For Monday, March 2

Due on Monday, March 3.  6 of the 11 Prufrock questions.  Remember, this is a major grade.  Take your time with each question.  Structure answers as if you are writing quotation sandwiches.



Great class today.  I love digging deep into the works of literature we are reading.

Due Wednesday, March 5

Finish reading The House on Mango Street.  That should be about 40 pages or so.  We left off at page 66. So start with "Edna's Ruthie".  You could probably read all of these pages in an hour or maybe even less; however, do not discount the fact that the vignettes "tell much more than they say"...this should remind you of a recently read poem.

Select three of the vignettes that affect you emotionally.  Some of my favorites are:  "Four Skinny Trees", "Bums in the Attic", "The Monkey Garden", and "Red Clowns". 

For Monday, March 3

MAKE SURE TO BRING HOUSE ON MANGO STREET TO CLASS ON THURSDAY!!!  NO EXCUSES.

Answer six (6) of the  following questions regarding "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."  (That equals one question a night until I see you next.)  Write in paragraph form/complete sentences.  Try to think of your answers as quotation sandwiches:  set up context, cite the poem, interpret your citation.  Dig deep and this will be an excellent exercise in analytical thinking and writing.

SKILL FOCUS:  DETAIL
1.  How does Eliot set the tone in the poem's first stanza?  Look carefully at both the figurative language and the concrete details.
SKILL FOCUS:  IMAGERY


2.  Eliot depends on the emotional associations of his images, what he called the "objective correlative," to reveal aspects of Prufrock's personality.  In the first stanza, what emotions do you associate with images such as "patient etherized on a table" or "one-night cheap hotels"?
SKILL FOCUS:  DETAIL/IMAGERY/FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
3.  Prufrock is a deeply self-conscious character.  Explain the various ways that characteristic is developed in lines 37-72.  Consider especially lines 55-58, in which Prufrock imagines himself pinned like a specimen to a wall.  (You could probably write an entire essay on the associations made between Prufrock's physical descriptions and their connection to his emotional state.)
SKILL FOCUS:  REPETITION
4.  From line 37-87, twelve lines begin with "And."  What does the repetition of this conjunction suggest about Prufrock's mental state?  Consider in your study of repetition the word "known" in lines 49-49.
SKILL FOCUS:  SYNTAX
5.  What is the effect of the semi-colons and ellipses in lines 111-121?  What do they tell you about Prufrock's state of mind?
SKILL FOCUS:  SYNTAX
6.  Eliot uses the technique of enjambment, or run on lines.  An example is in the lines 5-9:  "The muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: / Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent."  How does this technique help create the alienating quality of the city scene that's set in the first 22 lines.
SKILL FOCUS:  ALLUSION
7.  In line 111, Prufrock readily admits he is no Hamlet.  What might have led the reader to believe that Prufrock and Hamlet share characteristics?  (Be specific)  What characteristics of Hamlet does Prufrock claim not to have?
SKILL FOCUS:  DETAIL
8.  Details such as Prufrock's assertion that he will "wear the bottom of his trousers rolled" or his question about whether he should "dare to eat a peach" have been interpreted in many ways.  Some say it's about his age or "oldness"; others say it is about his nervousness around women.  Consider several possibilities.  How does each add to the portrait of Prufrock and the multiple meanings of Eliot's poem?
SKILL FOCUS:  ALLUSION
9.  In the last six lines of this poem for a sestet (6 lines), the form that both ends the traditional Petrarchan sonnet and offers a solution for the problem or conflict set out in the first eight liens (the octave).  The poet Petrarch wrote about his unrequited love for Laura, but Prufrock doesn't even have an unrequited love.  Do these last six lines offer any solutions?  How does the image of mermaids continue some of the poem's motifs?  What does it mean that Prufrock invites the reader to drown with him at the end of the poem?
SKILL FOCUS:  REPETITION
10.  In what ways is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" a poem about time?  Read through the poem and look for references to time, including aging, the meaning of time, and the word time itself.  What conclusions can you draw about the way Eliot thinks about time?
SKILL FOCUS:  REPETITION
11.  Highlight every reference to question/questions, as well as, every question asked.  Do you see any connections?  What conclusions do you deduce from this analysis of "the questions"?

