Day 2: In-class essay test: Heart of Darkness and/or Waiting for the Barbarians
Day 3: The Importance of Being Earnest, act 1, (volume B, pp. 2221 - 2237)--look for absurd statements, wit and word play, and characters who confuse the trivial and the important in life
Day 4: Earnest, act 2, pp. 2237-2254; multiple-choice passage quiz.

WEEK 12: March 21-25
Day 1: Finish Earnest, act 3, pp. 2254-2263; reservations for independent reading novels accepted beginning Sunday morning, March 20, no more than 3 readers per title.
Day 2: Our Faire Englische Tung, chapter 5, pp. 43-55
Day 3: Final declaration day for novels for independent reading
Day 4: Capt. McHonett's Day of Adventure; IFF

Spring break: March 25-April 3: Read independent novels; begin poetry unit upon returning, Monday April 4

Jane Austen's style--class exercise

2011-01-27T08:20:00.001-07:00

Locate a passage which illustrates one aspect of Jane Austen's style: look for one of the following:

significant diction (vocabulary choice);
syntax (e.g. parallel structure within balanced sentences, use of relative clauses)
verbal irony used for satiric effect, esp toward a character
character revealed through dialogue
character revealed through narrative statement
a passage whose tone you can identify and comment upon
figurative or rhetorical devices

Create a brief comment on the significance of the passage you have chosen. How does it add to the overall "effect" of the writing at this point in the novel?

Final options--Hamlet

2011-01-19T09:03:00.004-07:00

Hamlet
Final options

1. Test—of the kind you’ve seen from me before: ID’s, passages, short essay.

2. Essay—three pages on a topic chosen from one specific aspect of the play: a discussion of the stages and phases of Hamlet’s state of mind, drawn from his soliloquies; the purposes and functions of the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia, the significance of one scene to the play as a whole, or a similar topic of your devising, chosen in consultation with me.

3. Performance—EITHER a monolog memorized and performed for the class, approximately 25 lines: one of Hamlet’s soliloquies, Claudius’ prayer, the Player King’s monolog during the play-within-the-play, Gertrude telling Laertes of Ophelia’s death. OR a video of a scene (20-25 lines times the number of characters), with approximately equal measures of dialog for each of the participants. The only caveat for this option is to avoid turning tragedy into comedy by creating a deliberately exaggerated or distorted version of your scene. In either case, the performance must be accompanied by a written copy of the scene, with subtext identified to show the goals of the performance.

Due Day 1 of next week for tests and essays (Monday for sections 1, 2, & 3, Tuesday for section 4), day 2 for performances.

Subtext Assignment--Hamlet

2011-01-11T07:35:00.002-07:00

English IV & AP
Hamlet subtext assignment
January 2011
1. After reading Kenneth Branagh’s screenplay and viewing the scene between Hamlet and Ophelia, write the subtext for Act 3, scene 4 of the play.

2.Full text of the play may be found on the internet. Go to Google and enter something like Shakespeare MIT (here’s the link ). This will take you to the MIT website directly to Act 3, scene 4 of Hamlet. Download the scene onto a word-processing document and change the name of the queen from Margaret to Gertrude. You are responsible for the portion of the scene beginning with “enter Hamlet” and ending with “exit ghost.”

3. The goal of your notes is to make the subtext explicit. Subtext refers to all those elements of a scene’s meaning which are implied but unspoken in the text. It includes the characters’ motives, thoughts, emotions, gestures, movements, and tone of voice. (See handout defining subtext).

4.Add your subtext to the scene. Put your notes in a different type style from the text itself (italics / roman, boldface / roman, etc) to make them easier to identify and read.

Due Friday January 14.

Two Hamlet links

2011-01-05T09:16:00.002-07:00

First, the more serious, about a juvenile prison in South Africa where young inmates are performing Hamlet;

And second, an old comedy skit by the British group Blackadder (House fans will recognize Hugh Laurie), in which Shakespeare negotatiates with his producer over a new play he is writing.

Assignments, January 2011

2011-01-05T08:16:00.001-07:00

Week 1: January 4 - 7
Day 2: Hamlet, act 1, scenes 1 & 2
Day 3: Hamlet, act 1, scenes 3, 4, & 5
Day 4: Multiple choice quiz, begin Hamlet act 2

Week 2: January 10 - 14
Day 1: Hamlet, finish reading act 2
Day 2: Hamlet, act 3, scenes 1 & 2
Day 3: Hamlet, act 3, scenes 3 & 4
Day 4: Vocab quiz lessons 13 - 14, Hamlet subtext assignment due for act 3, scene 4, hard copy and turnitin. com (title: Hamlet subtext)

Week 3: January 17 - 21
No school Monday January 17--MLK holiday
Day 2: Hamlet, act 4, scenes 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5
Day 3: Hamlet, act 4, scenes 6 & 7, act 5, scene 1
Day 4: Hamlet, act 5, scene 2 (can you guess in advance which characters won't die?) Multiple choice quiz

Week 4: January 24- 28
Day 1: Hamlet test, paper, or project (your choice)
Day 2: Pride and Prejudice, chapters 1 - 6 (please use the Norton Critical edition,
ISBN 0-393-97604-1, as it contains background material we will use for
class presentations.
Day 3: Pride and Prejudice, chapters 7 - 11
Day 4: P & P, chapters 12 - 17; vocal quiz, lessons 15 - 16

Week 5: January 31
Day 1: P & P, chapters 18 - 23

Second semester readings

2011-01-04T08:19:00.002-07:00

1. Hamlet, William Shakespeare (purchase a paperback copy today, if possible)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (you should have received a copy with your books in August)
3. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (in anthology, volume 2)
4. Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee (paperback)
5. Lyric poetry (in anthology, volumes 1 & 2)
6. The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde (in anthology, volume 2)
7. Selected novels for final paper (list will be provided prior to spring break)

Tentative exam formats

2010-12-07T08:06:00.002-07:00

Although I have only written portions of each exam, my PLAN is to use the following formats (subject to change if these don't work out the way I think they will).

English IV
Vocab--25 matching
Literary terms--10 matching
Characters--10 matching
Englische Tung--10 Matching
12th Night ID's--10 matching
Quotations--10 matching

1 Essay--50 to 60 minutes, using examples and ideas from multiple works to discuss a common theme or a connection between the works themselves and their historical periods.

AP
Vocab--25 matching
3 of the 5 matching sections listed above
Multiple choice--2 passages, 25 to 30 questions

1 essay--40 to 45 minutes--using information and examples from one work read this semester to discuss a topic from an earlier AP Literature exam.

Exam review

2010-12-06T14:53:00.001-07:00

English IV & AP
December 2010
Exam prep--first draft--more to follow when I get further in the writing process

1.    Lessons 1 – 12 in the vocabulary workbook. Definitely review those words and definitions for the exam. Probable format: matching. Probable length: 25 or so words with 35 or so definitions to choose from.

2.    History of English, chapters 1, 2, & 3. Eras: Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, Renaissance. For each period, think about the major themes of language we have discussed. Which historical, political, or cultural factors most influenced the language at each stage of its development? What were the results of each of these historical forces? What examples from the language itself best illustrate the operation of these historical influences? Probable format: unknown

3.    Beowulf
Key themes & terms: epic, hero, fate, honor, tribal values, kinship, kingship, leadership, warrior culture, wisdom, feuds, alliterative verse, kennings, role of women, political marriages, blending of pagan and Christian influences, boasting, revenge, loyalty, oral tradition, imbedded narratives (bards), historical importance, elegiac quality

4.    Paradise Lost
Themes and terms: literary epic, blank verse, the fall, innocence, lust as innocence lost, temptation, rebellion and disobedience, free will, knowledge as Godliness, ambition, Satan as sympathetic antagonist?

5.    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Themes and terms: knighthood, courtly love, chivalry, alliterative revival, romance, courage, contest, Pentangle, honor and obligation, temptation and human weakness, hospitality,

6.    General Prologue
Themes and terms: estates satire, iambic pentameter couplets, four humours, ideals, corruptions and abuses, uses of irony, humor, double entendre, tradition of pilgrimage, make-up of 14th century English society, social change, use of stereotypes, examples of various professions, frame narrative

7.    Miller’s Tale
Themes and terms: Fabliau, narrative structure, plot and subplot, relationship between tale and teller, Miller’s personality revealed through tone and details, satire of courtly romance, idealism and justice, attitudes toward sex and gender

8.    Pardoner’s Tale
Themes and terms: Exemplum, style of preaching, relationship between tale and teller, relationship of prologue to tale, relationship of Pardoner and Host, uses of irony

9.    Twelfth Night
Themes and terms: Genre of comedy, relationship between serious and playful, relationship of plot and subplot, love, self-love, madness, revenge, duty, friendship, word play, gender roles, order and disorder, exaggeration, coincidence, disguise, probability of event

10.    Multiple-choice reading comprehension
For AP students only. Probable format: Multiple choice (Duh!); probable length: 30 questions, 30 minutes

Twelfth Night performance

2010-12-01T11:04:00.004-07:00

For those interested and available, this week's performances of 12th Night are 7:30 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 2 PM Saturday, and 3 PM Sunday. I plan to attend Sunday. Currently (as of 11 AM Wednesday) there are 40 seats available for that performance.

This is the box office link for ordering tickets. Or call 480-644-6500.

Tickets are available at the student rate, with no service charges, if you purchase them at the box office the day of the performance, but you have to show your student ID to get the discount ($15).

Mesa Arts Center is located at 1 E. Main St Mesa (SE corner of Main and Center Streets).

I hope some of you will be able to attend.

2nd semester elective choices

2010-11-18T12:49:00.001-07:00

Remember, if you are in AP English, you are automatically enrolled in the 2nd semester of Major British Authors.

However, if you are either not enrolled in AP, or if you are and are still looking for a 5th (or 6th) course, please consider the following options:

Literature of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Mr. Guthrie)
The Art of Compostion (Mr. McHonett & Ms. Thompson)
Shakespeare (Mr. Burns & Mr. Coon), a performance/literature course offered for English or Theater Arts credit

Not all these courses received sufficient pre-enrollment last spring; however, I'm wondering if perhaps some of your circumstances have changed and you now find yourselves needing another class. Ideally, I'd like to see all 3 of these electives offered.

If you have any questions, please see me. Mr. Flanagan-Hyde will do a short presentation at morning meeting the 29th and ask those interested to complete a course request form at that point.

Blog #7--I-Search assignment

2010-11-12T09:46:00.001-07:00

For this blog, write the draft of what will become the first page of your paper. Write a couple of paragraphs on what you already know about your word. Answer whichever of the following questions you find most applicable:
What does your selected word mean to you going into this assignment?
What do you already know about your word?
Why did you choose it?
Is there a specific moment or incident or association you have with your word?

Also, keep looking at the sources, both print and online, for further understanding of your word's meaning(s). The next portions of your paper will include an overall description of your search, any difficulties you experienced, any surprises you encountered, and specific insight into the information you find about your word. In the body of the essay, you will combine an analysis or interpretation of what you learned (including direct citations from your sources), along with personal commentary and reflection on that information.

The last page (or so) of your paper will contain your final reflection on your search, focusing both on the process and on what you learned about your word from the various sources.

N.B. You will include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper, so be sure to keep records of the full bibliographic information for each source you consult.

N.B. Keep track of your notes, printouts, and photocopies. These all go in your binder along with the draft and final copies of your paper.

I-search resources

2010-11-09T10:15:00.004-07:00

Biblos, a bible study tool. I suggest in particular comparing the King James (KJB) and Revised Standard (RSV) bibles to see if and where your word occurs.

Open source Shakespeare, an excellent way to search the plays for individual words.

One Look, a dictionary search engine listing all the online dictionaries in which a word appears. Useful for comparing different definitions. One of their links is for Noah Webster's original 1828 dictionary, the first distinctly "American" dictionary. Check it out.

American Verse Project, part of University of Michigan's vast array of online resources (Go Ohio State!). Its limitation is that it only cites American poems published prior to 1920 (still, very good for Whitman, Dickinson, Poe, John Greenleaf Whittier, other 19th century American poets.)

A slightly facetious, but perhaps useful site called word detective.

An online etymological dictionary, not a scholarly work, but a fascinating project being done by an ambitious amateur.

The Middle English Dictionary, another (gulp!) resource from University of Michigan.

Dr. Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary.

Updated word list

2010-11-06T17:45:00.001-07:00

Here is the updated list I promised yesterday. I also sent it to your school e-mail. Hope you're having a good weekend.

