We checked the grammar packet #4 in class. WE did and checked #5 in class. Both deal with subject and verb agreement.
Before we start on "Raisin in the Sun," we took a day to enjoy one of the masterpiece poems of American Lit. We watched the first part of the the video as an introduction, then we used page 297 from the text book to read and understand the poem.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Wednesday & Thursday; March 18 & 19
We practiced for the test by playing a game of Jeopardy that can be found on March 3rd blog.
Then we took a test. Nice job classes.
Assigned grammar packet page 4 to be done as homework.
This week all papers have to be turned in for multi-genre essay if they are not to be counted as late.
Then we took a test. Nice job classes.
Assigned grammar packet page 4 to be done as homework.
This week all papers have to be turned in for multi-genre essay if they are not to be counted as late.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Monday & Tuesday; March 16 & 17
We took a quiz over dashes at the beginning of class.
We listened to "Made in America" and did a class group discussion.
We discussed by asking what theme the song contains,
what specific words or phrases support your interpretation,
what this piece reminds you about what we have learned before in class or your own life.
We read through "A Dream Deferred" and answered the same questions:
Some of the classes also took a look at "Strange fruit grows from Southern Trees".
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Stay tuned for the following:
Wed & Thurs; March 18 & 19 Test over Great Gatsby
We listened to "Made in America" and did a class group discussion.
We discussed by asking what theme the song contains,
what specific words or phrases support your interpretation,
what this piece reminds you about what we have learned before in class or your own life.
We read through "A Dream Deferred" and answered the same questions:
Some of the classes also took a look at "Strange fruit grows from Southern Trees".
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Stay tuned for the following:
Wed & Thurs; March 18 & 19 Test over Great Gatsby
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Tuesday & Wednesday; March 10 & 11
We finished the movie THE GREAT GATSBY.
Self-check your dash assignment from grammar packet, page 3.
We worked for forty minutes on chrome books for our multi-genre assignment.
Are you writing one of your choice pieces for the MGE on a last will and testament? Here is a humorous look at one:
Self-check your dash assignment from grammar packet, page 3.
We worked for forty minutes on chrome books for our multi-genre assignment.
Are you writing one of your choice pieces for the MGE on a last will and testament? Here is a humorous look at one:
Friday, March 6, 2015
Friday and Monday; March 6 and 9
Assign as homework the third page of grammar packet. It is on "Dashes".
We had work time for the multi-genre essays. Students were also given ideas for the journal writes, which are the second required piece of writing for their essays.
Here are the directions for the second required writing: Choose from the following:
Multi-genre Writing Prompts: Required Writing #2 for The Great Gatsby
1 What is the American Dream? What does it take to achieve this dream? Who determines your success in the dream- you or others? Do not just answer these questions. Use your creativity to illustrate these ideas.
2 What dreams or wishes did you once have that you now know were unrealistic or foolish? What have you learned since those days? Using a writing snapshot would be a great way to introduce this topic.
3 Choose one of your fantasies about what your life will be like in twenty years. Write about it using specific details. Remember that you will be around 36 years of age as the narrator. Tell us the important facts about your life. How will your world be different?
4 Write a recipe for the American Dream. Take what you have learned from this class or this book and write a full recipe.
5 Write a full obituary for yourself at some future date. What details, accomplishment, family members, possessions will be emphasized? Or make this into a last will and testament. To whom would you bequeath what?
6 The Great Gatsby abounds with icons of the 1920’s- Gatsby’s car, bootlegging, jazz, women’s dresses, and women’s hair styles. List some object that typify the current decade, and incorporate as many of them as possible into a few paragraphs describing a day in your life.
These are ideas for a journal writing. This will differ from the essay format of writing assignment number one.
Coming Attractions:
March 10/ 11 We will have computers in the classroom to finish working on our projects.
March 16/ 17 The multi-genre essay is due.
Mr. Wallace will teach a lesson study as intro to “Raisin in the Sun.”
March 18/ 19 Test over Gatsby.
March 23 thru 27: Spring Break
We had work time for the multi-genre essays. Students were also given ideas for the journal writes, which are the second required piece of writing for their essays.
