Portfolios and Workday #1

Today groups started working on their final projects in class, and I handed back English portfolios.

Lit Circle One and Essay #3

New Due Dates:
Topics

• Posted 5/22 (before class)
• Comments 5/23

Drafts

• Posted 5/29
• Comments 6/1

Finals 6/8

Lit Circles Begin

Today we went over the final project, groups set reading schedules, and we read silently for the last 15 minutes of class.

Study Guide Presentations

Today we worked for part of the period and then had four of the study guide presentations. We'll finish tomorrow with those of you who are here.

Study Guide Review Begins

Today we started the study guide review project and worked on it for the whole period.

Practice & the Book Project

Today we did a bit more MC practice and then spend a big chunk of the period talking about the final book project and signing up for books. We wrapped up the period with a final look at "Blackberry-Picking."

More Practice

Today we began with a multiple choice practice section and then started our long-promised look at the "Blackberry-Picking" timed writing.

MC Practice

Today we did a bit of prose multiple choice practice. Bring study guides to the next class.

The Lower Frequencies

Today I collected discussion questions and study guides. Then we had the IM timed writing.

Discussion

Today groups presented about half of the IM discussion questions. More tomorrow.

Work Day

Today we looked at the calendar for the next few weeks and had some time to finish up the IM questions. 4-7 are below. Presentations begin tomorrow.

• 4) Consider the many scenes of "death" and resurrection in the novel. How is death paradoxically a condition for growth in this novel? Why?
• 5) What is the symbolic importance of Tod Clifton's doll? Why is he the only main character to die in the novel?
• 6) What is Ellison's message about the location and source of power? Consider the narrator's own power and motifs like electricity.
• 7) In the epilogue, IM says, "Now I know men are different and that all life is divided and that only in that division is there true health [...] so I denounce and I defend and I hate and I love" (576 & 580). Explain how these apparent contradictions help unlock the ultimate meaning of the novel.

Welcome Back

Today we had our last reading quiz of the year and then divided into groups to work on some IM discussion questions. Most groups got through about the first two. Here are the first three:

1. Reconsider the grandfather's deathbed advice from chapter 1. How does it resonate through the whole novel? In the end, what conclusion has IM come to regarding this advice?
2. What are some symbols and motifs associated with the burdens of the past in the novel? Explore some of these in depth.
3. IM says, "I'm invisible, not blind" (576). What does he mean? How are blindness and defective sight related to the failure of perception in this novel?

Presentations Continue

Today we began with an IM quiz on chapters 13 through 17 and then had a poetry presentation or two followed by some work time. More presentations tomorrow. Do your poetry HW.

Work Day (Mostly)

Today we had a poetry presentation in 3rd period and then work time. Check my earlier posts for the Monday poems.

Drawing Days

Today we had the period to work, but we also decided the order of poetry presentations and I assigned the poetry HW. See the posts below for specifics.

Period 4 Poems

Poetry Project Audience Homework
Each night you should study the poem(s) that will be presented the following day in class by answering the questions below. Poems should be in Sound and Sense or will be given out in class, but are usually available online at the HW blog as well. Do all the assignments on the same paper, heading each assignment with the date and the poem’s title.

1. Summarize the plot of this poem. Briefly, what is it about?
2. Note a few literary techniques which stand out in this poem and their effects.

 Monday

• "Dog's Death" by John Updike
• "Insomnia" by Elizabeth Bishop

Tuesday

• "The Greedy the People" by e.e. cummings
• "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath
• "I Knew a Woman" by Theodore Roethke

Wednesday

• "At a Certain Age" by Cseslaw Milosz
• "Silence" by Marianne Moore
• "The Rose Family" by Robert Frost

Period 3 Poems

Poetry Project Audience Homework
Each night you should study the poem(s) that will be presented the following day in class by answering the questions below. Poems should be in Sound and Sense or will be given out in class, but are usually available online at the HW blog as well. Do all the assignments on the same paper, heading each assignment with the date and the poem’s title.

1. Summarize the plot of this poem. Briefly, what is it about?
2. Note a few literary techniques which stand out in this poem and their effects. 

Friday

• "Digging" by Seamus Heaney

Monday

• "in Just" by e.e. cummings
• "Pretty" by Stevie Smith
• "Christopher Robin" by Czeslaw Milosz

Tuesday

• "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence
• "The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats
• "Wait" by Galway Kinnell

Wednesday

• "Caterpillar" by Robert Graves
• "a song in the front yard" by Gwendolyn Brooks
• "Choices" by Nikki Giovanni

Like Lazarus...

Today we talked a bit about Every 15 Minutes, spent some time talking about Invisible Man, and then poetry groups had a few moments to get together.

Poetry: Round 3

Today groups finished up the "Evolution" project and we just scratched the surface of the next poetry project.

More "Evolution"

Today we continued our work with "Evolution," writing some multiple choice questions and starting the CRA paragraph partner assignment below.