•    Anger
•    Atonement
•    Beauty
•    Belief
•    Bliss
•    Brave
•    Burden
•    Calm
•    Chance
•    Chaos
•    Charity
•    Charm
•    Confusion
•    Courage
•    Cruel
•    Cunning
•    Curious
•    Curse
•    Darkness
•    Despair
•    Destiny
•    Doom
•    Doubt
•    Ecstasy
•    Envy
•    Evil
•    Faith
•    Fame
•    Fate
•    Fear
•    Fortune
•    Freedom
•    Friend
•    Generous
•    Genius
•    Glee
•    Glory
•    Glutton
•    Good
•    Grace
•    Greatness
•    Greed
•    Guile
•    Guilt
•    Happiness
•    Hatred
•    Heart
•    Hero
•    Holy
•    Honor
•    Hope
•    Human
•    Idea
•    Ignorant
•    Illusion
•    Imagination
•    Inspiration
•    Jealousy
•    Journey
•    Joy
•    Justice
•    Kindness
•    Knowledge
•    Love
•    Loyalty
•    Luck
•    Lust
•    Mercy
•    Mind
•    Miracle
•    Natural
•    Normal
•    Pain
•    Passion
•    Patriot
•    Peace
•    Pride
•    Quest
•    Rational
•    Reality
•    Reason
•    Redemption
•    Revenge
•    Riches
•    Righteous
•    Sacrifice
•    Savage
•    Serene
•    Shame
•    Sin
•    Sorrow
•    Soul
•    Spirit
•    Success
•    Terror
•    Trust
•    Truth
•    Valor
•    Vanity
•    Wealth
•    Weird
•    Wisdom
•    Wit
•    Wonder

Chaucer test

2010-11-04T15:58:00.002-07:00

4 parts

1. Identification--The Hundred Years War. Courtly Love. Canterbury Cathedral. Exemplum.

2. Paraphrase--rewrite a brief passage from CT in modern English. Stay as close as possible to the meaning of the original but express that meaning in sentences that make clear sense in contemporary style.

3. Match the pilgrims--a list of pilgrims and a list of descriptions from the GP

4. Passages from the Miller's Tale and the Pardoner's Tale--identify the speaker or situation or a key word or a central irony. Each passage will contain some context clue relevant to the question being asked.

I-Search a Word--paper assignment #3

2010-11-04T15:25:00.006-07:00

Assignment: Write a paper of 5 to 8 pages (5 to 6 for English IV, 7 or 8 for AP) containing an extended definition of a single word, a commonly used word, but one with an abstract or intangible quality to its meaning. In your paper you will make references to the sources you have consulted, but the style of the paper will be a first-person account of your search for the word’s ultimate meaning and an analysis of what you learn along the way.

Sources: Consult the following sources to include all the necessary information in your paper:

2. A good unabridged or international dictionary—what key definitions does the dictionary give for the word? What is its etymology?

3. A print or online thesaurus—what are the most important synonyms for your word? Include a list from the thesaurus in the sources section of your folder.

4. A Concordance to Shakespeare—in which plays does the word occur? Copy the speeches containing the word and the plays in which they are found.

5. A Concordance to the Bible—list the verses containing the word and copy these verses onto a page in your sources section.

6. A statement of what the word means to you, both before and after you conduct your research.

Process: Gather your findings in a binder. The first thing in the binder you submit will be the final copy of your paper, then your draft, edited by two peers and one other person (a third peer, a parent, a friend), and a section containing the printouts of all your research materials with sources clearly indicated in full MLA format.

Schedule:

·H Have your word chosen and approved by me by the beginning of class Tuesday, November 9. (Everyone must have a different word.)

· We will spend that day (Wednesday for section 4) in the library looking at the OED and other source material.

Your blog for Monday November 15 will include your previous understanding of the word along with a brief summary of what you have learned so far in your research. It may be incorporated in some fashion into your draft later.

· We will return to the library after our vocab quiz Friday November 19.

Monday, November 22, bring your drafts to class, five pages minimum to earn credit for this part of the assignment.

Binders are due in my classroom by 3PM, Tuesday, November 23. Final drafts must also be submitted by that time to turnitin.com (assignment title: I-Search a Word).

Words: So far I’ve brainstormed 40-some words, but I need your help coming up with further ideas, so that everyone works with a different word for this assignment. Here is my list:

·A Atonement Beauty Belief Chaos Confusion Courage Darkness Despair Doom Doubt Ecstasy Envy Fear Freedom Friend Glutton Grace Greatness Happiness Hatred Heart Holy Honor Imagination Jealousy Journey Joy Kindness Knowledge Love Loyalty Mercy Natural Passion Quest Redemption Revenge Riches Shame Spirit Success Wealth Wisdom Wit

What word interests you sufficiently to spend two weeks researching and writing about its history and most important meanings? After I review this assignment in class Friday, November 5, I will accept email requests for words beginning Sunday morning at 9 AM. By class time Tuesday November 9 everyone must have selected a word to work with.

Miller's Tale discussion topic

2010-10-27T09:29:00.003-07:00

How has Chaucer made the tale "fit" the teller? In how many ways can we identify the precise nature of the relationship between the tale and its teller?

Specifically, let us consider the following:
• the Miller's choice of material (does the fabliau match what we know of the miller's personality?)
• methods and depth of characterization (how much do we know about each character? how "dimensional" are they? why?)
• use of key details (find examples of little choices in keeping with the miller's interests and character. what are the most interesting facts about each character, at least to the miller?)
• use of language (what words does the miller especially like? what examples of puns can you find?)
• sense of humor/ tone (which parts are intended humorously? what kind of humor is it? Is the miller making fun of any of his characters?)
• "fabliau justice" (do the characters get what they deserve? If not in our eyes, how about in the miller's system of justice?)
• in what way(s) does the Miller's Tale "quite" the Knight's Tale?

Additional Chaucer links

2010-10-13T09:17:00.002-07:00

1. The short piece we looked at in class about the Three Estates, by Professor Debora Schwartz of Cal Poly University English department.

2. The essay on "Medieval Estates and Orders" referred to on page 170 in our textbook.

3. Side-by-side modern English translation and original Middle English version of the General Prologue, courtesy Towson State University, Maryland.

Pronouncing Middle English--links

2010-10-12T11:06:00.004-07:00

First, professor Jane Zatta, Southern Illinois University, reads the General Prologue. (The audio file is broken into units of about 12 lines, but her voice is quite clear)

Next, a YouTube file containing an audio reading and a phonetic transliteration of the lines. (The audio is better than the phonetics, which don't always match what the voice is reading.) I haven't identified the voice.

A page on the Harvard (pronounced Hahvahd) web site, which contains both the original text, a line-by-line modernized version, and a sound file.

Finally, a list of several available recordings, both from the General Prologue and some of the tales, provided by the English department at Virginia Military Institute. (You need the Real Audio Player software to listen to some of these recordings).

Listen to several recordings. Notice that not all ME (Middle English) readers pronounce words the same. Still, by listening to the opening lines several times, you can get a better sense of the sound of the English language 600 years ago. Practice repeating along with the voice of the reader; the more you do so, the more quickly you will be able to memorize the material.

"Shed jewel" October 12-December 15

2010-10-06T09:31:00.009-07:00

Week 8: October 11-15

No School Monday--Fall Break
Day 1: No assignment--Bring Lit books to class for Intro to Chaucer
Day 2: Read pp. 165-171, up to line 42 ("at a knight thanne wol I first biginne")
Friday: Read pp. 171-177, to line 286; MCQz, RdgQz? (End 1st Marking period)

Week 9: October 18-22

Monday: Read pp. 177-183, to line544; blog 6 (topic from chapter 3 or a character from GP)
Day 2: Read pp. 183-190; bring vocal books to class
Day 3: Read pp. 191-196, to line 230 ("of farting")
Day 4: Read pp. 196-201, to line 492 ("go save oure lif'); vocab quiz lessons 7-8

Week 10: October 25-29 (revised)

Monday: Read pp. 202-207; perform memorized recitations of GP lines 1-18, with feeling
Day 2: Make a Difference Day
Day 3: Finish Miller's Tale; finish recitations, with feeling
Friday: Continue discussion of Miller's Tale; No Qz

Week 11: November 1-5 (revised yet again--3rd time's the charm?)

Monday: Read the Pardoner's Tale, pp. 235-249; probable RdQz (it's been a while); blog #6: locate 5 lines in the Pardoner's Tale which interest you but about which you have a question; blog about these lines; copy them, ask your question, pose a possible answer or personal reaction.
Day 2: Continue discussion of Pardoner's Tale
Day 3: Wrap up discussion
Friday: MCQz 5; Intro "I-Search Word" papers, 5 - 8 pages, due Tuesday, November 23

Week 12: November 8 - 12

Monday: Test #2, General Prologue, Miller's Tale, Pardoner's Tale, chapter 3 Faire Englische
Day 2: Read chapter 4, Oure Faire Englische Tung; library orientation and work day #1 for I-Search papers, including OED
Day 3: Read Twelfth Night, pp. 510-518; bring Vc books to class
Friday: Twelfth Night, pp. 518-526 + VcQz 9 & 10

Week 13: November 15-19

Monday: Twelfth Night, pp. 527-536; blog (#7) your word--what do you already know about your word, why did you choose it, what new information have you discovered so far, what resources have you used???
Day 2: Twelfth Night, pp. 536-545; bring vocab books to class
Day 3: Twelfth Night, pp. 545-556
Day 4: VcQz 11 & 12; library work day #2

Week 14: November 22-26

Monday: Bring drafts of I-Search papers to class, MINIMUM 5 pages
Tuesday: Papers due, all sections, hard copy and turnitin.com
Wednesday: Thanksgiving break--no class Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday

Week 15:November 29 - December 3

Monday: Twelfth Night, pp. 556-562
Day 2: Twelfth Night, pp. 562-72
Day 3: Wrap up
Day 4: Quotation quiz

Week 16: December 6 - 10

Monday: Blog 8: What is Shakespeare's message about love and how does it compare to or intersect with your own view? (You don't need to quote from the play for this assignment, but you must refer to specific characters and incidents in your discussion) 500-600 words

(N.B.--If you see the performance at Mesa Arts Center, you may substitute a blog focusing on 3 ways that seeing the play changed or enhanced your understanding or appreciation of the text or differed significantly from reading it.)

Week 17: December 13 - 17

Wednesday, December 15--Semester exam, 9AM, Hormel

Medieval Romance

2010-10-01T10:26:00.003-07:00

I. • The hero is a knight, a member of a rare and select company, known for his courage and valor.
• The knight must respond to a challenge, often setting for himself, on behalf of his religion, his liege lord, or a captive lady, a difficult or seemingly impossible task.
• The heroic knight must perform noble deeds in the fulfillment of this challenge.
• The knight has a strong relationship, characterized by great chivalry on his part, often involving love, with a beautiful, sometimes mysterious lady.
• The adventures are set in vague, imaginary, unearthly, or exotic settings.
• The mystery and suspense of the adventure often derive from the existence of supernatural elements in the tale.
• Concealed or disguised identities often figure prominently in the pursuit of the adventure.
• Mystical numbers such as 3 or 5 are often used and repeated.
• The knight’s courage and faith will be sorely tested during his adventure, and he will experience moments of doubt and weakness.

source: http://www.loyno.edu/~MidAges/medievalromance.html

II.

"romance" originally referred to the "vernacular" language in which courtly tales were composed, to distinguish them from "real" literature written in Latin.
Eventually, the term referred to the kind of tales popular in Anglo-Norman courts, stories of the chivalric adventures of knights and their ladies, often set in the court of King Arthur.
Early audiences were largely women, a queen or duchess and ladies of her court, who wanted to see women in more important roles than in the earlier male-bonding epics of the Anglo-Saxons. So the poets produced tales in which the knight is still a brave warrior but is now motivated by the desire to serve a lady in a chivalric way.
Thus the tales developed a relationship later known as "courtly love," in which the knight serves his lady (usually NOT his wife) with obedience and submission (she controls the relationship), and is inspired by her love to do great deeds.
Extramarital aspect is not inherently immoral but rather an idealized romantic relationship which can therefore not exist in the "real" context of medieval marriage (typically based on monetary, political, or dynastic goals, NOT love). Therefore the quasi-adulterous quality that bothers modern readers was probably at that time beside the point.

Source: Prof. Debora Schwartz, Cal Poly University (Link)

Questions:
What form do these characteristics of medieval romance take in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?

How have these conventions been adapted, in exciting ways, in contemporary popular culture, such as books, films, graphic novels, or comic books?

Paper #2

2010-09-30T09:18:00.004-07:00

Choose one of the following topics for a paper due Thursday, October 7 (for all sections, including those not normally meeting on Thursday). Use only your ability to interpret and explain the text itself. Do not look online for supplemental information.

Topic 1

Using only the evidence of Paradise Lost, Book 9, lines 834 – 1189 (N.B. Not all of these lines were assigned or discussed in class), describe the relationship between Adam and Eve as Milton presents it.

Topic 2

After his final encounter with the Green Knight, Gawain takes the green belt because he will “remember with shame the faults and the frailty of the flesh perverse, how its tenderness entices the foul taint of sin.” Yet Arthur and his court celebrate Gawain and “agree with gay laughter and gracious intent that the lords and the ladies . . .a baldric should have . . of a bright green, to be worn with one accord for that worthy’s sake.”

In your opinion, is the green belt a symbol of Gawain’s failure or of his worth as a knight? Support your interpretation with brief references to the text.

Notes

As before, use only the assigned reading as a source. Do not seek additional material from any secondary source.
Papers are due Thursday, October 7 for all sections, both hard copy and turnitin.com.
For quoted material, use parenthetical line numbers rather than pages.
Suggested lengths: 750 words (2-3 pages) for English IV, 1000 words (3-4 pages) for AP students.
Check here for important reminders about heading, format, and style.

