For Tuesday, September 2

In the excerpt I gave you today entitled "Slave Songs," Douglass quotes William Cowper, an English poet, when he claims "there is no flesh in [man's] obdurate heart."  You and your team will peruse and perform the excerpt of Cowper's poem "The Timepiece" on Tuesday.  You need to read through the poem to get an idea of its meaning and context.

Think about this:  If someone read this poem as a passionate speech, what would it sound like?

We will apply close reading strategies and annotate the "Slave Songs" excerpt together on Tuesday.

You have worked hard and graduated with flying colors from your first two weeks of AP Language and Composition.  CONGRATULATIONS.

Have a blessed weekend.

For Friday, August 29

Finish reading Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass.  Make sure you follow the instructions on your bookmark.  Complete the two-page response regarding Douglass's effectiveness in persuading us that slavery is equally detrimental to both slave and slaver.  Please type your response.

If you did not turn in the Discussion Sheet for Foer's article "How Not to Be Alone," you will need to do that BOP Friday.

Good job on our first timed writing today.  You guys will do great this year!

For Wednesday, August 27

Prepare for your in class writing over Foer's "How Not to Be Alone."

Here are the two prompts I will give you on Wednesday.  You will choose which essay to write.  The answers to the other questions on your team discussion sheet should help you as you prepare for your essay.  For instance, for both essays you could use Foer's description of what it means to be human.  Are we falling short of our human capabilities and responsibilities in current culture?  Are the characters falling short of their human capabilities in ELIC.  Using your observations found in answering number 2, let your essay explore the human propensity to be complacent in our relationships.  Oscar's father forces him to interact with others; how does this help Oscar heal and become "more human."

For question 4, you could organize by social situations, for example:  family trips, friendship and dating relationships, and neighborhood communities.  You could also organize by the substitutes:  how have television, social media, and smart phones affected true, face to face communication.  You might also look for observations at various venues:  a living room, a restaurant, a church.

For question 6, you could structure your essay by character and/or relational situation.  How do Oscar, Grandmother, and Grandfather all demonstrate the need for human contact and communication?  How do the characters in the novel reveal the need for attentiveness?  How does the story demonstrate that attentiveness blesses the giver and the receiver?  How does the story reveal that our connectedness to others should be our "life work?" 

  

4.  Foer asserts:  “The problem with accepting—with preferring—diminished substitutes is that over time, we, too, become diminished substitutes.  People who become used to saying little become used to feeling little.”  Examine the extent to which Foer’s observation applies to contemporary society, supporting your position with appropriate evidence.  Your examples can come from current events, personal experience, history, or literature.

6.  What is Foer's essential argument in “HNtBA”? In a well-written essay, analyze the ways Foer makes this same argument in ELIC.  Your thesis might look something like:  In the essay "How Not to Be Alone" and his novel  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer suggests that humanity _______________________________.   

Continue reading Frederick Douglass.  Friday, your two page response paper is due.   We will discuss some of Frederick Douglass on Friday, but your main goal should be your response paper.  You can then finish up any pages you have left to read over the weekend.

For Monday, August 25

Read and annotate the NY Times article "How Not to Be Alone" by Jonathan Safran Foer. 

Your first job will be to determine Foer's argument.  Boil his argument down to one sentence.  Write that sentence anywhere on the article handout.  THINK:  How does Foer make this same argument in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close?

Next, go back through the article and annotate the strategies Foer employs to convince his readers to accept and embrace his point of view.

IMPORTANT REMINDER:  THE STUDY OF RHETORIC INVOLVES FINDING THE WAY A SPEAKER/WRITER/ARTIST CHANGES THE BEHAVIOR OR OPINION/BELIEF OF HIS AUDIENCE.

You can use the words pathos, ethos, and logos OR, and this might be better, explain what Foer accomplishes in the margins in your own words.  It is one thing to recognize ethos; it is another to explicate how/why Foer employs the ethical/character strategy.  The further you go at home, the less you will have to do in class on Monday.

Continue reading Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass.  Pay attention to the directions on your bookmark. 

For Thursday, August 21

Does your paragraph look like this?

At the bottom of this email, you will find a more cohesive and understandable explanation of the project you will work on with your team on Thursday.  I encourage you to read it carefully, so when you arrive on Thursday, you are ready to go.

Continue reading Frederick Douglass and annotating according to your bookmark.  We will also work with Oscar's three "raisons d'etre" on Thursday, so bring those with you.

Great Work Today.  You are a joy!

Doorknobs and Keyholes

Quotation Sandwiches - 5

or this?

Look carefully at the five images of doorknobs/keyholes in the grandfather/renter’s sections of ELIC.  Your team will create five (5) mini-paragraphs in which you demonstrate how Foer’s use of images along with text impacts our understanding of the grandfather’s emotional stage at the given moment.

Each paragraph will probably have two quotation sandwiches.  When using an image as evidence, you will describe the image to the best of your ability.  Embed your quotations when analyzing the text. Synthesize the clues Foer gives you regarding character.

Sample:

In the Renter’s Section 1, entitled “Why I am not where you are”, Foer inserts an image of a doorknob, halfway locked from the inside.  The grandfather has chosen silence over communication after he loses someone he loves.  In this section, the grandmother approaches the grandfather and offers him a relationship.  This lock indicates that the grandfather finds himself in a quandary.  Will he open up to the grandmother, or will he choose to lock the door from the inside?  The grandfather thinks about his life: “the embarrassments… everything he had seen destroyed…I’d lost the only person I could have spent my only life with, I’d left behind a thousand tons of marble” (33).   The grandfather’s memories demonstrate the reasons he has for shutting people out and indicate that his first instinct drives him to reject the woman’s advances.  However, he ends the section by pointing to the word, “help.”  This mirrors the half open lock.  The grandfather desires to let the grandmother in; however, he finds himself unable to do so without her help. 

For Tuesday, August 19

I thought we had a great class today...Good Work!  I am so excited about teaching you this year; you are an excellent set of students.

For Homework:

1. Write the "Heavy Boots" poem.  Follow instructions on your handout.
2. Find three of Oscar's "raison d' etres."  (Mark the pages or write down page #'s)
3. Begin reading Frederick Douglass.  Follow instructions on your handout.  Look for the arguments being made.
4. Look at the five door knob pictures included in the Renter's sections of the novel.  What might Foer be communicating about the renter/grandfather with these images?