Saturday, November 29, 2008

Keep Blogging

Many students do not have the eight blog posts completed that they should for November. Keep blogging twice a week all year. I'm trying to make writing for a real audience a habit of yours. All statistics indicate that Web 2.0 writing will be a huge part of your life in the future, so you might as well start now.

If you want to see some awesome classmate blogs, check out Kelsey, Kelly Jo, and Madeleine.

All My Sons Set Direction

To bring the play to life for the class, we will spend time on set direction--as if we were staging the play on Broadway. As you read Act 1, notice the objects that Arthur Miller details in his stage directions and create a brace map that dissects Miller's stage directions into props, scenery and costumes. Here's what a brace map looks like:


All My Sons Act 1 Vocab

Copy the ten vocabulary words for Act 1 into your notebook. Complete the following three steps for each word:
  1. Write the sentence in the play that provides the context of the word.
  2. Write a definition of the word that you understand. This often means going beyond the dictionary definition.
  3. Write an original first person (use the pronouns I, we, us or me) sentence using the word.
Here are the words:

stolid (p. 5)
calamity (p. 6)
tallies (p. 11)
infuriate (p. 15)
undercurrent (p. 19)
chivalric (p. 23)
resigned (p. 25)
relish (p. 26)
resolutely (p. 27)
staunchly (p. 29)

Arthur Miller, Author of All My Sons

Arthur Miller died in 2005 at the age of 1989. To read CNN's obituary, click here.

Click here to watch a video, Charlie Rose's Obituary of Arthur Miller, that recaps Arthur Miller's life and career.

For a rare treat, click here to watch the trailer from the 1948 film version of All My Sons.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Keep Blogging

Remember to keep blogging about texts that you read outside of class. Your second quarter blog posts are just like first quarter when you wrote about texts that you read, including novels, nonfiction books, poems, plays, magazine and newspaper articles, websites, blogs, etc.

You must post TWICE a week (by Wednesday and by Sunday) regarding your outside reading. Write thoughtful responses to the texts that you read. The length of a blog post should be about six to eight detailed sentences. You must cite the selection and author.

I challenge you to read a novel this quarter (since we are reading plays and poetry in class) for your outside reading blog posts. Some possible ways to respond to a novel include: pick a quote from the novel and comment on its significance, make connections to the book (self, text, world, media), analyze the protagonist, pretend you're writing an email to author or a character, or identify the thesis and discuss the supporting evidence.

If you really want to impress me with your blogging, you should be making brief comments on your classmate’s blog posts, and remember that you can explore all EHS sophomore blogs through www.ehsenglish10.blogspot.com.

GRADING OF BLOG POSTS: (50 points)

A - You have all of the posts. You have always posted on time. Your response was always highly thoughtful and reflective. You used correct mechanics almost all of the time.

B - You have all of the posts. You mostly posted on time. Your responses were mostly thoughtful and reflective. You used correct mechanics most of the time, but there are some glaring errors.

C - You have 6-7 of the posts. You sometimes posted on time.You responded to the text. You have several errors in mechanics.

D - You have about 4-5 posts total. You rarely posted on time. You somewhat responded to the text. Your responses do not make an attempt to use proper mechanics.

F - You have 0-3 posts. You did not do what was asked of you in the post. Your responses do not make an attempt to use proper mechanics.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Odyssey Essay Revisions

Today in class you went over your Odyssey essay rough drafts to make sure that you were meeting all of the elements of the checklist.

MLA Format

You also paid special attention to MLA (Modern Language Association) format. Remember that The Odyssey has a special documentation style that requires you to indicate book and line numbers. For direct quotations, cite like this: "They came on Circe's palace / built of dressed stone" (10.229.230). The slash indicates the line break. The cite is for book 10, lines 229 to 230. You need to be so exact that the period is after the parenthesis, not inside the quotation marks.

Another part of MLA format to remember is the spacing of the pages and the headers. Refer to the sample page that is glued into your notebook.

The third part of MLA format that you need to include is to type the Works Cited at the bottom of your essay. When we get to the research paper and you have multiple sources, the Works Cited will appear as its own page (like it is supposed to), but for this paper with only one source, I thought that we'd save paper. I want you to type it on the bottom of your last page so that you practice the format.

Here's what the Works Cited entry for The Odyssey looks like:

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.