Blog assignment #5--Sept 22-26

2010-09-22T09:14:00.002-07:00

Please complete before Monday, September 27:

Post at least 5 comments on the most recent blogs left by your classmates last week. Remember, these blogs were either oral presentations or alternative points of view for specific scenes in Beowulf.

Each comment you post should be 3 or 4 "meaty" sentences (thank you, Dr. A).

Be as specific as you can. Point out choices the writer made that you admired. Point out ideas or facts or sentences you enjoyed. Point out things you wouldn't have thought of yourself. Since our blogs are public and this is an assignment, your job is not to be snarky, ironic, sarcastic, or "smack" talk your friends and classmates. Your goal here is to be an appreciative member of someone else's reading public, so that we all have the opportunity to experience writing for a real audience.

Remember, links to everyone's blog can be found on mine. Also, to avoid anyone being inadvertently neglected, please do NOT post a comment on someone's blog that already has 5 existing comments. Move on to someone else's. (You can, of course, avoid this particular issue by being among the first to post your comments.) If you wish to post MORE than 5 comments, you may then go back and post anywhere, even those entries which already have 5.

Any questions?

Sample test questions

2010-09-15T08:45:00.002-07:00

ID's--Breca, Freawaru, "forgyf us ure gyltas," semantics, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Heatho-Bards

Passages--give specific context (speaker and situation) and explain the significance of a passage to the work as a whole:
"Let whoever can win glory before death. When a warrior is gone, that will be his best and only bulwark. So arise, my lord, and let us immediately set forth on the trail of this troll-dam."

Essay--two paragraphs providing examples and brief discussion of a topic: "One essential quality of an epic is that it depicts the most important customs of a culture. What customs of Germanic culture are given greatest emphasis in the poem?

Blog 4--September 20

2010-09-15T08:34:00.001-07:00

Take a look at Beowulf through a pair of eyes other than your own. Pretend to be one of the following characters and write in that voice. Stay true to the content of the poem, but be creative in your presentation of the point of view you choose.

1. You are Wiglaf. Describe your thoughts at the funeral of Beowulf. What thoughts and feelings are going through your mind and heart?

2. You are the Danish coast guard. Describe the arrival of Beowulf and the Geats, including your thoughts and impressions.

3. You are Hreporter, correspondent for Hrothgar's Heroic Herald, otherwise known as the Danish Daily Dispatch. Write your account of the victory feast and celebration following Beowulf's killing of Grendel.

4. Choose another minor character and re-create that character's part of the story in first-person point of view.

Mea Culpa

2010-09-02T07:53:00.003-07:00

I forgot that the chowderheads who publish the vocab book redid the quizzes so that they now cover two, not three, lessons at a whack. So the first quiz is lessons 1 & 2, the next 3 & 4, and so on.

Our apologies for any confusion or inconvenience--The Management

Beowulf links

2010-08-31T11:05:00.002-07:00

A couple of sites with a wealth of information on Old English and the Beowulf epic:

The first, by Syd Allan, contains information on many topics related to the study of Old English literature and Beowulf in particular.

The second, by Benjamin Slade, contains, among other things, a dual-language translation of the poem, allowing us to see each line in comparison with the original Anglo-Saxon text.

Also, YouTube contains many videos, from those done by earnest amateurs to movie trailers to more scholarly presentations.

These are resources which can be explored for the purpose of creating short oral presentations in class.

Blog tips

2010-08-28T15:26:00.002-07:00

1. Locate and use the return key. After having plowed my way through several 500-word long paragraphs, I want to say how readers enjoy consuming ideas in nice bite-size paragraphs rather than having the entire three-course meal stuffed down our throats in a single mouthful. (Blogger's formatting doesn't always recognize tab indents, so I'd even suggest a double return between paragraphs to make the divisions clearer.)

2. Put word count in parentheses at the end of your entry.

3. Keep working to create your own voice. I'm enjoying reading your early posts, and I'll enjoy them even more as you work on sounding like the authentic, intelligent self you are and not what you think I want you to sound like. Many of you are already doing so; keep it up. Your writing is so much nicer if it has a recognizable touch of your personality in it.

4. Take my e-mail address out of the "blog send" box in your settings. And if you have a PS from me, PLEASE turn off the word verification setting.

5. Act like you're enjoying it (even if you're not) and eventually you will.

Clarification

2010-08-28T12:36:00.001-07:00

The projects at the ends of chapters in Faire Englishche will be assigned individually in class. The reading assignment is only the content of that chapter.

Sorry for any confusion--The Management

Updated schedule

2010-08-24T15:21:00.001-07:00

I've made some changes to the assignment schedule. The new one gets us to the same place as the old one by Friday, September 10 (end of week 3 and my 60th birthday) but the order of the assignments is different. Between the JLP retreat and the 9th grade trip, there were too many conflicts to justify having a paper due Friday Sept 3. See the schedule of assignments for details.

Assignments--August 23 - October 7

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English IV & AP—Major British Authors
Mr. Coon
Schedule of Assignments
August—October, 2010

Note: All assignments are DUE for the class day listed.

Week 1: August 23—27

Day 1: First day—welcome, syllabus, blog intro, assignments

Day 2: Set up account with Google Reader (see “how to start a blog,” on mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com); write blog assignment #1.

Day 3: Read chapter 1, Our Faire Englische Tung

Day 4: Quiz 1—Multiple choice (15 minutes); write blog assignment #2

Week 2: August 30—September 3

Day 1: Read chapter 2, Our Faire Englische Tung

Day 2: Anthology, pp. 1 - 7

Day 3: Anthology, pp. 26-35 (to l. 185)

Day 4: pp.35-41 (to l. 490); vocab quiz, lessons 1-2

Week 3: September 7—10 No classes Monday (Labor Day)

1: Anthology, pp. 41-48 (to l. 835)

2: Paper #1 due Wednesday, Sept 8 for all sections (including section 3 which does not meet)

3: Multiple choice quiz 2; read pp. 48-66 (l. 1650)

Week 4: September 13—17

1: blog #3 due; read pp. 66-83 (l. 2509)

2: pp. 83-97.

3: Vocab quiz 2 (lessons 3-4)

4: Test on Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon English

Week 5: September 20—24

1: blog #4 due; read pp. 723-732 (to l. 270)

2: read pp. 778-781 (to l. 171)

3. pp. 823-828 (ll. 567-833)

4: Multiple choice quiz 3; read pp. 829-834 (ll. 886-1098)

Week 6: September 27—October 1

1: blog #5 due; read chapter 3, Oure Faire Englische Tung

2: Read pp. 112-124

3. pp. 124-137

4: vocab quiz 3 (lessons 5-6). pp. 137-154

Week 7: October 4—7—No school Friday (Fall Break)

1: read pp. 154-165; no blog due

2. drafts due for paper #2; topics to be announced

3. Papers due; multiple choice quiz #4

Heading and format guidelines

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Click here for a document detailing requirements for heading and format of your papers.

Paper #1 assignment

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English IV & AP
Paper #1
Summer reading assignment
Due Friday, September 3, 2010

1. Papers must be submitted both as hard copy to me and digital file to turnitin (assignment title: Summer Reading Paper). If you will be absent Friday, your paper is due Thursday, September 2.
2. Follow guidelines on mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com for proper paper heading and format. Be sure to include the necessary information.
3. Length is 800-1000 words (approximately 3 pp) for English IV students and 1300-1600 (approx. 5 pp) words for AP students.
4. Use NO secondary sources for this assignment. Refer only to your own thoughts and the text of your selected novels. No google searches, no sparknotes, no yahoo answers, no Jstor articles, or any outside sources of any sort. Am I making myself sufficiently clear about this?

Topics

1a. (for English IV) “One of the great powers of literature is its ability to teach us what it means to be a human being. Whether the story we read is set in the past, present, or future, writers show us what is important to people, what they value most, what their deepest hopes, fears, conflicts, or dilemmas may be. Through a privileged glimpse into an imagined life, set in the context of a specific place and time, we gain new knowledge not only into that other reality but also into our own humanity.”—Prof. T-Bone McGanahan

Apply this statement to the novel you selected for your summer reading assignment. Select one character from that novel and, in an essay, explain how the writer gives the character recognizable humanity despite any differences in setting and circumstances between that character’s life and our own. Refer to the novel for specific examples to support your ideas. Avoid plot summary.

1b. (for English IV) If you both read the book and watched the movie based on that novel, write a paper comparing the two. In particular, assess the significance of the decisions made by the screenwriter and director in adapting the novel to film. How faithful was the adaptation? How successfully was the spirit and emotion of the novel translated to the screen? Be certain to use specific references to both media in your discussion.

2. (for AP students) Often, the most significant events in a novel are mental or psychological. For example, the key to understanding the novel may lie in an awakening, a discovery, or a change in consciousness (adapted from the 1988 Advanced Placement examination in English Literature and Composition).

Apply this statement to both of the novels you selected from the reading list. For each, briefly show how the writer gives internal events the same excitement, suspense, and climax we often associate with external action. Identify the internal change and suggest its significance to the novel as a whole. Refer specifically to both novels in the course of your discussion. Avoid plot summary.

Blog assignment #2--Most memorable books

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Think about the most memorable reading experiences you have ever had in your life. List 5 or 10 of them in a blog post, including a brief note about your reason for including each. Here are my choices; what are yours?

1. Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger. When I was 15 I thought it the truest book I'd ever read. I haven’t changed my mind all that much in the years since.
2. The stories of Edgar Allan Poe. I found these at my public library the summer I was 12 and couldn't stop reading. Nearly 50 years later, I can still picture the library book and its purple cover. The Pit and the Pendulum, The Gold Bug, Murders in the Rue Morgue—loved ‘em.
3. All the Kings Men, Robert Penn Warren. Read it the first time when I was 20. I’ve gone back to it several times since. The best account of hardball politics I know, but also a great story of personal redemption.
4. Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian. I love the whole series, all 20 volumes. I’ve read each one at least twice. The British navy during the Napoleonic wars comes alive and the characters are utterly memorable and convincing.
5. Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin. A burglar, a consumptive heiress, a flying horse, and bridges from the future—what a combination.
6. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole. The most outrageously funny book I've ever read. I laughed out loud often.
7. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon--another series—I read volume 7 this summer. Time travel, romance, and history in one ever-expanding package.
8. Lonesome Dove--Larry McMurtry--my all-time favorite western, and I’ve always loved westerns. Part of a series of 4 novels, but this one stands out as the best of the bunch.
9. Gone to Soldiers--Marge Piercy--my favorite WWII novel, follows the experiences of 10 characters from the war’s beginning to its end.
10. Anna Karenina--Tolstoy--read it one chapter a night before bedtime for three months—an amazing story. Lots of serious readers call this the best novel ever written.
11. Absalom Absalom AND The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner—I like them both so much I can’t choose between them. The closest thing to actually living in the Old South is immersing yourself in a Faulkner novel. Not easy, but they’re worth the effort
12. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen--my 2nd favorite 18th century novel.
13. Tom Jones, Henry Fielding--my favorite 18th century novel.
14. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens--he may be a bit out of fashion now, but I love Dickens stories, the breadth of them, the marvelously eccentric characters, the twists and turns of plot.
15. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain--the book I've read the most times, so many I've lost count.

Finally, at the risk of disappointing some of you severely, I hereby confess that I’ve never read a Harry Potter book. I keep meaning to; I just haven’t gotten to it yet. Same with the Twilight series, although I do have a favorite vampire book, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which comes close to making my list.

Blog assignment #1

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Go to www.blogger.com. You should be automatically directed to their start page. Follow the "three easy steps" :
--Create your account using your PCDS e-mail account and a password of your choice (suggestion: use the same account and password for your turnitin.com account). Since your blog will only be read by me and by your classmates, please use your first and last name as your display name; that way I always know whose blog I'm reading and you get credit for having written it.
--Name your blog. Whatever you like, but it's a school assignment, so be appropriate, please. For your blog's url, use firstname-lastname so that we may find each other's blogs easily during the year.
--Select a template for your blog. Pick whichever one you like, with one condition. My eyes are getting older and I can't read text set against a black or dark blue background, so please don't choose one of those templates.

After you create your template, click "start posting" to go to the editing page of your blog. From there, you have one more crucial task. Click the Settings tab, then the e-mail tab. Type my e-mail address in the box marked "BlogSend": (lance.coon@pcds.org). After I have an RSS feed for your blog, I’ll ask you to turn this setting off. But to get started you need to include this step or you may not receive credit for your blog entries. (IMPORTANT: Be sure to click "Save Settings" before closing this tab.)

Finally, one crucial setting. Open the "comments" tab, scroll down, and click the "NO" button next to a setting called "show word verification for comments." This one is important to save me a great deal of time and bother when I write comments back to you about your blog posts. Again, click "save settings" before you leave this section of your settings.

When you have completed all these steps, click the "Posting" tab and create your first blog entry.

For AP English: Write your first blog about the reading you did this summer. I’m interested not only in the books you chose from my recommendations but also any books you read on your own. Include a list of any books you have read since the beginning of June, both titles and authors, and then write a short piece about ONE of the titles you read. Pick the one that made the strongest impression on you, or the one you enjoyed the most, or the one that stayed with you the longest after you read it. Here is a link to such a piece, one I wrote last summer after I read Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. As you write, remember to be as specific as you can in your language, your reasons, your examples.

