Monday

A day has a paper due tomorrow...B day on Wednesday...

Make no mistake: A day will meet with me tomorrow. That's will meet with me in A221 tomorrow. Bring your best critical minds.

Thursday

Typed, well-formatted, hard-thought paper due on Tuesday/Wednesday: print before class time. Also have it available electronically for revisions.

Wednesday

There is a language quiz tomorrow on notes from Set Three. Bring materials and attitudes to work on your paper or to read from your novel. Friday will also be a work day with the laptops in class. Due dates for very polished papers formatted MLA style are Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Monday

Complete blog response assignment thoughtfully. Essays due, typed and formatted according to MLA style, Tuesday/Wednesday of next week.

Thursday

See below. Contribute to the blog.

Wednesday

See the document at Downloads called "BenjaminHistory." I wrote the first page, but the second consists of extracts from Benjamin. Read and respond to it at least once on the blog. Be sure to be specific in your references to the document and mentally engaged as you write. After reading once, you might look for key words: "spiral," "line," "image." What is meant by "progress" and "homogenous, empty time"? Marquez writes of the isolated rebels, history's big losers. He is investigating how to recover the flitting image of the past. Remember -- Colonel Aureliano Buendia lost every battle and then struggled to keep either image of himself or coherent language to express himself on pages 161-168. Think hard, get dirty, grasp an idea.

Tuesday

I hope not many of you seized on a Winthrop trip as an opportunity to ditch your proposal. See you Thursday! You must convince me you have finished the book!

Monday

Tuesday students who have proven they have read One Hundred Years SHOULD bring assignments by my room tomorrow as soon as you return from your trip to Winthrop.

Friday

Work on the proposal. Get the format and details right!

Thursday

A-day stragglers should finish the book and be able to prove it so that they can turn in the proposal to the paper without paying the 20-point late fee. B-day should look just below at the Wednesday post for the Friday assignment.

Reading the book is the first thing, not the last thing.

Wednesday's second post

If anyone wants to know what a blog thread about ideas and books should look like, read the prompt and comments under "Thursday."

For tomorrow, A-day: Bring in your three-four passages clearly marked and easily found that you can use to support or investigate your project idea. Search for the richest selections you can, if possible from the beginning, middle, and end of the novel. Those who have started The House of the Spirits, watch for harmonies and overlaps.

Wednesday

I have one more day of oral commentaries. You will view a little magical realism on film and receive an assignment tomorrow: bring your books and all work you have done so far on the "project," which is becoming an essay. You can download the assignment with a template and scoring guide at "downloads." The assignment is due on March 17/18 AT THE BEGINNING of the block. That does not mean print it as you walk in. No, it does not mean that.

Monday

No new posts necessary. Think about things.

Friday

A-day, bring in your big project idea for finalizing next week. Expect more quizzes that will compound difficulties if you do not get that book read!

B-day, remember to bring in three ideas.

Thursday

See yesterday's post: the assignment is the same for B-day.

For some real consequences to our discussion about words, photographs, and history, consider this: If a Supreme Court justice says he bases interpretations on the founders' intentions, how can he know what they were?

Wednesday

Remember to hit the blog twice. Do not be a slave to the initial question: read the entire thread and move with it. Just keep a piece of text or a specific reference close. For Friday, think of three aspects or ideas from One Hundred Years of Solitude that you think would make for a good project on it.