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)
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.”
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.
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 Chaucer?
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.
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 (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:
·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).
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.
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.
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