For English IV: Write a blog about the book you chose from the grade 12 Summer Reading List. If you read more than one title from the list, choose the one that made the strongest impression on you. In your blog (500 words or so), identify which aspects of the novel are most prominent, which ones go the furthest to explain the impression the book made on you. Was it an idea, a character who seemed particularly lifelike, a relationship, the ambiguity of the book's ending or meaning, something about the writer's style?

I recommend that you write, edit, spell-check, and word-count your letter as a word document then paste it into the box on the posting page of your blog. When you're done, give it a title, click the orange button marked "publish post," and voila!—you have created your first blog entry (410).

Syllabus

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English IV & AP
Major British Authors I
Syllabus
Mr. Coon; Fall 2010

I. Goals

This fall-semester course examines the origins of literature in English and traces the development of the English language from its Germanic roots to the eighteenth century. Readings include the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, excerpts from the narrative cycle The Canterbury Tales, the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, excerpts from the literary epic Paradise Lost, and lyric poetry of the 17th and 18th centuries. A supplemental text develops a historical understanding of the growth and development of the language itself.
Some students in the course have the AP designation attached to their enrollment. These students, chosen on the basis of their interest, prior achievements, and motivation level, supported by the department’s recommendation, are expected to meet slightly higher academic standards. AP students write one additional paper, write slightly longer papers, and take occasional quizzes based on practice materials drawn from previous AP English Literature examinations. Also, students enrolled with AP designation are required to take the second half of the Major British Authors sequence in the spring semester and sit for the AP exam in English Literature and Composition in May.

II. Textbook

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors, Eighth edition, Volume A

III. Additional texts
1. Vocabulary for Achievement, 6th course
2. Oure Faire Englische Tung: A Brief History of the English Language
3. Selected novels for summer reading

IV. Written work
The primary forum for written work is your blog. You are required to post weekly blog entries relating to the literature studied in the classroom. Your blogs will receive a grade, accounting for 30% of each quarter’s grade. Blog entries should be approximately 500 words in length (please indicate word count in parentheses at the end of each entry). I will not, however, grade by length alone; rather, quantity will be one of four criteria, along with regularity and completeness of entries, quality of style, and originality of content. Instructions about creating and posting blog entries may be found on my blog at mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com.
Occasionally I will ask you to respond to particular prompts or questions on my blog, but often there is no set topic for your weekly entries. Rather, I ask you to find an element of the assigned reading that interests you and discuss it thoughtfully. This comment may take many forms, a few of which are suggested here:
• Discuss a character’s actions, words, personality, moral values, or humanity.
• Comment on the writer’s style, use of language, tone, irony, or imagery.
• Consider a topic or idea raised in class discussion, trying to go beyond what has already been stated.
• Raise and discuss a question about the text under consideration.
• Discuss the importance or meaning of a key passage or scene from the reading.
• For longer works, show how a scene or passage develops a theme or pattern identified in class.
• Make a comparison between a scene, character, or idea from the literature and something from another source or from your own experience
• Use an idea from my blog or from that of one of your classmates as a point of departure for your response.
• Locate relevant research material on the web, post a link to the site on your blog, and discuss your choice.

In all cases, your goals are to demonstrate close, careful reading of assigned texts, challenge yourself to creative, original thinking, and develop your fluency as a writer. In addition to blog entries, several times each semester, I will assign papers, either revisions of blog entries or interpretations of assigned novels, plays, poems, or stories.

IMPORTANT: HEADINGS FOR PAPERS—Always head your papers with the following information: your name, date, turnitin receipt number, and word count (your word processing program should perform this last task for you automatically).

V. Turnitin.com
In addition to submitting hard copies of your papers this year, you are required to submit electronic copies of all papers to turnitin.com. These instructions will help you submit your papers. Use your PCDS e-mail address and the same password for turnitin.com that you use for your account at blogger.com.
• On your web browser, go to turnitin.com. Register as a new user or login to the personal home page you created last year. You must give your PCDS e-mail address and a personal password which contains both letters and numbers to register. Click “student” as your user type. Give whatever other information may be necessary as you move through the required fields.
• When you reach your personal home page, click “join new class.” Then enter a class ID and a class enrollment password. For AP students, the class ID is 1598905 and the password “APeng”; for World Literature students (non-AP) the class ID is 1875359 and the password is “engIV”. Click “submit” when you finish. N.B: You only need to complete this step once.
• Then submit your paper. When you click on the class title, you will go to the class history page. Click on the word “submit” in the middle navigation bar. Enter the title of your paper and select the assignment with the correct date from the pull down menu. Assignments are listed by the title of the work and the date an assignment is due.
• After entering your title and selecting the correct assignment, paste your essay into the box marked “main text.” (In my experience, the copy and paste method works better than the upload method. You may, of course, find otherwise). You may ignore the boxes marked abstract and bibliography unless otherwise instructed. When your paper has been pasted into the “main text” box, click “submit.”
• Remember to put your digital receipt number on the assignment before you give it to me. Otherwise your assignment will be marked late and penalized accordingly.

VI. Participation and attendance
• Class discussion is a crucial part of the course. Therefore, it is imperative that we all treat one another with respect and behave in such a way as to contribute to, not disrupt, an atmosphere conducive to maximum learning.
• Participation in class is mandatory. I understand that the introverts have difficulty speaking in front of your peers and me; nevertheless, I expect you to contribute meaningfully to class activities and discussions. You must come to class having done the reading assigned and be prepared to discuss the material, answer questions, venture informed opinions, and articulate personal responses.
• Participation grades are assigned as follows and account for 10% of your grade in the class: "A" students are fully engaged, on time with the necessary books and supplies. They display obvious enthusiasm for the tasks of the class: reading, talking, listening, working in a group, thinking about a problem. "B" students' engagement varies slightly, sometimes at "A" level, sometimes not. "C" students are generally involved but with noticeable lapses. They may arrive late to class or frequently forget materials. They spend time on things other than the work at hand: chatting with friends, doing homework for another class, catching up on sleep, or staring off in space. "D" students exhibit these behaviors to an even greater degree, becoming a distraction to the work of the class, having a negative impact on the group's ability to get its work done, regularly coming to class unprepared.
• The first six excused absences each semester, not including those for School business (athletic competitions, class trips, performances, field trips, etc) will not be penalized. The seventh, ninth, and eleventh absences will result in a one-third letter grade penalty in your participation and attendance grade, and the thirteenth will result in a participation grade no higher than D for the semester. Latenesses to class will be reported to the Dean of Students. Detention begins on the third and subsequent lateness to each class.

VII. Vocabulary
• Three new lessons in the vocabulary book are assigned every other week. We will look briefly at the new words during the first class of the week, so please bring your books to that session. Quizzes will take place the first 10 minutes of class on alternate Fridays unless otherwise notified.
• For first semester, we will cover lessons 1-15; for the second, lessons 16-30. Quizzes will contain all 30 words from the three lessons.
• Missed vocabulary quizzes must be made up at your earliest possible convenience. After one week, barring extraordinary circumstances, missing scores will be entered as zeroes.

VIII. Grading policy

• Grades are determined on a point system in which each assignment is weighted by the number of points it contains. Points will be totaled at the end of each quarter and semester and grades determined in accordance with the percentages contained in your student handbook.
• Grades from individual assignments are then weighted into categories as follows: blogs (20%), papers and tests (50%), vocabulary and quizzes (20%), participation (10%).
• Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Work turned in during or after class is considered late and will be penalized. Late work is eligible for a score no higher than 75%, depending on the quality of the assignment and the degree of lateness. If you are absent the day an assignment is due, either have a classmate turn it in or fax the assignment to the Upper School office (602-224-6177).
• Students who miss quizzes or tests because of excused absence must make arrangements for make-up immediately upon returning to school. Missing work (quizzes or assignments never turned in or made up) will result in an incomplete grade for the quarter or semester.
• Any student who establishes a clear pattern of failing to complete the assigned reading according to the prescribed schedule will receive a semester grade of D or F, regardless of that student’s scores on other assignments. Repeated missing or poor written work, failed quizzes or tests, or the inability to supply basic factual information in class will be taken as signs of not reading.
• All assignments must be completed in accordance with the school’s honesty policy. See your handbook for details and be certain you know the difference between plagiarism and acceptable use of source material.

X. Contact information
• In person—room 311. Stop by to talk or ask a question anytime I’m free. My schedule is posted on the door of my classroom. To make up a quiz, go over an assignment, a speech draft, or a college essay, please make an appointment first.
• By voice-mail—602-956-0253 x4296
• By fax—602-224-6177
• By e-mail—Lance.Coon@pcds.org

SHK--Final projects 2010

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Follow this link to project requirements and schedule.

English IV--Summer Reading List

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English IV & AP
2010 Recommended summer reading

Prior to the first week of the new school year, please read at least one of the following titles, all written by authors from the British Isles or Commonwealth. If you are enrolled in English IV AP, please select at least two titles, one from list I and one from list II. You are, of course, encouraged to choose additional titles for your own pleasure reading. (N.B. “H” designates historical fiction, set in a period earlier than its date of composition; “F” represents a work set in the future.)

I. Nineteenth century
Jane Austen, Persuasion (1818)
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859) (H)
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)

II. Twentieth/Twenty-first century
Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) (F)
Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) (H)
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (1962) (F)
A.S. Byatt, Possession (1990)
Peter Carey, The True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) (H)
Roddy Doyle, The Van (1991)
Nadine Gordimer, July’s People (1981)
Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955)
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (2003)
George Hagen, Tom Bedlam (2007) (H)
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (1995)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932) (F)
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (1989) (H)
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942)
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009) (H)
Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2002)
Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001) (H)
Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (1995) (H)
Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander (1969) (H)
Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (1992) (H)
George Orwell, 1984 (1949) (F)
Graham Swift, Waterland (1983)
Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger (1992) (H) or Morality Play (1995) (H)

Several of these novels have been adapted into fine movies. Feel free to rent the film after you read the novel, as you could elect to write a brief comparison of the two for your first written assignment.

Shakespeare--important dates

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Friday, April 16--Vocab 23, 24
Wed. April 21 -- Test on Twelfth Night (ID's, a few passages, a short essay topic)
Friday, April 23 -- Sonnet performances in honor of Shakespeare's (and Sarah's) birthday (thanks to Sarah A and Salona for cake and cookies)
Tuesday, April 27 -- Review plays & vocab lessons 25 & 26
Wednesday, April 28 -- Selection of final performance projects
Friday, April 30 -- Last vocab quiz (25, 26)
Thurs, May 13 -- Final project performances in Dorrance, 11:30 - 12:15, public invited
Friday, May 14 -- Last day of class
Saturday, May 15 -- Prom
Monday, May 17 -- Awards Day
Tuesday, May 18 to Friday May 21 -- Senior class trip
Monday, May 24 -- Final exams for any unfortunate souls with averages below 72.5%
Thursday, June 3 -- Graduation rehearsal, graduation
Friday & Saturday, June 4 & 5 --Greer Days celebration & parade

AP--week of April 12

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Day 1--small group discussions of The Glass Menagerie. All answers must be supported by examples drawn from the text of the play.
Group 1--what are Amanda's admirable qualities? How do they add to the presentation of her character? How sympathetic is her total portrayal in the play?
Group 2--Why does Jim respond so warmly, even protectively, to Laura? What do they have in common? Why does he pull back from her so suddenly?
Group 3--How does Tom, unlike Laura, protect himself from the debilitating atmosphere of the apartment? How do his soliloquies employ irony to illustrate his methods of psychological self-defense?

Day 2--before class, read Arthur Miller's essay "Tragedy and the Common Man," on p. 1833. Which of his ideas about tragedy differ most sharply from those implied in the plays of Sophocles and Shakespeare? in class, read the handout from "The Play is Memory," by Benjamin Nelson. Discuss this question: to what extent do you agree with his implication that the major shortcoming of The Glass Menagerie is that its characters lack tragic stature?

Day 3--Read Act 1 of Fences; come to class prepared to discuss your initial impressions of all the central characters. Also, in-class exercise on AP style analysis.

Day 4--vocab 23 & 24 quiz. Short video on the career of August Wilson. Continue reading and researching your outside novels.

Monday, April 19--finish reading Fences.

Final projects--African-American Lit

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Suggested reading list for final projects.
N.B. Projects must be “multi-media” in some way. That is, the reading may be accompanied by research in an area related to its theme, into African-American popular culture, into film, art, and music, and the results of this learning are to by synthesized into a powerpoint presentation involving text and either audio or visual supplements.

Alice Walker -- The Color Purple
James Baldwin -- If Beale Street Could Talk
Audre Lorde ???
Gloria Naylor -- Mama Day, The Women of Brewster Place
Ishmael Reed -- Mumbo Jumbo
Rita Dove -- Mother Love
Ntozake Shange -- Nappy Edges, for colored girls who have considered suicide . .
Toni Morrison -- Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz
Lucille Clifton -- Adventures of Everett Anderson—all volumes
Terri MacMillan -- Waiting to Exhale
Carolivia Herron -- Thereafter, Johnnie
Barbara Smith -- Home Girls
Paule Marshall -- Brown Girl, Brownstones
August Wilson -- The Piano Lesson
Ernest Gaines -- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Alex Haley -- Roots
Maya Angelou -- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Walter Mosley -- Devil in a Blue Dress

AP schedule April 5 - May 6

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Week of April 5--Read The Glass Menagerie, scenes 1 - 5, pp. 1836 - 1860 for Thursday; multiple choice practice quiz Friday; blog on outside reading over the weekend.

