The date indicates the due date for the reading selection. Be prepared for pop quizzes.
Monday, Nov. 30: pages 1 to 77
Tuesday, Dec. 1: pages 77-102
Wednesday, Dec. 2: pages 102-129
Thursday, Dec. 3: pages 129-161
Friday, Dec. 4: pages 161-191
Monday, Dec. 7: pages 191-231
Tuesday, Dec. 8: pages 231-256
Wednesday, Dec. 9: pages 256-287
Thursday, Dec. 10: final book exam
Tuesday, Dec. 15: vocabulary test
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monomyth Peer Review
Read your story aloud to your group while all group members write feedback for you on a loose leaf piece of paper.
The feedback sheet should include a sketch of the monomyth cycle with examples that listeners hear during the reading. For example, if you hear an elixir in the story, write the specific elixir on your monomyth sketch. The author will be able to tell from the monomyth sketches received if he or she has adequately covered the monomyth. A chart with few details suggests that additions need to be made to the story over break.
On feedback sheets, listeners also need to write two questions that they have about the story. Often those questions suggest an area where the story needs additional information.
Listeners should also write two positive comments about the story to keep the author motivated to finish the story over break.
Writing Tips
Tips for Better Academic Essays
Many of these tips do NOT apply to your monomyth.
The following tips were influenced by common errors on the first three, typed papers that you completed for Enriched English 10. Some students have committed the errors on two or three of the essays even though I commented on those errors in the past. Read my comments carefully so that those errors do not continue to influence your grade.
• Your essay needs a creative title. Using the title of the novel, play, or short story is not okay.
• Make sure you get the title of the book being discussed correct. Look at the cover of the book. Underline book titles and capitalize important words of the title.
• Include the author when discussing the title the first time you mention the book.
• Don’t use numerals for numbers under 10. You have to write them out.
• Your body paragraphs need topic sentences that are tied to your provable thesis statement.
• Your paragraphs need summary sentences and transitions.
• In the conclusion make a connection to the world and the significance of the text.
• You should focus on ANALYSIS instead of on retelling the plot.
• Speaking of analysis, your quotes need to advance your analysis, not prove plot. The explanation of your quotes has to include DISCUSSION—what is the author SAYING? What’s the message? What’s the point? Why is this significant? SO WHAT? You need to take the theme that you are proving to a deeper level.
• Never, EVER, EVER use “I” in a paper (I believe, I think, In my opinion). Just make your claims directly. You can’t write in the second person either. Every time you write, “you,” replace it with “Jackie Roehl” and see if it makes sense. It won’t. Write in the third person ONLY.
• Don’t start or end a body paragraph with a quote. Quotes need to be discussed and used as proof of your argument and to further your analysis.
• Make sure you write the correct genre distinction—novel, play, epic poem (The Odyssey), etc.
• It’s/its. Of/have. Your/you’re. Witch/Which. They’re/There/Their. Whether/Weather. To/Too. Then/Than. Make sure you know the differences. Don’t rely on spell check.
• Don’t forget your friend the apostrophe, but ignore him when he’s not needed.
• Don’t include long quotes in your paper—use only what’s necessary.
• Refer to authors by their last names after you first mention them.
• Double space your paper and also follow the MLA format for internal documentation and works cited.
• Avoid vague pronouns.
• Don’t say things like, “This shows,” or “That is important.” Say what “this” and “that” are.
• Don’t misspell character names. It makes me think you haven’t read the book. And while you’re at it, don’t misspell the AUTHOR’S name. That one’s on the cover of the book.
• Don’t pose questions—the purpose of the paper is to ANSWER questions, not pose them.
• Work on improving your use of active voice. At the very least, don’t use it is, there are, it was, etc.
• Punctuate carefully. Don’t follow Cormac McCarthy’s rules. We’ve spent class time on commas with coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and adjective clauses, so you should have notes in your notebook on avoiding those comma errors. If you do not understand your punctuation errors, especially if you are writing a lot of run-on sentences, see me or visit The Writer’s Block—EHS’s Writing Center just across the hall from our classroom.
