European Studies 12/8

Friday in class: What is Romanticism?
Monday: Macbeth Essay due... hard copy to class with all drafts and peer edits plus submit a copy to turnitin.com
On Monday we will finish "A Modest Proposal" as well
Wednesday 12/14: Vocab

American Studies: 12/8

Vocab Test has been postponed due to teacher error. List 6 will be tested on the Friday after Winter Break because it is cumulative. List 5 (now on my website) will be tested next Friday right before Winter Break.

Due 12/12 Monday: Huck Finn Essay (hard copy with all drafts and peer edits); also submit your essay to turnitin.com
Due 12/13 Tuesday: Stephen Crane and Jack London bio. notes; also "To Build a Fire" plus accompanying assignment.
Thursday 12/15: Bring O Pioneers! to class

American Studies: 12/7

What's Next - Naturalism: Stephen Crane and Jack London (Thursday thru early next week)

Due Dates Coming Up - Vocab Test on Friday; Huck Finn Essay due Monday (also to turnitin if it is functioning properly)

Next Week - We'll start O Pioneers! on Thursday next week. (10 pts. E.C. if you have your own copy).

European Studies Journal

Act I, Scene 1
Lady Macbeth's Speech
Act I, Scene 5 Journal
Macbeth Thesis
Act 2
10/31 Changes in Macbeth
11/7 Lady Macbeth

American Studies Update: December 5

Dates have changed because of the snow:
Today: We discussed Emily Dickinson
Tuesday: Finish discussing Emily, correct and practice grammar (adverbs/adjectives)
Wednesday: Bring draft of essay to class ready to peer edit
Thursday: TBA
Friday: Vocab Test
Monday: Huck Finn Essay due to turnitin.com plus a hard copy due in class

American Studies: 12/1/05

Due tomorrow: Emily Dickinson work in journal. We will discuss Emily's poems tomorrow.

Huck Finn Essay:
Monday: Bring in at least 2/3 of your paper, so at least two pages. This may be the intro. plus the first 2/3 of your body, or it may be the whole body minus intro. and conclusion. This should be typed, double spaced. Be ready to peer edit. Also on Monday we will correct the "Adverbs" worksheet I gave you last week.
Tuesday: Completed draft is due to turnitin.com by 7:25 AM. We will do peer reviews in the lab during class.
Thursday: Final revised draft is due, both to me (hard copy) and to turnitin.com

What's next
Wednesday: Intro. to "O Pioneers!" Bring book to class.
Don't forget Independent Reading, due Jan.3

European Studies: Macbeth Essay

Today I introduced the Macbeth Essay and we discussed brainstorming techniques and tried out a technique called "speculative writing."
Due tomorrow: Macbeth Brainstorming. You need to have chosen the topic of your essay by tomorrow.

If you were absent today, topic choices are listed below. You may pick up the complete assignment sheet in class tomorrow.
Choose one of the following prompts:
•Write a multi-paragraph essay discussing whether Macbeth is personally responsible for his own tragic ending, or whether he is the victim of forces beyond his control.
•Character Analysis: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, or both. Write a multi-paragraph essay that makes an argument about either one of these characters or the relationship between these two characters. Malcolm, in his last speech of the play, calls Macbeth and Lady Macbeth “this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen.” Instead of a character analysis, you may choose to present an argument in your essay as to which of the two is worse: Macbeth, or Lady Macbeth. If you choose this particular option, you will need to discuss both characters in your essay
•Write a multi-paragraph essay that makes an argument about the significance of the witches, the witches and the supernatural, or evil in the play Macbeth.
•Write a multi-paragraph essay arguing that a specific theme which is important in the play is the most significant theme in understanding the play.
•Shakespeare set Macbeth in the Middle Ages but wrote it during the Renaissance. Using a character or theme from Macbeth, argue that your character or theme reflects historical elements of the Renaissance or Middle Ages such as the Great Chain of Being, religious beliefs, chivalry, position of women, Machiavellian philosophy, humanism, etc. You will need to fully explain the character or theme and fully explain the historical element you’re using for connection.
'•”Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Lord Acton, 1887 Write a multi-paragraph essay discussing whether this statement is true or not with regard to Macbeth. You may want to integrate a discussion of Macbeth as a Machiavellian ruler into this essay.
•If you have an idea for another essay you would like to write, check with me.