Here are the directions for the second required writing: Choose from the following:
Multi-genre Writing Prompts: Required Writing #2 for The Great Gatsby
1 What is the American Dream? What does it take to achieve this dream? Who determines your success in the dream- you or others? Do not just answer these questions. Use your creativity to illustrate these ideas.
2 What dreams or wishes did you once have that you now know were unrealistic or foolish? What have you learned since those days? Using a writing snapshot would be a great way to introduce this topic.
3 Choose one of your fantasies about what your life will be like in twenty years. Write about it using specific details. Remember that you will be around 36 years of age as the narrator. Tell us the important facts about your life. How will your world be different?
4 Write a recipe for the American Dream. Take what you have learned from this class or this book and write a full recipe.
5 Write a full obituary for yourself at some future date. What details, accomplishment, family members, possessions will be emphasized? Or make this into a last will and testament. To whom would you bequeath what?
6 The Great Gatsby abounds with icons of the 1920’s- Gatsby’s car, bootlegging, jazz, women’s dresses, and women’s hair styles. List some object that typify the current decade, and incorporate as many of them as possible into a few paragraphs describing a day in your life.
These are ideas for a journal writing. This will differ from the essay format of writing assignment number one.
Coming Attractions:
March 10/ 11 We will have computers in the classroom to finish working on our projects.
March 16/ 17 The multi-genre essay is due.
Mr. Wallace will teach a lesson study as intro to “Raisin in the Sun.”
March 18/ 19 Test over Gatsby.
March 23 thru 27: Spring Break
Wednesday and Thursday
We involved ourselves in a gallery walk, spent time on our Multi-Genre Essay, and checked-in with the teacher on incomplete assignments.
See yesterday for copies of handouts for first required writing.
Mr. Austin Wallace wrote a sample of what a character study can look like. See below or click here for link:
Austin Wallace
American Literature
2 March 2015
Loss of Past in All The Pretty Horses
In All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, the protagonist John Grady Cole travels from southwest Texas into Mexico with his best friend Lacey Rawlins. After his mother sells his family’s ranch, John Grady is left without a purpose in life because he always imagined that he would be a cowboy and rancher; therefore, he rides into Mexico in search of the life he cannot seem to have in Texas. The sixteen year old faces several hardships in Mexico; even though he is guided by his own principals, events rarely turn out the way he desires, as the forces around him are much greater than he is. Over the course of this coming of age novel, John Grady represents a loss of past because not only does he become a man who is aware of the ways of the world, but he also experiences the dying of the west as he knows it.
As the novel progresses, the reader begins to understand that John Grady is different than the other characters in the novel in many ways. Even Perez, the leader of the Mexican prison, says to John Grady: “You are the oveja negra, no? The black sheep?” (191). John Grady has many qualities which are not seen in other characters; one of the most noticeable is his hope, and his failure to realize the evil of the world around him. Here, one sees how others view John Grady—as a young man who has no quite learned the harsh realities of the world. However, he begins to understand that he has little control over his place in history, and one of the instances where he learns this is at this moment in the Mexican prison.
John Grady feels like the world is changing around him, and he is not prepared to live a life different than the one he always imagined as a cowboy. The narrator tells the reader that John Grady “felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still” (282). This description of what John Grady thinks informs the reader that he still has a purpose in life—he knows he still loves the world—but he feels disconnected from it. He feels this way because he longs for the old, simple days of the west which he sees disappearing around him. After John Grady returns to Texas, he rides his horse on the highway as semi-trucks pass them by (298). In this moment, the reader sees John Grady literally being passed by technology as he rides his horse in his homeland of west Texas. The theme of the loss of past shines through in this moment; John Grady is willingly stuck in the past while the world moves ahead without him. In one of the last scenes in the novel, John Grady witnesses the funeral of a Mexican caretaker of his family, who he calls his abuela. This scene also highlights the theme of loss of past because as he stands over the grave he “held out his hands . . . as if to slow the world that was rushing away” (301). The author directly states that the protagonist is struggling with the changing times in his life. This is significant because it portrays John Grady as a character who experiences the feeling of nostalgia and a loss of the past which he loves.