Week of April 12--reading blogs due Sunday night; read The Glass Menagerie, scenes 6 & 7, pp. 1860 - 1885 for Monday; Read Fences, Act 1, pp. 1996 - 2026 for Thursday; vocab quiz 23-24 Friday.

Week of April 19--Read Fences, act 2, pp. 2026 - 2048 for Monday; multiple choice practice quiz Friday; finish novels and JStor research for papers

Week of April 26--Write papers; five typed pages due in class Tuesday/Wednesday; final drafts due Friday, April 30 (approx 2000 words); 60-minute multiple choice practice exam Thursday April 29.

Week of May 3--Exam review; exams in Government, French, Spanish, Statistics, Calculus, and Chinese; AP exam in English literature Thursday, May 6, 7:45 AM.

No class Friday, May 7

Week of May 10--To be Announced. We will definitely have class Friday May 14 (last day for seniors)

AP--Link to reading list

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Here is the assignment for the final paper of this course.

Hurston paper

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English IV: African-American Literature
Paper assignment
February 2010

WHAT: A three- to four-page paper (approximately 1000 words) discussing Hurston’s development of the character of Janie Crawford in the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

WHEN: Papers are due, both hard copy and to turnitin.com, Tuesday, March 2.

HOW: Trace Hurston’s presentation of Janie through the major stages of her life: childhood with Nanny, marriages to Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake, and sitting on her porch telling her story to Pheoby. Locate and discuss evidence of the growth of Janie’s strength and sense of self. Which of her thoughts, feelings, and actions are most indicative of the woman she becomes through the forty years of her life? To what extent does she embody the lives and concerns of women in general, not just those of one semi-literate Southern rural experience?

Outside sources for this assigment are optional. But if you do choose to do any research, be certain to document the source of your content, both verbatim quotations and broader concepts or ideas, in the text of your essay and on a works cited page.

DETAILS: Include a word count and digital receipt number in your heading. Submit your paper under the assignment titled “Hurston paper”.

SUGGESTIONS: Think about the issues that affect women, both in life and in literature—issues such as autonomy, self-expression, the need for community, self-determination, sexuality, the desire to love and be loved, and equality—and look for evidence of these themes in Janie’s experience. Which are most important to Janie? Where does she make the most progress? Where does she remain the same?

Hurston journal entry

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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Chapters 19 & 20

A few things stood out to me when I re-read the ending of the novel:

1. When the hurricane comes (even though that's in chapter 18) Janie, Tea Cake, and their friends on the Muck can't interpret the warning signs. The narrator even points out that the Seminoles and the local wildlife start fleeing before the storm, but ironically the Black farm workers are lulled into a false sense of confidence because they are making good money with their work and because the Whites are not fleeing.

2. The scene is West Palm Beach where Tea Cake is forced to work burying the dead from the hurricane is one of the few places in the novel where racism is explicitly addressed. Even in death, and despite the stench of decomposition, White corpses receive better treatment than the common grave of the Blacks, and local police use their power arbitrarily to force refugees like Tea Cake to labor without pay.

3. The death of Tea Cake is a powerful scene. It's not fully clear why Janie doesn't hide the gun she finds under Tea Cake's pillow, but she is conscious enough of the fear that is taking over his mind to turn the cylinder so that three empty chambers will be the first fired. As a result, she has time to defend herself, making sure to wait until Tea Cake's intentions to harm her are clear, after he fires all three empty cylinders. Only then does she use the rifle to keep him from shooting her with a live cylinder.

4. Janie's trial is curiously understated. She tells her story to judge and jury, but rather than let us hear her testimony in her own words, the narrator summarizes, telling us "she just sat there and told and when she was through she hushed." In a law court, as at Jody's store, Janie's direct voice is absent, reminding us that the only time in the novel she has consistently had a strong, clear voice was while she was with Tea Cake.

5. And in the telling of her story to Pheoby. Inspired by Janie's recounting of her life story, especially of her time on the Muck, Pheoby says, "Ah done growed ten feet higher from jus' listening' to you, Janie." Despite Janie's grief over Tea Cake's death, she has come home satisfied to be there, having learned from her life's journey, "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got to go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves." She can sit on her porch in peace, finally able to "pull in her horizon like a fish-net." (483)

Shakespeare paper assignment

2010-02-19T09:47:00.002-07:00

http://mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com/2009/02/shakespeare-shylock-paper.html

Due Tuesday, March 2, both hard copy and turnitin.com

AP--February 16 - March 12

2010-02-16T09:35:00.002-07:00

For Tuesday and Wednesday, February 16 & 17--Poetry wrap-up

For Thursday, February 18--In-class essay: Poetry analysis

For Friday, February 19: Vocab quiz, lessons 17 & 18. Read Oedipus The King, pages 1277 - 1322. Also read my Introduction to Tragedy and the questions at the end of the play. This is one of the most famous plays in all of Western literature. Why do you think that is? How does Sophocles give the play both philosophical and psychological depth in addition to developing the emotional tension which is central to the experience of all drama, especially tragedy? What does Oedipus’ story represent? How does it raise issues relevant to all human life? This weekend, group 1 will blog on some aspect of this play (entries due over the weekend by Sunday evening, please), while group 2 will post comments on at least 5 of your classmates blogs (be polite, be respectful, be responsive to others’ ideas—comments due by Monday night February 22).

[Group 1: Sarah B, Bianca, Ariel, Hannah, Maude, Basil, Yuka, Michael, Patrick, Peter, Margo, David, Margaret M, MacKenzie, Taylor, Ari; group 2: everyone else. Thank you, Spenser, for using random numbers to generate these groups.]

For Thursday, February 25: Read Antigone, pages 1323 - 1352 in our anthology. Look at the links on my blog and the questions at the end of the play. Why is Antigone’s dilemma important? What does it represent? Which character, Antigone or Creon, best fits the definition of the tragic character from the Introduction to Tragedy? Blog entries for group 2 are due Sunday evening, February 28. Comments (at least 5) from group 1 are due by Monday evening March 1. Multiple choice quiz Friday the 26th.

For Tuesday and Wednesday, March 2 & 3--Read Acts 1 & 2 of Hamlet, pp. 1470 - 1518. Prepare an oral answer to one of the questions on page 1588.

For Friday, March 5 - Vocab quiz, lessons 19 & 20.

For Monday, March 8 - Read Acts 3 - 5 of Hamlet, pp. 1519 - 1587. Blog your answer to one of the questions on page 1589.

For Friday, March 12 - Multiple choice scoring workshop, test of 1987. Read pages 1677 - 1718 in the anthology (Acts 1 & 2, A Doll's House).

Shakespeare--Performance assignment #1 (2010)

2010-01-22T11:10:00.001-07:00

Link to instructions for Hamlet performance assignment

AP--another option for writing about poetry

2010-01-12T12:39:00.002-07:00

For this assignment, if you wish, you might consider forms other than the expository essay as a way to "waterski across the poem, waving at the author's name." You may, for example, choose to enter into the human experience of the poem by rewriting the poem in another form. You could do so by writing an interior monologue of the speaker's thoughts and feelings, by writing a short story that contains the essential experience conveyed through the poem, by writing a letter from one character in the poem to another. Your writing could take whatever form, whether essay or something else, you think will best convey the essential qualities of the poem. The one requirement is that what you write must remain true to the original poem in some important way.

One of my favorite student pieces, written over 20 years ago by Miko McGinty, takes us into a famous William Carlos Williams poem about forbidden fruit:

Beyond What I (He) Just Said

I walked into the kitchen late this morning, and found a note from my lover. The note was a poem.

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

I woke at daybreak. I stretched and looked at the woman in bed with me. And smiled. She was tangled in the sheets, her legs were bare, but the night had been warm, and she looked comfortable. I showered and dressed and went into the kitchen. In the icebox were two plums, so purple they were almost black. They were firm and cold and when I bit into the first one, the juice dripped onto my fingers. They were the sweetest plums I have ever eaten. I left a note for her to explain why I had eaten them.

I read the note, and smiled. He enjoys life, he takes pleasure in small things, events. He is teaching me to enjoy them too, by sharing. He is considerate--his leaving a note tells me that. He did not take those plums for granted. He is not a taker, he ate them and appreciated them. He gives to me his love, he gives his experiences. He gives me this note. Through the poem I share in the eating. I can see him biting the plum, his skin as dark, though the color of the earth instead of the color of the night sky. He savors the flesh, he sees the beauty in the event. Of course I forgive him. I love him.

I think about her, finding the note, perhaps smiling. I think about how the plums are like our life together, delicious and sweet, meant to be enjoyed. I know she understands the underlying message--the love that I wove into the note. It is wonderful that we now live together, that the icebox is not hers or mine but just "the" icebox. It is wonderful that I can leave a note explaining I ate "the" plums, not her plums. It is wonderful that I can leave a note that addresses day to day life.

He leaves me this note, just a short note. But it says more than I ate the plums, it says we live together, it says I want to share with you. It just says I love you.

AP--Poems for Discussion

2010-01-11T09:19:00.002-07:00

Section 1
M 1/11--LCC--My Last Duchess 668
Tu 1/12--LCC--Metaphors (771) & "Swan and Shadow" (885)
Th 1/14--Christina--"The Silken Tent" p. 780
Fr 1/15--Brian--"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" p. 1102
Tu 1/19--Sarah--"Those Winter Sundays" p. 1173
Th 1/21--Sophie B--"My Papa's Waltz" p. 674
Fr 1/22--Kevin--"When I Have Fears" p. 1129
Mo 1/25--Alex--"Dover Beach" p. 1078
Tu 1/26--Ariel--"Death Be Not Proud" p. 1101
Th 1/28--Hannah--"The World is Too Much With Us" p. 912
Fr 1/29--Maude--"That Time of Year" p. 1163
Mo 2/1--Sophie L--"Her Kind"--687
Tu 2/2 Basil White Lies 680
Th 2/4 Yuka Lady Lazarus 934
Fr 2/5 Katie When You Are Old 1190
Mo 2/8 Michael Dulce et Decorum Est 698
Tu 2/9 Patrick To an Athlete Dying Young 1124

Section 2
M 1/11 LCC My Last Duchess 668
W 1/13 LCC Metaphors 771 & Swan and Shadow 885
Th 1/14 Peter The Unknown Citizen 690
Fr 1/15 Margo My Papa's Waltz 674
W 1/20 Bianca Traveling Through the Dark 991
Th 1/21 Spenser Death Be Not Proud 1101
Fr 1/22 David White Lies 680
Mo 1/25 MargLiu Neutral Tones 897
We 1/27 MargMc Those Winter Sundays 1173
Th 1/28 Taylor One Art 998
Fr 1/29 Josh When you Are Old 1190
M 2/1 Zach The World 912
W 2/3 Katharine When I Have Fears 1129
Th 2/4 Mackenzie Dover Beach 1078
F 2/5 Asmit Batter My Heart 709
M 2/8 Ari Since There's No Help 858
W 2/10 Diana 100 Love Sonnets 973
Th 2/11 Devika The Silken Tent 780

Why We Read Books

2010-01-11T09:02:00.001-07:00

When you have read a book, you have added to your human experience. Read Homer and your mind includes a piece of Homer’s mind. Through books you can acquire at least fragments of the mind and experience of Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare—the list is endless. For a great book is necessarily a gift: it offers you a life you have not time to live yourself, and it takes you into a world you have not time to travel in literal time. A civilized human mind is, in essence, one that contains many such lives and many such worlds. If you are too much in a hurry, or too arrogantly proud of your own limitations, to accept as a gift to your humanity some pieces of the minds of Sophocles, of Aristotle, of Chaucer—and right down the scale and down the ages to Yeats, Einstein, E.B. White, and Ogden Nash—then you may be protected by the laws governing manslaughter, and you may be a voting entity, but you are neither a developed human being nor a useful citizen of a democracy.

--Poet and Professor John Ciardi, from a 1954 speech

AP--Waiting for the Barbarians

2009-12-07T08:41:00.003-07:00

What does the magistrate learn from his experiences?