What's Next: Thesis Statements and Shaping

American Studies: Vocab 4

OK guys, sorry for the confusion...your vocab test is this Wednesday. I will not assign the Huck Finn essay until we return on Monday. The vocab list is on my web page, which you can reach through the Skyline page.

Macbeth Seminar Make Up

If you were absent for the seminar, or if you did not prepare and were not allowed to participate, you may make up the seminar by typing a one page, double spaced answer to each of the 4 seminar questions. You should turn in a minimum of 4 pages typed. This is due by next Monday, Nov. 21.

European Studies: What's Next

Homework: Prepare for Socratic Seminar and finish grading your paragraph. Start studying for the Macbeth Test.

Schedule:
Monday: Final Macbeth Discussion (Socratic Seminar)
Tuesday: Macbeth Test
Wednesday: Vocab. Quiz and Research Time for Renaissance Ball
Thursday: Learn to Dance
Friday: Renaissance Ball

Socratic Seminar: Macbeth
Prepare for the seminar by answering the following questions. You must back up your answers with lines from the text and reference to the text. This will be your entrance slip to the Socratic Seminar on Monday. You will not be able to gain entry to the seminar without all of the questions completed.

What is the significance of the witches?
Who is a better or worse person, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth?
Which theme that you have been following is the most important to your understanding of the play? Explain.
What is the main message of Macbeth?

Macbeth Test
Test will be a combination of multiple choice, matching, quote identification and writing.

To study:
Review your notes taken as we read Macbeth. If you have your own copy which you have been annotating, read back through your annotations, paying attention to the most important lines, actions and concepts. As you are doing this, try to formulate possible test questions or guess which lines might end up in the quote ID section. Anything that was discussed and emphasized in class is more likely to end up on the test. Review your theme chart to remind yourself of how the various themes develop in the play. Some concepts you must be sure to review are the concept of the Great Chain of Being and how it is important to the play, the medieval and Renaissance mindsets, including beliefs about witches and about heaven and hell. Also know and understand the following Shakespearean terms and be able to identify them: soliloquy, aside, antithesis, imagery, dramatic irony.The written portion of the test will come from our Seminar on Monday.

American Studies: Whitman

Per. 3: Finish identifying poetic elements in Whitman and answer the following two questions in your journal:
How do you think Whitman decides when a line should end and when to continue it?
What evidence of transcendentalist philosophy do you find in Whitman's poem? (Find and list specific lines.)

Per. 1-3:
Sum up Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" in terms of both subject and style in a paragraph of thoughtful, errorless prose. Be sure to support what you are saying with examples from the poem. Typed, double spaced, due Monday.

What's Coming Up:
Monday Nov. 14: Be through Chapter 31 of Huck Finn (Quiz)
Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 15-16: Huck Finn, pro and con
Wednesday, Nov. 16: "Song of Yourself" due
Monday Nov. 21: Finished reading Huck Finn
Tuesday Nov. 22: Huck Finn Exam
Wednesday Nov. 23: Huck Finn Essay Assigned
Wednesday Dec. 7: Vocab 4 tested (NOTE Date Change!!)

Don't forget your independent reading! You must read either The Jungle, The Awakening or The Red Badge of Courage by Jan.3.

American Studies: What's Next

Due Wednesday: Per. 1/2, finish reading "Modern Poetry" and entering notes for each question into your journal; read and take notes on pp. 342-346 (this assignment will go in your HWP).
Wednesday: Walt Whitman and "Song of Myself"
Monday: Be finished with "Huck Finn" through Ch. 31
Wednesday, Nov. 23: Vocab Test 4
January 3: Independent Reading due (Red Badge of Courage, The Awakening or The Jungle)

European Studies: 10/31

Today I signed the theme chart and the Act 2 journal and collected extra credit. We discussed the journal, then watched Act 2 (motorcycle Macbeth.) Afterwards, students did a journal in class answering the following questions:
Has Macbeth changed from the end of Act I to the end of Act 2? Explain.
Has your opinion of him changed? Explain.
We had a discussion, then started Act 3, reading through the end of Macbeth's soliloquy in Scene 1.
No homework.

European Studies: 10/28

Due Monday: Act 2 Journal (see assignment below) and 6 new entries in your theme chart from Act 2.

