Eve of All Hallow's Eve

District Interim Assessment. Yeah, not fun, but look at it as an opportunity to practice pacing yourself for the one test that matters most--the SAT.

Head off on your own nature walk sometime today to enjoy the sun and the beauty of the world!

You need to have finished reading the required parts of Walden by Monday.
pp. 1-52
pp. 53-64
pp. 206-216
10 pages of your own choosing

Your book report is due Tuesday (November 5)
Your Walden poster is due Tuesday, November 12
At that time you will also hand in your Walden "journal," which consists of
1/2 page explanation of what Thoreau is saying in three (3) different quotes as well as
1 page on a 4th quote.

October 29

1. Read "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (page 267-268)
In your journal, write down 5 significant quotes. Then 
Choose one of your quotes and write 1/2 page (no more) explaining what Emerson is saying.  

Continue Walden.
Writing: Choose one of your quotes and write 1/2 page (no more) explaining what Thoreau is saying.  You will need to repeat this assignment three more times (a total of 4) and write 1 page on one quote. You will hand these in with your quotes

Share quotes. Continue copying 25 quotes.
Read to page 64 by Wednesday.
Quote of the day: "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone" (or any other quote dealing with the idea of "less is more")
Check out this fascinating comparison of house sizes around the world: Houses
Here's a link to The Little Prince, which shows that we tend to judge people based on what they wear: Little Prince, pages 10, 11
Tomorrow we will look at our carbon footprint.
This week is the perfect time to study the dark Romantics (yeah, weird term, but that's it)
Dark Romantics
    Hawthorne
        Young Goodman Brown
    Poe
    Bauedelaire (French)

Transcendentalists
   Emerson
   Thoreau
British Romantics
    William Wordsworth
         "The Tables Turned"
         Ode: Intimations of Immortality

October 28

Continue Walden.
Share quotes. Continue copying 25 quotes.
Read to page 64 by Wednesday.
Quote of the day: "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone" (or any other quote dealing with the idea of "less is more")
Check out this fascinating comparison of house sizes around the world: Houses
Here's a link to The Little Prince, which shows that we tend to judge people based on what they wear: Little Prince, pages 10, 11
Tomorrow we will look at our carbon footprint.
This week is the perfect time to study the dark Romantics (yeah, weird term, but that's it)
Dark Romantics
    Hawthorne
        Young Goodman Brown
    Poe
    Bauedelaire (French)

Transcendentalists
   Emerson
   Thoreau
British Romantics
    William Wordsworth
         "The Tables Turned"
         Ode: Intimations of Immortality

October 22 and 23

Book Report due November 5
Walden poster due November 12
 Walden: Read pages 1-64, Conclusion and 10 pages of your choosing. 

Nature Walk--Study Transcendentalism under a tree, the way Thoreau would have us do.

Assignment (Homework): 
1. Go into nature and find a natural object that means something to you. Try to think in terms of metaphor and how that object might represent life or perhaps even an aspect of the human drama. This is what Thoreau and other Transcendentalist writers do (it's what poets and authors in general do--they are observers of life).
2. Write 1/2-1 page (no more, please) telling us the significance of that object. If you'd rather, write a poem. (10 points).
Homework assignment #2. Read the autumn poems found here: Autumn Poems
Walden reading schedule:
By Thur, 10/24 read to page 24
By Monday, 10/28, read to page 53
Remember, as you read, copy down quotes from the book and include page numbers.
25 quotes in all due November 4

Discuss Walden
(4) "What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate"
      "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"
(5) "Age in no better,  hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as you, for it has not profited so much as it has lost"
(6) "If I repent of anythng, it is very likely to be my good behavior"
(8)  "Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind"
(14) "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes"




If you haven't already done so, read at least the following parts of Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality: stanzas 1-4; 9-11. I'll be honest, this is really tough reading, but you should be able to get the main idea (nature is beautiful and inspiring, and although we sometimes go through hard times and become disillusioned, Nature, the great teacher, will show us that life "is beautiful yet" and she will give us healing "thoughts do often lie too deep for tears.")

British Romantics
    William Wordsworth
         "The Tables Turned"
         Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Romanticism in America
Dark Romantics
    Hawthorne
        Young Goodman Brown
    Poe
Transcendentalists
   Emerson
   Thoreau

Monday, October 21

British Romantics
    William Wordsworth
         "The Tables Turned"
         Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Romanticism in America
Dark Romantics
    Hawthorne
        Young Goodman Brown
    Poe
Transcendentalists
   Emerson
   Thoreau

Tuesday, October 15

1. Go over PSAT questions
2. Review ending of The Scarlet Letter
3. Vocabulary
Homework: 
      1 Vocabulary quiz tomorrow.
      2 Read Young Goodman Brown
Print out the story if possible. Here's the link: Young Goodman Brown
As you read, think in terms of similarities between this story and The Scarlet Letter. You will begin the period writing a short comparison of the two works. Tomorrow we will discuss it. Before we discuss the story, you will have a short reading comprehension quiz over the story. Typically, students don't get "A's" on this quiz--most likely because they either don't really read it or because they just pass their eyes over the words and don't think about what they read. To be a strong reader you need to:
1. Look up words and terms you don't know. Most students don't do this.
2. Read without distractions. About half of students don't do this.
3. Read fairly slowly, stopping quite often to reflect. About half of students don't do this.
4. Look for themes and ideas in general. About half of students don't do this.
5. Pay attention to dialog with a mind toward key ideas of the author.
6. Chat with friends about what you read. That's what Facebook is really for, isn't it?  ;~}
Hardly any students do this. Maybe we should start up a FB group or Google circle