NOTE: If an entry goes to two or more lines, you need to use the hanging indent feature.

No Personal Pronouns

Since academic essays are written in the third person, you do not include the personal pronouns you, I, us, we, etc.

Punctuation

In class we worked on two comma rules that seem to be causing students problems. Pay special attention to these rules when you proofread your paper.

Coordinating Conjunctions

for and nor but or yet so

Punctuation: (thumb test) When a subject and a verb appear on each side of the coordinating conjunction, you use a comma; otherwise, you do not. Use the comma when both sides of the coordinating conjunction contain independent clauses.

Examples of correct punctuation:

Susie brought her lunch and one dollar.

Susie brought her lunch, and she brought one dollar.


Subordinating conjunctions

These conjunctions introduce subordinate (dependent) clauses that are not complete sentences.

examples—if, as, because, since, when, although, that, than, until, before, after

Punctuation: Introductory adverb clauses have commas after them; ending adverb clauses do not.

Correct examples:

If I eat a good breakfast, I will not be hungry.

I will not be hungry if I eat a good breakfast.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Odyssey Vocab

Click on the comments section of this post to add the four-square information for your assigned word. A full 4-square includes a definition, image discussion, a sentence about The Odyssey using your word, and two or three synonyms.

In addition to your 4-square, your comment must include the etymology of the word. In other words, is the word's origin Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French, or some other language? An impressive discussion of the etymology of the word will also include a breakdown of any prefixes and suffixes.

To find the etymology, search your word at either of these links: dictionary.com or etymology online. To find etymology you might have to search the root word (the most basic form of the word.)

Here are the vocab words:

harangued
insolent
reparations
prophecy
libation
sovereign
lustrous
nymph
vaunted
suppliants
mutinous
squadron
sinews
deft
demurred
shroud
charlatan
mawkish
bard
lyre


By the way, the lexicon of the native English speaker generally breaks down like the image below.

The Odyssey Essay

The final essay is due on Monday, November 17. However, we will work on the essay each day in class this week, so bring the latest version of your typed essay to class each day.



Essay Question


Even though The Odyssey is an Ancient Greek story, Homer’s epic teaches the reader many lessons about life (theme) that are still applicable today. Choose a topic from the following list and develop it into a theme that is still relevant today:

· Arrogance
· Revenge
· the role of women
· hospitality
· the role of a hero
· perseverance (the quest)
· reverence
· patience

Essay Checklist


____ The essay is at least two pages long.


____ The essay has a creative title that connects to the thesis statement.


____ The introduction paragraph has an attention-getting device that makes a thematic connection between The Odyssey and life today.


____ “The Odyssey by Homer” appears somewhere in the introduction.


____ The introduction ends with a thesis statement that not only states the theme that will be developed in the essay, but also includes and a brief outline of the sub-points of the theme that will be developed in the body paragraphs. This outline is often simply a list of key words that are part of paragraph topic sentences.


____ There are transitions between paragraphs.


____ The body paragraphs have clear topic sentences, often at the beginning of the paragraph.


____ Body paragraphs include analysis of the sub-points of the theme.


____ Analysis is supported with direct quotations from the epic. The quotes are integrated naturally with the text instead of with phrases such as “this quote shows.”


____ A strong technique for developing analysis is the PIE format. Point, Illustration, Explanation.


____ Body paragraphs end with a recap sentence.


____ MLA Format is followed throughout the essay including:
1. The essay is double-spaced, 12-point font, with one inch margins.
2. A header appears on the top right of each page with student last name and page # (e.g. Jones 1).
3. MLA format includes a heading on the first page of the essay with student name, teacher, class and date. This heading is double-spaced, just like the rest of the essay.
4. Epic poems follow a specific MLA format to cite all direct quotations, e.g. “They came on Circe’s palace / built of dressed stone” (10.229-230). That citation indicates the book and line numbers for the quotation, and a slash is included at the line break in the direct quotation.
5. A work cited appears at the end of the essay.


____ The conclusion leaves the reader with a lasting impression by commenting on the relevance of the topic for the reader’s life today. In other words, why do we still care about this topic so many years after Homer wrote the epic? The timeless relevance discussed in the conclusion should connect to the attention-getter in the introduction.


____ Each day during composition week, students will bring the latest version of the essay.


____ The final essay is due on Monday, November 17.