For Monday, February 24

Task #1:  Take out or print out a copy of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
Task #2:  Read through the poem once.  Slowly.
Task #3:  Look up a You Tube video of Eliot reading his famous poem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAO3QTU4PzY

Task #4:  Next:  Read this excerpt from your textbook:

"'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' is like a collage, a work of visual art created by materials and objects glued to a flat surface.  In poetry this technique is called fragmentation, a favorite technique of the modernists.  The fragments come together--or don't--in a way that mirrors the fragmented, chaotic modern world.  In the fourth stanza, for example, what is the effect of fragments such as "yellow smoke," "murder and create," "visions and revisions," and "toast and tea" appearing together?  Do they form a new picture, or are their effects fragmentary?  How do the fragments communicate Eliot's vision of a modern man in a modern city?"

Task #5:  This weekend, I want you to create a collage (pencil drawing, magazine pictures, words, internet pictures, a combination of all) using some of the images from "Prufrock."  Use images that connect with you in some way.  (I would say to use a minimum of 5 images although you can use 100.  The more images you use, the more intimate you will be with the poem.)

Task #6:  On the back of your collage or on a separate sheet of paper, explain your choices.  How do you connect with the images?  Make it personal.  You could also include ideas about theme and characterization.  

You will present your collages on Monday.  I cannot wait to see what you come up with.  We will tackle the analysis together, but this is a great way to start!

For Friday, February 21

Task #1:

Read through the following questions before reading the poem "The Hollow Men."

1. Is there any possibility for salvation for the Hollow Men? Are they capable of saving themselves? Does the poem contain any signs of hope?
2. Eliot once described the newspaper editors and politicians of his time in a way that made them sound like "Hollow Men." Does contemporary society have its Hollow Men? Would you associate them with a particular social group?
3. Do you find it offensive or arrogant of Eliot to judge other people so harshly? Does the fact that he does so with an imaginary group in a poem make a difference?
4. Where are the Hollow Men's eyes?
5. Do you think the Hollow Men will make it across the River Styx, or are they trapped forever in the desert?
6. Do you agree that people who are too timid to do bad things and who only look out for themselves are more despicable than people who actively commit evil? Do you see a difference between the two forms of badness?

Task #2:

Read and annotate the poem a section at a time. 

After reading each section, stop.  Go back and annotate the section for meaning, stop.

Write a sentence about the meaning or images of the section.  Do this for each of the five sections.

Task #3:

Go back to the questions above.  Read all 6 questions again.  Choose two of the questions to answer in writing.  Be detailed with your answers...write quotations sandwiches within your answer.  Some of the questions may feel like opinion; use the poem to back up or refute your opinion.

For Wednesday, February 19

We will begin reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad within the next couple of weeks. This novel is in your textbook.  I find it a little difficult to read in the textbook because the pages are long, and the print is small.  You decide.  If you would rather purchase a copy of the novel in paperback, or for Kindle, or read it online, that is great with me. 


Task #1

Write a 40 minute essay over the poem "All My Pretty Ones" by Anne Sexton.  Before setting your timer, read the poem again looking over your annotations.  You will be writing on the speaker's changing perspective of her father.  Look at each album the speaker goes through.  The first, she discards.  The second, she "throw[s] out.  The next, she ________, and finally, she _________.
Her emotions go from bitterness (maybe) to forgiveness.  How?  Why?

After your careful review, set the timer.

Write a well-developed essay in which you analyze how Sexton conveys the speaker's changing perspective of her father through the use of allusion, imagery/metaphor, and tone.


Task #2

Find the Sylvia Plath poem entitled "Daddy"on the internet.  Read and annotate the poem.  Consider the tone of this poem in comparison to Sexton's poem.  Do the speaker's feeling change throughout the poem?  What is the tone?  Annotate comparison of father to history, images that suggest the speaker lacks value.
Your textbook has this note about this poem:  "Plath has said of 'Daddy':  'The poem is spoken by a girl with an Electra complex.  Her father died while she thought he was God.   Her case is complicated by the fact that her father was also a Nazi and her mother very possibly part-Jewish.  In the daughter the two strains marry and paralyze each other--she has to act out the awful little allegory before she is free of it.'  How does this commentary by the poet influence your reading of the poem?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra_complex

Again,come ready to discuss!

For Thursday, February 13

Macbeth Director's Notebook

I am expecting AMAZINGNESS!

For Monday, February 10

Macbeth Director's Notebook
Due Date:  Thursday, February 13

This will be our complete focus from now until February 13.