1. He is wrong when he tells the barbarian girl, "Don't make a mystery of it, pain is only pain" (31) He cannot understand the meaning of what happened to her by having her tell him what Colonel Joll did to her. Doing so is compassionate but misguided. Pain cannot be understood second hand; it must be experienced to appreciate its power.
2. In the face of pain, nothing else matters any longer. "My torturers are interested only in demonstrating to me what it meant to live in a body, a body which can entertain notions of justice only as long as it is whole and well, which very soon forgets them when its head is gripped and a pipe is pushed down its gullet and pints of salt water are poured into it till it coughs and retches and flails and voids itself. . . They came to my cell to show me the meaning of humanity, and in the space of an hour they showed me a great deal" (113). The truth learned by every brutal regime, by every political prisoner, by every torturer and their victims, is that pain is more powerful than dignity, than humanity, than justice, than truth. Where there is pain, there can be nothing else. It is the only reality.
3. If one difference between the civilized and the barbaric is the existence of law, The Empire forfeits the right to consider itself civilized. The Magistrate, who represents and administers and believes in law and the force of law, who wants from the Empire nothing more than his day in court, his moment before the law, discovers that the law no longer has any meaning in a corrupt Empire run by its secret police. "They will use the law against me as far as it serves them, then they will turn to other methods. That is the Bureau's way. To people who do not operate under statute, legal process is simply one instrument among many" (82).
4. Nothing, not even the Empire, is more powerful than History: "Empire dooms itself to live in history and plot against history. One thought alone preoccupies the submerged mind of Empire: how not to end, how not to die, how to prolong its era" (131). Prolonging its era is the mission of agencies like the Bureau, but eventually their methods backfire, they doom themselves to defeat, and the forces of history, as they did long ago with the civilization the Magistrate has studied for the last twenty years, once again prevail.
5. No matter how painful the knowledge, the Magistrate must accept his own complicity in the nature of Empire. The events of the novel shatter his naive belief that the outpost under his rule was a benign, harmonious environment where Empire and Barbarian co-existed peacefully, where neither harmed the other. He is not, as he wished to be, the opposite of the Colonel, merely the other side of the coin: "I was the lie that Empire tells itself when times are easy, he the truth that Empire tells when harsh winds blow. Two sides of imperial rule, no more, no less" (133).

AP--end-of-semester schedule

2009-11-26T08:28:00.001-07:00

Week of November 30
Day 1--Read WFB, part 4, to p. 119; begin student-led discussions; blog 1 contfor WFB due if not written last week.
Days 2 through 4--Finish reading WFB; continue student-led discussions. No quiz.

Week of December 7
Day 1--Blog #2 due for WFB. Topic: Make a meaningful connection between WFB and Conrad's HOD. Before writing your blog, read "Three Ways of Going Wrong" by Douglas Kerr on JStor, (Modern Language Review, vol. 95, #1, http://www. jstor.org/stable/3736367) esp. pp. 21-27. Length: 400-500 words.
Day 2--Finish discussion of WFB. Both sections meet both Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday, December 9--Reading Day. No classes meet.
Friday, December 11--Office Hours. I will be available to answer questions from 11:00 AM (following the math exam) to 12:30 PM. Please bring a specific question you would like answered.

Week of December 14
Semester Exam Monday December 14, 9 AM, Hormel Arts Center. Format: AP-style multiple choice questions (one-third), essay analyzing prose passage (one-third), essay on WFB/HOD (one-third).

English IV-final paper

2009-11-18T09:53:00.001-07:00

For your last essay of the semester, identify an important area of human life, human nature, or human values and write a paper of five to seven pages (1600-2000 words) discussing the theme you have identified. In your discussion, refer generously to three works we have studied. Choose one work from each of the following groups. Your third work may be chosen from either group.

Group A—Antigone; Things Fall Apart; A Doll's House; One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; Much Ado About Nothing; The Post Office

Group B—“War,” “Torn Lace,” “The Heavenly Christmas Tree,” “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” “Sunrise on the Veld,” “Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants,” a Garcia Marquez story, “Forty-Five a Month,” “Interpreter of Maladies”.

Your papers are due Monday, December 14 by 11 AM, hard copy with turnitin receipt number (turnitin title: 2009-Final Paper). Papers are to be turned in at the Upper School office. They will be collected as soon as my exam is over at 11 AM; papers arriving after that time will be marked late and penalized accordingly. Use MLA parenthetical style for textual references with list of Works Cited.

Schedule:

Week of November 30:

Day 1: Finish Much Ado about Nothing discussion, including examples of findings of search teams

Day 2—Much Ado About Nothing Quest

Day 3—Preliminary thesis and list of texts for final paper due, in writing, with a short note on each explaining why it was chosen—10 points

Day 4—Outlines brought to class for discussion and approval—10 points

Week of December 7
Monday, December 7—Three pages of draft due in class for editing—10 points

Tuesday, December 8—Five-page drafts brought to class for editing—20 points

Week of December 14

Monday, December 14—11 AM—papers due, both hard copy and turnitin.com, 1600-2000 words—150 points

(N.B.-point values may be adjusted slightly, as this assignment is weighted as 25% of the semester total by Upper School policy.)

Sample Questions (develop your own variations):

What does it take to be a successful human being in the world? Is “success” a matter of getting what one wants, of attaining a desired result—love, money, power, freedom, social status—or is it a question of character, of developing within the self those qualities most essential to a complete human being: virtue, wisdom, compassion, spiritual enlightenment, moral insight, ethical depth, duty, honor?

Can social institutions, cultural traditions, or rituals help develop successful people, or does the literature portray these customs more as impediments to growth?

What is a “complete” human being? What components are most important in defining what a human being “should” be?

Under what conditions do the characters’ worlds become traps, bringing out the worst in people, debasing their lives and stripping their existence of meaning or purpose? What happens to the hearts and souls of those who live in such worlds?

Professor Robert George of Princeton says, “the conquest of the self is part of what it means to lead a successful life.” Which characters have inner demons or parts of themselves they must conquer? How successful are they?

William Faulkner said that literature is composed of “old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed—love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” Which of Faulkner’s truths find most powerful expression in the literature we have read this semester.

Dr. Carl Hammerschlag, a psychiatrist, writes, “Mental health . . . can be described as having your head, mouth, and heart in a straight alignment. Mental health happens when what you believe in your heart is the same as what you say with your mouth. You are mentally healthy when what you feel is something you also believe. . . .You have to keep in balance if you want to stay healthy.” In these terms, which characters are healthiest? Which are not? How do they achieve balance? What are the costs of not finding it?

Many works we have read center on characters who, because of their personalities, beliefs, or personal circumstances, find themselves in conflict with their society. Choose three important characters from different works and discuss the ways in which they are out of synch with the world around them. For each character you discuss, say whether the conflict primarily reveals a flaw in the character or in the society’s assumptions and moral values.

You may of course find other similarities around which to build your papers. An ethical issue, a question of human relationships, a political question, the idea of conscience, the issue of identity—any of these or a wide array of potential topics lie at your disposal. But choose wisely. You want a topic that lends itself to the three works you will discuss, and it must be not too broad an issue to develop specifically in the assigned length. For example, the question “What is human nature,” while intriguing, is too general to be useful here. Pick something narrower and try to go deeper in your discussion.

AP assignments November 09

2009-11-03T10:24:00.003-07:00

Week of November 2

Days 1, 2, and 3--Finish discussion of The Sound and the Fury; continue second round of mini-blogs

Thurs/Fri--multiple-choice quiz #4, questions 39-53.

Day 4--(Friday November 6) Style analysis exercise for Heart of Darkness--read the opening paragraphs of the story, especially paragraphs # 2, 3, 4, & 6, more than once, and make notes in the margin. Consider diction, syntax, tone, organization, & tension, and the introduction of the character Marlow.

Monday, November 9--in-class essay on The Sound and the Fury; also, read part 1 of Heart of Darkness, pp. 3-31.

Week of November 9

1. Heart of Darkness: read part I for Day 1, part II for day 3 (pp. 31-54), part 3 for Friday, November 13 (pp. 54-77). Continue annotating the text, noting significant passages, key images, new vocabulary, and examples of Conrad's stylistic devices. Cite specific passages in mini-blogs.
2. Vocab quiz, lessons 11 & 12

Week of November 16

1. No class day 1, Monday, November 16.
2. Begin reading Waiting for the Barbarians: read parts I & II (to p. 55) for Day 4
3. Blog: Read your assigned section of background and criticism; summarize its most important ideas on your blog in a series of bullet points; due before class day 2 (T/W), to be presented in brief oral summaries.
4. Cumulative Vocabulary Review Quiz, lessons 1-12 Friday, November 20. Begin presenting mini-blogs on Waiting for the Barbarians day 4.

Week of November 23

1. Waiting for the Barbarians: Read part III (to p. 74) for Monday.
2. Both sections meet both Monday and Tuesday, no school Wed-Fri (Thanksgiving holiday)
3. No vocab quiz
4. Blog: due day 1 describing initial responses to characters, style, and content of WFB (approx. 300-400 words)

Essay assignment: Things Fall Apart

2009-11-03T09:34:00.004-07:00

Topic choices for a three- or four-page paper on Things Fall Apart (approx. 1000-1200 words)

Topic choice and thesis due in class Friday 11/6
Draft due in class Monday or Tuesday (day 1) depending on section, 11/9 or 11/10.
Paper due in class and on turnitin.com by class time day 2 (Tuesday or Wednesday 11/10 or 11/11).
Other assignments:
Day 3--Read "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings," p. 577 in anthology
Day 4--Read "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World," (handout); vocab quiz, lessons 11 & 12.
Monday, November 16/Tuesday 17th--begin reading Much Ado About Nothing, Act I
Friday, November 20--Cumulative Vocabulary Review Quiz, lessons 1 through 12. (Rescheduled)

Choose one of the following topics to develop into an essay based on your understanding of the novel Things Fall Apart. In your essay, refer to specific passages and examples from the novel to support your ideas. This is an interpretive essay based on your reading of the novel; no outside sources should be used.

•Is Okonkwo a tragic figure? Review what you know from our study of Greek tragedy and assess to what extent those ideas apply to Things Fall Apart in general and Okonkwo in particular.

•How does Achebe’s narrator both endorse and critique the values and practices of Ibo culture? Why does he present some elements of the culture as problematic or flawed and others as sources of strength for the Ibo people?

•How does Okonkwo determine right from wrong? Choose three examples of decisions Okonkwo makes and examine what belief systems, values, laws or traditions he uses to choose a course of action. Evaluate the wisdom or effectiveness of these decisions.

•What kind of leader is Okonkwo? Choose three strong actions which demonstrate his leadership. Identify the values, beliefs, and/or traditions on which he bases each action and evaluate its effectiveness.

•Of his daughter Ezinma, Okonkwo thinks, “She should have been a boy” (p. 64). Why is it necessary to the story that Okonkwo’s favored child be a girl?

AP--October 15 papers

2009-10-13T08:57:00.001-07:00

The written portion of the assignment is a paper of approximately 5 pages (1500 words) in which you cover three key points: your reasons for choosing the story, some biographical background on the writer, and an analysis of some aspect of the story using the methods and vocabulary we have discussed and practiced in class. The analysis will be approximately two-thirds of the entire essay, the other sections a paragraph or two each.
Drafts of your papers are due in class Thursday October 16. Final papers are due, both hard copy and turnitin.com, on Friday, October 17.
Documentation should be included for the following information: titles and sources of all stories you read as you made your decision, source of biographical information on the author (Wikipedia is getting better but still needs independent verification for academic purposes). Mention the source of the information in the body of the essay or in a parenthetical citation, and include full documentation on your works cited page.

2009-10-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

AP English

October , 2009

Study guide for The Sound and the Fury

I. Characters—Identify each of the following characters and gather information about their actions and personalities:

Benjy (Maury)

Caddy (Candace)

Mother (“Miss Cahline” or Caroline)

Father (Mr. Jason)--actually Jason III

Jason IV (usu. referred to simply as “Jason”)

Quentin (brother)

Quentin (daughter of ??)

Uncle Maury

Dilsey

Roskus

Versh

Frony

T.P.

Luster

II. Events—How many different scenes or events does Benjy remember?

What are the key elements of each memory?

What does Benjy love? What upsets him most?

Who died?

Who was married?

What were the four siblings (Caddy, Quentin, Benjy, and Jason) like as children? Who was their leader? Describe the various relationships among them. What have they become as adults?

Why are there two Quentins? What happened to the first? Who is the second? Describe her relationship with her Uncle Jason.

What happened June 2, 1910?

Why did it happen?

III. Images and motifs—climbing up trees to look in windows, climbing out windows and down trees, running away, funerals, weddings, swings, water (the branch), fire, smells, crying, golf, Uncle Maury and the Pattersons, “Sasspriluh,” sickness, watches, time, virginity, child support payments

AP assignments October 2009

2009-10-13T07:54:00.002-07:00

October 12-16

Day 1--No school Monday--Fall Break
Day 2--Finish Sound and Fury, pp. 3-75 (April 7, 1928)
Day 3 (Th)--Begin part II of Sound and Fury, pp. 76ff. (June 2, 1910); drafts of short story papers due
Day 4 (Fr)--Continue part II; vocab quiz 7 - 8; short story papers due, hard copy & turnitin

October 19-23

Day 1--Finish S&F, pp, 76-179
Days 2 & 3--Read a scholarly article from JStor regarding the novel; begin reading pp. 180-264.
Day 4--Multiple choice quiz; continue reading part III (April 6, 1928)

October 26-30

Day 1--Finish reading S&F, pp. 180-264; blog a comment on your scholarly article. Give the citation of the source of the article, quote a brief passage or summarize an idea you found helpful, interesting, or just plain puzzling, and write a brief comment in the form of a blog entry.
Day 2--Begin reading pp. 265-321 (April 8, 1928)
Day 3--Continue
Day 4--Finish pp. 265-321; vocab 9 & 10

English IV assignments for October 2009

2009-10-01T08:49:00.001-07:00

Week 6: September 28-October 2
Finish reading One Day; work on reading guide; vocab 5-6; reading quiz

Week 7: October 5-9
Day 1: Blogs due: One day in the Life of . . . .
Day 2: “Quest” on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (day 3 for section 2—Carroll-Villadolid)
Day 3: “Interpreter of Maladies” handout (day 2 for section 2)
Day 4: No school Friday, Fall Break

Week 8: October 12-16
Day 1: No School Monday
Poetry day for section 1 Tuesday—Attaway-Troutman
Tuesday: "Interpreter of Maladies," (handout) for section 2 (Carroll--Villadolid)
Wednesday: "Forty-five a Month," p. 495 in anthology, both sections
Thursday: "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket," p. 464, section 1
Friday: "The Post Office," p. 411, both sections; vocab 7 - 8 quiz

Week 9: October 19-23
Day 1: “A Sunrise on the Veld,” p. 308
Day 2: “Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants,” p. 316
Day 3: Begin reading Things Fall Apart (paperback), chapters 1-3
Day 4: TFA, chapters 4-6

English IV blog assignment (One Day)

2009-09-30T10:26:00.001-07:00

Follow this link to this week's blog assignment, due BEFORE day 1 of the upcoming week.