In his novel, Cormac McCarthy writes about the theme of the loss of past through his protagonist John Grady Cole. We last see the young man riding off into the sunset, reminiscent of a stereotypical western novel. The difference here is that John Grady rides into an unknown world; he is uncertain of his future. McCarthy uses this character as a commentary not only on the loss of a time period in history—the time of cowboys in the west—but also to evoke the experience of the human condition when one’s world is shaken out from under them.
See yesterday for copies of handouts for first required writing.
Mr. Austin Wallace wrote a sample of what a character study can look like. See below or click here for link:
Austin Wallace
American Literature
2 March 2015
Loss of Past in All The Pretty Horses
In All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, the protagonist John Grady Cole travels from southwest Texas into Mexico with his best friend Lacey Rawlins. After his mother sells his family’s ranch, John Grady is left without a purpose in life because he always imagined that he would be a cowboy and rancher; therefore, he rides into Mexico in search of the life he cannot seem to have in Texas. The sixteen year old faces several hardships in Mexico; even though he is guided by his own principals, events rarely turn out the way he desires, as the forces around him are much greater than he is. Over the course of this coming of age novel, John Grady represents a loss of past because not only does he become a man who is aware of the ways of the world, but he also experiences the dying of the west as he knows it.
As the novel progresses, the reader begins to understand that John Grady is different than the other characters in the novel in many ways. Even Perez, the leader of the Mexican prison, says to John Grady: “You are the oveja negra, no? The black sheep?” (191). John Grady has many qualities which are not seen in other characters; one of the most noticeable is his hope, and his failure to realize the evil of the world around him. Here, one sees how others view John Grady—as a young man who has no quite learned the harsh realities of the world. However, he begins to understand that he has little control over his place in history, and one of the instances where he learns this is at this moment in the Mexican prison.
John Grady feels like the world is changing around him, and he is not prepared to live a life different than the one he always imagined as a cowboy. The narrator tells the reader that John Grady “felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still” (282). This description of what John Grady thinks informs the reader that he still has a purpose in life—he knows he still loves the world—but he feels disconnected from it. He feels this way because he longs for the old, simple days of the west which he sees disappearing around him. After John Grady returns to Texas, he rides his horse on the highway as semi-trucks pass them by (298). In this moment, the reader sees John Grady literally being passed by technology as he rides his horse in his homeland of west Texas. The theme of the loss of past shines through in this moment; John Grady is willingly stuck in the past while the world moves ahead without him. In one of the last scenes in the novel, John Grady witnesses the funeral of a Mexican caretaker of his family, who he calls his abuela. This scene also highlights the theme of loss of past because as he stands over the grave he “held out his hands . . . as if to slow the world that was rushing away” (301). The author directly states that the protagonist is struggling with the changing times in his life. This is significant because it portrays John Grady as a character who experiences the feeling of nostalgia and a loss of the past which he loves.
In his novel, Cormac McCarthy writes about the theme of the loss of past through his protagonist John Grady Cole. We last see the young man riding off into the sunset, reminiscent of a stereotypical western novel. The difference here is that John Grady rides into an unknown world; he is uncertain of his future. McCarthy uses this character as a commentary not only on the loss of a time period in history—the time of cowboys in the west—but also to evoke the experience of the human condition when one’s world is shaken out from under them.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Monday & Tuesday; March 2 & 3
All right! Chapter 9 of the Great Gatsby, the final chapter.
Would you like to review? Jeopardy review Click here
Quiz over colons for practice.
More work on essay over Gatsby. See yesterday for template and directions.
Whoa! Two more ideas for review: John Green follow up video
Thug notes and review, but you shouldn't watch this if certain language offends you. Now that I said that, it ensures that most of you will watch this one first:
Would you like to review? Jeopardy review Click here
Quiz over colons for practice.
More work on essay over Gatsby. See yesterday for template and directions.
Whoa! Two more ideas for review: John Green follow up video
Thug notes and review, but you shouldn't watch this if certain language offends you. Now that I said that, it ensures that most of you will watch this one first:
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