Although, we will watch scene performances on Monday for the following students:
Garrett and Emily Clark
John and Emily Tyminski

Copy of Directions for Director's Notebook Here:

Macbeth-Motif

 

Mrs. Fox

 

AP Literature and Composition

 

7 January 2014

 

Macbeth Director’s Notebook

~Literary Device Focus:  Motif~

DUE DATE:  BOP February 3 or 4, 2014

 

You will design a Director’s Notebook in which you will record insights about the delivery of lines, costuming, characterization, staging, music, set, and prop choices.  Your “notes” will include the ways in which your scene highlights Shakespeare’s use of your chosen motif.  Your “notes” will also show how Shakespeare’s use of this motif adds to the play’s meaning.

 

Required Contents of Notebook:

1.         Script:  Obtain a copy of your scene, and print it on 8 1/2 X 11 copy paper.   Make sure to have enough space to include director’s notes.  Paste and copy from the web.  Annotations should include:

·         Vocal pauses, stresses, and inflections

·         Tone of voice

·         Gestures and facial expressions (those that are explicit in the script as well as those that are not)

·         Notes or diagrams of actions and movements

·         Definitions of words or phrases that you do not understand; explain phrases that might help your actors understand their lines

(Format:  annotations on the script)

2.         Costumes:  Design two costumes.  Your scene may have more than two actors.  Choose the most significant roles for this portion of your project.  Remember that cost is no object.  You can label your illustration designating fabrics, colors, materials, and purpose.  

(Format:  two labeled drawings; two separate pages; you might include color swatches, fabric swatches, beads, material samples-anything that will help me understand your design concept.)

 

3.         Analysis:  (500-750 words or two pages)  Write an analysis for the main character of your scene.  I think that Macbeth or Lady Macbeth should be your choice because this Shakespearean tragedy centers on these two; they affect and are affected by the motifs we have selected.

 

Use literary analysis format for body paragraphs.  Answer the question:  How does the motif of _______________________ highlight ________________________’s characterization?  Example:  Macbeth’s desire for power becomes apparent when ________________________________________.  You only need to use your scene; however, referring to other parts of the play that confirm your argument is encouraged.

Required:  embedded quotations and interpretations.  (minimum of six concrete examples)

 

(Format:  500-750 words or two pages, typed, 12 pt Times New Roman, MLA format for quotes; Works Cited page)

 

4.         Staging:  Sketch the plan for your set.  Include light set and cues for your scene.  Label your set to illustrate purpose.   Your set should “set” the mood/tone and highlight any symbolism found in the text. 

(Format:   A labeled sketch on 8 ½ X 11 sheet of copy paper)

5.         Props:  Make a list of props needed for each character.  If you are using a prop that relates to the symbolism or use of motif within the text, make sure to point that out.

(Format:   Typed listing by character-label items as to purpose/meaning)

 

6.         Music and Sound Effects:  Select appropriate music to play as an introduction to your performance—maybe as the curtain rises.  The music may continue through the scene.  Remember action, character, and mood should guide your selection.  Give reasons for the selections.

 

Outline the music choices using partial lines as music cues.  I usually will use a music note on my script to indicate a music cue.  You may include these cues on your annotated script.

 

7.         Casting:  A list of student actors matched with roles in your scene.

(Format:  List on its own page)

 

8.         Cover:  Label:  Directors Notebook: Macbeth Act ____, Scene ______

                                     Director:  ___________________________

 

PRODUCER’S ADVICE:  Show your understanding of Shakespeare’s techniques and your knowledge of literary analysis throughout your notebook.  Labeling your choices with purpose communicates this understanding and adds depth to your performance.

 

Remember that an “A” means superior in all parts.

                                     

NEWS FLASH-LINK TO SHORT STORY

http://grade9english.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-full-text.pdf

For Friday, February 7

See post for Wednesday.

You did a beautiful job on your scenes today.  Thank you for your hard work.

Task #1:  Search the internet and find the full text of the short story entitled "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Kurt Vonnegut.  Read it.  Highlight themes or lines you remember from Macbeth.  Formulate an opinion.  Why might Mr. Vonnegut have chosen to entitle his story "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"?  Look forward to a lively discussion for warm up on Friday.

We will finish our film then.

For Wednesday, February 5

MAKE SOME DECISIONS:

What scene might you want to analyze and produce for your Director's notebook?
Where will you set your scene?
What time period will you set your scene in?
What characters will you focus on?
What motif?
What props?

You may want to wait to decide on which scene exactly until we get further in the film, but you can start planning now.