Response Groups Redux

Today, after a quick Ceremony warm-up, we finished up response groups from yesterday.

Response Groups

Today students spent the whole period sharing and responding to each others' essays.

The Fish Bowl

Today we practiced the response groups that we will do for real tomorrow in class. Bring good drafts of your papers!

Essay Revision: Day 1

Today we spent the period looking at a sample essay as compared to student drafts, focusing especially on overall structure and topic sentences. Tomorrow, after some revision tonight hopefully, we will have response groups.

Post-Thanksgiving Ceremony

We returned from Thanksgiving vacation by spending the entire period on Ceremony, starting with a quotation analysis warm-up  and filling the remaining time with general discussion of the novel, esepcially its timeline.
Reminders:

• Ceremony Dialectical Journals should be in class everyday (I checked them today).
• Essay Drafts are due, in class, with cover sheets, tomorrow.
• Don't forget the Moodle discussion boards.

Moodle & the Essay

My Dear AP Students,

I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that you should be reading Ceremony and posting to Moodle (which is working just fine). Also, don't forget the paper topic poll; so far the response has been minimal. I will be grading this assignment.

I do hope you are enjoying your week off.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mr. Staiano

Presentations & Papers

Today we had the first few presentations, and I assigned the first paper. Handouts are at Moodle.
Due dates:

• Topics 11/15
• Rough Draft with cover sheet 11/27
• Final draft with cover sheet 12/7

Period 4 Poems

Tuesday

• "The Poison Tree" ~Blake
• "Ozymandias" ~Shelley
• "Anthem for Doomed Youth" ~Owen

Wednesday

• "Sonnet 14" ~Browning
• "There is a Garden in her Face" ~Campion

Thursday

• "The Snow Man" ~Stevens
• "Blackberry Eating" ~Kinnell

Friday

• "What is Our Life" ~Raleigh
• "That Night When Joy Began" ~Auden

Period 3 Poems

Tuesday

• "Cross" ~Hughes
• "Meeting at Night" ~Browning
• "Crossing the Bar" ~Tennyson

Wednesday

• "Death of a Soldier" ~Stevens
• "Love" ~anonymous
• "Sonnet 138" ~Shakespeare

Thursday

• "The Road Not Taken" ~Frost
• "The Dark Hills" ~Robinson

Friday

• "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" ~Dickinson
• "Garden of Love" ~Blake

Poetry HW

Today I collected study guides and quick-writes to begin the period. After discussing the poem homework (below), we spent the rest of the period on the As I Lay Dying timed writing.
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.

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

Moodle is Back

So I managed to get the Moodle site back up. We lost some things and it looks a bit different, but it should be fine. You will, however, need to create a new account. 

Signing up for Moodle

1. Go to: http://hrop.org/moodle/
2. Click on "Login."
3. Follow the directions under "Is this your first time here?"  Please use your real name. I suggest using your school username & password as well.
4. Click the course title "AP English Literature."

Mostly Poetry

Today we worked on the final two AILD quick-writes and then spent the rest of the period on poetry projects.

We also chose presentation order.

Just Like Tuesday...

Just Like Yesterday...

After dealing with two more Faulkner questions, students spent the rest of the period in poetry groups.

Split Time

Today we spent half the period on two Faulkner questions.

1. Anse Bundren may be one of the most feckless characters in literature. Why do you think his neighbors repeatedly come to his aid? Is it out of pity, respect, guilt, charity, community, or is Anse just that good at manipulation?
2. Faulkner allows Darl and Vardaman to express themselves in language that would be impossible given their lack of education and experience in the world. Why does Faulkner break with the realistic representation of character in this way?

Groups then had the rest of the period to work on their individual poetry analysis which should be complete by tomorrow.

Circle Time!

Today we spent the day talking about the second half of As I Lay Dying.

Poetry Project

Today students got started on the poetry project. After I assigned groups, students chose poems and began their individual poetry annotations.
Faulkner tomorrow!