Wednesday, October 9

1. Go over PSAT questions
2. Share 6 quotes with class
3. Homework: 
      1 Vocabulary quiz tomorrow.
      2 DISREGARD THIS SECOND BIT OF HOMEWORK. WE'LL DO IT LATER
[

Homework for [NEXT WEEK] night: Read Young Goodman Brown
Print out the story if possible. Here's the link: Young Goodman Brown
As you read, think in terms of similarities between this story and The Scarlet Letter. You will begin the period writing a short comparison of the two works. Tomorrow we will discuss it. Before we discuss the story, you will have a short reading comprehension quiz over the story. Typically, students don't get "A's" on this quiz--most likely because they either don't really read it or because they just pass their eyes over the words and don't think about what they read. To be a strong reader you need to:
1. Look up words and terms you don't know. Most students don't do this.
2. Read without distractions. About half of students don't do this.
3. Read fairly slowly, stopping quite often to reflect. About half of students don't do this.
4. Look for themes and ideas in general. About half of students don't do this.
5. Pay attention to dialog with a mind toward key ideas of the author.
6. Chat with friends about what you read. That's what Facebook is really for, isn't it?  ;~}
Hardly any students do this. Maybe we should start up a FB group or Google circle

Tuesday

1. Take PSAT practice (25 min)
2.Hopefully you finished the Scarlet Letter. It's a must read, I think, to understand the human condition. We'll discuss that this week. Test next Tuesday (since we don't have school Friday).
3. In groups of 3-4, write down 6 more significant quotes from the novel (ch 18- end). With these quotes you will now have 12. You may write all quotes on one sheet of paper with all names at the top (same sheet as first 6 quotes.)
4. Vocabulary. Quiz Thursday.

Homework for Wednesday night: Read Young Goodman Brown
Print out the story if possible. Here's the link: Young Goodman Brown
As you read, think in terms of similarities between this story and The Scarlet Letter. You will begin the period writing a short comparison of the two works. Tomorrow we will discuss it. Before we discuss the story, you will have a short reading comprehension quiz over the story. Typically, students don't get "A's" on this quiz--most likely because they either don't really read it or because they just pass their eyes over the words and don't think about what they read. To be a strong reader you need to:
1. Look up words and terms you don't know. Most students don't do this.
2. Read without distractions. About half of students don't do this.
3. Read fairly slowly, stopping quite often to reflect. About half of students don't do this.
4. Look for themes and ideas in general. About half of students don't do this.
5. Pay attention to dialog with a mind toward key ideas of the author.
6. Chat with friends about what you read. That's what Facebook is really for, isn't it?  ;~}
Hardly any students do this. Maybe we should start up a FB group or Google circle

Thor's Day

1. Finish Scarlet Letter for Monday. Test next Friday.
2. Review vocabulary for tomorrow's test.
3. In groups of 3-4, write down 6 significant quotes from the novel (ch 1-17) that we haven't already discussed. You may write all quotes on one sheet of paper with all names at the top.
4. Watch the film version of the novel

Woden's Day

Homework: Finish your 3/4 page journal and hand it in at the first of the period tomorrow.

Who attended the Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto last night?
Here's a recording:
Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto--Argerich
And here's your romantic piece for the day--one of my absolute favorites performed by an amazing pianist, Martha Angerich
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, 2nd movement--Argerich

Today's Assignment:
Discuss: Should Dimmesdale confess to his congregation? 
Chillingworth: "Yet some me bury their secrets" (Kaplan, p. 259)
Dimmesdale: "[but] can we not suppose . . . they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of me; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved the them?" (p. 259)

And when Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest and Hester says that she is planning to reveal just who Chillingworth is and she pleads that he stop torturing Dimmesdale, Chillingworth responds, "No--no! He has but increased the debt!"  Explain


Just so you get your money's worth today, here's my little tidbit of information for the day:
Origins of names of the days of the week

If you were gone yesterday, here's the writing assignment:

In chapter 5, "Hester at her Needle," Hawthorne introduces what was, at the time, a fairlyrevolutionary idea--that people who sin sometimes become better people than they would have had they led pious lives. 
Journal entry (3/4 page): In what ways has Hester's sin helped her to grow as a person? Find one or two examples from chapter 5 to help you develop your point of view.
Examples:
(Kaplan, p. 161) "Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them."
(Kaplan, p. 169) "The scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense. She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in others hearts."

Tiw's Day

Just so you get your money's worth today, here's my little tidbit of information for the day:
Origins of names of the days of the week







 In chapter 5, "Hester at her Needle," Hawthorne introduces what was, at the time, a fairly revolutionary idea--that people who sin sometimes become better people than they would have had they led pious lives.
Journal entry (3/4 page): In what ways has Hester's sin helped her to grow as a person? Find one or two examples from chapter 5 to help you develop your point of view.
Examples:
(Kaplan, p. 161) "Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them."
(Kaplan, p. 169) "The scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense. She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in others hearts."

Homework: Finish your 3/4 page journal and hand it in at the first of the period tomorrow.











Some of you do quite a bit of reading in your own time and I imagine that you might want to start your book report for the Friday reading book. That report will be due Tuesday, October 29th.

Handout: Creative Book Report handout

Example of collage book report (similar to a book report, anyway)
Example of animated movie book report
Example of timeline
Example of timeline book report
How to make a diorama
Example of diorama book report
Example of movie poster book report