Thursday, October 30

Read Fall of the House of Usher for tomorrow. Short quiz! And it's a fairly tough read, but marvelously exciting--one of Poe's best.
   And here's the story as it was originally published--cool pictures and old font. Neat
       And here's an introduction to the story

Answer the following on a sheet of paper which you will bring to class tomorrow.
1. How does Roderick Usher die? (What actually kills him?) Write 1 short paragraph

2. In what ways is this story Gothic? Write 1 long paragraph. Total of approximately 1 page

Definition of Gothic (scroll down to III.) Gothic

A professor discusses the Gothic period

Literary Criticism--Fall of the House of Usher's lack of universal appeal
    House of Mirrors
   

Poe's the Fall of the House of Usher

BR Voloshin - The Explicator, 1988 - Taylor & Francis

13 testing parts of a single consciousness or a single being. So, for example, Madeline and
Roderick have been described as representing the unconscious and consciousness, the
sensuous and the intellectual, the instinctive and the rational.'What I'd like to suggest here

Tomorrow we will also read your vocabulary stories! Finish them at home. They do not need to be all that long. I wouldn't take too much time on these. 5/5 points for everyone who gives it an honest attempt and uses at least 8 of the 10 words correctly. +1 extra credit for best story.

Tuesday you will have a test over The Crucible. We will discuss Monday. You don't need to read it since we watched the entire movie in class, but you might consider reviewing it.

Sparknotes: The Crucible

Here's a spooky story: The Expressionless

Thursday

Scarlet Letter Test
Watch Crucible movie. This is an excellent film. One of the best, in my opinion.
Even though you will not be tested on vocabulary for The Crucible, here is a link to some vocabulary for the play: Crucible  49 Terms

Vocabulary for Friday: Walden  Learn first 20 words
You don't have much reading to do this week, so we're learning 20 vocab words rather than 10. Doing so will make it easier to read Walden, which is written on approximately a 12th grade level.
Many of you will want to purchase your own copy of Walden. I will be ordering books tomorrow. If you're interested, bring $4. One of the main reasons that you should consider buying your own book is that you have to write down what you consider to be the 25 most significant quotes from the book. This is much easier to do if you underline as you read.

If you still haven't finished last week's homework, follow the directions below for adding your ideas to the Transcendentalism Google Doc


HOMEWORK--due tonight at 11:59 PM

Each one of you is to do research on Transcendentalism and contribute two sentences (three max!) to the document found at the Googole Doc found below. You will need to do some research on the Internet to see what you can find. The neat thing about this assignment is that you will find things that no one in this school knows about because you will become the experts on this matter. Synergy is what we’re talkin’ about here, baby. Collaboration gives us more information that any one person can accumulate.

Go to this Google Doc: Transcendentalism--1st Period
Go to this Google Doc:  Transcendentalism--2nd Period

Monday, October 14

Bienvenue! La classe commence encore pour les 6 semaines numéro deux

(WHAT THE HECK, I MIGHT AS WELL TEACH TWO THINGS SIMULTANEOUSLY--FRENCH AND ENGLISH. MOST OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER EVEN STUDIED A WORD OF FRENCH CAN UNDERSTAND THAT, RIGHT?

Transcendentalism

Read Whitman's When I Heard the Learned Astronomer

WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;	5
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. Yang Male Principle    Logic, analysis as a way of knowing    Sun    Dry    Red    3 Yin   Female Principle      Intuition      Moon      Moist      Blue      4 Yang    Male principle       Sun       Analysis, logic       Dry       Red       3 Yin   Female principal      Moon      Intuition      Moist      Blue      4 Now, give me an exegesis of the poem based on the ideas above HOMEWORK FOR WEDNESDAY NIGHT Each one of you is to do research on Transcendentalism and contribute two sentences (three max!) to the document found at the Googole Doc found below. You will need to do some research on the Internet to see what you can find. The neat thing about this assignment is that you will find things that no one in this school knows about because you will become the experts on this matter. Synergy is what we’re talkin’ about here, baby. Collaboration gives us more information that any one person can accumulate. Go to this Google Doc: Transcendentalism--1st Period Go to this Google Doc:  Transcendentalism--2nd Period

Thursday

The Scarlet Letter--Hypocrisy Theme found in our contemporary society

Thomas Eric Duncan: Five Fast Facts You Need to Know (about Ebola)
NPR on Duncan this morning
Biased report Hypocrisy concerning ways people can die in this country (Jon Stewart)
Biased report ISIS Plot to Infect Suicide Bombers with Ebola (FourWinds10.com)

October 8

What is literature?

Class recommended reading list for middle school high school students
Honors English Recommended Reading List: Here's a link to our class anthology: Good Books!

Monday, October 6, 2014

HOMEWORK: We have one more week to finish reading The Scarlet Letter. I will let you read at your own pace, but have the book finished by Monday, Oct 13.

Vocabulary for Friday: words 25-34 on the following list Scarlet Letter Vocab "cabalistic . . .

Oral Commentary passages 

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18, Old Testament)

Thursday

HOMEWORK: We have one more week to finish reading The Scarlet Letter. I will let you read at your own pace, but have the book finished by Monday, Oct 13.

Vocabulary for Friday: words 15-24 on the following list Scarlet Letter Vocab "contumely" to "initrinsic"

Oral Commentary passages will be assigned. Tomorrow we will spend 15 minutes preparing for commentary passages and will have four groups present.