• Start examining your pronoun use. Make sure that your pronoun reference is clear and that your pronouns agree in number with each other. Indefinite pronouns like everyone and somebody may seem plural, but they are singular, so you cannot use they with those pronouns.
Many of these tips do NOT apply to your monomyth.
The following tips were influenced by common errors on the first three, typed papers that you completed for Enriched English 10. Some students have committed the errors on two or three of the essays even though I commented on those errors in the past. Read my comments carefully so that those errors do not continue to influence your grade.
• Your essay needs a creative title. Using the title of the novel, play, or short story is not okay.
• Make sure you get the title of the book being discussed correct. Look at the cover of the book. Underline book titles and capitalize important words of the title.
• Include the author when discussing the title the first time you mention the book.
• Don’t use numerals for numbers under 10. You have to write them out.
• Your body paragraphs need topic sentences that are tied to your provable thesis statement.
• Your paragraphs need summary sentences and transitions.
• In the conclusion make a connection to the world and the significance of the text.
• You should focus on ANALYSIS instead of on retelling the plot.
• Speaking of analysis, your quotes need to advance your analysis, not prove plot. The explanation of your quotes has to include DISCUSSION—what is the author SAYING? What’s the message? What’s the point? Why is this significant? SO WHAT? You need to take the theme that you are proving to a deeper level.
• Never, EVER, EVER use “I” in a paper (I believe, I think, In my opinion). Just make your claims directly. You can’t write in the second person either. Every time you write, “you,” replace it with “Jackie Roehl” and see if it makes sense. It won’t. Write in the third person ONLY.
• Don’t start or end a body paragraph with a quote. Quotes need to be discussed and used as proof of your argument and to further your analysis.
• Make sure you write the correct genre distinction—novel, play, epic poem (The Odyssey), etc.
• It’s/its. Of/have. Your/you’re. Witch/Which. They’re/There/Their. Whether/Weather. To/Too. Then/Than. Make sure you know the differences. Don’t rely on spell check.
• Don’t forget your friend the apostrophe, but ignore him when he’s not needed.
• Don’t include long quotes in your paper—use only what’s necessary.
• Refer to authors by their last names after you first mention them.
• Double space your paper and also follow the MLA format for internal documentation and works cited.
• Avoid vague pronouns.
• Don’t say things like, “This shows,” or “That is important.” Say what “this” and “that” are.
• Don’t misspell character names. It makes me think you haven’t read the book. And while you’re at it, don’t misspell the AUTHOR’S name. That one’s on the cover of the book.
• Don’t pose questions—the purpose of the paper is to ANSWER questions, not pose them.
• Work on improving your use of active voice. At the very least, don’t use it is, there are, it was, etc.
• Punctuate carefully. Don’t follow Cormac McCarthy’s rules. We’ve spent class time on commas with coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and adjective clauses, so you should have notes in your notebook on avoiding those comma errors. If you do not understand your punctuation errors, especially if you are writing a lot of run-on sentences, see me or visit The Writer’s Block—EHS’s Writing Center just across the hall from our classroom.
• Start examining your pronoun use. Make sure that your pronoun reference is clear and that your pronouns agree in number with each other. Indefinite pronouns like everyone and somebody may seem plural, but they are singular, so you cannot use they with those pronouns.
Monday, November 16, 2009
McCarthy Passage
“He rode back alone with the smell of her perfume on his shirt. The horses were still tied and standing at the edge of the barn but he could not find Rawlins or Roberto. When he untied his horse the other two tossed their heads and whinnied softly to go. Cars were starting up in the yard and groups of people were moving along the road and he untracted the greenbroke horse out from the lights and into the road before mounting up. A mile from the town a car passed full of young men and they were going fast and he reined the horse to the side of the road and the horse skittered and danced in the glare of the headlights and as they passed they called out at him and someone threw an empty beer can. The horse reared and pitched and kicked out and he held it under him and talked to it as if nothing at all had happened and after a while they went on again. The boil of dust the car had left lay before them down the narrow straight as far as he could see roiling slowly in the starlight like something enormous uncoiling out of the earth. He thought the horse had handled itself well and as he rode he told it so” (McCarthy 124-125).