Journal: Act 2
1. What did the servant see and hear?
Imagine that you are one of Macbeth’s servants at Inverness. You have watched Macbeth’s behaviour since he returned from the wars, and overheard snatches of what he and Lady Macbeth said. Write a letter home to tell what you know. Minimum ¾ page.

Read Act 2, Scene 4 yourself. Use notes in your text to figure out the meanings if you’re not sure…otherwise, use the context to figure out the meaning as clearly as you can. Answer the following questions:
List three examples of unnatural acts described by Ross and the old man which mirror the unnatural act of murdering the king.
Which theme do the above examples connect to? Explain.
Who does Macduff says “did this more than bloody deed”?
Ross asks Macduff, “What good could they pretend?” He means, how could they benefit from Duncan’s death. Macduff answers, “They were suborned.” What does he mean by this?
Who is being suspected of getting the two servants to murder the king? Why are they suspected?
What does Ross mean when he says, “’Gainst nature still.”?
What has happened to Macbeth?
Find out all you can about Scone and Iona (Colmkill). What might these two places symbolize, based on the historical information you find out?
Where do Macduff and Ross say they will go?

American Studies: Poe Day (Halloween)

To prepare for Poe Day on Monday, October 31st, read Poe's biography in your lit book, pages 260-261, then read The Fall of the House of Usher, pp. 264-279 and answer the following questions:
1. How would you describe the Ushers as a family? List a couple quotes here.
2. What is Roderick Usher like himself?
3. How is the house seen by the narrator? By Roderick Usher? What do you think the house might symbolize or represent?
4. To what extent has Roderick Usher's environment become a symbolic representation of his own morbid mindset?
5. HOw is the ending a classic scene of Gothic horror?
6. To have one's dreams come true is ordinarily supposed to be a desirable thing. Is it a desirable thing for Roderick Usher?
7. What is the doom on the House of Usher? Why does the story "work" as a tale of terror?

Due Tuesday, Nov. 1: be finished with Chapter 12 of Huck Finn and be ready for a quiz.
Next Vocab (List 3)...Friday Nov. 4.

American Studies: 10/27

Today we had a quiz on Chapters 2-5 of Huck Finn, corrected the grammar worksheet and practiced grammar.
Tomorrow: Grammar quiz and discussion of Chs. 1-5

By Tuesday: Read through Chapter 12

American Studies: 10/26

Read Huck Finn through Chapter 5 by tomorrow. You will have a quiz on the chapters tomorrow. While you are reading, you need to be making a list of characters and of settings/places and keeping notes on them. If you have your own copy of the book, you should be annotating the reading; if you don't have your own copy, use post-its to make notes in the margins and mark important passages, or keep a reading journal, noting down important ideas, thoughts, questions as you read.

European Studies: Mon. and Tues.

Monday: I stamped the homework on Scene 7; then we went over the Scene together and discussed it. For the quiz, students needed to be prepared to find examples of "fair is foul and fair" in Act I; they needed to be able to identify, for six important passages, who said them, who they were said to, and what was happening in the play when they were said; they needed to know what dramatic irony was and be able to find an example of it. Add 6 entries to theme chart.
Tuesday: Act I Quiz. Make-ups must be completed by next Monday. Pronoun-Antecedent agreement sheet was stamped and gone over. Pronoun Use reference sheet was handed out...keep for future reference. Plot Notes handout was given out...students are required to fill in the sections corresponding with "Exposition," which correlates to Act I.

American Studies: 10/21

Grammar Practice sheet due Monday; Bring Huck Finn Monday
HWP due Monday: (see list below)
Authors Chart: Bryant, Emerson, Thoreau (NS)
Romanticism Videos Qs. (S)
American Romanticism Notes (S)
“Thanatopsis” Qs. (S)
New England Trans. Video Notes (NS)
“Nature” Analysis (S)
Self-Reliance Prep. (S)
Walden Notes (S)
“Resistance to Civil Gov’t.” Crit. Rdg. (S)
Parent Interview (S)
Fishbowl Prep. AND NOTES (S)
Journal due Monday:(should include the following...)
"Opinion"
9/28 "Thanatopsis"
10/4 Hudson River School
10/12 Affluenza Intro.
10/13 Quote Response (Stamped)
10/17 Affluenza Reflection
Parent Interview Reflection (Stamped)

American Studies: 10/20

Don't forget...you have a vocab. test tomorrow!!!