AP--Paper on additional short story

2009-09-21T10:27:00.001-07:00

In addition to the short essay on the story you have been assigned, your final assignment for our study of short fiction is to research and write a paper on a story you choose based on your own interest. Listed below are the requirements and guidelines for this assignment:

• Your story must have been published for the first time in the last 5 years, that is 2005 to the present.

• Your story must have actually been “published”; no self-published internet pieces by amateur writers, please.

• Since I am asking you to research the author and write an analysis of the story, I strongly suggest that you read several stories, minimum three, from a variety of sources, then choose the one you enjoyed the most. As you read new stories, I encourage you to post short responses to them as part of your weekly blogs commenting on our assigned short stories.

• Published short stories are not as abundant as they were 50 or 75 years ago. Nevertheless, you may find excellent material in a variety of places: New Yorker magazine publishes short stories regularly, and Mr.Thommen has set over 100 issues out in the reference section of the library. Also, Mr. Thommen has begun a subscription to a periodical called One Story, each issue of which contains, you guessed it, a single short story. The Best American Short Stories series publishes a new edition every year (guest editor for the 2007 edition was Stephen King), and I have ordered copies of the two most recent collections. Finally, literary journals in libraries often contain new stories, and both single-author and anthology collections of stories may be found in bookstores as well. For example, Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Namesake on my summer reading list, has a new story collection called Unaccustomed Earth.

• The written portion of the assignment is a paper of approximately 5 pages (1500 words) in which you cover three key points: your reasons for choosing the story, some biographical background on the writer, and an analysis of the story using the methods and vocabulary we have discussed and practiced in class.

• Drafts of your papers are due in class Thursday October 16. Final papers are due, both hard copy and turnitin.com, on Friday, October 17.

English IV--September 11-October 2

2009-09-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Week 3: September 8-11
Friday, September 11— Read A Doll’s House, Act I, pp. 140-165; introduce Spiderman blog assignment

Week 4: September 14-18
Day 1—Spiderman blogs due
Day 2—A Doll’s House, Act II, pp. 165-184
Day 3—A Doll’s House, Act III, pp. 184-202
Friday, September 18—Vocabulary quiz, lessons 3-4; bring hard copy of spiderman blog to class for peer edit workshop

Week 5: September 21-25
Day 1—Revised Spiderman blogs due as hard copy and to turnitin.com
Day 2—“The Heavenly Christmas Tree,” pp. 121-125
Day 3—“How Much Land Does a Man Need,” pp. 126 – 138
Friday, September 25—Begin reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; start Wednesday night, average, 20 pages per night Thursday night and all weekend, finish reading by Monday night September 28

Week 6: September 28-October 2
Day 1—Continue reading One Day
Day 2—Finish reading One Day, possible quiz
Day 3—Continue discussion of One Day
Friday, October 3—One Day blogs due; vocab quiz lessons 5-6

Spiderman blog

2009-09-08T09:27:00.005-07:00

Reread Jim Hall's Spiderman poem "Maybe dats your pwoblem too." Think about how the metaphor of a "fwame-wesistant" suit might apply to people other than Spiderman. Perhaps the suit represents, for example, a part of our life we cannot escape, some aspect of our identity difficult or seemingly impossible to shed, even if we would like to do so, to be able, as Hall says Spiderman wishes to do, to become "someone different, something new."

Consider the following questions:
How might this metaphor apply to all of us?
Can you apply the metaphor to yourself? Are there parts of your "suit" you would like to burn?
Which pieces of our identity are most difficult to rid ourselves of ("fwame wesistant")?
Are there times when people would most like to "buin der suits"? Why? What can lead to such a desire?
If you could reinvent yourself, what would you do to make your "heart beat at a diffwent wate"? What prevents you?

You needn't try to answer all these questions. Do some brainstorming and choose your strongest ideas to develop into a personal piece of some 500 words. And since it is a personal piece written for a public audience (your classmates and me) choose how much personal information you wish to include.

You may, if you wish, consult the poet James Hall's blog and read what he says about his poem. Be aware, however, that Hall says a poet should never be the final authority on what a poem can mean to a reader.

Finally, here is a link to the poem itself.

Blog starters for Antigone

2009-09-03T07:44:00.001-07:00

Follow this link to some ideas that occurred to me as possible topics for your Antigone blog. To be written any time between now and next Tuesday September 8. Also, look at section III of the course syllabus for other suggestions of blog starters that may be used with any literary work. Suggested length: 400 to 500 words.

See you Tuesday.

AP--short story unit

2009-08-31T07:38:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to the document describing various responsibilities for presenting material from the short story anthology in our textbook.

The list of story titles and page numbers may be found on the current assignment schedule.

Pride and Prejudice essay--AP

2009-08-31T07:23:00.001-07:00

Write an essay of approximately 600-750 words (2-3 typed, double-spaced pages), in which you discuss in as much detail as space permits the significance of the following passage to the work as a whole. In your discussion you may focus on an appropriate combination of the following elements:

• How does the passage characterize its participants and Austen’s methods of characterization?
• What is the relationship of this scene to the “action” of the novel? Does it contribute to either the complication of the action or to its resolution?
• How does it embody or advance themes important to the novel?
• In what sense is the scene “comic”?
• How does it most significantly illustrate Jane Austen’s style?

Drafts are due in class day 3 for peer editing and essays are due Friday, September 4, both hard copy and electronically to turnitin.com. Here is a link to the formatting requirements. Here is a link to the syllabus, section 5 of which details turnitin.com procedures.

Passage:

“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”

Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation, “I am not.”

Lady Catherine seemed pleased.

“And will you promise me, never to enter into such an engagement?”

“I will make no promise of the kind.”

“Miss Bennet, I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away, till you have given me the assurance I require.”

“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise, make their marriage at all more probable?” . . . .

Her ladyship was highly incensed.

“You have no regard, then, for the honour and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?”

“Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say. You know my sentiments.”

“You are resolved then to have him?”

“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”

My Most Memorable Books

2009-08-28T06:00:00.001-07:00

1. Catcher in the Rye, Salinger (when I was 15 I thought it the truest book I'd ever read)
2. The stories of Edgar Allan Poe (the summer I was 12--couldn't stop reading--I can still picture the library book)
3. All the Kings Men, R. Penn Warren--first time when I was 20--lots of times since
4. Master and Commander, P. O'Brian--the whole series, 20 volumes--counts as one for me. Read them all at least twice.
5. Winter's Tale--Mark Helprin--a burglar, a consumptive heiress, a flying horse, and bridges from the future
6. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole--the most outrageously funny book I've ever read.
7. Outlander, D. Gabaldon--another series--volume 7 is due out next month.
8. Lonesome Dove--Larry McMurtry--my all-time favorite western
9. Crossing to Safety--Wallace Stegner--wonderful story of friendship between two married couples lasting 40 years
10. Gone to Soldiers--Marge Piercy--my favorite WW2 novel
11. Anna Karenina--Tolstoy--read it one chapter a night before bedtime for three months--amazing story.
12. Absalom Absalom, W. Faulkner--even better than the Sound and the Fury, which I also love.
13. Pride and Prejudice, Austen--my 2nd favorite 18th century novel
14. Tom Jones, Henry Fielding--my favorite 18th century novel
15. Great Expectations, Dickens--he may be out of fashion now, but I love Dickens
16 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--the book I've read the most times, so many I've lost count.

English IV & AP--blog assignment #2

2009-08-26T09:59:00.002-07:00

For FRIDAY, August 28, all sections:

N.B. This blog assignment is NOT subject to the usual suggested length of 500 words.

This summer, one of the topics bouncing around facebook between me and some of my friends went something like this:

What are the 15 books you have ever read that have stayed with you the longest and made the greatest impression on you? Don't think too hard about this topic. Just list the ones that come into your mind first as books that have made a lasting impression on you.

I'd add the following notes: a) your lists don't have to be 15 titles long, although I hope you have at least 5 or 10 you can honestly name that have stuck in your mind; b) for each title on your list, write a sentence, two at the most, explaining why it's on your list.

2 PS's: Remember to turn off "word notification" if you have not done so already; it will speed up my process of replying to your initial blog posts; second, if I have your url, delete my e-mail address from the notification box. If I don't have your url, well, you're already a bit behind, so please get with the program.

Blog vs. essay

2009-08-26T09:57:00.001-07:00

Revising a blog

FROM BLOG TO ESSAY IN FIVE EASY STEPS

1. Look at the blog entry you’ve chosen for the idea that you can develop into an essay of several paragraphs. It may or may not be the topic most addressed in the blog, but it should be one which forms a considerable part of your blog discussion and which you think you can develop further in essay form.

2. Rewrite the current opening statement or write a new, brief opening paragraph. Keep your opening concise, identify the focus of the essay, and, at the end of the paragraph, make a clear, specifically worded statement of thesis, the interpretive idea whose validity you wish to prove in the essay.

3. Look at the middle paragraphs of your blog entry. Are they too long? Too short? If they don’t already begin with sentences that state ideas rather than facts, add clear topic sentences that relate to your thesis. Check within each of those middle paragraphs for a balance between specific textual evidence, preferably both examples and brief quotations, and your own commentary designed to identify the significance of your evidence and fully develop the depth of each paragraph. Finally, make sure each of these middle paragraphs helps support the validity of your thesis.

4. Check your final paragraph. Make sure it does not simply repeat what you have already stated. Draw a conclusion from the evidence you’ve presented. Save your most important idea, the one everything else in your essay leads up to, for last.

5. Last but certainly not least, read all your sentences out loud for clarity and clutter. Have you expressed your biggest ideas in simple words? Have you taken out who, which, and that whenever possible? Are you varying the length of your sentences, alternating complex and compound sentences with simple ones? Does the punctuation of your sentences help make them clearer and more meaningful? Have you caught the spelling mistakes spellcheck won’t catch?

Headings, formats, and style tips

2009-08-21T09:35:00.002-07:00

HEADINGS FOR PAPERS—Always head your papers with the following information:

Your name,
Course and section number (AP -2, Eng IV-1, for example)
Paper ID number from Turnitin.com
Word count (your word processing program should perform this last task for you automatically).

FORMATTING:

Use 12-point font
Choose a font with serifs (Times New Roman, for example)
Set 1 inch margins all round
Give your paper a title which indicates its subject; when writing about literature, give more than just the name of the text you are writing about.
Double space text
For quotations of FIVE lines or longer, block the passage with one and one-half inch margins and single spacing.
Remember to put novel and play titles in italics, poem and short story titles in quotation marks, and to give your paper a title different from the literary work it discusses.

STYLE

Use American spelling and usage: double quotation marks, not single; toward, not towards; judgment, not judgement; gray, not grey; honor, not honour, and so on.
Avoid "naked" pronouns: this, that, which.
Whenever possible, omit who, which, and that--make the relative clause either the main clause or a participial phrase.
Simplify your language; use everyday words to express important ideas.
Omit unnecessary words from your sentences, unnecessary sentences from your paragraphs, unnecessary paragraphs from your essays. Be studious of brevity.
Whenever you face a choice between a general term and a specific word, opt for the latter.

English IV--assignments to September 8

2009-08-21T09:28:00.003-07:00

English IV—World Literature
Mr. Coon
Schedule of Assignments
August—September 2009

Note: Assignments are DUE on the day indicated.

Week 1: August 24—28
Day 1. First day—welcome, syllabus, blog intro, assignments
Day 2. Set up account with Google Reader (see “how to start a blog,” below); write the blog entry indicated in the instructions after you establish your blog; vocabulary intro (bring books)—
Day 3. Print blog entry, bring to class for discussions and workshop (blog to essay in five easy steps); begin peer review
Day 4. Continue peer review; begin revision and re-writing of draft 2

Week 2: August 31—September 4
Day 1. Essays due, both hard copy and turnitin.com; introduction to tragedy
Day 2. Read Antigone, pp. 14 to 32 (to line 593 “enter Ismene”)
Day 3. Antigone, pp. 32-44, to line 1034;
Day 4. Antigone, finish reading to page 57; vocab quiz 1, lessons 1 & 2

Week 3: September 8—11 (No school Monday--Labor Day)
1. Read “Torn Lace,” pp. 73--77
2. Read “War,” pp. 79-82
3. Writing activity TBA

AP--Assignments to October 8

2009-08-21T09:09:00.005-07:00

English IV—Advanced Placement World Literature
Mr. Coon
Schedule of Assignments
August—October, 2009

Note: All assignments are DUE for the class day listed.