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, November 17
All the Pretty Horses Final exam--25 scantron questions and one close reading passage
Thursday, November 19
Vocabulary Test
Friday, November 20
Sharing original monomyth stories--at the very least have a typed draft of 10 pages, double spaced to read to your group.
If you are completely finished with your original monomyth, you may turn it in on Friday. These stories will be the first ones that I read. If you want to polish up the story over Thanksgiving week, I have added a window to this assignment too.
Tuesday, December 1 at 3:10 p.m.
Last day to turn in original monomyth for full credit.
All the Pretty Horses Final exam--25 scantron questions and one close reading passage
Thursday, November 19
Vocabulary Test
Friday, November 20
Sharing original monomyth stories--at the very least have a typed draft of 10 pages, double spaced to read to your group.
If you are completely finished with your original monomyth, you may turn it in on Friday. These stories will be the first ones that I read. If you want to polish up the story over Thanksgiving week, I have added a window to this assignment too.
Tuesday, December 1 at 3:10 p.m.
Last day to turn in original monomyth for full credit.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Literary Devices
When speaking and writing about literature, you should employ the vocabulary of the discipline to discuss the effects of an author's style on the reader.
To view a list of literary devices to use when analyzing literature, click here.
To view a list of literary devices to use when analyzing literature, click here.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
TWIST Passages for Tuesday, Nov. 4
Today in class, students completed a close reading of three passages in All the Pretty Horses, completing a TWIST for each on a page in their notebooks.
Here are the directions:
Read through all of these passages in pages 1-30, and then choose the three that you think are the most ripe for analysis. Make notes on each step of the TWIST process in your notebook for each of the three passages.
Most of the passages are a single paragraph, but there are a couple of exceptions.
“The candleflame and the image of the candleflame...” through “That was not sleeping” (3).
“As he turned to go he heard the train” through “Then he turned and went back to the house” (3-4).
“In the evening he saddled his horse and rode out west...” through “...like a grail the sum of their secular and transitory and violent lives” (5).
“There was an old horseskull in the brush...” through “and they would always be so and never be otherwise” (6).
“The room smelled of cigarsmoke” through “The clock struck eleven in the front room across the hall” (11).
“He walked down to South Concho Street” through “Yessir, he said” (14).
“She put a napkin on the table and pushed back her chair” through “those are picturebook horses and went on eating” (15-16).
“Snow was falling in the San Saba” through “The waitress set a glass of water in front of him” (19-20).
“They rode together a last time” through “that was what he sought and it would have been” (22-23).
Here are the directions:
Read through all of these passages in pages 1-30, and then choose the three that you think are the most ripe for analysis. Make notes on each step of the TWIST process in your notebook for each of the three passages.
Most of the passages are a single paragraph, but there are a couple of exceptions.
“The candleflame and the image of the candleflame...” through “That was not sleeping” (3).
“As he turned to go he heard the train” through “Then he turned and went back to the house” (3-4).
“In the evening he saddled his horse and rode out west...” through “...like a grail the sum of their secular and transitory and violent lives” (5).
“There was an old horseskull in the brush...” through “and they would always be so and never be otherwise” (6).
“The room smelled of cigarsmoke” through “The clock struck eleven in the front room across the hall” (11).
“He walked down to South Concho Street” through “Yessir, he said” (14).
“She put a napkin on the table and pushed back her chair” through “those are picturebook horses and went on eating” (15-16).
“Snow was falling in the San Saba” through “The waitress set a glass of water in front of him” (19-20).
“They rode together a last time” through “that was what he sought and it would have been” (22-23).
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