Week 1: August 24—28
Day 1: First day—welcome, syllabus, blog intro, assignments
Day 2: Set up account with Google Reader (see “how to start a blog,” on mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com; write the letter indicated in the instructions after you establish your blog; vocabulary intro (bring books); Introduction to close reading
Day 3: Bring Pride & Prejudice; continue introduction to close reading
Day 4: Quiz 1—Multiple choice (15 minutes); close reading exercise

Week 2: August 31—September 4
Day 1: Discussion of passages
Day 2: Discussion of Pride and Prejudice; introduce short story presentations & roles
Day 3: Essay draft due in class on Pride and Prejudice; vocab quiz 1 (lessons 1 & 2)
Day 4: Read A Rose For Emily (28) (LCC); revised essay due

Week 3: September 8—11 No classes Monday (Labor Day)
1: Everyday Use (p.443)
2: Teenage Wasteland (35)
3: Interpreter of Maladies (p. 579); Multiple choice quiz 2

Week 4: September 14—18
1: A & P (p. 14); blogs due
2: Parker’s Back (382)
3: A Good Man is Hard to Find (p.358)
4: Cathedral (p. 98); Vocab quiz 2 (lessons 3 & 4)

Week 5: September 21—25
1: A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (156); blogs due
2: Battle Royal (p. 526)
3. Shiloh (p. 604)
4: The Yellow Wallpaper (p. 424); Multiple choice quiz 3

Week 6: September 28—October 2
1: Greasy Lake (p. 129); blogs due
2: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been (p. 613)
3. I Stand Here Ironing (p. 637);
4: The Things They Carried (p. 625); vocab quiz 3 (lessons 5 & 6)ALSO, spend one free period in the library browsing the short story collections Mr. Thommen has set out.

Week 7: October 5—8—No school Friday (Fall Break)
1: The Five Forty-Eight (p. 503); half blogs due--update on independent short story project--less than 500 words is preferred.
2 & 3: Begin the Sound and the Fury (pp. 3-75); finish reading and research for short story papers.

How to Start a Blog

2009-08-21T08:35:00.002-07:00

Go to www.blogger.com. You should be automatically directed to their start page. Follow the "three easy steps" :
--Create your account using your PCDS e-mail account and a password of your choice (suggestion: use the same account and password for your turnitin.com account). Since your blog will only be read by me and by your classmates, please use your first and last name as your display name; that way I always know whose blog I'm reading and you get credit for having written it.
--Name your blog. Whatever you like, but it's a school assignment, so be appropriate, please. For your blog's url, use firstname-lastname so that we may find each other's blogs easily during the year.
--Select a template for your blog. Pick whichever one you like, with one condition. My eyes are getting older and I can't read text set against a black or dark blue background, so please don't choose one of those templates.

After you create your template, click "start posting" to go to the editing page of your blog. From there, you have one more crucial task. Click the Settings tab, then the e-mail tab. Type my e-mail address in the box marked "BlogSend": (lance.coon@pcds.org). After I have an RSS feed for your blog, I’ll ask you to turn this setting off. But to get started you need to include this step or you may not receive credit for your blog entries. (IMPORTANT: Be sure to click "Save Settings" before closing this tab.)

Finally, one crucial setting. Open the "comments" tab, scroll down, and click the "NO" button next to a setting called "show word verification for comments." This one is important to save me a great deal of time and bother when I write comments back to you about your blog posts. Again, click "save settings" before you leave this section of your settings.

When you have completed all these steps, click the "Posting" tab and create your first blog entry.

For AP English: Write your first blog about the reading you did this summer. I’m interested not only in the books you chose from my recommendations but also any books you read on your own. Include a list of any books you have read since the beginning of June, both titles and authors, and then write a short piece about ONE of the titles you read. Pick the one that made the strongest impression on you, or the one you enjoyed the most, or the one that stayed with you the longest after you read it. Here is a link to such a piece, one I wrote last summer after I read Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. As you write, remember to be as specific as you can in your language, your reasons, your examples.

For English IV: Write a blog about the book you chose from the grade 12 Summer Reading List. If you read more than one title from the list, choose the one that made the strongest impression on you. In your blog (500 words or so), identify which aspects of the novel are most prominent, which ones go the furthest to explain the impression the book made on you. Was it an idea, a character who seemed particularly lifelike, a relationship, the ambiguity of the book's ending or meaning, something about the writer's style? Your blog will serve as the first draft of a paper to be turned in next week, so give some thought to identifying and discussing those elements of the book which are most notable.

I recommend that you write, edit, spell-check, and word-count your letter as a word document then paste it into the box on the posting page of your blog. When you're done, give it a title, click the orange button marked "publish post," and voila!—you have created your first blog entry (436).

English IV Syllabus 2009

2009-08-21T08:31:00.001-07:00

English IV Syllabus
Mr. Coon; Fall, 2009

I. Goals

In the courses which comprise English IV, we seek to expose members of the senior class to significant pieces of literature from the world tradition. The required semester selection of world authors includes pieces from the classical Mediterranean world, Asia, Africa, South America, and Continental Europe. Canonical authors such as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Kafka, Tolstoy, Achebe, and Solzhenitsyn provide depth and balance to the assigned material. Authors and works are chosen with an eye toward providing significant intellectual, esthetic, moral, and literary challenges to readers. Each course asks students to read and think carefully, to listen and discuss, and to develop their language skills, especially in writing, critical reading, vocabulary, and English usage.

II. Readings

World Literature (first semester)
1. World Literature , Donna Rosenberg (editor)
2. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
4. Short stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. selected novel(s) for summer reading

Advanced Placement World Literature (two semesters)
1. Literature: An Introduction, (10th edition) X. J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia, editors
2. Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee
3. The Sound and the Fury , William Faulkner
4. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
5. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (summer reading)
6. selected novels for summer reading

African-American Literature (second semester)
1. Black Boy, Richard Wright
2. Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
3. Fences, August Wilson
4. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

Shakespeare (second semester); team taught with Mr. Burns
1. Hamlet
2. As You Like It
3. The Merchant of Venice

III. Additional text for all sections: Vocabulary for Achievement, 6th course

IV. Written work
The primary forum for written work is your blog. You are required to post weekly blog entries relating to the literature studied in the classroom. Your blogs will receive a gradeat the end of each marking period, accounting for 30% of each quarter’s grade. Blog entries should be approximately 500 words in length (please indicate word count in parentheses at the end of each entry). I will not, however, grade by length alone; rather, quantity will be one of four criteria, along with regularity of entries, style, and originality of content. Instructions about creating and posting blog entries may be found on my blog at mrcoonsenglish.blogspot.com.
Occasionally I will ask you to respond to particular prompts or questions on my blog, but often there is no set topic for your weekly entries. Rather, I ask you to find an element of the assigned reading that interests you and discuss it thoughtfully. This comment may take many forms, a few of which are suggested here:
• Discuss a character’s actions, words, personality, moral values, or humanity.
• Comment on the writer’s style, use of language, tone, irony, or imagery.
• Consider a topic or idea raised in class discussion, trying to go beyond what has already been stated.
• Raise and discuss a question about the text under consideration.
• Discuss the importance or meaning of a key passage or scene from the reading.
• For longer works, show how a scene or passage develops a theme or pattern identified in class.
• Make a comparison between a scene, character, or idea from the literature and something from another source or from your own experience
• Use an idea from my blog or from that of one of your classmates as a point of departure for your response.
• Locate relevant research material on the web, post a link to the site on your blog, and discuss your choice.
• Using first person, tell the story of your reading of and interaction with the text.

In all cases, your goals are to demonstrate close, careful reading of assigned texts, challenge yourself to creative, original thinking, and develop your fluency as a writer. In addition to blog entries, several times each semester, I will assign papers, either revisions of blog entries or interpretations of asigned novels, plays, poems, or stories. Your papers will account for another 30% of your grade.

IMPORTANT: HEADINGS FOR PAPERS—Always head your papers with the following information: your name, date, turnitin receipt number, and word count (your word processing program should perform this last task for you automatically).

V. Turnitin.com
In addition to submitting hard copies of your papers this year, you are required to submit electronic copies of all papers to turnitin.com. These instructions will help you submit your papers. Use the same e-mail address and password for turnitin.com that you use for your account at blogger.com.
• On your web browser, go to turnitin.com. Register as a new user or login to the personal home page you created last year. You must give your e-mail address and a personal password which contains both letters and numbers to register. Click “student” as your user type. Give whatever other information may be necessary as you move through the required fields.
• When you reach your personal home page, click “join new class.” Then enter a class ID and a class enrollment password. For AP students, the class ID is 1598905 and the password pcdsap; for World Literature students (non-AP) the class ID is 1875359 and the password is pcdswl. Click “submit” when you finish. N.B: You only need to complete this step once.
• Then submit your paper. When you click on the class title, you will go to the class history page. Click on the word “submit” in the middle navigation bar. Enter the title of your paper and select the assignment with the correct date from the pull down menu. Assignments are listed by the title of the work and the date an assignment is due.

• After entering your title and selecting the correct assignment, paste your essay into the box marked “main text.” (In my experience, the copy and paste method works better than the upload method. You may, of course, find otherwise). You may ignore the boxes marked abstract and bibliography unless otherwise instructed. When your paper has been pasted into the “main text” box, click “submit.”
• Remember to put your digital receipt number on the assignment before you give it to me. Otherwise your assignment will be marked late and penalized accordingly.

VI. Participation and attendance
• Class discussion is a crucial part of the course. Therefore, it is imperative that we all treat one another with respect and behave in such a way as to contribute to, not disrupt, an atmosphere conducive to maximum learning.
• Participation in class is mandatory. I understand that the introverts have difficulty speaking in front of your peers and me; nevertheless, I expect you to contribute meaningfully to class activities and discussions. You must come to class having done the reading assigned and be prepared to discuss the material, answer questions, venture informed opinions, and articulate personal responses.
• Participation grades are assigned as follows and account for 20% of your grade in the class: "A" students are fully engaged, on time with the necessary books and supplies. They display obvious enthusiasm for the tasks of the class: reading, talking, listening, working in a group, thinking about a problem. "B" students' engagement varies slightly, sometimes at "A" level, sometimes not. "C" students are generally involved but with noticeable lapses. They may arrive late to class or frequently forget materials. They spend time on things other than the work at hand: chatting with friends, doing homework for another class, catching up on sleep, or staring off in space. "D" students exhibit these behaviors to an even greater degree, becoming a distraction to the work of the class, having a negative impact on the group's ability to get its work done, regularly coming to class unprepared.
• Read the student handbook statement on attendance policies. After six absences in a class, a letter is sent home. After nine, students and parents meet with the Dean of Students. Also, be aware that beginning with the third unexcused lateness to class, you will be assigned to serve detention for each subsequent lateness. Please be on time to class.

VII. Vocabulary
• Three new lessons in the vocabulary book are assigned every other week. Quizzes will take place the first 10 minutes of class on alternate Fridays unless otherwise notified.
• For first semester, we will cover lessons 1-15; for the second, lessons 16-30. Quizzes will contain all 30 words from the three lessons.
• Missed vocabulary quizzes must be made up at your earliest possible convenience. After one week, barring extraordinary circumstances, missing scores will be entered as zeroes.

VIII. Grading policy

• Grades are determined on a point system in which each assignment is weighted by the number of points it contains. Points will be totaled at the end of each quarter and semester and grades determined in accordance with the percentages contained in your student handbook.
• Grades from individual assignments are then weighted into categories as follows: blogs (30%), papers (30%), vocabulary and quizzes (20%), participation and attendance (20%).
• Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Work turned in during or after class is considered late and will be penalized. Late work is eligible for a score no higher than 75%, depending on the quality of the assignment and the degree of lateness. If you are absent the day an assignment is due, either have a classmate turn it in or fax the assignment to the Upper School office (602-224-6177).
• Students who miss quizzes or tests because of excused absence must make arrangements for make-up immediately upon returning to school. Missing work (quizzes or assignments never turned in or made up) will result in an incomplete grade for the quarter or semester.
• Any student who establishes a clear pattern of failing to complete the assigned reading according to the prescribed schedule will receive a semester grade of D or F, regardless of that student’s scores on other assignments. Repeated missing or poor written work, failed quizzes or tests, or the inability to supply basic factual information in class will be taken as signs of not reading.
• All assignments must be completed in accordance with the school’s honesty policy. See your handbook for details and be certain you know the difference between plagiarism and acceptable use of source material. Also, any assignments written for other courses may not be submitted without my specific permission.

X. Contact information
• In person—room 311. Stop by to talk or ask a question anytime I’m free. My schedule is posted on the door of my classroom. To make up a quiz, go over an assignment, a speech draft, or a college essay, please make an appointment first.
• By voice-mail—602-956-0253 x4296
• By fax—602-224-6177
• By e-mail—lance.coon@pcds.org